While this was our 9th trip to the island (8 times staying there, once on a cruise) since 2001, this was our first trip by ourselves. So with no kids, no friends, and no family in tow we were really looking forward to just relaxing, and doing what we wanted, when we wanted and nothing more. Except for one day on a cruise (Dec 20,2009) we had not been to St. Maarten since Feb 2007. We own weeks 5 and 6 at Royal Islander La Plage, and were looking forward to spending 2 weeks at “home”.
Flights
We are from western Canada, and were very excited to be able to fly Westjet to SXM this year. They did not disappoint. Flights were very reasonably priced, staff was very friendly and efficient, and all flights were on time. We hope that they will continue to service SXM as they are by far our favourite airline to travel with.
Car Rental
We have always used Mickey at Tropical Tropicana Car Rental, and once again were very pleased with his service. He met us at the airport with a used Toyota as per our request. It had a few dents, which is the way we prefer it, but it ran well. We went to his office, spent 5 minutes filling out paper work and were on our way. When we left, one of his staff met us at the airport, checked the car over quickly, and we were on our way.
Accommodations
As mentioned previously we stay at Royal Islander Club La Plage, and it is truly our home away from home. The resort is exceptionally well maintained, the staff are very friendly and efficient (many, if not most, are the same staff we have dealt with since we started staying there in 2001).
This was our first time staying there since the damage we received from hurricaine Omar in Oct 2008. Everything is just as beautiful as before. We stay on the 5th floor which obviously received no damage from Omar, but we noticed many improvements in our unit, including new cupboards in the kitchen. The grounds have been relandscaped, and are just as beautiful as before, except of course some of the trees will need some time to grow to their previous size.
It was nice to see more families with small children at RI. When our children were small (they are now 14 and 16) they were often the only kids at the pool, but times appear to be changing.
The Tortuga bar and restaurant is every bit as good as before, and we enjoyed many happy hour drinks by the pool, as well as a couple of tasty breakfasts by the ocean.
The beach was mostly gone when we arrived Jan 31. It came back over the first few days, then left, then tried to come back, but the second week waves and huge swells took it all away. There was probably close to 6 feet from the bottom step to the sand/rock below.
Activities
We were in major relaxation mode and spent much of our time at the pool reading, relaxing, and enjoying being alone.
Of course being in SXM no trip is complete without a little shopping. We stopped and patronized our favourite electronics store (Chulani Seiko House-ask for Ronnie…he knows his cameras).
I am also blessed to have a husband who enjoys jewellery shopping. A must for us is to stop and see Raj at DK Gems . Raj is an exceptionally knowledgeable gemologist and loves to spend time educating us. Anything we have bought from him has always appraised very well and, more importantly, is always the quality that he says it is. We were told by an independent appraiser here at home that this is very rare in jewellery bought in the caribbean, and that he felt we had found ourselves a very good jeweller.
Scuba Diving
We are both certified scuba divers, and actually did our certification in SXM in 2003. When in SXM we always try to get in a couple of dives to keep things fresh, as there is not much diving on the Canadian prairies. We always dive with Luciana and Jeferson of Ocean Explorers on Simpson Bay. They dive with small groups (max 6 divers), safety comes first with them, and they are truly two of the nicest people we have ever met. We did a 2 tank dive one morning, and a fabulous night dive the first Friday of our 2 week trip. It was the best dive I have ever done in SXM. Overall the diving was fabulous, and I felt the reefs were in great condition.
Food
When in SXM we tend to eat out about once per day, and the rest of the time “survive” on fabulous fresh cheese, pastries, baguettes, Etna ice cream, and many other fabulous local treats. We shopped for groceries at the grocery store at Maho (Maho Express?) and Grand Marche. We also checked out the new grocery store by the Atrium (can’t remember it’s name either) and the Fresh Market in Phillipsburg. Both have good selection, reasonable prices, and seemed very clean. We purchased our cheese to bring home from Fresh Market.
Atlantico café in Simpson Bay is our favourite french bakery, and it was every bit as good as we remembered it. We had pastries and bread from there several times. One day we stopped and had her crepes for lunch (we had the country crepes). They were wonderful.
We ate and drank several times at the Sunset Beach Bar and Grill (I believe that is the correct name now). We thought the new kitchen set up (since we were there 3 years ago) was a vast improvement. Things are also much cleaner than they were before, I know it is a beach bar, but their bathrooms used to be disgusting. The food was good, as was the service.
We also ate and drank at Buccaneer Beach Bar, which I still believe has the best BBC on the island. Their cheese burgers are quite good too.
We had lunch one day at La Main a La Pate on the Marigot Marina. I had a pizza, which was excellent, as was my husbands pasta carbonerra. However , the service was quite slow.
We ate at Johnny B’s new restaurant/lolo by the simpson bay bridge. We had his fabulous ribs with all the fixings, which were great as usual. I believe he calls his new place Johnny B’s Jackfish Restaurant.
We ate at, and had take away from La Trattoria Pizza Pasta in Maho a few times. Their food is very good, however the one night we ate in the service was terrible, which was surprising, as we have eaten there many times before, and never had such slow, inattentive service.
We ate at La Moulin Fou in the Maho area for the first time. It was very good. I had chicken in a mushroom sauce that was fabulous, I literally wanted to lick the plate. My husband had the salmon, which he said was very good. The service as excellent
We ate the Hidden Forest Café at the lotterie farm one evening. It was very good. This was our second time eating there, and we were not as impressed as the first time, but it was still good, and you can not beat the atmosphere. I had salmon, hubby had the duck, both were very good. I also had the baked brie with a mango chutney for an appetizer…fabulous. There was a bizarre incident with a couple who brought there dog with them to dinner, sat him at a chair, then freaked out when the restaurant’s resident dog started to walk over to check it out. Weird…still a great evening.
We ate at our favourite restaurant, La Gondola, twice. I love La Gondola. We have been eating there since 2003 when it was in Sandy Ground. You just can’t get food like that at home, so excuse the drool as I try to remember the specifics of what we had. First let me say that David has a great wine list. The first night we had a fabulous Brunello, and the second night we had a very nice Chianti. Since Hubby was driving, I was charged with drinking most of the wine, it was a task I was happy to complete. The first night I had the special appetizer which was a cheese raviolli in a gorogonzola sauce with a touch of spicy sausage, followed by the veal piccata with spaghetti and tomato sauce. Hubby had the salmon carpaccio, followed by the osou bucco . We shared a dessert of home made ice cream. The second night I had the ceasar salad, followed by 3 types of raviolli in a fabulous mushroom sauce. Hubby had the beef carpaccio followed by salmon. We again shared a dessert. Sorry for the lack of detail, but I know I drank a lot of wine. The service both nights was excellent.
Overall Impressions
We have only ever stayed on the island in February and thought that things were much quieter than when we were last there in Feb 2007. Several merchants we spoke with mentioned that things are slower. The plus side of that from a tourists perspective was that the traffic did not seem nearly as bad as before. Not sure if that is due to slower tourist season, or all of the new roundabouts.
The weather was great, we only had a little bit of rain the first day or two, but typical of SXM it didn’t last more than a few minutes. The island was fairly green.
We found that we realy enjoyed vacationing by ourselves, and definitely won’t wait another 16 years before doing that again.
We also will not be deterred from our annual vacation in SXM again. 3 years between visits was way too long.
If you made it this far thanks for reading! <img src="http://www.traveltalkonline.com/forums/images/graemlins/Groovin.gif" alt="" />
Beth