This is quite long but I have headings... so read what you will... or not..<br><br>It was another great trip.<br>-------------------------------------------------------------------------------<br>Had enough FF for a free first class ticket and an upgrade on USAir from PIT to SXM. <br><br>This was our 12th time going to the island and our 20th and 21st weeks on SXM. <br><br>ACCOMMODATIONS<br>Stayed 12 days at the Summit and 3 days at Club Orient. The Summit (our timeshare) was VERY deserted this summer. This is a shame. It’s a great little place. Particularly the up-graded studios. We have owned there since 1994 and have only traded twice. It is very low-key off season but its one of those places that when you stay there you begin to feel like you live in St. Maarten. It feels like home. We walked up to the Market at Cupecoy for breakfast and lunch. We used the laundry lady at Campus Laundry. We met friends at the bar (The Kissing Fish) every evening for happy hour and beyond. We got to know some of the med students…. Mainly used Cupecoy as our beach. The view from the pool area is spectacular. The pool itself is great off season-- frequently I was the only one in the entire area-- my own private pool. We also went down at night for late night swims. Saw an early Pleiades meteorite one night while floating in the pool. Also used the internet kiosk by the pool… great setting to do some work!. Mainly however, at night we sat on the balcony of our unit and watched the lights over Simpson Bay and Marigot.<br><br>The last three nights we stayed at Club Orient on their three for two August special. Our favorite accommodations at CO are the mini-suite deluxes. We made the arrangements while on St. Martin, got to pick the unit we wanted. The beach was fine for low season. It was small near Papagayo but we were told that it was coming back and we even saw progress over the two weeks we were on the island. The water was warmer and calmer than we have seen it in the past 8 years-- since Luis/Marilyn. The snorkeling has FINALLY come back in the area. Club Orient has great resort cats….<br><br>RESTAURANTS/FOOD<br>The Market at Cupecoy for sandwiches, gourmet take-out, sliced meats (smoked turkey in particular). Also pastries and baguettes. This is a great find. It is expensive to buy groceries there but really reasonable for the deli counter. Their sub sandwiches (hoagies, Italian sandwiches, grinders for all you folks in other areas of the country) are probably one of the best buys on the island for $5.95… will serve 2-3 people! <br><br>The Marina Royale (The Marina at Marigot). I won't single out any of the restaurants. Honestly, we have eaten in most of them and they are pretty good. Some have somewhat 'off' nights with regard to the food but for the most part the food ranges from pretty damn good to excellent. It is a great place to go if you don't know where you want to go to eat or what you want, as the menus at many of the open air restaurants are extensive and parking is easy. (Museum parking lot). One night I had mussels in wine/garlic while G had red snapper in cocoanut sauce. Great food and great entertainment from the wait staff… When it started to rain in torrential waves, they did an excellent job of "working" the patrons to move inside and to push tables together. What might have been an annoyance during dinner actually became fun and a social event. We also got 'take-out' from Vietnam, which I believe to be fairly new. They do not speak English there at all but pleasantly try to communicate. Food was good. Slightly different from the Vietnamese food in the US, more French-inspired. The food is 15% off if you get take-out. Using cash is best there…<br><br>Bananas. Went there for the first time while we were waiting to talk to a real estate agent. Very pleasantly surprised. The Mahi Mahi sandwich was a bargain, fresh, cooked just right and came with onion rings or French fries. We went back the next night for dinner. More fish. We had avoided Bananas because of its location… in a parking lot next to the movie theatres in Simpson Bay although many of the US ex-pats in SXM that we know had recommended it to us. The simple design of the building works well. When you are inside seems to be worlds away from the parking lot. The food is terrific. <br><br>Kangaroo Court in Phillipsburg. Another pleasant surprise. We had a late breakfast/snack there on the day we shopped. Espresso and a basket of pastries in the courtyard. Pastries were great (am running out of synonyms for terrific, great and wonderful!). Very friendly and amusing café cat. (I like the St. Maarten cats…)<br><br>Passangrahan. We always eat lunch here on our day in Phillipsburg. The beach restoration at Phillipsburg has definitely benefited Passangrahan. The restaurant/hotel is now right before the breakwater. The beach is large. They have planted palm trees; the outdoor bar under the big tree is up and running again. Lunch is on the terrace and usually light… Grilled Chicken Caesar salad with bread. They also serve hamburgers and chicken sandwiches along with other foods. Very tranquil… with decent, reasonably priced food (at home it would be great food) … in this case it's about the location not the food. <br><br>Pasta Pizza or Pizza Pasta (?) in Maho. This was fine. We like thin-crust pizza. It felt like a little hole in the wall in Italy and that was okay with us. We actually started out for di Napoli in the Atlantis Complex and it was closed. So we went to Maho to go to Mama Mia's -- not sure if it’s the right name but it's on the second floor at the Maho Complex-- We wanted pizza but it was Monday and many restaurants were closed.) The woman who owns/runs the restaurant was in attendance. We told her it was G's birthday and we got ice cream and limoncella. It was pleasant and the food was good. She was charming.