This was our 17th trip, taken every year in May. I’ll try to keep it brief and just hit some highlights. Another great trip. <img src="http://www.traveltalkonline.com/forums/images/graemlins/Thumbsup.gif" alt="" /> Every year we are reminded why we like to keep coming back.

Weather – near perfect the entire two weeks. <img src="http://www.traveltalkonline.com/forums/images/graemlins/Clapping.gif" alt="" /> Lots of blue sky with broken white clouds. Temps in the mid 80s to mid 90s. Nights were very comfortable. Only rain was an occasional passing down pour and these occurred mostly at night, early in the morning, or on the other side of the island. <img src="http://www.traveltalkonline.com/forums/images/graemlins/Grin.gif" alt="" />

Crime and Safety. Experienced and saw no crime. No problems traveling around the island. Took our usual precautions and avoided deserted locations. We stayed at GCBC three nights and walked into town all three nights. We do not stay out late. We are usually back in our room by 10:30-11:00 PM. <img src="http://www.traveltalkonline.com/forums/images/graemlins/snore.gif" alt="" /> The other ten days we stayed at the Towers. We don’t walk anywhere in Mullet at night. It seems like the Mullet Bay ruins had more graffiti this year. We wish they would just tear this stuff down. I went over to Mullet Beach to photograph the sunset – something I do every year – but I have to admit that I am apprehensive every time I do this since the beach is nearly deserted at sunset.

Car Rental. We used Unity again this year. We have used them for at least the past five years; maybe more. Unity tells us to leave the car unlocked, and leave nothing in the car of course. We have followed this practice the past two years and have not had any problem. I assume that Unity doesn’t want the car damaged by someone breaking into it.

We did have a slight snafu on the return though. Our routine is to check in at the airport in the morning, go to the beach for a couple hours, and return the car about an hour or so before flight time. We told them we would return the car at 3pm but did not get there until 3:20pm and found the lot closed and locked up. Yikes!!!! What do we do now??? We went to the airport hoping to find them there. One of their competitors called them; handed me the phone and we argued about the return time – whatever happened to island time??? It all worked out okay in the end. They simply asked me to give the keys to the competitor’s agent and I confirmed that everything was okay when I got home. We plan to use them again next year.

Beaches. <img src="http://www.traveltalkonline.com/forums/images/graemlins/Umbrella.gif" alt="" /> <img src="http://www.traveltalkonline.com/forums/images/graemlins/Umbrella.gif" alt="" /> <img src="http://www.traveltalkonline.com/forums/images/graemlins/Umbrella.gif" alt="" /> Mullet or Orient is our normal choice. We also like Pinel but didn’t get there this year. We did go to Dawn beach one day. Mullet seems to have more local flavor than Orient and the beach eye candy is as good, if not better, than Orient. However, we wish the resorts whose guest use Mullet and the beach vendors would do more to take care of the beach. We frequently find ourselves picking up some litter when we go to Mullet beach. Not a lot of little but annoying because there is no excuse for it. How many of you remember Mullet pre-Luis when the Ship Wreck and Ocean Reef restaurants were there? One Saturday I did the SXM jet thing and went over to Sunset beach for about an hour, sat in line with the end of the runway, and took photos of the big jets coming in.

Activities. We always like to get out on the water and do one or two water activities each year. We have done all of them at least once so we try to rotate our selections each year. This year we did the Anguilla tour on Swaglia II. Had a great time. Swaglia II is a power boat and covers a lot of territory. We did a snorkeling stop in Anguilla, followed by lunch at Prickly Pear and then another snorkeling stop at Sandy Isle. Our second trip was the Pub Crawl which we have also done before. This year the Pub Crawl was disappointing. The price went up and the food portions went down – used to be a meal, now its just a snack. The first stop at Peg Leg now requires a short hike from the dock to restaurant that in my view works against the concept of this trip. Oh well, off our list.


Dinning. <img src="http://www.traveltalkonline.com/forums/images/graemlins/dine.gif" alt="" /> We try to keep our food bill reasonable. While in Grand Case we ate a couple of nights at Talk of the Town, one night at Sunset Café, and one night at Spiga – one of our favorites. Spiga and TOT were 1-to-1 for cash. Sunset Café at GCBC was 1.35-to-1 for cash. At Orient beach it seems like there was more 1-to-1 this year. Everything from Pedros to Le String was 1-to-1. Snack shack at Kontiki was 1-to-1. Drinks at Kakoa were 1-to-1, but the Salmon Pizza was not. We fall into the camp that believes that the functional currency of the Caribbean is the US dollar so the exchange rate is a consideration in our purchase decisions. While at the Towers we dined only on the Dutch side. There used to be a time when we dined 80% on the French side but there are now many good choices closer to the Towers on the Dutch side. We had good to excellent meals at Toppers, Halsey’s, Temptations, and La Gondola. Service at Temptations and La Gondola was a little funky, though, as both places forget to serve the wine we ordered. La Gondola took the wine off the bill after we complained. But the food was excellent at both and we will visit them again on future trips.

Shopping. Not much this year. Only did a couple of hours at the Marigot market and one morning in Simpson Bay. No trips into Phillipsburg this year – a first!!! We were saving Phillipsburg for a rainy or cloudy day but had none!!! Everyday was a beach day!!! <img src="http://www.traveltalkonline.com/forums/images/graemlins/Clapping.gif" alt="" />

Sunsets and Moonrises. Few things are more enjoyable than watching the sunset after a day on the beach. But most days the sun sinks into clouds rather than into the ocean in SXM. This year we were treated to seeing it sink into the ocean twice. There was also a full moon on May 19th beginning right at sunset – perfect for picture taking, almost. We went over to the Westin and had hoped to see the moon rise out of the ocean, but those ever present clouds on the horizon got in the way. We stayed and watched it anyway even though we had to wait until it was higher in the sky. This was also the first time we checked out the Westin. We won’t take sides in the debate about the Westin but I did note that having the hotel there provides a fairly safe stretch of beach for evening or early morning enjoyment.

Already looking forward to trip 18 next year. <img src="http://www.traveltalkonline.com/forums/images/graemlins/Cool.gif" alt="" />