First, thanks to everyone who gave me such great advice over the past few months.

I won’t bore you with too many details.

We stayed at the Sonesta Maho. The first night was a disaster. Our room was in the Ocean Terrace. It had basically no air conditioning and the TV didn’t work. So we were paying $220 a night for a hot room with little more than a bed in it. The next morning they were able to move us to the Sky Tower which was far better. Really, the air conditioning was the big thing.

During the day, we typically went shopping in Phillipsburg in the morning then back to Mullet Bay to lay on the beach and drink $2 Coronas. We tried to go without renting a car, but felt unsafe on our second bus ride so we gave up on that and rented a car.

We did spend one afternoon at Gallion Bay (?) riding horses which was a good time, but probably not worth the $70 per person cost. The pictures we got back from that make it worth it though.

Other than laying on the beach and swimming at Mullet Bay, the best part of the trip was the food. Most of it was excellent. Here are the places we ate and the cost including drinks and tip for 2 people:

Cheri’s Cafe ~ $60 Food was excellent and the entertainment was great. We went there several nights just to have drinks and hang out only dining there once.
Sunset Beach Bar ~ $80 for two average meals and 4 guavaberry coladas. Probably my least favorite place we ate.
Fashion Café for breakfast ~ $20 we went here for breakfast almost everyday, great coffee, great food and service.
Paris Bistro ~ $110 had some of the biggest and best shrimp I’ve ever had.
Le Tastevin ~ $140 was skeptical going in because I typically don’t like gourmet food, but the food was fantastic and the service was as well.
Barefoot Terrace :?: $20 breakfast in Phillipsburg one morning which made me miss the Fashion Café.
Lunch from the shack on Mullet Bay ~ $3 hamburgers. They were good.
Lunch from the shack on Gallion Bay ~ $20 good food and service.
Pineapple Pete’s ~ $35 for lunch. Food was great and service was good even though they were busy.

That’s all I can remember.

We used a credit card once. At Pineapple Pete’s because we were out of cash. I don’t think they stole the number and re-used it. At least they haven’t yet.

We did use a Mastercard Gift Card of $50 twice: once at Cheri’s Café for drinks and once for some snacks at the Food Express grocery next to our hotel. We had about $20 left on the card, but I think someone else must have used it. I haven’t looked up the account online yet to see where the unknown charge is from yet. 

The Casinos were dead the two times we went so we didn’t stay long. And if I were to bet on it, I’d bet the black jack decks are not exactly fair. The casinos are far from Vegas level quality or even your average Midwestern Indian casino quality so I don’t recommend anyone go to this island for the gambling.

Overall it was a great time. I can see going back sometime, but I wasn’t so in love with it that I’d want to go every year.

(that was longer than I expected)