St Martin Trip Report July 31- August 15, 2009

Friday July 31, 2009

We left Miami on American Airlines Flight 687 45 minutes late, arriving in SXM at 3PM. I purchased these tickets through the Villa Lady on the JMB website. Thanks for that Jeff, as these were the cheapest we could find. Check in at LaPlantation was easy and we stayed in unit 881 next to the unit we were in last year. We arrived on the beach by 5 pm after a quick stop for some basic groceries. (beer, water, vodka) That night we met some good friends at Spicy’s and had a wonderful dinner.

Saturday

Saturday we got up at 6 am and did our first morning walk on Orient Beach. It seemed we were the only ones on the beach at that hour. Breakfast at LaPlantation and then off to Grande Marche for the rest of our groceries. It was a quick trip with us arriving on the beach at 11 am. This was a beach day at Orient with friends from Facebook and TTOL. Dinner was planned for Spigas that night, but when we arrived we found they were closed for vacation. We settled on Il Netuno’s and had a great meal, half of which came home with us. If you have never had the beef Carpaccio there, try it, it was wonderful.

Sunday

Sunday morning we got to Orient Beach in time to see the sunrise although it was a bit cloudy. This day was the same as Saturday except we finished the night off at The Rib Shack in Grande Case. It’s hard to beat the Lolos for price, 5 of us ate for $66.00 or Euros, they are 1 to 1. The garlic ribs are awesome, and plenty of food for the money.

Monday

Monday we slept in and missed our morning walk. After breakfast at LaPlantation, beach again at Club Orient. We said goodbye to Wendi who unfortunately had to catch a flight home. We left early, around 3 pm, showered up and took a ride over to Anse Marcel. The beach is nice there, calm but not near as nice as Orient. The Radisson is spectacular. The visitors lot was full and the beach was not crowded, and I just have to think most of those people were there for the day and not staying at the Radisson. At The Pleasure Resort across the street there were several stores closed there and not many people there either. We finished the evening with some French wine, cheese and crackers we purchased at Le Grande March and leftovers from the other night.

Tuesday

We had a short rain this morning at Orient as it seems to do from time to time. The rest of the day was beautiful. We drive to Simpson Bay and had dinner at Pineapple Pete’s. We had heard so much about their lobster thermidor, I had to try it. It was all I have heard it was and plenty of it too!! Service was excellent and 15 % tip added to the bill, no problem, but no American Express cards.

Wednesday

Another beach day. We left the beach early, around 2 pm. We showed up for the Pub Crawl on the Celine with Neil as our host. We had about 16 people onboard and what fun it was. Everyone got introduced and we all got our choice of pirate hats. We started with Mahi Mahi kabobs and spring rolls at Skip Jacks. The next stop was Uncle Harry’s where we had filet mignon kabobs with baked potato and salad. Since Blue Martini was closed on Wednesdays, Neil anchored near an island in Simpson Bay and we had apple pie and ice cream. Neil is a great host and all had a great time.

Thursday

We slept in this morning after our late night on the Pub Crawl. On the way through Marigot we witnessed a scooter slam into the side of a minivan, and knock the mirror off. Thankfully no one was hurt. We stopped at Rima’s and bought some nice shirts and some post cards and then wondered downtown. It was busy but didn’t stop to buy anything else. We returned to Orient and ran into some friends from earlier in the week. We made it to Happy Hour at 2:30 even though it was still cloudy and hazy. Lolos again tonight, back to the Rib Shack. Me, ribs and coleslaw, French fries. JoAnn, ribs and shrimp, 1 Heineken, one Ting, $24.00

