Our 6th Trip to St. Martin began 10/30/04 with an uneventful trip on American Airline out of JFK. Arrived to a sun filled day on Saturday but instead of taking advantage and getting to the beach as we normally do, we stopped at SSBB with two people we met on the plane -- Donna and Joe who we immediately hit it off with and already are talking about getting together for dinner back home. Went to Cellular One on Airport Road (more on that later). Arrived mid-afternoon at Cap Caraibes, changed into beach ware and were off to visit Cheryl and Andy (our dear friends, and owners of Baywatch for you first timers).
Sunday on Orient was cloudy so we decided to visited Rima’s in Phillipsburg and vowed never to buy from one of the beach vendors again. We did not know Rima’s even existed until this trip. We usually pay anywhere from $10 to $15 for a floral men’s shirt from the vendors on the beach but at Rima’s the cost is $8. The bargains are the same for wraps, hats, jewelry, beach towels, etc. We may have been able to haggle a bit more but we were satisfied with the discounts and didn’t want to spend too much time shopping. Not our thing while on vacation.
While we were in the neighborhood we decided to check out the ribs from the vendor in the parking area of Lido Express we had heard so much about but it was only 11:00 AM and they weren’t ready. It would have been a smart move just to wait but who said we're smart when we are on vacation. We decided to drive down to Zee Best and get breakfast. Oops closed on Monday's. Danny was there but the café is closed on Monday. Our backup plan was to visit Mary’s Boon, have lunch and see a few of the different rooms other than what we had back in April.
Mary’s Boon has a great beach, lovely staff and beautiful bungalows but the service at lunch was painfully slow and as we were the only two in the restaurant my husband was loosing patience fast. I had ordered the lobster salad and we started joking to past the time that they must have sent someone out to the ocean to dive for it and bring it in to cook. We did ask Celine what was taking so long and we heard them yell back from the kitchen that they had to cook the lobster. W-H-A-T? I have to admit David’s omelet was the fluffiest I’ve ever seen and tasted great, and my lobster salad was certainly good but it should have been more chilled and I think they should have told me it was cooked to order because I would have chosen something else. If time is not an issue I would recommend getting it because it's big chunks of lobster in a mayo curry based dressing that couldn't have been much fresher. By the time we returned to Orient (never got back to get the ribs at Lido’s) it was cloudy.
Day 3 thru Day 7 the weather was wonderful. We met many new people from all walks of life, some first time visitors; other’s who have been going to St. Martin since 1979. Except for one day at Dawn Beach, we spent all our time at Orient and didn’t deviate much.
BREAKFAST
Baywatch -- hardy and tasty.
La Crossantarie in Marigot Marina is a must for us because of the view and I love the ham, egg crepe.
Bikini Beach, again our patience was wearing thin with poor service. It took forever to bring us a cup of tea and when it arrived it was stone cold. Breakfast took even longer to arrive and it was just average.
Zee Best – I normally would get the almond croissant but a friend of Cheryl’s told us the evening before that they made outrageous French toast with croissants that were soaked overnight. Danny never said anything about the soaking overnight but he made it sound good so I ordered it. It was OK, a bit hard, not what I expected but David’s omelet was perfectly cooked. We took croissants back home on the plane.
It was extremely windy at Orient and the water was a bit rough at times but we didn’t mind. We deviated and went to Dawn mainly for Ms B’s ribs and to try and visit with Joan who lucky for us she was they’re cooking. Dawn was quiet, the water was calm and like bathwater. I very much enjoyed my first few hours bathing in the sun and swimming but after a few hours I missed Orient. We had planned to leave after we ate but Sand Gravity hit us. Since we were down at the end of the island we decided to have a drink at Captain Oliver’s and say hello to one of the bartenders/manager Ober whose company we’ve enjoyed several times before. Ober wasn’t there but two very obnoxious drunks were so after an extremely quick cocktail we high-tailed it out of there. Must have been our nights for obnoxious drunks because another twosome from Boston nearly ruined our dinner in the Marigot Marina.
