Where did you stay on your first visit to SXM?

It was my honeymoon and we stayed at Little Bay Beach Hotel....

Mont Vernon resort on orient beach. It was lovely in 1998.

Mullet Bay Resort and Casino in 1973 - it was literally heaven on earth even if a lot of it was still under construction.

Our first stay over was Royal Islander La Plage

Belair for 10 days. Then bought multiple weeks at Flamingo.

L’Hoste on Orient Beach.

October 1999 St Tropez Orient Beach

In one of the six rooms behind Hevea in Grand Case. Fodor's touted them as "for self-sufficient art-appreciating types". Also cheap. Got to SXM on Pan Am where we had lots of miles. Bought at Flamingo (then part of Pelican) on that trip. Now own eight weeks.

Our first visit was on our honeymoon cruise over 39 years ago, along with a one week stay on St. Croix. Our first stay was at Club O in 1991, which is the only place we have stayed for all of our visits.

L’ esplanade in GC

After two cruise visits, spent New Years two weeks at Club Orient

Little Bay Hotel, June 1983.

First trip staying on SXM, versus on cruises, February 1995, at Green Cay Villas, Orient Village.

First stayed here after we found the Resort when we came to Mullet Bay from our Cruise. That was in the mid 80's and have visited the Island over 25 times since.

We stayed at Le Meridien, in Anse Marcel. The property has been a few things since, and is now Secrets.

Stayed at Le Flamboyant in Nettle Bay, in July 1992.

The Pelican - in 1999

Divi Little Bay

Belair 1991. Bought time share next year, still own there.

Feb 2001 St Tropez on Orient Village

After many cruises, Club Orient

Actually first I stayed in a villa at Oyster Pond overlooking the Atlantic in 1985



Villa in Monte Vista.

Wendell

First trip to St. Maarten was in 1995 because another vacation trip was cancelled to Mexico. Chose Divi Little Bay over Dawn Beach Resort. Thank God we did. Divi survived, Dawn Beach did not., as Louis took care of them. We bought our time share then. Have been grateful ever since.

Caravanserai Hotel, 1977.

We stayed at Mullet Bay Resort and Casino in February 1985. Our first winter vacation together. We loved it so much we went back in August the same year and bought a unit at Mullet Bay which we visited twice each year until Hurricane Luis wiped it out.

We stayed at Mullet Bay Resort and Casino in February 1985. Our first winter vacation together. We loved it so much we went back in August the same year and bought a unit at Mullet Bay which we visited twice each year until Hurricane Luis wiped it out.

1998 Sonesta Great Bay....Back nine times since then always stay at Sonesta Maho

Club O the first time, and we were spoiled. Never stayed anywhere else on our return trips.

The Westin about 15 years ago - a big disappointment - but then we discovered Orient Beach and stayed at Alamanda, L'Hoste, Esmerelda and several privately owned villas and condos. Left last Saturday but we will return!

Chez Martine in Grand Case

La Belle Creole August 1988 for a job interview.

Laguna Beach in Nettle Bay in 92

First time, a Carnival cruise in 1990 and then stayed at Divi Little Bay in 1993.

Mullet Bay in 1971. My parents bought a unit there and took the family down. As Pat said, still under construction, but even at that time, it was heaven on earth, especially for a 14 year old. Obviously stayed there til it got wiped out, one year at Cupecoy then discovered BSV. Been staying at BSV since 1997.

La Plantation

Divi Little Bay

La Playa in Orient Village

Esmaralda

Pelican during New Year's week 2000

Bobben, stayed at the Summit (sp?) in 1985 and many times thereafter. Always loved the friendly staff and close to Cupecoy beach.

Le Flamboyant in Nettle Bay 1991

01/1977 The Summit

Pelican Resort 1990. Ended up buying two units while we were there, and stuck with them through all the ups and downs: including this one!

First trip - 1983 Mullet Bay Resort and Casino. Parents friend owned a condo there. My sister was 12 and I was 15 and were like “whatever” we wanted to go to Wildwood NJ or Disney like all our friends! 8 years later I think my now husband and I were the youngest to purchase at The Towers at Mullet Bay - remember “privileged vacation ownership” hahahaha. Fast forward 2017. We purchased a condo in The Cupecoy Beach Club. At times have regrets. But we keep going back!!!!!

