Just returned from 17 great nights in St Maarten and thought I would offer a few unbiased reflections on our visit. Been visiting St Maarten for some 30 years and it's always great returning to reconnect with the island and reconnect with some long-time good SXM friends.

So, we flew from Miami and enjoyed the usual excellent car rental service with Winston Blythe through blythetourcarrental@hotmail.com. Winston is a great resource for private island tours, too. We stayed at Beachside villas and thoroughly enjoyed our time there. In fact, we offered to bring our housekeeper, Beverly home with us. Such a wonderful person as are all the folks at BSV. The staff at Beachside Villas is second-to-none. The seas were rough throughout our visit limiting swimming but staying on the beach was so relaxing. The pool at BSV is a great spot to watch planes come and go from PJIA.

Like you all, we have our favorites: Tortuga Restaurant at the Royal Islander, Chesterfields in Phillipsburg, Green House on Simpson Bay as well as Buccaneer Beach Bar. Great food and not overly pricey. Travelled around the island and was happy to see some normalcy since our last visit post-Irma. Too much traffic and you have to watch for the wild scooter drivers. Love Rosies on Mullet Bay for chicken, ribs, burgers and out-of-the-world blended frozen drinks at the new add-on bar. The staff and, of course Rosie herself, are some of the nicest helpful folks I have ever known.

Mornings are for ZeeBest breakfasts and croissants. ZeeBest has fantastic sandwiches made-to-order at the airport road location. The St Maarten Yacht Club was "ok" for breakfast. Ventured in the new (for us) area including Fat Tony's and a Spaghetti joint up near the medical school but found them to be not well staffed and uninviting. Would never miss an opportunity of hanging out at Sunset Beach Bar, but that location, too, has become run down and overrun with cruise visitors during the day. SSBB no longer a relaxing, fun place to go, but the new Sand Bar Restaurant adjacent to the Morgan Resort was nice and the bar food menu decent. Nice place to catch a sunset, as well.

Stopped in to check out the Morgan Resort (formerly Alegria) and was impressed with what has been done with the pool and the interior public areas. Being a former Millenium, Caravanserai, Alegria time share owner... cast aside... still makes me both sad and angry. But the property is pretty attractive in it's current state and we noticed how welcoming the Morgan employees were.

Dropped by Mary's Boon but the dog doo on the front steps was pretty much a turn off. Karakters was pretty worn ,too. St Maarten will always be a part of our hearts and happily still reflects the moniker, The Friendly Island. Until next time...