We did not buy many food supplies this trip so Tap 5 and Le Bounty on different occasions for some baguettes and cheeses/dried meats was more than sufficient. Maybe we paid a little more but it was convenient, good and didn’t take too much time away from the beach.
Another thing I’d like to mention is we really missed Patrick at Oasis Beach bar. The Oasis kiosk in between LaPlaya and Bikini is now a “smoothie” bar and does not appear to be doing much business. Every day around 4:00 PM we would pack up and spend a couple of hours partying at the kiosk. Because that no longer exists we would spend late afternoons at either La Playa’s beach bar or Bikini but it just wasn’t the same. Neither had the crowd Patrick gathered nor entertained as much as he did. We heard Patrick was working a La belle Époque but on the evening we went to visit him we found out he was only working there temporarily. Two new restaurants are suppose to be opening in the Orient Plaza in mid December and Patrick will be working at one of them.
The rest of my report will list the restaurants we visited, party at Orient and any other tidbits I can remember. Needless to say we ate and drank a lot.
HALLOWEEN PARTY AT ORIENT: What a blast. We met Andy, Cheryl and some of their friends although everyone becomes friends at a party. I had lots of fun. David and I had not dressed up in costumes for years so that was fun in itself but the company and festive mood just added to the evening. By 10:00 PM it was getting hot so I didn’t mind leaving. Several of our “new” friends were going over to L’Amandier in Grand Case for drinks and invited us. We went and had a grand time. Most evenings after dinner we would met up with them at L’Amandier for drinks.
BAYWATCH – breakfast and lunch – wonderful as always. Euro to $ (one to one plus 15% service charge)
La Plantation – Really nice atmosphere eating around the pool. It reminded me of a French version of The Hideaway at La Vista. Monday night was lobster night and I’ve wanted to try this restaurant many times before. We were not disappointed although I’m quit sure I could have done with a smaller lobster instead of the $56.90 lobster I picked. In all fairness to me it didn’t look very big but once cooked and it was masterfully cooked it was big. My husband had a wonderful duck dish. Both dishes were served with a side of rice and lightly sautéed vegetables. My lobster came with a salad. Total for the evening without dessert (too full) Euros was $118, USD $144.
Talk of the Town – ribs with 3 sides, ½ grilled lobster, 2 drinks $23. Euro to $ Very tasty bbq.
Bistrot Caraibes – This was only our 3rd time dining at the brother’s restaurant during our visits but we were so impressed that they remembered our last name. On our last visit they welcomed us with familiarity, which is one thing, but to remember our name was impressive. We had made a reservation for 4 the evening before but our friends weren’t up to dining so it was just the two of us. No problem when we arrived to tell them. They were doing a great business the night we arrived. We had appetizers of goat cheese, endive, and smoked duck breast along with a scallop and shrimp plate. Both were very yummy. For dinner David had lamb and I had a steak. I don’t like lamb, too strong of a taste for me but the lamb at Caraibes was so wonderfully cooked and seasoned I couldn’t stop eating David’s dish. We shared “Contessa’s” dessert but instead of caramel sauce they gave it to use with chocolate sauce upon our request and it was so decadent.
Mario’s – a first for us, excellent food although pricey but the portions were large so it didn’t hurt as much to fork over $319 US for 4 people. Atmosphere is very romantic but with no breeze off the canal it did get rather warm for our men who did not get the water seat. The girls both had a chicken breast dish that was lovely. The men had the filet mignon special and it was cooked to perfection. I would return in a heartbeat. But they need to improve on a/c and a "send-off" cordial would be nice considering most of the other establishments do this.
LOLO diagonally across from TALK OF THE TOWN – I didn’t like the ribs at all. No sauce and they tasty vinegary. All the bbq items were ala carte. A side dish was $2.50. I’m not saying it’s expensive but at Talk of the Town the ribs with 3 sides are $8.50 making it a better deal and I peferred Talk of the Town ribs better. The “side” of potato salad was enormous, ridiculously so. No need to have that much of any side dish! Euros to $ equal
La Cignale – we had every intention of dining here one evening so tried finding it early into our vacation. It was difficult to picture the true beauty as it was closed and we were there in the daytime. After eating so many French dinners this trip another one did not appeal to us when the evening came.
