Mar 15-22 2008

The family vacation to St Martin finally arrived after several years of talking about it and setting the dates back in 2006, Bruce and Susan along with 4 kids and four spouses. I will attempt to keep this somewhat organized, but forgive me if I wander a bit.

Flights: We are fortunate to have Sun Country Charters fly non-stop out of Minneapolis for about $650. Considering some of the nightmares I read about from others with airline issues, we are thankful we have not had a problem flying with Sun Country the past 5 years, and considerably cheaper than our next best alternative.

Car Rental: We used Marius of St.Louis Car Rental for the fourth year and were met promptly at the airport, paperwork in the lot across the street and we were off in 15 minutes. A 7 passenger Hyundi Trajet van and a Nissan Sentra, both with a nice amount of “dings” as requested. We also got two cell phones from him mostly due to the convenience of not having to make an extra stop on both ends of the trip. ( Sharon Harris served us well in the past). He was there to meet us as we unloaded our bags for departure, returned the phones, signed the credit card receipts and we were done. I never even asked for a quote ahead of time, and when I added up our charges on the plane, it was clear that he gave us a significant discount from the published rates. Everyone has their favorites, no one is perfect, but so far Marius has never let us down.

Villa: We have always stayed at a hotel in the Orient Beach area, but wanted to all be together as a family. We did a lot of research on our own, and when we had a pretty good idea of what we wanted, we contacted several TTOL Sponsors as well as several private individuals. We explained what we were looking for, and we were surprised at the lackluster responses we got, with one BIG exception. Jim and Mary Ruos of Caribbean Island Travel Service got back to us immediately and started working aggressively on our request. The catch 22 was there are virtually no 5 bedroom villas within walking distance of Orient Beach. Jim kept hunting and came up with a solution. ( I would recommend Jim Ruos as a “set of eyes” who has seen most of the properties in the Orient area. Unless you know exactly what you want, it is nice to have a third party working in your behalf)
Villa Bel Mer had been our first choice all along, but only could accommodate 8 guests. THANKS to fellow TTOLers Randy and Dany ( Rastaman), the owners of Villa Bel Mer, because they agreed to make a few improvements to a 5th bedroom at the villa to accommodate our family. It is a truly beautiful villa and served us very well. There have been some very nice improvements to the villa since they bought it several years ago. I would strongly recommend you check out this villa if you are looking for one in the Orient Beach area.( www.villabelmer.com) The place is huge, great pool, privacy, nice common living areas, and secure parking for 4-5 cars if you needed it. Located real close to La Plantation. Dany even called us while we were down there to make sure everything was ok. Thanks Rastaman!!

Thrilla: A lot has been written about the 12 Meter yacht race, we finally got there and it did not disappoint. We had a perfect day to sail and the staff really try hard to make it a fun day. We were all surprised as to how much work you can actually do and really get involved in the sailing.( If you want to). I might suggest doing the first sail of the day 8:30 am. That way you avoid some of the mid day traffic, have lunch on the Boardwalk or ? shop a little and still get back to the beach for a while if you want. You also have less risk of them getting a little behind in their schedule and having to sit around and wait. Cost $78 pp + tip for the crew.

GODZILLA: This category represents two unofficial records that were set during our 1 week stay.
1. The “Perfect Storm” that hit Weds and hung around till Fri. A lot has been written about this topic, so I will keep it short. We talked to a bunch of people that have been on the Island a long time, and no one can remember swells that big in March. They feel they peaked at 19 ft and a guy who makes his living on the water said in January they have sometimes seen up to 15 ft swells. Our feeling is that it caused a lot more of a mess than a lot of damage. There were large (2-3ft) rocks that were lifted onto land from the breaker wall along the waterfront road by the Fort Louis Marina. What was weird is that it seemed like it should have been blowing and raining and all hell breaking loose, but it was sunny, not windy, just the swells which shut down the beach. We had 2 perfect days around the pool at the villa.
2. The “Perfect Storm” that hit Baywatch on St. Paddy’s day in record numbers. We got there late, and unfortunately didn’t get to meet a lot of people. The food was great as was the music etc. I was the guy in the white cotton shirt and green blinking bow tie. My daughter said, “ Don’t worry dad, I don’t think anyone will notice your bow tie” One person noticed however, and asked me if he didn’t buy ice cream from me on Coney Island back in 1964. ( I told him it was caramel corn). We all had fun, thanks to John and Sugarae for putting it on.( I hope the people that forgot to pay their tab came back later if they realized it)

Food, Glorious Food. ( I normally do better with details in this area, but maybe not so good this time.)
We stocked up on groceries and liquid refreshments at the Cole Bay Grande Marche. Very nice store. One guy walked by our cart and said, “ I think you are going to need more mix”. Last time I’ll send the boys to the liquor department. Funny thing is, there wasn’t that much left over when we went home !! We picked up the stuff on the way to the villa on arrival and I’m sure we could not have gotten one more bottle of Carib in the cars. 10 people, ten bags + carry ons, and all the groceries!!

Breakfasts were a lot of goodies from Tap 5 etc and mostly all at the villa. Someone had really good French toast at the Safari Grill in Orient village, and someone sat forever waiting for service at Bikini Beach and were not treated very nice when they asked for menus. Sorry, A lot of you love the place and I have gone back there, but the same thing happened to us 2 years ago. Maybe it’s the morning shift?

