Another St. Martin trip in the bag (5/28-6-7)

Here is a brief report now that we have been home for a week:

This is our 6th trip to St. Martin.

Hotel

Stayed at The Ocean Club Villas at Cupecoy – room #13. Best RCI room we’ve ever had. Pool view, clean, updated. Grabbed us for an extra $100 on the way out .. service & energy? Other than that unexpected dark spot, it was nice.

Car Rental

Unity .. top notch outfit.

Beaches

Cupecoy … great, until all the sand got swept away. Had some Danny ribs. Great as ever. Quiet. At 3pm on Memorial day, we were all alone on the beach which was quite nice.

Bay Rouge .. never been here before. It was nice for a change. Might be the place to go if they destroy Cupecoy with high rises.

Orient .. Spent two days at Club O. Nice beach but rather crowded and noisy. Had a few groups of loud drunken Americans whooping it up right near us. It got old after awhile.

Food

Le Marrakech: in Marigot was great on our first night. This was our second time there. It was the last night before they closed for the summer. Place was full, mostly hip, in-the-know, locals. Great Moroccan food, great service, cool atmosphere. Check it out next time your there.

Pine Apple Pete’s: I know many of you love this place. We didn’t. We had two very forgettable salads and two overly sweet mixed drinks. Service and music was good. We’ll pass next time.

Sunset Café at Grand Case Beach Club: Best French meal. Best view. Great service. We will return.

Le Auberge Gormande in Grand Case: Expensive, fancy, nice people watching from porch. Paid around $30 for a bland piece of fish. My wife had a vegetarian dish. We were both under whelmed, especially for the money. We have had great meals at this place before however. We’ll try it again some day.

Peg Leg Pub: I had never eaten here before. I kind of expected it to be about the same as Pine Apple Pete’s. I was pleasantly surprised to be wrong. We were in the mood for a burger and a steak and we found what we were looking for. Both were superb, as was the service. A well-run place all around. We will return.

Oasis Bar / Café: Went to a party/barbecue here at our hotel and really enjoyed ourselves. Met some nice folks. All you could eat ribs and wings were really good.

(Quick aside … first night in town, driving through Grand Case ..glance up at Spiga as we’re passing and there are Ed and Sandra! We laughed and laughed. We knew we were in St Martin then!)

Lunches at Top Carrot, Mary’s Boon, Hilmas … all great.



Some notes:

We decided to fly over to St Barth for 3 days and wouldn’t you know … we had to pay $30 each to exit SXM. “But”, we told the not-so-nice tax lady, “we already paid the exit tax .. it was included in our Continental ticket” Wrong .. you pay twice. It was $120 for the 2 of us to exit SXM. Try arguing with the tax lady when there is a long, anxious line behind you all trying to make their flights.

We have had it with St Martin for a while. The airport expansion was disheartening, the out-of-control construction is a bad omen, crime apparently on the rise, Cupecoy beach was filthy (at least on the way in – beer bottles and old condoms everywhere) and the departure taxes really pissed us off. Sorry to rain on this parade, but these were my distinct impressions this trip.

Anyone else get the feeling they are killing the golden goose? I sure hope they don’t.

Lawrence & Jurgita
CT, USA