Le France – We hadn’t intended on eating at this restaurant in Marigot Marina. Our intention was to eat at either Chantéclair or Le Tropicana based on past recommendations. We didn’t choose Chantéclair because it was empty and I didn’t want to be the only one eating there. Not sure why we didn’t go with Le Tropicana. I must admit I was extremely turned off by most of the restaurants at the marina whose staff stood in front “hawking” their restaurant and were very pushy about why we should dine with them. We inevitably choose Le France because they were nice and the least pushy and offered us the first cocktail free. Service was good although the menu was small and there wasn’t much that would bring me back. They had a special menu for 20Euros, which included either goat cheese salad, crab salad or escargot with a choice of strip steak, chicken or fish. David’s red snapper was chunky. My dad was in the fish business for years and I’ve never seen a snapper like the one on his plate. He said it was good no matter what it was. It was served with rice. My steak was very thin, therefore ordering it medium produced an over cooked steak. The food was OK given the price. $68 total without tip, although I’m unsure if that was Euros or USDs?
BEACH - We spend most of our day at Wakiki even though the chairs/umbreallas are free at LaPlaya for Cap Caraibes guest, we like the "real estate" of Wakiki better and feel the chairs are much more comfortable. We take care of the beach staff so they do not charge us for the chairs, umbrella's nor tables.
CELLULAR ONE RENTAL: Big mistake renting a phone from Cellular One! On one occasion during a previous trip we used them to convert my cell phone to a local number and except for certain areas on Orient I was able to use the phone with no problems. The cost was much more reasonable than using our AMEX or EC to place calls back to the states. In fact a $50 phone card gave us so much time that I used the phone daily to call not only family but also friends for several minutes each day. When we arrived this trip on a Saturday we were told that we couldn’t have the phone transferred until Monday. Since I didn’t want to be without a phone for two days I asked if we could rent one. I also asked if the phone worked on Orient. I was told yes. The woman was one we recognized from before and she was very nice. Tried 3 different phone batteries until she was satisfied it worked well and was totally charged. Process couldn’t have taken more than 10 minutes.
The phone hardly worked and the battery would drain literally after a 2-minute call to the states. It was very frustrating because in most instances the phone never worked from our room and even walking out to the courtyard didn’t work and by that time the phone would be drained. It also took over a minute to connect and in some instances I’d just end the call because I only bought two $20 cards, which came to about 26minutes of conversation. Because the connection was so weak most of the time instead of calling back home and asking them to return my call because it was free for me (is it free for them, I hope so!) I’d just try and have a short conversation but like I said 2 minutes and some odd seconds and the phone would go dead, battery would be drained and it was back to the room to charge it up. They did provide a phone charger but most of the time the phone wouldn’t work because it needed some charge to dial out. I would never rent a phone from them again.
A couple of finally comments. I withdrew 160Euros from an ATM on the French side and when I returned home last evening to check my bank accounting the withdrawal amount was $206.80. WOW did I get killed on that! There weren’t many restaurants that did $ for Euros that we ate at except Baywatch and the Lolo’s. We will watch the airfares and as soon as they become reasonable and book our 7th trip. We are once again looking to split our time between Mary’s Boon and Cap Caraibes as the ride at night down to Simpson Bay it just too long for us and we did not get to visit some of our old favorites like PLP, Uncle Harry’s, Lady C or any of the party places. We also heard wonderful things about Saratoga and a restaurant behind Cherie’s we’d like to try. Until our next trip I’ll continue to dream of St. Martin, and read with envy on TTOL about the new trips people are taking.
A special hello to Max and Bev from NJ who we met at the Halloween Party and discovered they were staying at the same resort as us. We managed to meet up with them many evenings for a drink or just by the pool area of our hotel after we were done with the beach. Maria and George, Ruth and Larry, and Tom and his lovely wife who I will refer to as the martini cocktail from the party because I'm having a senior moment and can't remember her name.
And again thank you Michael from Unity car rental for our green Rav 4, great service and timely pick up and delivery by Alvin and staff. See you all very soon.
.
