This was our 17th trip to the island, so please don’t expect an exciting trip report! Our days mainly consist of relaxing at the beach for most of the morning, enjoying a light lunch at a small local restaurant/bar, finding a happy hour in the late afternoon and then proceeding to a restaurant for a dinner (sometimes a fancy dinner doesn’t happen if we’re too happy at happy hour – LOL).
US Airways flights from Providence, RI through Charlotte to SXM and back, were uneventful and all on time. We arrived on the island around 3 PM, rented a car from Panoramic / Ace car rental (booked online through TTOL sponsor Mr. St. Maarten / Jack). It was a scratched up white Hyundai Elantra, but it ran just fine. Please note that Jack includes the Caribbean discount coupons at no charge for booking through him. The cards saved us $20 at Peg Leg Pub and $20 at The Stone, both very good restaurants. Plus there are many more discounts we didn’t take advantage of.
Accommodations:
Our first two nights were spent at The Azure Beach Studios, located directly on Simpson Bay Beach (
http://www.azuresxm.com./index.html). Since there aren’t too many reviews of this place on this message board, I’ll provide a few details. The owners, Mike and Fawnette, have a wonderful little gem here. The owners have put a lot of TLC into this property, and it shows. After a warm welcome from Mike, we were told that the garden suite we booked had been rented out for three months. We could understand that – they’d be foolish to pass that up. He then offered us an upgrade to the deluxe garden suite, which was fine with us. The two-bedroom suite, with a separate kitchen/living room area was large, freshly painted and very clean. There were three air conditioning units in the suite, and they all worked well. The king-sized bed in the master bedroom was comfortable. Our suite had lots of windows, but the views from most of the windows were of concrete walls (I think the suite we originally booked may have had a beach view). Two of the windows, however, did have a garden courtyard view, which was nicely landscaped. We were only a few steps from a beautiful, mostly deserted beach, and we don’t spend a lot of time in our room, so the lack of a view wasn’t a big deal for us. The units do not have a room safe, although Mike said that they will be installing them in the future. He did state that the neighborhood is very safe, and they have never had any problems with theft, but I still like to lock up my passports and $. The kitchen included a plenty of cabinet storage, a small refrigerator (no ice cube trays) and a cooktop, which was not working. We do cook breakfasts in our room, so this was a small inconvenience for us. The unit also didn’t have what I call a standard coffee maker (i.e. Mr. Coffee). It did have a French press coffee maker (which I’m told does make fantastic coffee), but I don’t know how to use it, and our stove wasn’t working, so we went out for breakfasts both days we were there. Please note that since we were there for only two nights, we never brought these issues up with the owners, but if we were to stay again for a longer period of time, we’d inquire about them. Mike and Fawnette have done a great job remodeling this guesthouse and we highly recommend staying there.
On Saturday we moved to a one-bedroom unit in The Towers (unit 404), which was obtained via an RCI trade. It was our second stay there and we do think it’s one of the nicest timeshare resorts on the island. Every staff member we encountered was very friendly. The views from our balcony were lovely, overlooking the beautiful pool and the lagoon. At night we could see the lights in the city of Marigot and on the island of Anguilla. We were too lazy to walk down to the manager’s party, which was held near the pool, but we enjoyed hearing the entertainment while sitting out on the balcony.
Restaurants and Bars:
The Kissing Fish (Summit Resort) – As I have posted many times in the past, we love, love, love this place and we were there several times during the week. We always receive such a warm welcome from Chloe and Thierry. They are such wonderful hosts. Friday night was “pizza in paradise” and Thierry prepared an incredible pizza special for us, which included lots of meat and fresh vegetables. It was nice to see Jan & Bob and Ron & Gina again. We also spent a lot of time talking to Sal and Betty, Alex and Maureen, Dick and Marcella, Tom and many others, too.
Peg Leg Pub – we visited there twice during the week, once for drinks and another time for dinner. The new location is fantastic! A big thank you goes out to Norm and Betty for hosting a TTOL party here, and for organizing a collection for the I Can Foundation. We stopped by later in the week for dinner and both of our steaks were excellent. The place was packed! Cover Too Cover was performing there that Wednesday night. Bob (from Pack Light) and his singing partner Dave put on a great show. The owner, Jack, stopped by our table to say Hello. Shawn was not our waiter for dinner, but he too, stopped by for kisses and handshakes!
