We just returned from a great trip to SXM. We left on Friday July 14, 2006 and returned Saturday July22, 2006. This was our first trip to the island and it will not be the last.

We flew United Airlines out of Portland to Chicago and then from Chicago to SXM. Our original flight was supposed to leave at 11:00 pm but we were given the option to leave 50 minutes later and then we could fly first class all the way to SXM. That was not a very hard decision to make. We had a delay of a few hours in Chicago. My wife had already finished the first book by the time we left Chicago, so she was having a good time.

As a result of the delay in Chicago, we arrived about 3 hours late to SXM. One piece of advice I received from TTOL was to pack half the stuff and twice the money. As a result, my wife and I decided to just take carry on bags. This was a good decision. When we left, we still had clothes we had not worn.

We arrived in SXM and walked outside. When we went outside, there was someone standing there with our name on a board. This was our first meeting with Michael from Unity car rental. All customer service should be as good as his. Michael took us to his car lot and while we were filling out the paperwork, someone loaded our bags into the Jeep we rented and then we were on our way in a matter of minutes. We would have been on our way even faster, but we found that Michael was full of good info about the island and he was helping us with ideas of what to do when while on the island.

As we were getting into our Jeep, Tony and Cheri were just arriving to pick up their Jeep. We ran into Tony and Cheri several times during our trip. They were extremely helpful. They gave us great suggestions about things on the island. We did many things that they advised us to do, and it helped make our trip even better. Thank you Tony and Cheri. You guys were great.

We were staying at the Esmeralda, and after getting great directions from Michael at Unity, we were on our way.

The traffic was not nearly as bad as I had expected. Maybe because we were there in the off season the traffic was better. It did not take long to find the Esmeralda. We checked in with no problems. I had requested a certain villa because of advice I received on TTOL. I had booked the whole vacation through Orbitz, and I had heard on this board that the Esmeralda did not always treat people well if they booked by using a cheap internet site. This could not be farther from the truth. I received the villa I had requested. The service from we received from the staff at the Esmeralda was fantastic. They were always willing to help with anything we needed. We had no water problems at the Esmeralda, but we heard of others having water problems around the island.

We instantly met some of our neighbors, and we had lucked out. All the other people in our villa were also on their first trip to the island, so it was fun to go out to dinner with them and compare notes about things we had found on the island and what we might do next.

After our morning walk on Orient Beach, we spent most of our days the same way. We spent the mornings exploring around the island and the late afternoons resting at CoCo Beach Bar while we were discussing where to have dinner.

We never ate at the same restaurant twice except at Zee Best in Marigot for breakfast. We seemed to only eat two meals a day while we were on the island. Some of the places we ate included:

Tap Five Pizza
Pineapple Pete’s
Baywatch Beach Bar
Zee Best
Friars Beach Bar
Toloula Mango’s
Sunset Beach Bar
Cheri’s Café
Talk of the Town
Spiga
ll Netunno
La Chapelle
L’Astrolabe

All of the meals were very good. The two meals that were the best were at Talk of the Town and at Spiga. The service we received at Spiga was amazing. We will eat there again on our next trip.

We visited a lot of beaches while on the island. We liked Orient, Mullet bay, Cupecoy, and our favorite was Plum Bay. We Had Plum bay to ourselves every time we went there. The snorkeling was not too bad there either.

We walked over to happy bay one day, but there was some kind of party going on that involved around 50 people. We will have to try and visit this beach again on our next visit.

The people on the island were great. We never once felt threatened. We went everywhere we wanted to go without having to worry about our safety. All of the locals we dealt with were very nice and seemed to be willing to help you any time you asked for help. We left the top down on the Jeep the whole week, so we had no problems with thefts out of our vehicle.

I could go on for a long time, but I won’t. Most of you know how great the island is. We made some new friends and saw some great places. Thanks for all the advice before we left. TTOL helped us out a lot. We are already talking about going back the same time next year.

Chris