LaVista Beach 2006, after that, 12 more visits to sxm.

The Horny Toad Guesthouse, March 2004. We’ve been there every year ( sometimes twice a year and excluding Irma in 2018). Betty was the owner then. Now it’s run by her daughter Deb and husband Doug. Great people, and a new updated Toad. Couldn’t think of a better place to stay. What a gem!

Grand Case Beach Club or Green Cay Villas?

I was 27 years old when we purchased property in Tamarind Hill. WOW that was along time ago! No regrets!

Dawn Beach Hotel in 1984. Second visit was years later at Le esplanade. Fell in love with Grand Case on that vacation and was planning to return in April until AA cancelled my flight. Remember when the grounding of the Max 8 was our biggest concern?

L'Hoste in May of 2000.

Marigot Marina in Nov. 1985 on our honeymoon (it was then a hotel).

Flamingo. 1996 I think.

2005 stayed in a one bedroom condo at the Old Caravansarai....it was a great place then! Danced all night at Bliss,,,ate at the old Bamboo Bernies,,,just so many great times. Fell in love with the island right away and other than a couple of short trips with other groups,,,we always come back to SXM. Oh, the memories made and still to be made. Be well everyone!

Grand case beach club 2000

It was 1987 at Great Bay Hotel

MARY'S BOON 1993...loved it then, love it even more now. Such great Staff and beach. Also stayed at many other hotels and guests houses and Villas on both Dutch and French sides over the years. Trying to go back next month hopefully!

Hotel MountVernon in 1991. Back to Orient every year except after Louis and Irma.

Esmeralda.First year they opened.

Mont Vernon and Club O Fall 1990.

Simpson Bay Resort (then called Pelican) in the mid 90s.

Belair in the mid 90s (the year after the big hurricane). Loved the island much we walked over to Divi and bought a timeshare week! We've been back almost every year since.

Nettle Bay Beach Club--it was in the 80's and it wasn't fully built.

Pat 1973 lucky you... First trip was 1982!

First stay was 1999 but yearly cruise stops since 1989.

We split time between Oyster Pond and The Summit Resort. Following year we purchased TS at The Towers at Mullet Bay.

Cap Caraibes Resort 2006- goes by another name now-been back to SXM every year since..

In 1998 we stayed at Sonesta Maho, across from Cheri’s.
They had a nice, but small beach then on Maho.
Enjoyed it. They had a jazz organist performing nightly
there.
We stayed at Divi since then, after we bought a Divi timeshare for Aruba..

1998-Villa Marbella near Baie Rouge. Thought we had died and gone to heaven!!!!

L' Hoste 2000 Met (virtually) quite a few of the posters on the old Travel Talk board preparing for this trip

March 2002 at the Caravanserai - the island hooked us :-)

Stay safe everyone!

Cathy

Stayed at Casa Boco rented from the Villa Lady.

Caravanserai in the mid eighties

Towers at Mullet Bay 98 or 99

Esmeralda on Orient

The old Pelican in 1995. Have been back every year since other than 1996 when we decided to allow the island to recover from Hurricane Luis.

Divi Little Bay and Tradewinds Sailboat (don't remember exact name) in 2002/03. The only year we have missed since was the year of Irma.

Dawn Beach Hotel/Resort, February 1995. First and last time on Dutch side. Almost every year since at Orient including Mont Vernon, Le Hoste and Palm Court.

Probably too late for anyone to see this. Finally found the old Super 8 video. First trip was in May 1994. We stayed at La Belle Creole in Nettle Bay, then part of the Hilton group. Looks like Luis pretty well destroyed it in '95, and financial battles finished it off. What a shame, it was a beautiful place.

Thanks for the note. We're still here!

Our first visit was a port-of-call from a Princess Cruise Ship, but that story is boring. A better one goes back to 1981 (the year my wife and I got married). That year, three of us couples who were friends all got married that fall. Our one set of friends decided to take their vacation on St. Martin and didn't do my research about it in advance. I'm not exactly sure where they stayed back in '81, but it was obviously close to Orient Beach. My friend's wife was totally unaware of European sunbathing standards and once she encountered topless women and nude sunbathers on the beach, that was it. Never ventured out onto the beach again (any beach on SXM), and it was only the hotel pool after that! The phrase "when in Rome ..." totally did not apply here. Always found that story amusing, and she did eventually recover from the culture shock of that honeymoon (though we never asked them to join us on our many subsequent visits to SXM)!