<br><br>KonTiki. Another of our late lunches. KonTiki is consistently good but somehow we can't get out of there with a bill under $100 for two… appetizers, drinks (best Mojito I have had- ever) and main course. Maybe it’s the 15% mark up due to the Euro…. Still great food and the erosion of the beach has added to the atmosphere at Kon Tiki-- you now get to see the waves breaking under the floor boards of the restaurant. The cheese and fruit plate, listed as a dessert, had soft cheeses and fresh fruit. Very good.<br><br>And now, our REAL favorites:<br>Layla's, Cocoa Beach and Citrus.<br><br>Layla's. A beach bar with a limited but excellent menu. Only open till early evening. The kitchen closes at 5pm. You can spend as much time as you like there… just hanging in the garden/restaurant. Or even on the beach. Very laid back. A place to meet friends for late lunch and sit and talk for hours. A place for lingering…<br><br>Cocoa Beach. It’s the periwinkle blue umbrellas at the end of Orient Beach, against the rocks before Boo Boos and Mt. Vernon. We ate late lunch there three times….in one of the palapas overlooking the beach with the view of Green Key with our toes in the sand. G wore his short pareo. I wore a short beach cover-up. We walked down from Club Orient. The food and service is very French… but as our wait person said to us the last time we were there, "Its French. It's good." She waited on us all three times. The food is eclectic and excellent, the service is good, the wine is good, the rum punch is good and the pear poached in red wine with raspberry sauce with homemade ice cream is exquisite. Also, the little 1/2 bottles of Chardonnay or Sancerre.. nice way to order wine.<br>(By the way, Cocoa Beach allows nude sunbathing. Rent their loungers and they have a special section for this. Their 'rules' are simple and posted in the restroom- cover up going to the restaurant or around children. They will serve people only wearing pareos).<br><br>Citrus. Okay. This is an exquisite place. The inside is cool and sophisticated done in burgundies and golds. The paintings are evocative and if you ask, they will tell you about the artist and his vision. But, it's more fun to make up your own stories. The Maitre D' is friendly and personable. The service is efficient without being fussy or intrusive. Another place to linger… We split an appetizer, had two main meals and split a dessert. We ordered a bottle of Pinot Noir with our meal. Afterwards, the restaurant 'treated' us to an after dinner drink of our choice. My meal: duck ravioli with mushrooms in reduced balsamic vinegar sauce (I think) of course this all had a very fancy name. G had the Crusty Haddock Parmesan. One thing I like about Citrus (among many) is that the meal is a meal.. There is no need to order vegetables etc separately. There are appropriate garnishes on the plate. For dessert we split the flourless chocolate cake. This is basically, the best slab of semi-sweet fudge you have ever had in your life. I cannot say enough great things about this place. For the past two years, we have chosen Citrus for our 'big' meal rather than any of the restaurants in Grand Case.<br><br>Just a side note: A large condo resort is being built on the Cupecoy cliffs right in front of Citrus so they will soon loose their view of the ocean. (As will the Inn at Cupecoy). This is a shame. The night we were there two cruise ships sailed past, all lit up like xmas trees. It was quite a sight.<br><br>And, now for the crankiness: Papagayo. Papagayo offers so much promise and is always disappointing. This year even more so. I know they are struggling to find their niche but the food is mediocre and the service is horrible (understaffed, for sure but… other restaurants manage…). We ate breakfast one morning and G waited 45 minutes for his eggs whereas I rec'd my croissant and o.j. right away. Ate dinner our first night at Club O. This was the only bad food we have ever eaten on the island. The drinks are fine. The wait staff is friendly but the design of the restaurant, the strange billing/tipping arrangements and the poor food… it's just not worth it. Would not recommend. Too many other good places to ea<br><br>Hmm… since I am not a breakfast eater I spent a great portion of my time wondering why none of the 'breakfast' restaurants serve bagels and fruit for breakfast. <br><br>CAR RENTAL<br>Rented from Dollar for the second year in a row. Had an Atos, which we became very fond of over the 2 weeks… could park anywhere, could squeeze by the big garbage trucks and- with the A/C turned off- we could even make it over the hill on Illedge Rd. Dollar had good, prompt service. We exchanged the car on our second day because we did not get a radio. They were very understanding. We would recommend them. Made reservations through the regular Dollar website not through their local website and it cost $118 a week.<br><br>RADIO<br>Listened to Radio 92 the whole time we were in SXM. Wanted to bring them home with us. Heard songs we have haven't heard since college. Didn't need any of our tapes or CDs. <br><br>INTERNET ACCESS<br>Both of us work on vacation. I know it's an oxymoron. G has business stuff that only he can handle. I teach online for a graduate degree program. Good internet access and occasional calls to the US are necessary. This year we used the Business Center at the Simpson Bay Yacht Club. $8 an hour for high speed access in a pleasant business environment-- rather than sitting in a café. They were having a special if you bought 10 hours it was only $6 an hour. Also, they had a good number of computers that allowed us to both work at the same time and take a minimal amount of time away from real vacation. They also have WiFi access.