SXM Trip Report
May 10 - 17, 2010

As like last year, we were sailing in the BVI’s and USVI’s for two weeks prior to flying into St Martin. When we’re that close to SXM, we just can’t not hop over and enjoy a few days on one of our favorite islands.

Monday, May 10

We flew LIAT from Tortola into SXM. I know, I know, we’ve heard the horror stories about LIAT being late, losing luggage, etc. but they had the best (and cheapest) flight over from Tortola to SXM. We have flown WinAir in the past but they have stopped flying that route. We could have flown American but they have no direct flights and you have to fly back to Puerto Rico, change planes, and THEN fly to SXM (flying back over Tortola on the way) - no thanks - and American was double the cost of LIAT. Suffice it to say that LIAT was on time (in fact even a little early arriving into SXM), and our luggage was recovered in record time. Plus, arriving PJIA an hour PRIOR to Air France, KLM, etc. depositing their hundreds of passengers into the terminal sure makes it nice clearing customs with no long lines.

Marius, from St Louis Car Rental was there to meet us as usual and we were in our car and on our way to L’Hoste really quickly. Marius has always provided us with excellent, clean, relatively new, vehicles and this year was no exception. I again recommend St Louis Car Rental.

There was hardly any traffic driving through Cupecoy, Terre Basses, and Marigot. Wow, you’d think that Cupecoy is going to sink into the water with the weight of all of the high rise construction going on.

We arrived at L’Hoste and Sarah, Kelly and DeDe were there to greet us with a big hug and a “welcome home”. We had a very nice second floor room. We really like L’Hoste - nice large rooms, comfortable king size beds, balcony, a nice clean bathroom, mini kitchen with refrigerator and microwave, good maid service every day and wonderful morning breakfasts (included in the room price) out by the pool each morning. You also get two beach chairs and an umbrella at LaPlaya if you choose to use them. This is probably our 8 or 9th time staying at L’Hoste and we just don’t see any reason to look anywhere else. The proximity to Orient Village is also a big plus in our book. You can walk to Tap Five and the rest of the village in 1 minute - great location.

After getting settled, it was off to the new US Market for some supplies. Quite a nice market but it reminds us of the markets in the states - kind of “sterile”, etc, but they do have a pretty nice selection of items. Suffice it to say, it’s convenient (but expensive). But we still miss The Bounty in Grand Case with it’s boutique-like deli, etc. - time marches on I guess.

Dinner that evening was a pizza from Tap Five and it was excellent. We just LOVE Tap Five’s pizzas. I don’t know if it’s the cheese, or the crust or whatever, but their pizzas sure please our taste buds.

May 11 & 12

For four of our days, we both developed a bad case of sand gravity and we just hung out on O.B. I planted our TTOL flag in the sand in front of our chairs at Club O and quite a number of fellow TTOL’ers stopped by to say “hello”. It was nice meeting some new friends. Pete & Ann told us that they, along with Tim & Jenny, Mike & Sue, and Chuck & Phyllis, were going on Peggy & Paul’s nude cruise around the island on Thursday and invited us to come along. I called Paul that afternoon and he told me that he did have a few extra seats and I immediately booked it.

Thursday, May 13

Thursday rolled around and we all met at Oyster Pond for the cruise. Let me say that Peggy and Paul are DELIGHTFUL hosts - we had a BALL!! Seeing the island from the water side certainly gives you a different perspective of the island. We circumnavigated the island in a clockwise direction from Oyster Pond. We “buzzed” the cruise ships docked at Phillipsburg and made a stop at Maho to jump in the water and watch some of the planes land. Then it was off to Cupecoy, Bay Longue, Plum Bay, Bay Rouge, Nettle Bay, Friar’s Bay, etc. Unfortunately, the swells made it too rough for snorkeling in any of those places. We circled into Marigot harbor while avoiding a thundershower, but that was the only rain we had all day. Our next stop was Happy Bay where we anchored just off the beach. Lunch was on the boat with some great sub sandwiches that Peggy & Paul put together and then it was ribs and chicken from Danny’s place on the beach. We swam into the beach for the obligatory “mud bath” and it was GREAT!! Paul & Peggy really know how to host you for a mud bath. Personally, I enjoyed it more that the old mud bath experience from the Tiko Tiko. Peggy made it even more fun with her directions to the group for some great poses for pictures. I won’t reveal any more details but let’s just say it was a really great laid back time with some great new friends. Then it was off to Grand Case where we circled through the bay and then stopped at Anse Marcel for some snorkeling. After that, we buzzed the beach at Orient and headed “home” back to Oyster Pond. All in all a really GREAT experience. We recommend it to anyone without hesitation. As I said before, Peggy & Paul are WONDERFUL hosts - it’s something you need to do on your next trip.

May 14 & 15

Again spent the days just “chillin” on the beach.

May 16

Had a nice few morning hours on the beach before packing up. Headed home on the 3:20 PM American flight out of PJIA. We had to spend the night in Miami since we couldn’t make it back in one day alone. We again stayed at the MIA Airport Hotel - it’s just SO convenient not having to leave the airport. The hotel is “OK” - the rooms are quite small but clean and hey, it’s just a place to crash for the night.

Miscellaneous

We didn’t really do a lot of “dining out” on this trip. We had just had two weeks of sailing and we dined at a number of really good restaurants in the BVI’s and USVI’s. As I said, we did pizza’s from Tap Five and twice walked over and ate at the Safari Grill in Orient Village - it’s just too handy to walk over for dinner without having to drive to Grand Case and then worry about the Gendarme checkpoint on the way back after you’ve had one glass of wine with dinner. The spaghetti with the Bolognese sauce at the Safari Grill was quite good. On our last night, we drove over to the Grand Case Beach Club for a drink at their bar and to say hello to a long time friend and bartender, Sandra. We decided to have dinner there also. I had the grilled grouper over asparagus which was absolutely outstanding and Joni had the chicken cordon blue which was also excellent and the portions were quite large. We each had a glass of their house wine with dinner. A taste of the flavored rum at the conclusion of the meal topped off a very nice dinner experience. The bill for dinner came to $56 (and yes, that’s American dollars) which I think was a steal. I’d compare the quality, presentation and overall dining experience favorably to many of the restaurants in Grand Case.

Lunch every day except for Thursday (which you remember was on Peggy & Paul’s cruise) was at Andy & Cheryl’s. We just don’t see any reason to go anywhere else for lunch. Mussel’s a la Andy was wonderful as was the Grouper sandwich. It’s always nice to get a hug and a kiss from Cheryl, a warm handshake from Andy and Adrian and to say “hello” to Ross at “his” bar.

Joni bought another <img src="http://www.traveltalkonline.com/forums/images/graemlins/Laugh.gif" alt="" /> new swimsuit from Luis and is very pleased with it.

My morning walks on the beach are always part of the overall O.B. experience. I saw absolutely no problem prior to 8 or even sometimes 9 AM with nude walks the entire length of the beach. I did notice that most of the folks were carrying some type of cover-up although I never saw anyone have to use them.

L’Hoste does have a very good WiFi connection down in their lobby (as they did last November also). The connection is fast and it was always “up and running”. I had no problem connecting with my iPhone to check any e-mails from our kids.

Arrived back in Summit County, Colorado a few days later to 334 degree weather and some light snow (that's gone now and we're enjoying 70+ degree weather). Still, it makes you appreciated SXM <img src="http://www.traveltalkonline.com/forums/images/graemlins/Clapping.gif" alt="" />

All in all another GREAT trip to SXM.

Jerry & Joan