Back in 1998 we were on a hunt for our annual trip to Caribbean, we traveled to a different island once a year and stayed at an all inclusive resorts and very much enjoyed it. My husband saw a small add for Beachside Villas on island of Saint Maarten in Philadelphia Inquirer. We never been to SXM at that point yet so did some research and liked what we saw. Contacted Yolanda Mascarin, got her brochure in the mail and eventually booked a week in April of 1999.
We really enjoyed our stay at BSV and island of Saint Maarten and thought we would come back to BSV next year. Well, Mother Nature had different plans, Hurricane Lenny had descended onto SXM in November of that year and totally destroyed Beachside Villas and the island. But we were determined to come back the following year and rented a Villa on Beacon Hill that was not destroyed. Once BSV were rebuilt we went back there and been staying there once or twice a year with an exception of a few times when we rented a Villas on Beacon Hill.
The only regrets I have that we were so hooked up on SXM that we missed out on traveling around the world as back then we could only afford to travel once or twice a year. Now we are catching up traveling all over the world and still managing to squeeze a few weeks a year on SXM! Unfortunately the time is ticking and the bucket list is still very long.