Our Economical Trip

We have been traveling to St Martin since 1992 usually several times a year. It is our favorite place on earth.
Security was very tight at LAX, it took almost 3 hours to get to our gate. We flew Delta using air miles and spent the night in Atlanta. We stayed at the Day’s Inn on Best Road and we were pleasantly surprised. It was 5 minutes from the airport. We waited 5 minutes for the complimentary shuttle to pick us up at the airport and take us to Day’s Inn. We checked in and they gave us a choice of 2 different restaurants that they would take us to for dinner Joe’s where they serve cocktails and have entertainment and Ruby Tuesdays. You know which one we choose. All we had to do is call and they picked us up within 5 minutes. Transportation back to the airport same thing, almost immediate. All the shuttle service was complimentary. We tipped. The room was clean and adequate with a nice breakfast in the morning all for $43.00 per night. We also stayed at Day’s Inn on our return trip – same routine . A perfect traveling place to stay. The only negative for some people, is that the Day’s Inn is in a flight pattern. The flights stop at midnight and begin at 6:00 am, so it didn’t affect us.

Arrived in St Maarten on 7-14-10 and Michael from Unity car rental met us at the airport. He took us to his place and we signed all the paper work. We arrived at Les Balcons in Oyster Pond and it was everything that we had hoped for. All units were individual with very nice decks and views. Our reservation was for 7 nights as we had never stayed there before. We always stay at Club O. We stayed at Club O for 21 nights in October 2009. We got a little bored on that trip and decided to do something different on the next trip. My original plan was to stay at Les Balcons for 1 week and move to Club O the 2nd week. The occupancy of Club O was very – very low. Most of the reason to stay there is the people. With very few people we opted to stay at Les Balcons for the entire 2 weeks. We loved the deck and gas BBQ and the unit had everything we needed. We would definitely stay there again.

The next day we went to Grande Marche in Cole Bay. On our way we decided to stop at Talk of the Town in Grand Case. It was packed and all the other lolo’s were empty. They didn’t have any seats but asked us if they could seat us with this other couple. We said sure and so did they. As it turned out he was a native to St Martin and is living in the states currently. He left because he was a heavy weight boxer – now retired. He was with his lively daughter as he wanted to show her the island. We had a 2 hour lunch with them and really enjoyed their company. After lunch we went to Grand Marche and picked up all the necessary fluids and food. The following day we went back to Talk of the Town for lunch and they showed up about the same time (unplanned), and once again a 2 hour lunch.

That night we experienced the beginning on Tropical Storm Bonnie. We were sitting on our deck and the thunder and lightening started across the pond. It was like the 4th of July. The winds picked up to about 80 miles per hour. It was a real experience that we will never forget. We then got rain for the next few days. We went to Philipsburg, drove around the island and were getting bored and then it ended. We had 10 days of perfect weather.

The next 10 days we spent on the beach at Club O. It was as perfect as always. The water was a bathtub. We did not miss staying at Club O except for Papagayo at night for cocktails and entertainment. Our accommodations at Les Balcons were much nicer. We ate lunch at the restaurants on the beach and some days brought our lunches. We had planned on eating out more but it was off season and St Martin has been badly affected by the economy and there were no people in most restaurants that we wanted to eat at on the French side. We don’t eat in empty restaurants. We found a bakery in Orleans that was packed with locals on the way to Club O that made sandwiches for $3.50 on a 1 foot fresh baguette. With drinks in the cooler we were good to go. We rented lounge chairs with an umbrella from Club O for the next 10 days. We met some very nice people whom we are all trying to book at the same time next year so we can meet up again.

We brought frozen porterhouse steaks, shrimp, chicken wings, butter and ham in our luggage. We always bring our own meat to St. Martin. We also brought a produce bag that contained 10 heads of romaine lettuce, tomatoes, radishes, green onions, cucumbers from my garden, Vidalia onions, and potatoes. We brought spices and herbs. The meat and produce all fit in one checked bag. The meat was still frozen when we arrived 30 hours later. We barbecued most nights and ate lunch out during the day. Also when we were at Talk of the Town we would order an extra rack of ribs to go, cooked but uncut ($4.00) and take them back, put them on the grill and sauce them down. They were just as great. Next time I think I will not bring the shrimp as Talk of the Town had great shrimp for $4.00 a skewer and chicken legs with the thigh for $2.00. Talk of the Town was always packed.

We went to Grand Marche a few days before leaving and brought a whole round of Aged Gouda (10 Lbs) to take home along with 4 bottles of Limoncino that was quite reasonable.

Our trip was coming to a close and we soaked up the last sun that we could, and engraved the memories of Orient Beach in our minds to hold us until the next trip. This trip cost us 1/3 the amount that we spent in October 2009, and we had everything that we wanted.

We checked out of Les Balcons 14 nights later, drove to Unity and dropped off the car. They drove us to the airport and we checked our luggage. Since we were early, we took a cab to Sunset Beach Bar had lunch and watched to planes come in and takeoff. We really enjoyed our time that we spent there.

Our flight was uneventful from SXM to ATL. Customs was pretty horrendous in Atlanta, having to go through security twice like MIA. We made it, check into Day’s Inn again and went to Joe’s for dinner again.

The next morning the shuttle took us back to the airport, our flight to LAX was uneventful and we were home by 1:00 PM.

We think our next trip will be in May 2011 and we will stay at Les Balcons for the first week and Club O the second week, as during that period Club O is usually full.
Thank you all for all of the help and information you have given me thru out the years. I really enjoy this site and all of the people that love St Martin.

A WARNING FOR ALL TRAVELERS: We had to go to the bank on the Dutch side to cash traveler’s checks. Traveler’s checks are getting very hard to use. They allowed us to cash $300.00 at one time. I saw the teller look at one $20.00 bill’s on both sides and put it in our pile. When we got back to Les Balcons we decided to go through the $20.00 and look at them to make sure there were no counterfeit bills. We found several, that were not watermarked. The next day we told our friends on the beach and they wanted to see them. They went through their money and also found some. They washed a pair of shorts and had left $20 in, well the ink came off and stained the shorts. We passed ours on before we went home, as did our friends. The island is flooded with counterfeit $20.00.

Denise