Sorry it’s taken so long for this report… I was swamped with work when I left and returned to the same. I realized that if I don’t type this thing now I may never get to it, so I'll basically do a summary of each day. I find this helpful when remembering the trip later on. Anyway, my wife and I traveled to St. Martin from Sunday July 5th thru Sunday July 12th. We traveled with our son who is 19 months, and my sister-in-law. Because this was our first trip to the island with the baby, we knew this trip would be different than previous trips, with little or no night life. Our dinners were at more low-key places, and not at say the nicer restaurants of Grand Case, etc., which was fine.

Flight – we flew nonstop from Philadelphia to SXM on US Air. Everything went fine and the flight arrived about 20 minutes early. Payed $45 for 3 checked bags on the departure (but we were not charged on the return.) The baby slept for 3 of the 3-1/2 hours, so that was nice.

Car – We were met by Marius of St. Louis Car Rental at the airport in a very nice Hyundai Sonata with a baby seat. We reserved a Getz, but were given this instead. It’s a good thing too because with the luggage and baby stroller, I’m not sure the Getz would have been large enough. Anyway, we traveled to the office location in Simpson Bay to fill out the paper work. Last time Arleen met us and did the paper work at the airport, but I guess they’re cracking down on this now. We also reserved a phone, and as I stated in an earlier post, we had to pick up a calling card, but forgot to on the way to the hotel. Anyway, everything was fine with the car, and fortunately we had no issues.

Weather – In general the weather was very nice, with the exception of the day we arrived. Overall was hot and humid, but fine for this time of year. There was actually one day (Saturday) when it actually wasn’t too humid! We had a few rainstorms, but they were overnight, with the exception of an evening shower (Friday) and a morning storm on the Sunday of our departure.

Hotel – Divi Little Bay. In general, we enjoyed the resort. We exchanged through RCI points and were given a nice size one bedroom on the third floor of the next to last building up the hill. I enjoy walking and initially saw this as a bonus for the exercise, but overall it turned out to be a real pain. You couldn’t park anywhere near the room, and we had to wait to take the bell hop carts to the room if we needed a ride. This was particularly inconvenient on the days we went shopping, and having the baby made the situation worse. And I’m notorious for forgetting things in the room. They should have some sort of trolley that runs back and forth constantly, making designated stops. Other than that, we enjoyed the pools, and the grounds were nice. The balcony was extremely windy off of Great Bay. We had breakfast every day in our room. Given the time it takes to get to the car and leave the resort, this was a good plan. Also, we returned to the resort every night except for 1 night in which my sister-in-law stayed at home with the baby so we could go out. We usually all had a couple of drinks and maybe a cigar for me.

Day 1 – Sunday. After stopping for beer and a couple of other things, we arrived at Divi around 3 PM. Having forgotten to purchase a calling card, I decided to make a quick call home on the credit card phone on the Divi property. Big Mistake. I was charged $41.00. After calling when I returned home, found out that after initial charges, there is a $5/min charge with a minimum of 5 minutes! I know… I would have been better off calling from the room. I attempted to get the rates before calling but I was unable to do so, so I just gave it a shot. I called and did get them to knock 17 dollars off, but it was still an extremely expensive call. Anyway, the weather was very gloomy – windy and misty, so we just went to Mark’s Place for dinner and enjoyed the food as our “welcome to the island” meal. Delicious. I had the ribs, my wife had the lemon chicken and her sister had the curry chicken. Price for 3 with a couple of beers was about $45.00 (not including tip). Having the baby with us we just returned to the room for the evening. That’s pretty much how it would be this trip and we expected it. Still better than being home!

