My wife and I travel to many different places both domestically and internationally, but St. Maarten has always been one of our favorite locations for many, many reasons as you have noted above. For many of us we first visited the island as a cruise port stop, and frankly it crushes many of the other ports-of-call in the Caribbean in just about every category. So, if I had to pin down three specific reasons why we will always return to SXM I suppose they are as follows:

1. The open and accepting culture here is paramount. One visit to Orient Beach was all I needed to realize this was the right fit for me. If I wanted a conventional beach here it was. If I wanted to sunbathe and eat lunch without a stitch on that was totally at my discretion. This is not the case on many other Caribbean islands unless you want to book a week at an 'all-in-one' place like Hedonism on Jamaica which is fine for some folks, but not really for us. Frankly, Im surprised that other Caribbean islands have not tried to model their culture after St. Martin in an effort to boost tourism. St. Barth's would be the closest, but it is prohibitively expensive and even though I can afford it I'd prefer not to throw money away when St. Martin delivers more bang for the buck.

2. The dining on SXM is simply unbeatable as you have noted above. Restaurant prices are reasonable at most places, and the quality and variety of the food is terrific with only a few exceptions. Yes, it takes some travel if you're staying in the Simpson Bay area and want to dine in Grand Case, but so what. It's worth the adventure to try a new restaurant just when you thought you've covered every dining place on the island. All-in-One resorts in Jamaica, Punta Cana, Mexico can be very nice but honestly don't match the culinary experiences that St. Maarten offers. Plus, all-in-one resorts are like going to Disney World when the kids were little and you would stay at a Disney hotel. You feel trapped when you are forced to dine at only the restaurants on the property, and what fun is that?

3. St. Maarten's climate is '24/7' which means you can go here any time of the year when the urge hits. Some caution is wise during hurricane season, but you can visit SXM any time and the odds for perfect weather are high. In addition, it's proximity to the eastern United States and Canada make traveling here fairly easy. Places like Hawaii and Spain's Balearic islands are lovely, but they take a heck of a lot longer to reach from where we live so why travel eight hours to a tropical location when we can do SXM in half that time?

So, that's why we'll keep coming back year-after-year. We'll also travel to other destinations and maybe take a cruise here-and-there, but St. Maarten is still our standard for a Caribbean vacation.