We arrived on July 14, Bastille Day on the AA flight from Miami- it was almost an empty plane.
We rented our car from Unity- they met us at the airport ....got us into our Corolla and we were at our hotel exactly one hour after our plane touched down.
We stayed at the Alamanda, our second time there. It is really the only place we care to stay in SXM, the location for us is perfect.
One thing: they need more copies of the Miami Herald delivered in the morning....I saw a couple take the last 2 copies ...one for each of them....thought that was a bit inconsiderate.
The only other thing was they would once in a while run out of pool towels- and that should be everyone's biggest problem on vacation!! LOL!!
We arrived and had lunch at Kakao beach- 2 salads, a small pizza and order of fries was $70!
After that we made a trip to Match and stocked up on groceries. We really didn't mind making sandwiches, pastas and salads during the week , eating at our convenience, and saving lots of $$. We would buy a rotiserrie chicken from Tap five or pizza from Pimento and dine on our terrace.

We did have dinner one evening at the Marina in Marigot, the name of the restaurant escapes me...so sorry!! It was wonderful but it was a rainy evening when we ate there so we really couldn't stroll around afterward.

One thing I am not sure if people realize (at least we never knew), and this we found out from a friend who is a waiter there, is that on the French side there is an 8% service charge (tip) automatically added on in restaurants and not necessarily clearly stated on the bill....

Right now we are trying to gather information on buying a condo at Cap Caraibes (dh is French) so if anyone has any info they'd like to pass on, please do...our goal is to buy the condo, rent it out and one day retire on SXM.

I have a question for Club O guests. How do you not stand up and punch out the idiot cruise people who walk down to your beach just to gawk?? <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/cloud.gif" alt="" />
BTW I had to kind of laugh at the whole lounge saving thing that goes on there. I would walk the beach early every morning- like 8 ish , and there would be people out saving lounges with books, bottles of suntan lotion, and flippers....
Ther eare a million lounge chairs there....why the saving?

Anyway- we are counting the days till we can go again. We want to try for the beginning December.

Does anyone else get SERIOUSLY depressed when they get home and spend their time daydreaming about SXM all the time??
Suzanne