Day 2 – Monday. Woke up early and went to the Grand Marche to stock up on supplies. When we returned we went to the beach at the resort. We didn’t particularly care for the little bay beach. A lot of rocks and the sand had lots of broken shells in it. We moved over to the pool area later on. It was nice but very crowded. Seemed to me not nearly enough chairs for the size of the resort but then again I guess people are expected to use the beach. We usually do. For dinner we decided to drive up to Grand Case and finally try Cito’s Place (Lago One). After a quick stop at Gulmohar’s in Phillipsburg on the way for Cigars and Madoudou, we traveled up and hit a detour which had us crawling for 25 minutes. Apparently the road from that way up towards Oyster Pond is closed, so we were detoured due west. Anyway, when we arrived at Cito’s, we were not disappointed! Thank you Brian (Peconic) for the suggestion. There is a limited amount of food prepared however, and I had the lamb which was delicious. My wife and her sister had the chicken, which was also very good. Sides were incredible; rice and peas, salad, and the potato salad was unanimously agreed to be the best we’ve ever eaten. Price for 3 with a couple of beers was $52.00. I spoke with Cito afterwards and he offered to cook us whatever we wanted if we decided to return on another evening. He gave us his card and said to just call the day before. BTW, he’s closed on Wednesdays during the slow season. Definitely sounded like a good plan.

Day 3 – Tuesday. After breakfast we drove to check out the Caravanserai. Unfortunately, we hit the detour which prohibits you from making a left from the Midas roundabout, and takes you east (away from Simpson Bay), then north into Cole bay, and the west through Cole Bay until you pick up the main road again. There was a lot of traffic and this was a real pain, taking over an hour! The 1 bedroom mock-up suite was beautiful, and the resort is progressing. It will be gorgeous when it’s finished. From there we returned to the resort, and spent time at the infinity (small) pool, which is a very nice area of the Divi. Dinner that evening was at Pineapple Pete’s. I had conch fritters and the lobster thermidor, which I enjoyed tremendously. I was afraid it would be too rich and would take away from the lobster, but fortunately it wasn’t IMO. The others had ribs and chicken. I also had the crème brulee, which was excellent. As the driver I was limited to 1 beer, but my wife and sister-in-law had a few drinks each. The bill came to $145 without tip.

Day 4 – Wednesday. We woke early and went to the pool to get chairs under the veranda. My sister-in-law awoke to a swollen face due to sunburn, so it was just us and the baby. We then took a ride into Phillipsburg to do a little shopping. There was only 1 cruise ship in port that day so it wasn’t too busy. We had lunch at Le Petit Café, and it’s a really neat little place. My sister-in-law and I had sandwiches – mine on a baguette and hers on Italian bread. Both were really good. My wife had a crepe and some of my sister-in-law’s sandwich. The portions of everything were very big. During the baby’s nap, I finally got a chance to do some snorkeling. I snorkeled from the north end of the resort all the way around the point, and I must say I was pretty disappointed. I didn’t see too much marine life – mostly a rocky bottom. From what I’ve read this may be due to the recent hurricane, but there are way better spots for snorkeling around the island. That night for dinner we went to the Peg Leg Pub and caught up with some friends. The location by the Princess Casino is very nice, and it was very easy to park. I had the bourbon steak, which was very good, but I must say a friend’s filet mignon was absolutely like butter! I wished I had ordered that instead. Others had chicken fettucine which was very good (my little boy REALLY liked that), and some excellent chicken wings.

Day 5 – Thursday. Woke up and again went to the pool. In the early afternoon I decided to take a walk over to Phillipsburg. It only takes about 15 minutes from the gate to get to Front Street, but you must walk up and down a hill. I had an enjoyable, if hot, walk – pretty much covered Front street, Back street, and the boardwalk. On the way back I stopped at a nice little beach bar/restaurant whos name escapes me. It’s basically the last place on the boardwalk as you head back in the direction of Divi (west). I wanted to stop at One Eyed Jacks, but they were closed the whole time I was in SXM. Anyway, I had a huge frozen pina colada which REALLY hit the spot! When I got back to the room I called Cito and ordered our food for dinner on Friday night. He said he’d try to get lobster, along with the steak and salmon which we requested. Since my sister-in-law wasn’t feeling too well we decided to stay home and eat in our room that evening. At her request, I picked up 3 orders of ribs to go at Mark’s after headed over to the Grand Marche and picked up some more items we needed. The ribs were fantastic again, and we had enough rice and peas left over to last the rest of the week! By the way, on a friend’s recommendation we had them in the morning for breakfast with poached eggs. Delicious!