Friday

Early breakfast, then off to Oyster Pond for our snorkel trip on Peggy and Paul’s tour boat. We met some friends who left their car at LaPlantation and we carpooled over to Oyster Bay Marina, a fifteen minute ride through the lowlands. The boat left around 9AM with Paul, his wife Carol, and 10 other sailors on board. Paul rounded the point through 4-5 foot seas and headed towards Pinel Island. After we passed the last channel buoy, Paul slowed the boat and all the clothes came off. We snorkeled off Pinel for about an hour and returned to the boat for a sampling of watermelon. We saw many types of fish and even a sea turtle. Carol had some bread onboard so we got to feed them also. We then pulled anchor and headed to Green Kaye. Again we snorkeled there for an hour or so then it was off to the backside of Tintemarre. This was a great spot, very calm and the water was clear. We all snorkeled and swam by the boat. Then Paul and Carol made a nice lunch, of sandwiches, fruits and salads. After we ate and swam some more, we went around the end of Tintemarre and anchored right off the beach. There we snorkeled and JoAnn searched for sea glass. We did see a big puffer fish swimming right in the surf. Then, of course the high light of the trip was the mud bath. It was all great fun and everyone should get the chance to do this at least once. Carol helped it along by coaxing everyone to sit in a circle, and then we all did snow angels in the sand! After rinsing off, your skin feels so refreshed and new. We all returned to the boat and headed back to Oyster Pond Marina. A great trip with fun people, even though the seas were rough. We headed out to Captain Oliver’s for dinner around 6 pm. JoAnn had a fish platter I needed a steak. All said and done, a drink each, $71.00 15 % tip included. A full day today for sure.

Saturday

Beach day, got up later then usual. Dinner was Captain Oliver’s for their lobster seafood buffet. We made reservations for seven o’clock and arrived on time. The place filled up quick as they put on quite a feast. Service was excellent, the selection of Carpaccio, salads, meats and fish was excellent also and we had plenty of it. We were a little disappointed in the lobster as they seemed overdone and not as tasty as we would have liked. I thought they may have been previously frozen. We enjoyed it all with lots of fresh sashimi, deviled eggs, nice French breads and a large assortment of salads. We didnt leave there hungry! Great value at $45.00 per person, make sure you make reservations.
Saturday night they had a rock concert at Wai Ki Ki . This started around 9 pm with the main band coming on around 11. We didn’t attend, we didn’t have too, we could here the whole thing from our room just up the hill. We did get to sleep but woke up at 2:30 AM and sat out on our balcony and watched the half hour fireworks show.

Sunday Aug 9, 2009

Another day on Orient Beach, Lunch at Baywatch with Andy and Cheryl, excellent as always. JoAnn had Margarita Buffalo Shrimp I opted for Chicken Parmesan, plenty as always. Andy adds the service on the bill. $42.00 all in. We left the beach early as my eye was irritated from getting sand or something in it the day before. We headed to Le Grande Marche to get some groceries and find some eye drops. When we got there it was after 3 pm and they were closed so we headed back to Orient Bay. We ended up at the pharmacy in Orient Village where the woman there was very helpful. We then went to the little Tap Five store where they were not quite as helpful. Two small salads, cheese and a box of garlic toast, exactly $20.00, no bag, at least she didn’t offer one. We only go there in emergencies. Tomorrow, back to Le Grande Marche. We stayed in, wine and cheese on the balcony.

Monday

Absolutely the best beach day so far. After a quick trip for groceries we made it to the beach by 10. Am. Very light breeze today and full sunshine. We found our patch of sand in front of the Perch and settled in for a quiet morning, both of us with new books. Not long after we arrived we met some people who were staying at La Plantation. Then along comes Paul and Carol from our snorkel trip, so they set up next to us. Then there were so many people from the Carnival cruise ship in port today, it was non stop people watching. After our guests left us around 2 pm , 4 more people we met the day before joined us. So we didn’t get much reading done but did do a lot of socializing! We decided on dinner at Skipjacks in Simpson Bay. When we arrived, the bartender remembered us from the other night and promptly had our drinks ready. We split a 2 and ½ pound Maine lobster, some spicy calamari appetizer and skipped desert. All was excellent, including the service.

Tuesday

Orient Beach again today after breakfast at LaPlantation. We headed over to Baywatch again as I was looking forward to Andy’s pork sandwich and JoAnn wanted the eggplant parmesan. Both were excellent as expected. They were quite busy there we were happy to see. Baywatch closes September 1st as he does most summers. We enjoyed the beach today and got a lot of reading done. We headed into Grande Case and ate at the Lolos again. This time we ate at Talk of the Town and had some great ribs, shrimp and cole slaw. Its hard to beat the prices there, dinner 2 drinks each, plastic silverware and cups included $26.00