The Stone, Simpson Bay - this was our 3rd visit to this restaurant. We were glad to see that this restaurant has re-opened as this is one of Marc’s favorite places for dinner. Service was fantastic and the food was very good. Our waiter, Walner, took great care of us. Marc ordered the filet mignon, which was excellent and I had the seafood special.
Pizza Pasta in Maho (behind Cherie’s). We ordered take-out here, and both dishes, spaghetti Bolognese and pasta with shrimp, were delicious. The shrimp was plentiful and jumbo-sized. Portions were huge and we both had a lot of food leftover.
Chesterfield’s in Philipsburg. Upon arrival, we almost ran over the owner or the manager (not sure which) in the parking lot – his fault, not ours. It gave us all quite a scare. He was very apologetic and rewarded us with a complimentary drink, which we thought was a nice touch. Both of our dinners were good, the service was attentive, and the view from our water view table was beautiful.
The Hideaway at LaVista Resort. The restaurant was busy, and we couldn’t get a table by the pool, so we sat on the upper level (no A/C and it was hot). We ordered pork tenderloin and rack of lamb. Both had to be sent back because they were way undercooked, but this was taken care of promptly. In the end, both meals were very good, the prices are reasonable, and the service was nice, too.
The French Touch (located near Sunset Beach Bar / Bliss). The location and ambience is very romantic, and the service was nice, but I’m sorry to report that neither of us was happy with our entrees. I was very disappointed as I have read several nice reviews for this restaurant. Maybe it was just an off night.
Kenneth’s – Orleans: Great local food. The place was packed – always a good sign! The chicken breast plate is delicious and is big enough for two to share. Prices are in Euros, but very reasonable (mostly in the 8 to 12 range) and they only added 20% to our meals (beers were $2). It’s a neat little place for lunch.
Deep Bleu Bar & Grill (The Summit Resort) – friends of ours recommended this restaurant for lunch. It is nicely decorated in a blue and white theme, the location down on the lagoon is really lovely and the food was very good. Marc had a club sandwich and I had fish and chips. The owners have two cute, well-behaved dogs (pugs, I think). They offer free Wi-Fi and a host of watersport activities.
Dinghy Dock, Oyster Pond Marina – this is our favorite place for ribs, salad and fries. We weren’t disappointed. It’s as good as ever!
Buccaneer Beach Bar – stopped by the BBB a couple of times during the week. Wanda is doing well, and it was nice chatting with her. She knows Mike and Fawnette from Azure Guesthouse and is very familiar with the neighborhood (I think she grew up there?). In her opinion, Simpson Bay Beach is the nicest on the island. Later in the week we dropped by to say hello to Curtis. The bar was pretty busy, but we’re happy to report that he and his family are doing well.
Ric’s Place – ate lunch here on our final day on the island. The food was quite good and there was a nice breeze blowing through the restaurant. I had the mahi-mahi special and it was delicious.
Baywatch – we each had a Bloody Mary there one rainy morning. It was a little early to start drinking (9AM), but we figured that sitting at Baywatch in the rain was much better than sitting in the car waiting for the storm to pass. The restaurant wasn’t very busy, and Andy sat with us and talked for a little bit. A short while later, it did stop raining, so we packed up and headed to Club O.
We did try to have lunch at Kokomarina’s , but they were closed. It looks like they’re having some construction work done there.
Miscellaneous Other Stuff:
We spent every morning on the beach at Club Orient. This was our fifth annual Memorial Day trip to the island and it was great to see many familiar faces on the beach. It was also nice to see how much sand has returned to the beach. Last October the waves were lapping the wall at Papagayo’s. Now there’s room there for several rows of beach chairs! Willie’s Lemon Breeze is as good as ever.
Except for one morning of rain showers and clouds as a storm front moved through the area, the weather was fantastic. It was clear enough early in the week to see Saba and St. Barth’s, but it did get a bit hazy later on in the week. The traffic wasn’t too bad. We did try to avoid Simpson Bay during the mid- to late afternoon hours, though. It typically took us about 35 minutes to drive to and from the beach from The Towers. What a tough commute – LOL!
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So all in all, it was another wonderful trip. We met some old friends, and made some new friends. Our batteries are re-charged and we’re looking forward to our next trip in September!
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