We went to Pinel for the first time. It was a Monday, so not at all crowded. Chairs at Yellow Beach were spaced at least 6 feet apart. The trip over and back were quick, and the service at Yellow Beach was great. We had lunch, and a few BBC's - happiness in a cup is what my wife calls them, and the food was good too. We came back to Grand Case for dinner and wanted to get pizza at Olympia an the north end of Grand Case, but it was closed again. We went to the far southern end of Grand Case to a pizza place there - crust was thin, with good leoparding, but i thought the sauce was not that great.

Sorry "leoparding"??

Scorched bottom with dark "burn" marks that resemble leopard's spotted fur

Yes, sorry it is a pizza term. BTW, the pizza place is called Ti Case -- I will take a photo later. Here are photos from the restaurant at Yellow Beach and from the hill. I walked to the other side having heard there was good snorkeling, but the water to the left had sargassam - seaweed for several feet, and to the right was coral and rocks and did not see a place to enter safely.

Thanks for the explanation and the pics. Looks like they were properly socially distancing at Yellow Beach.

Hi Barry. I am really enjoying your trip report. Grand Case was my favourite part of SXM to stay. May I ask where you are staying on this trip?

Carib, sure, as long as you agree not to book it the middle of February next year . We are staying at an airbnb between Rainbow and Cerises. Right now, there is only one building that is open, and it has probably 8 or so apartments, but by next year, the one next door should be finished - it was called Joliet Beach, but not sure if it will keep the same name when it reopens. This area has some pluses and minuses. The beach is very nice here , and is that way all the way up to the old pier. As you get much further south, near Le Petite Hotel, there are quite a few rocks or coral right near the beach, so you have to walk a little way to get into the water to go swimming. On the other hand, I would assume that end is much quieter. Here depending on the day, you may have loud music from either Rainbow or Cerises, in the past, like last year, when there were cruise ships, Rainbow drew a large crowd on several days, and would have an "entertainer" with contests and loud music would could get annoying. There are no cruise ships now, but you also may have to deal with a live band at Cerises, especially on the weekends, though they don't go as late as Rainbow did before the hurricane when Monday mohito night would go to 2 am. There are a few places further north on the beach - it looks like a new Love Hotel is opening - the place looks pretty nice from the outside, but I don't think it is open just yet. There is also the Residence Catalina, further north of us, that looks nice , and it is much closer to the restaurants - Catalina is at 92 , and Oceans 82 is of course at 82 - don't know how noisy it would be at that end of the beach. There are also a number of other airbnb's up and down the beach. I am not a big fan of driving at night, and so we like the ability to go out for dinner at a different place each night, and also like that there are 3 lolos, Olympia Pizza, Te Case ( also pizza ) for inexpensive eats, as well as the regular fine dining options, so we usually do fine dining ever other night. The hard thing this year is walking by so many fine restaurants with so few diners, I feel so bad for the owners and how they must be struggling.

Thank you for that insight. Pre-Irma we had stayed at Love Hotel and Grand Case Beach Club. When we return to SXM, it would be great to stay in Grand Case again for all the reasons you stated above.

Thanks for the additional info. Loud music would totally tear it for me. Can't stand that.

We went to the Grand Case Beach Club, and while I think the location was nice - away from the noise ,but close to town, we thought the beach was not all that great , it was a little narrow for our tastes, though it may have been just that day. There are still remnants of the old Love Hotel, and it still looks awful, but the new one looks pretty nice. Carol, yes, the noise was an issue. The first year, when we stayed at Jolie Beach, we actually booked a room on Monday night at Orient Beach and went there to get away from the noise.

Oh, the BBC....I agree with your wife!!!

Carib, I forgot to add other pluses and minuses. On the minus, the street is pretty narrow, cars are parked in different areas, and people dart in and out, so it is hard to travel very quickly down the road. On the other hand, apparently there is a law that says if you are on a scooter , it is strictly prohibited to run it at a consistent throttle to keep it at a decent speed, and you are required instead to fully rev the throttle, then back off, then full rev, so that it sounds like WAW eh eh eh WAW eh eh eh WAW eh eh eh. Surprisingly, the noise, especially late at night, does not have the same soothing effect of the waves hitting the beach. On the plus side, it is great fun either sitting in the balcony, or even on the beach, and watch the planes come in to land at Grand Case . It is not like Maho, the sounds are pretty quiet, mostly smaller prop planes and a few larger planes, no big jets like at PJA, and it is interesting to see them as they try to straighten out on their approach, as they come in low over town.

Thanks Barry. At least I can experience SXM this year through you and your excellent reports.

Carib, if you decide to come down, you might also look into Bleu Emeraude Bleu Emeraude i have never stayed there , or even been inside, all I know about it is from walking by it on the beach. Comfy looking chairs on the loungers. It is a short walk on the beach down from Capt Frenchy's so you would probably not have the music - noise from Rainbow or Cerise to worry about. Not sure what the street noise would be . The beach is pretty nice there , there are a few areas with rocks in the water , you can actually see them in the web page photo, but a few short steps away , it is sandy. I don't know anything about how the walk along the street would be until you get to Frenchy's. From there it is 5 minutes or so to the first set of restaurants and maybe 5 more to get to the Lolos. Another option, if you want to save some money and not be on the beach is Hevea - it as across the street from Rainbow, you can always rent chairs from Frenchy's or Cerise - though again, I have never been inside it.