We returned last week for our 10th trip to SXM (I think) and as usual the trip was a lot of fun with not too many issues. This year we spent 1 week at Villa Belle Mer with 3 other couples then moved to Villa Bali Hai in AXA for 5 more days of relaxation.

Flights:
Usually we fly from BDL through CLT then back on US Air however this year we decided to take the Continental nonstop from EWR since we got it for about $400 RT. The flights were fine with no issues but I feel that the hassle of driving to Newark and the expense of having to get a hotel, pay the tolls, and deal with the NYC traffic was not worth the hassle and next time we will go from Hartford.

Rental Cars:
Since there were 8 of us for the first week we rented 2 cars from Unity and Michael took good care of us. Mid week we had an issue with one of the cars and Michael swapped the car out with no problem. We will continue to use Unity in the future.

Villa Belle Mer:
The only thing that I can say is WOW! This is a fabulous property with just a 5 minute walk through Esmeralda to the beach. Lots of room and with 8 people everybody had room to stretch out and have your own space. If you are going with a small group this is the way to go.

Crime:
The only crime that we encountered was the fact that it was a crime to have to leave at the end of the week. There was an obvious increase in the presence of the Gendarmes and private security. In 10 years this was the first time that we were stopped by the private security guards entering Orient Village in the evening and asked where we were going. This happened every day and was somewhat comforting.

Beaches:
First I had to say that the group that hangs out around the Perch Bar during the first couple of weeks of June are a great bunch and when we showed up on our first day it was like meeting family. We spent 3 days there during our week and let’s just say “A good time was had by all”. As one person put it “I used to come for the beach, now I come for the people” thanks for the quote of the week Wallace.

Since one of the couples that were traveling with us this year were on the island for the first time we spent one day as tour guides and did the around the island tour stopping at Rosie’s on Mullet for lunch then spending a couple of hours at Maho watching the planes. All in all it was a fun day.

One day some of our group decided to go to Bay Rouge and we tagged along for the morning. Now, Bay Rouge is usually not my favorite beach (really can’t tell you why) but this day was really nice and I can no longer make that statement. We actually did something that we have never done, we took a swim through the cave then around the point back to the beach which was really a lot of fun. One funny story, while we were swimming out to the cave for some reason stupid me left the keys to the villa in my pocket. Well, half way out to the cave I realized this fact and low and behold the keys were no longer there (surprise, surprise). We decided to swim back re-tracing our path while looking for the keys (like we were actually going to find them). To my amazement about 200 yards off shore I saw something in the sand at the bottom of the bay. I dove down about 15 feet and I come up with the keys. Maybe we should have headed to the casino!

After leaving the group we decided to go to Kacaters for lunch and boy what a find!!! We had a fabulous lunch then moved to the beach to lounge the afternoon away. A couple more rum punches and a nap fit the bill. It might not have been cheap but the food was excellent and what the heck we are on vacation. WE WILL RETURN!

Restaurants:
We went to Talk of the Town the first night after a couple of glasses of wine at Calmo’s. Dinner for eight with leftovers came to about $70 bucks. The ribs and chicken were good enough where we went back for take out a couple days later to eat at the villa.

We also visited Poulet D Orleans which is always excellent, Ti Bouchan also excellent, Baywatch a couple of times (what can I say other than Margarita shrimp!). We also had lunch at Kako one afternoon and I think 4 out of 6 of us had the Vietnamese spring rolls that are to die for.

My vote for the pick of the week was Karacters.

One night we had Fabulous Feasts come to the villa to serve dinner. We had been talking about doing this for years but just never got to it. Let me tell you I thought that the dinner was excellent. The chef came in about 7:00 while we had cocktails on the pool deck. At about 8:00 we sat down to cold cucumber soup, heart of Palm Salad, then 6 of us had filets and 2 of us had grilled tuna steaks. For desert we had chocolate lava cake with vanilla ice cream. Top it off with ½ dozen bottles of Bordeaux and it made for a memorable evening. The bill came out to $79.00 pp (we supplied the wine) which I felt was well worth the price for a Grand Case style meal in the privacy of your villa.

After 7 great days in SXM four of our group went home and four of us moved on to Anguilla for 5 more days.

Steve