Lunch: The Pirate Beach Bar has great wraps $7-10 (Chicken sate with peanut sauce was a favorite), and BBQ mahi mahi $13 was very good. The Mexican place was a disappointment. Cornies on the boardwalk had surprisingly good ribs and salads,$1.50 beers. Take out from Sky’s The Limit at the villa, 10 orders of ribs,5 chicken,3 shrimp
and 6 sides $76+ tip(great poolside lunch). Baywatch is always a favorite. We tried Lee’s for our last lunch on the way to the airport, even though it has been beat up here pretty hard. We had very good fast service, the chicken and ribs were very good and large portions, shrimp, conch chowder and mahi were all good. The fishing charter came in while we were there so we had a little entertainment while we ate.

Dinner. Our first night we walked down to Orient Village for pizza. We went to Safari Grill since they could seat us at a nice table in the courtyard. The pizza was very good, nice waiter. 9 pizzas,20 Caribs, free rum shots (10 people) $250 + tip 1-1.4 exchange.
Tried Spicy, but they were closed, so we ended up at California. We had good service even though they were very busy. Scallops/fettucini in sweet curry was very good, grouper special, lamb chops, huge portion of mussels in cream sauce ($17) were all good. Free rum shots,water to drink,$250+ tip. This was a much better value than the same cost for pizza the night before. 1-1 exchange.
Sky’s The Limit; rib, shrimp, chicken and red snapper platters and lots of carib. $120+tip. Tai Chi in Orient village, Thai sautéed noodles were very good, fresh and piping hot. We had an Internet coupon for a second drink, probably a good thing since drinks were 8 euros! About $80/couple 1-1.4 exchange
.Our favorite every year is La Petite Auberge des Iles in the Marigot marina. Fixed price menu 23.5 euros, 3 courses. You can pick from all their specials and even were allowed to have several main entrée choices as appetizers.Mediterranian white fish was excellent. The desserts were out of this world, strawberry crepe/ice cream the best. Reasonably priced wine list. Complimentary bruschetta to start and rum shots to finish. $450 + tip Exchange was full current rate. Plan on 2&1/2 hours to eat.
La Main a la Pate. We split up our last night and Susan and I ended up here. Not sure why. The service was very slow. The onion soup was the worst we have ever had on the Island. My fettucini/shrimp was ok with 5 small shrimp, chicken wrapped shrimp special was average.We split a hot chocolate cake that was good, but it sat a while before we got it and the ice cream was melted. Nothing but water to drink. $111 + small tip. The insult was 1-1.60 exchange!! I checked when I got home and my website says it never hit 1.60. I should have asked first( I hope it wouldn’t have mattered), so it is my own fault. Never again.

Random info and observations
We got our chairs/ umbrellas at Pirate for $12 which included 2 drinks. Also at the orange chairs next to Pirate, $10 and free use of the restrooms at both places. They both allowed a soft sided cooler which supplemented our purchases from them.

Cancellations weather related. Harmony nights was cancelled in Grand Case due to the swells they thought were coming earlier than they did. It was a beautiful night, but no Rhythm Boys or Gunslinger to listen to.
Our biggest disappointment of the trip was the cancellation of our private catamaran charter. Dave and Britt TTOLers from Minnesota highly recommended Stargazer owned by Holger and Britta. Holger went out of his way to accommodate us and we were to have an afternoon of sailing etc followed by a 3 course dinner on the catamaran as the sun went down. Maybe next year. Definitely check out Stargazer for your water excursions.
2 days of Orient Beach being closed down was also a bummer, but the villa was a life saver.
Traffic is bad, but we only got stuck twice based on the time of day we traveled . It definitely is cutting down on the mobility we would like to have more of, however.
Never felt like crime was lurking around every corner, but we were careful. The guy in the parking lot by the Marigot Marina can be a little intimidating and creepy. He came over to “wash” my windshield as I was backing out and smeared it up so bad I could hardly see. Maybe that was his intent.
Mad Hatter: Just for fun we had several caps embroidered with a catamaran and stargazer on the front, and Britta and Holgers names on the back. Since the trip was canceled, Holger drove up to Orient to get them and we had a nice visit.
We also had hats made up for Andy and Cheryl. They were black hats with a yellow oval and blue Baywatch lettering on the front, and their names on the back. We had our son Andy put on a sleeveless white T and give the caps to the “real” Andy and his bride. We got a few fun pictures and it was a good little foot note to our trip.They are very nice fun
people.
Churned up water: Not sure if I have ever seen much written on this, but Holger told us that there is potential for more bacteria etc in the water after the heavy swells and a little more caution should be taken about time spent in the water. He knows people who have gotten ear infections etc after storms. Guess what? My son felt like he was getting plugged up and his ears almost exploded on the plane. He went to the doctor when he got home and has a severe ear and sinus infection. Never had one ever before. He went boogie boarding for an hour or two on Orient Beach on Friday. Maybe it was a coincidence.
Exchange rate: Forget what the SXM info newsletter says, the 1-1 are fading fast. Le Escapade went to 1-1.25, Rancho del Sol 1-1.20, Auberge Gourmand 1-1.40. Not a complaint just info, and yes they need to make a living, but it is affecting where and how often we eat at the upscale places, which ultimately detracts ever so slightly on the over all lure of the Island, We still love St. Martin and it is our #1 destination.

This got way to long,sorry. I may at a later time add a part two of the 8 young newbies impressions of St Martin. Thanks to all of you who help make our trips more enjoyable.