Had a fabulous time - 1st visit to island. Liked all the beaches, even what is left of Cupecoy - water is great there. Can buy great barbecued chicken from natives renting beach chairs, etc. COULD NOT FIND the turnoff for Baie de Rouge!!! Only a sign for a private road near that beach. Also went to Plum, Mullet and Dawn - all nice. Restaurants: Excellent: L'Escape (?sp) in Grand Case, Tropicana(Marigot) and Saratoga (Simpson Bay) Not good: Pelican Reef Restaurant (we stayed in the Pelican), Turtle Pier was okay. Natives were friendly, restaurants- no reservations needed anywhere. Airport - more security checks here than anywhere - all bags checked, etc. Culture of island very interesting. Many people trying to sell you timeshares, ran into a twosome who were French who approached us at Mullet Beach with scratch off lottery type cards for all of us, with one of us obviously preset up as the "winner", who would receive $500.00 for looking at a timeshare, etc. Had quite the elaborate con going, we just cut them off as soon as we politely could.<br>The beaches, food, mountains, villas are lovely, but otherwise the island is kind of dumpy, with lots of obvious poverty (particularly in Phillipsburg). Roads are in bad shape, especially on the dutch side, and the driving is crazy, with quite a bit of traffic.<br>Left feeling there was plenty more to see (pinel island, Orient,etc. <br><br><br><P ID="edit"><FONT SIZE=-1><EM>Edited by Administrator on 12/10/01 03:15 PM.</EM></FONT></P>
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