Wingman, You aren't the oldest on this forum but IMHO you have us all beat for years on the island!!! I love to listen to your stories growing up on the island so to speak. All the restaurants, all the beaches. The little shops. the people the vibe!!! One day, you should write a book!!!

2002 Divi Little bay. I remember talking with Louise when she said there a few places near the airport with fun things to do. I thought, WHY would I want to stay anywhere near an airport???? This coming from someone was thinking this could be busy like JFK on it's busiest days/nights! LOL!!! Divi was nice, but wasn't our cup of tea. After trying more than a few of places around the island we found the Simpson bay area, thanks to TTOL !! Beachside villa's. SO many places to try, so many places to have fun!! That was over ten years ago!! Photo: Peg Legs pub date unknown, a long time ago! Still have all my Rima's shirts too!!

David--if you click on the picture, underneath, it says 10-02, so I'm thinking it was October 2002. Nice pic, by the way!

Our first week visit to SXM was in March 1998 at Oyster Bay Beach Resort. We had bought an even year, bi-annual week from ARI in St Louis in February 1997 and this was our check-it-out trip. Came with four friends and stayed in the then, Junior Suites. Most of the Resort was under construction.

Carol,

Could be wrong but I took that to be October (10th month?) of 2002?

Pat-- Wow, guess I can blame it on only one cup of coffee so far?? I changed it.

1993 Pelican

1989 …. La Belle Creole

In 1989 my mother was working for Hilton and my sister was a FA for American Airlines. My wife and I (both in our late 20's at the time) wanted to plan a vacation that was "something new". We were on a tight budget and thought if we flew American and stayed at a Hilton we could make it work. We picked SXM even though all we knew about it was that it is an island in the Caribbean. Little did we know it would become an annual trip for (nearly) the next 30 years.

As I said, we knew nothing about the island when we first went. We always laugh when we talk about our arrival on our first trip. We landed around 10:00 at night and we took a taxi from airport to LBC. After we got through the bright lights of the Maho area it got more and more desolate. We were looking at each other wondering "what have we gotten ourselves into". When the paved road ended and turned into a dirt road we were convinced we'd never be seen or heard from again. Well, at some point the dirt road became paved again and we finally arrived at La Belle Creole. Whew!!

89 - 90 ….La Belle Creole

91 - 95 ….Club O

96 ……….No trip while Club O was being rebuilt after Hurricane Luis

97 - 17 ….Club O

Grand Case Beach Club July 2007

First, second and third time: Le Flamboyant

San Tropez on french side now it’s a residence in front there is a washer service . We enjoyed this place when you order a drink they would put 1 ice cube in it by the time you received it it was gone very relaxing this place even had a dance club probably it was ahead of the times

Esmeralda. Our 15th wedding anniversary. Many moons sgo!

We were traveling with friends. We had stayed a week in St. Thomas before landing in SXM. We rented a car and headed to Le Mecure Simpson. I was driving and as I was pulling into the parking lot, I noticed by the front entrance they had a raised area so when you got out of your car you didn't have to step up into the place. As I reached the raised area I began to pull up onto it and since there were 4 of us and all our luggage in the car, the car got stuck. Couldn't go back or front. The other three had to get out of the car and grab the luggage so I could get the car off the inclined area. After checking in we decided to get some lunch so we entered their restaurant. NO ONE spoke English! Someone went to the kitchen and brought a fellow out who could speak English so we could order. We changed into our bathing suits after lunch and as we were about to enter the water, they told us it wasn't safe to swim in the water in front of the place since it was so polluted. Have never been back to that place. That was 20 years ago and many, many visits since.

That's funny, that after that beginning, that you ever came back!

Was booked at Royal Palm Resort for 2 weeks in Feb. 1992 however, because of a "Noreaster storm the bookings were overlapped and we were sent to Sonesta Maho for 2 nights before returning to Royal Palm.