Day 6 – Friday. After breakfast we went to the pool again. During the afternoon my wife and I got some time together and walked into Phillipsburg. Stopped at the same place and had a frozen drink each. We drove back up to Cito’s for our second dinner there and found that none of the food we requested was prepared. We said something to the waitress but she didn’t say anything, so we figured Cito either forgot about us or just couldn’t get the lobster, or she didn’t quite understand us. No big deal because we really enjoyed all of the food we had there so whatever he made that night would be fine. I had a chopped beef dish, almost like stew, with scalloped potatoes and rice and peas. My wife had baked chicken and my sister-in-law the pork chop. Once again everything was excellent. Of course after the meal Cito came out and said “what are you doing here? I was preparing all of this food for you.” Seems it was all a misunderstanding. We felt really bad and even though Cito said that everything was prepared but nothing was cooked, it wouldn’t go to waste, we still promised to return the following evening for our final meal. How could we not? Dinner again was about $50 without tip, and Cito sent us a round of drinks. After the baby fell asleep my wife and I traveled to the Buccaneer Beach Bar to meet up with a couple of friends.

Day 7 – Saturday. The final full day had arrived. It always seems to come so quickly, but this time was extra quick. Ordinarily we like to travel about 10 days, but since we had the baby we didn’t want to stay away too long. After an early breakfast we drove to Le Galion beach. This is a nice beach and the water is very calm and shallow, like a pond. Kinda’ boring for me, but perfect for the baby. This was a beautiful day; clear sunshine with low humidity. After we drove to Orient for our only time this trip and wanted to go to Kokomarina for lunch. This was when we discovered the name had changed to Aloha and it was under new ownership. I won’t go into detail here as several posts about it have already circulated, but the food was very good, and they are still doing 1E = $1. I had the escargots ($6) which were good, however the garlic was still a bit too raw. Surprisingly though at that price it was a full dozen. I also had the lobster salad special ($25), which was a half lobster on a salad with a mango dressing. This was very good. My wife had a chicken burger ($10) which was ok, and my sister-in-law had the mahi mahi burger ($12), which was also ok. I thought their choices weren’t the best given the menu selection, but that’s what they wanted. After the meal the waiter brought some banana vanille rum to the table, which I tried. It was excellent – definitely stronger than Madoudou, but not overly so. He then brought some pear rum of which I tasted a small amount. This was also excellent. Too bad I was driving, as I would have loved to enjoy a full shot (or 2) of both! We returned to the room and I finally climbed the rest of the hill to see the ruins of Fort Amsterdam. The grounds were much larger than I had expected, and very interesting. I love history, and it was very cool to imagine the Dutch battling the Spanish for the island from up there. Beautiful views also. For dinner we drove back to Cito’s for the 3rd time. I’ve eaten at the same place twice in one trip on occasion, but never 3 times! Well, this was a special circumstance and of course we weren’t disappointed. My sister-in-law and I had crab backs which were huge and excellent (my wife’s allergic to shell fish). I had a stew and I couldn’t quite understand the name, but the waitress said it was similar to conch. In the dish was also something similar to pasta, sort of like cavatelli. For our entrées I had lobster which was 3 half lobsters grilled, my wife had delicious salmon fillet and my sister-in-law a grilled steak. Once again everything including the sides was absolutely wonderful. I highly recommend Cito’s (Lago One) for anyone who hasn’t been there. On top of the food Cito is a very friendly man. The bill came to $70 without tip, and keep in mind the lobster was $35.

Day 8 – Sunday. It was so busy that morning for check out that the front desk was not answering the phone. I walked (or should I say hiked) down there and checked out, and also received permission to drive my car all the way up to the building to pack the car. We drove to the airport and stopped at Zee Best for lunch, but unfortunately Sunday is the only day of the week they do not serve lunch. My wife had a large crepe and we all had coffee, as my sister-in-law and I decided to just grab a sandwich at the airport. I saw Marius waiting as I pulled into the parking lot and returned the car and cell phone with no problems. The flight home to PHL was perfectly uneventful and on time.

All in all it was another fantastic vacation. As mentioned it was not nearly as food oriented as usual, but I think that’s one of the best things about SXM. You can always eat incredible food, no matter your circumstances, budget or location. Thankfully, we had no safety issues, and everyone had a wonderful time. Especially our little one. Can’t believe we’ve been home for 2 weeks already. All you can do now is plan for next time!