Wow, what a trip we had!! Thank you to everyone on the forum who helped me so much!!
We arrived via Westjet at the airport to be picked up by Joyce of Joyce Prince Tours in a nice van with bevvies. She took us to the grocery store, on a mini tour of the island and then to the villa we had rented on Mont Choisy Blvd. above Happy Bay. We found the villa on VRBO and it was AMAZING for my DH, myself, our sons and wives. We loved the location overlooking Happy Bay and we could see Grand Case from our deck. We were above the abandoned resort and loved having our coffee looking at the ocean, or from the infinity pool watching Danny with his wheelbarrow bringing his supplies to his Happy Bay BBQ spot and listening to the cows mooing. We were a 5 minute walk to Happy Bay, we walked everyday and swam everyday, we were a 15 min. walk to Friars Bay where we lunched and rented lounge chairs and umbrellas and spent the day as well. Joyce arranged for a van to be delivered to us after a couple days and we drove to Grand Case for suppers, Orient Beach, Phillipsburg, Marigot and basically toured around a bit. We found the motorcycles careening up the center of the road quite crazy and really feel it was a miracle our van was not sideswiped or damaged, really I thought us Thunder Bay drivers were reckless but those bikes took the cake!! We ate lunch of snapper, ribs, macaroni sides, coleslaw sides and Johnny Cakes at Skys the Limit twice and absolutely loved both!! We had a special dinner at Ocean 82 that was delicious and expensive and then ate an Italian scrumptious dinner on the rooftop in Grand Case at Piazza Pascal. Many great charcuterie platters were made from the fare we found at Bacchus and they had great baguettes and Foie Gras, breads and pate and of course wines and champagne. We shopped alot at Simply near our villa, it was an ok grocery store and we found our staples there although they were out of alot of items. We went shopping in Phillipsburg one day, I had the best coconut ice cream and we had an ok lunch at Escargot, but loved the conversation with the owner as he was so knowledgeable about the area we were staying in as he used to have a resto attached to the abandoned resort before the hurricane!!
I made sure to have a chocolate croissant from Serendipity in Marigot, brought back a bag and they were so delicious!!
We liked the little shops in Grand Case and especially the little shop that had items made from the sand from the various beaches of St. Martin. I bought a Happy Bay Buddah, it was 20 Euro which is pricey but they took American dollars 1 to 1. My DIL bought a lovely piece of Art in Grand Case from the Elephant Gallery (upstairs).
The kids did a snorkeling trip from Grand Case to Creole Rock, it had been rough that week so the waters were not the best for snorkeling but they still had fun!!
We wanted to go to Pinell Island and some other spots but we loved the tranquillity of the villa so much, everyone just wanted to stay there and the majority of our trip was spent enjoying the Villa and swimming at the beach, it was perfect and I hope to get back some day!!! We even had a turtle that visited us each day!!
Still lots of snow here, I wish I was back there! The weather was perfect every day, it rained for a bit a couple days but was over before we knew it.
Thanks for everything
H

Great Report. We arrive on Monday and can't wait. Joyce is great and we used to use her husband for rental cars 25 years ago.

Very nice report. It really sounds like you enjoyed your villa and the beach there. Next trip you will have to do some more exploring and get a better appreciation of the entire island. There is so much to do and see! Were your dates Jan 10-17?

Love Bacchus - bought some lovely aged rhum there
Sounds like a fabulous trip, thanks for the report
J&B

Love to hear from "New Explorers." While reading I could actually "hear" the love, excitement, enjoyment of SXM in your words. Thanks for posting.

Thanks for taking time to post a report and helping "the next guy" enjoy SXM like you.

Heather
Did you try walking from your villa to Grand Case?

Hi: No we did not, we could have but we walked to Happy Bay and Friar's Bay almost every day, it would have been possible to walk to Grand Case, I think about 20 minutes!! Normally we are big walkers, but not this trip, just before we left my DH had a snowmachine accident which caused his back to be out of sorts!! He managed the beach walks tho!!