Wednesday


We contemplated going to a different beach but when it came down to it, Club Orient was the choice again. We rented an umbrella again as is was very windy. I walked up to Wai Ki Ki and got myself a half hour massage. There are new facilities there now which make it much nicer. Traibien gave me a nice massage while some incense burned in the corner and soft music played. Very relaxing.
We had several rain showers this day and the weather really deteriorated late in the day. We had quite a bit of much needed rain as the island is very dry. At one point we heard a big boom down the hill and our electricity went out. We were without power for nearly 45 minutes when it finally went on. For dinner we opted to stay close so we went to the restaurant here at LaPlantation. It was reasonable and excellent. JoAnn had shrimp and scallops over pasta with a creamy lobster sauce, I had mahi mahi St Martin style, served like a stew over rice. Both were excellent. We split appetizers, avocado and crab salad and their beef Carpaccio that was great.

Thursday

Very windy here this morning after last nights rain. We saw in the newspaper where there had been some minor road flooding the day before, however it made the Herald headlines. We shopped in Phillipsburg, mostly looking and taking pictures. We stopped at Cost You Less (or what the locals call Cause You Stress) to see what that was all about. Mostly like a Costco warehouse. Then we headed to the Harley Davidson store in Cole Bay. This place is almost impossible to get in to with the road construction and all the detours around it. We got what we needed (several t shirts, since its been a while since we had any from there) and left the beautiful 2009 blue Softail Springer, I fell in love with, where it sat on the showroom floor. We then headed over to Sunset Beach Café or whatever it’s called now, over at the end of the airport. We sat, took a few pictures, had a beer or two, and decided it really looked like more of a beach day than we had thought. So we headed back to the French side, went to our room and changed, dropped off our stuff and headed to the beach, Orient Beach. It was windy there, but braved it for a couple of hours, with lots of sunshine. We enjoyed Uncle Harry’s on the Celine Pub Crawl so much we went back that way for dinner. We both had filets with baked potatoes, a couple of drinks. Service was good, but not outstanding, steaks were cooked perfect, great spot right on the water, and it got crowded when the Celine pulled up with 23 people on board. We thanked Neil for introducing us to that place, and paid our tab and left. It was about what I expected, $100.00 with tip, figure your own.

Friday

Our last full day. All good things must come to an end. We left the room early, we wanted a full day at the beach. We rented loungers and an umbrella from Club O.($18.00) We had previously used our Packlight chairs and umbrella most of the time we were there, so this was a treat. We went to Baywatch again for our last lunch treat. We had grouper burgers with fries and drinks.
In the evening we had made plans to meet some French friends we had met last year. We met for drinks at LaPlantation and Karen, who runs the restaurant there offered her interpretation skills as we spoke no French and they spoke only a little English. Drinks turned to dinner so we decided to eat there. Karen agreed to join us and we all had a great time. The food and presentation was outstanding as it always is at LaPlantation. By eleven PM it was time for us to say good bye until next year.

Saturday August 15, 2009

Today was our travel day and our flight was scheduled to leave at 3 PM. We hit the beach early and grabbed some sun before we had to pack to leave. We arrived at Princess Juliana after gassing up the car and returning it to Unity. Everyone was happy, and we also returned our chairs there for Packlight. When we arrived at the airport we were advised our flight was delayed until 4 pm. We checked our bags and grabbed a cab to Sunset Bar and Grill. We had a couple burgers some drinks and watched the planes land for about an hour. That always amazes me watching those big planes take off and land. We ended up arriving in Miami around 7:15 to dark and rainy skies. Airport experience was uneventful with the usual “hurry up and wait on the next line” routine. We were relieved to arrive home by 10:30 PM and find all was well as we left it.

Notes: We know when we come to St. Martin, headlights, taillights and turn signals are optional but in our five years coming here we had never seen a wreck, however in our first seven days here we saw four, including one on Thursday as an eye witness.

I put in what some of you may consider useless or repetitive information. Do with it what you want. I tried to give our opinion so when you come to the island you have an idea of what to expect. I put in prices when I can so you know what to expect when you get here. TTOL is a great site, and I learned a lot about St Martin and the many trip reports have helped a lot with our planning here. I want to thank everyone who reads this for taking the time to do so, I enjoyed writing it.
Richie and JoAnn Weber, Jupiter, FL

Books read: Devils Code, by John Sandford Excellent. Wet Feet BD Anderson, truly entertaining and a must read for anyone on the island. By Order of the President, W.E.B Griffin. Cathedral, Nelson DeMille