We had a great time and the island has not lost its appeal. This time we decided to spend 5 days on SXM and the second week in a villa on AXA. We don’t understand how two islands can be so close yet be so different. For this forum I'll stick to the SXM portion of the trip.

Our flights were all fine and relatively on time. We used USAIR from BDL to CLT to SXM and back. With all the fuss recently, USAIR was fine for us and I really think that that any of the air carriers have their good and bad days. Getting home the other night I guess we were pretty lucky, everyone on the plane to BDL had stories of delays and cancellations due to weather & air traffic computer problems. We arrived at BDL only 20 to 30 minutes late (12:30 AM).

We rented our car from Unity and had no problems at all. We picked up the car at the airport on time and we were off in a flash. We met Michael at the ferry dock in Marigot to drop off and again we had no issues. We will rent from Michael again.

We stayed at the Alamanda on Orient beach for the third time. Thank you Jim & Mary Ruos from Caribbean Islands Travel, your help and service is second to none. This hotel has a GREAT staff and a great location. However, the hotel is starting to show a little age and there were several minor things that need attention. Nothing major but little things like broken blinds, problems with the room keys, and needing a little touch up paint and so forth. With all the other places to stay in the Orient area I would tend to look at other options on our next trip.

Most days we hung out by the Perch at Club Orient and met a GREAT group. I won’t mention names because when I’m on vacation the mind just goes into idle and I’m terrible with names. The days consisted of lounging on the beach, Happy Hour at the Perch, lunch at Baywatch, and enjoying a cigar. Then repeat the next day.

On Wednesday our friends Scott & Kathleen arrived and we needed to pick them up at the airport around 1:00 so we decided to go to Mullet for the morning before we met. But on Thursday it was back to Orient.

As always we ate really well.

Baywatch: As always Baywatch is our favorite for breakfast & lunch. This year was no disappointment. The Margarita shrimp is to die for.

Kakao: We had a late lunch here one afternoon. The Vietnamese spring rolls were great and the setting was perfect.

Poulet d’ Orleans: We had dinner here for the first time in a couple of years and as in the past the food was excellent and Tony is a great host. We only made one mistake here, we ordered 1 rib appetizer and boy oh boy we should have ordered 2, The ribs were great! Since we were the only table we spent an hour just batting the breeze with Tony about life on the island. This was a wonderful evening. We had 1 appetizer, 2 dinners and a nice bottle of wine and the total cost was around $60.00.

Loterie Farm: On Tuesday night we stopped here for a couple cocktails and tapas since we were not real hungry after a big lunch. This was one of those magical evenings where everything clicked. The food & the service was great, the setting and weather were perfect. After Scott & Kathleen arrived we told them about the evening and we returned the next evening. We should have tried somewhere else. The food was still great but with a different waitress the service was not as good. C’est la vie.

Tabba Khady: We returned here after we had a great meal in December. The food, atmosphere, & service were all excellent. Dinner for 4 ended up about $200.00 including a couple bottles of wine. Very nice evening.

We stayed on SXM for only 5 nights and moved to a villa on Blowing Point in Anguilla for the next week. When we were in SXM EVERYONE told us that we would be bored in Anguilla because there was nothing to do there. Well, we are beach people and the days we spent visiting different beaches (we tried for 2 a day), then a nice dinner and an after dinner drink at the villa watching the stars and the lights from Grand Case. Total relaxation which is what the doctor ordered. I just share a couple of points on Anguilla:

Beaches: The beaches were amazing and we were usually the only people on them!
Food: Much more expensive than SXM. Every night we paid Grand Case prices, although the food was great.
Villa: Excellent views of SXM.
Pyrat Rum: What can I say, AXA Rob is absolutely correct, couple of shots of the XO on ice, let it age for a few minutes then enjoy.

Steve & Gail