AA direct from JFK - flights were packed in both directions but uneventful (thank God!) Lots and lots of children on the return flight. Not sure where they all stayed but it wasn’t at the Royal West Indies resort. Airport reminded me of the old Princess Juliana except the air conditioning worked well and all the seats were in one large room; far less shopping and food stores though.

FIRST IMPRESSIONS: Wide open roads, well paved roads with big cars, trucks and SUVs – oh my. Streets were better marked and lots of small roundabouts with very courteous drivers who actually stop to allow you what they call "the give way". As you reached each roundabout there are very visible signs with the street names on them. Driving is on the opposite side of US and also the wheel of our SUV was on the right but hubbie mastered it quickly. I drove only once and on a secondary road along the beach and found it difficult to judge the left side so I gave the wheel back over to him. At least I tried it.

[color:"blue"]Royal West Indies Resort[/color]
We visited more than several other resorts and walked by many more and really were glad we choose the Royal West Indies. Had price not been an object next door was the Grace Bay resort which was upscale and beautiful. RWI had two quiet pools as well as a spa tub next to it. Main pool was beside the bar and restaurant. Restaurant is called Mango Reef and was at capacity each night unlike some of the other restaurants we visited. We loved the food, service and ambience at Mango Reef that we dined thrice, breakfast once and lunch once. We ate all our meals out as the kitchen in the studios did not have a stove top or burner. One bedroom units did. We had a full size refrigerator, sink, toaster and coffee pot along with cups, dishes,glasses and utensils.

In addition there is a stacked washer/dryer in each unit which we used almost daily. Units looked fairly new and worked well; hotel provided detergent daily. It was so convenient to have it there and not come home with a stack of dirty clothes.

Our unit had a king size bed, small couch, desk, two night stands with clock/radio and lamps. TV unit had three drawers as well as DVD player. Well over 40 channels on TV and all in English.

Next impression happened after getting to the beach. Beautiful light blue water with powdery sand. Umbrella’s are same color as Waikiki on Orient but the lounges were not as comfortable and laid out in uneven rows – not really rows sort of random.

It’s quiet, I mean very very quiet. No one is talking, no one is sharing stories and it’s hot. Where are the beach boys, beach bar?? Oh ... that’s right no beach bars, no beach service. Ok this is really going to suck hiking back to the main pool where the bar is. Frozen cocktails will be melted and beer will not be cold. How spoiled we have gotten!

Breathe, Louise, just take a deep breath but all I can hear myself say is, “this isn’t St. Maarten, OMG it isn’t St. Maarten. Here I was telling David – don’t you compare it honey. It’s different, we’ve done different many many times. Remember honey? Aruba, Antigua, Bahamas, Jamaica, Bermuda, and St. John’s just to name a few?

So now I say it out loud and he assures me we will make our own fun and have a good time.

I never thought he’d be the one trying to ease my mind. He was right – as I walked around our resort I discovered how beautiful it was and how intimate it felt. There are eight three-floor buildings with balconies or patio’s skewed around the property. We were on the first floor in building 8 farthest from the pool and beach but closest to the parking area which came in handy at night. We were also closest to Club Med but noise was never an issue. We were also behind the reception bldg which housed a complimentary computer, small book library and video library where you could borrow DVDs.

RWI has a mgr's cocktail party on Monday evenings at 5:00 PM on a small wooden deck as you walk down to the beach. They served rum punch, conch fritters, sweet glazed chicken wings and fried fish strips. We had met a women earlier who we had drummed up a conversation so we sat with her otherwise most people stayed to themselves during the one hour event.

Down the road was a small outdoor strip of stores called “Port of Calls” where we rented snorkeling equipment at $15 for the day. We snorkeled right next to the Coral Gardens hotel where there is a protected reef but you can swim outside the buoys. There was someone watching and if a person went inside which happened on two occasions he would blow the whistle so they would get out. There are several palapa given us shade and enabled us to put our towels and cooler under. Popular place so we felt safe but not overcrowded.

CG Resort had chairs and umbrella’s for guests only but if you had lunch at there outdoor restaurant I think you may have been able to use there chairs?

As with St. Martin there is lots of construction going on but roads are far better maintained and bigger and wider. We did not experience any traffic delays during the week.

We went shopping a few times at the Graceway IGA which was a very large well stocked supermarket. Prices were much higher than St. Martin or back home. Oceanspray cranberry juice was $6.74 – ouch. A bottle of Absolut which cost us about $13 in St. Martin was $27 at the IGA. There is a small duty free liquor store in the airport when you depart and the Absolut was $13 there. Supermarket had a large bakery and sandwich counter where we split a sandwich on two occasions. The sandwiches were on “wedge or hero” bread and toasted and the cold cuts were heated up. Very similar to “Quiznos.” The sandwiches were reasonable at $5.99 and enough for us to share.

Most of the restaurants and shopping (shopping is minimal on the island) are in the Grace Bay area where we were staying but there were only a few restaurants in walking distance so we opted to rent an SUV for the week. As a comparison the SUV (same size more or less as the RAV 4 ) we rented was more than $100 for the week than we normally pay in SXM.

We visited Coral Gardens, Sands, Sibonne, Turks & Caicos Club, Grace Bay and walked by many more. RWI was located in a perfect part of the island for easy access to many restaurants which would have been a short taxi ride.

There is a small casino next door to RWI but we never went in.

Since we had the car we did venture to other parts of the island in Blue Hills, Turtle Cove, Leeward and several remote areas. Driving to Malcolm’s beach was an adventure which I'll describe more along with our restaurant reviews shortly.

part II