<br><br>GROCERIES and SHOPPING<br>Shopped at Grande Marche and Rams. Grande Marche.. very clean, very good prices, very American but no cheeses… Rams: good Dutch cheeses at good prices.<br><br>Went to Rima and bought two sundresses for $12 each that I wore almost the entire time we were there. Also, cheap, cheap jewelry. I love Rima. I have a fantasy that some day I will go to SXM with no luggage and just stop at Rima and buy 2 dresses, a pareo and a bag to put them in for $30.<br><br>Also bought gold jewelry in Phillipsburg at a fairly good price. We make sure there are no cruise ships and then just pick a store and buy everything at once. Over the years, we haven't seen too much difference in any of the prices… except that Little Switzerland is always more expensive - they have to pay for all that air conditioning somehow!<br><br>WINE<br>A separate category for us. This is one of the reasons we go to SXM. Good French wine. We went to Vinissimo the first day. Bought six bottles of wine and had delivered it to us at the Summit. Sylvain was charming as always. He opened bottles of wine for us to taste. We chose wisely. It was Sylvain who first introduced me to KIR a few years back-- cool, dry white wine w/cassis. This year he didn't have cassis in stock (black current liqueur) but did have a similar liqueur made from blueberries. Made a great kir, as well as a nice, sweet, after dinner sipping drink. Brought back three bottles of wine in our suitcases.<br><br>RUM<br>Another category. One of the reasons G goes to SXM. Brought back Pyrat (from Anguilla) extra old in a hand blown bottle and a 21 year old bottle of Appleton. The problem is that G never wants to open these since we certainly can't get them in PA. (I can buy the regular Pyrat at Kappy's in Massachusetts when I visit "home"). We also buy and drink the Cuban rum while in SXM. It's good but it's more the novelty than the rum.<br><br>BEACHES<br>Cupecoy… down at the end. Rouge. Orient. <br>Didn't really go to other beaches. Just hit these beaches and stayed. G likes Rouge better than I do. So a few times, I dropped him off for a couple of hours and went back to the resort or went shopping. All the beaches were terrific. Cupecoy is very pleasant with Danny taking care of chairs, umbrellas and drinks. Orient was good sized down near Cocoa Beach. Somewhat small near Club Orient but for the first time in a long time the snorkeling off the beach at Club Orient was very, very good… blue fish, yellow fish, black fish, blue, yellow and black fish… even bright red and orange fish. Sponges and other growth, too. Nice.<br><br>REAL ESTATE<br>Took our first plunge into looking at real estate with an eye towards investment now and eventually moving/retiring to SXM. Betty Davis of Coldwell Banker (formerly known as St. Maarten Properties) showed us a house in Belair and apartments in Beacon Hill. Jennifer's Vacation Villas showed us a 2 bedroom condo in Tradewinds. Tradewinds-- very nice. 175K for the 2 bedroom BUT the association fees are slightly over $700 a month. Seems just a bit high for us to manage… even if we did rent to med students… So, we didn't commit but we are going to continue to look. Prices were more reasonable than we expected.<br><br>PEOPLE<br>Every year we meet great people in SXM, whether they are local SXMers, American ex-pats or other tourists like ourselves. Just need to mention that….<br><br>FLIGHTS<br>Had a first class award seat and an upgrade seat from PIT to SXM. Looked at our tickets on Saturday and realized that the dates were wrong. We had made the reservations to leave on SUNDAY morning and USAIR had given us tickets for the previous FRIDAY. Panic time. I spoke to USAIR and told them that, "Yes we should have looked more carefully at the tickets when we received them but if they would check their records they would find that I was flying home from a business trip on USAIR from Indianapolis the afternoon of the day they also had us scheduled to leave for SXM and that the business reservations were made before the SXM ones so we never would have asked for tickets on that Friday." I spent an hour with various USAIR representatives. We started with USAIR saying, "Sorry, can't do anything about it. You didn't use the tickets so the whole itinerary is cancelled. The best you can do is buy new tickets at about $1700 each for coach and even then I don't think we have seats. We can't do anything" to ending up with USAIR saying, "Sorry for the inconvenience but even though we reinstated your first class tickets and have now scheduled you for Sunday morning you will have to pay the $100 change fee for the one upgrade ticket. There is no charge to change the award tickets. Again, sorry for the inconvenience" We figured that was fair. They owned up to their piece; we owned up to ours. Everyone was polite throughout. Actually, I have never had too many complaints about USAIR. So, Sunday morning we had our seats-- PIT to Charlotte to SXM. First class service on the way out was so-so but the flight was on time all the way, even a bit early. On the way back service was very good but the flight was delayed. When we checked in at SXM they had already rebooked us onto a later flight out of Charlotte. Very efficient. Very good service. Charlotte is a good, efficient place to go through customs. Complaints: Luggage service in both Charlotte and PIT was a little screwed up but what did it matter… we had just had 15 great days in SXM.<br>
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