TravelTalkOnline Forums Trip Reports (Read Only) SXM Trip Reports and Photos Another First Time Trip Report

Travel Dates: 5/7-5/14
Background: Three couples from Boston, renting Coccinelle Villa in Orient Village; all first time travelers to St Maarten.
Flights/Travel: Jet Blue non-stop from Boston. Departure and return were both great flights on time, very smooth.
Arrival: We arrived in St. Maarten around 1:30 PM; Immigration and Baggage Claim were very quick. Our driver taking us to the villa and Craig from Pack Light was both waiting out front of the exit with name placards. We grabbed a phone and 3 sets of chairs/umbrellas from Craig. Nice guy, timely, turned out he was from Georgetown, MA which is a few towns over from where I grew up. He was also very timely on picking up the chairs when we departed. We were 40 minutes early, put a call into him and he was right there. Interesting side note; we ate at Club Orient the first night and Craig was the entertainment. He is a singer too. I would highly recommend his services.
We arrived at the Villa and were very impressed. We were greeted by Joel from the management company. He showed us around the villa, went over some things; told us any problems call him immediately. I got a note from a fellow board member who stayed at the villa earlier in April and he informed the refrigerator was warm, which it still was. I informed Joel, but he didn’t seem too interested. He was only interested in showing us restaurants to eat at that would give us “free” drinks if we told them Joel sent us. This was my only disappointment with the management company. He could have easily picked up the phone and made a call but he told me to wait to see if it got colder – they may have turned it down between visitors. It never got really cold but we never called, so I can’t really complain. Televisions did not work; we asked the housekeeper if she knew how they worked and next thing we knew someone came over and made the necessary adjustments and left instructions. We also called to take an optional shuttle back to the airport and that was handled flawlessly. Driver on time, rental car picked up at the villa.
The Villa: Like I said the villa was very impressive, amazing view, spacious, many home amenities: games, binoculars, magazines, books, etc. However there was good, bad, and ugly to the villa. The good: large private bedrooms, flat panel TV’s in each bedroom, covered outdoor dining, great pool, felt very safe/secure, well appointed, quality furnishings, and the landscape was amazing. The bad: the microwave didn’t work, already mentioned the not-so-cold refrigerator, kitchen utensils left a lot to be desired (the kitchen in general left a lot to be desired; see ugly), there is a washer/dryer but they are very small and only used by the maid (she was more than willing to wash for us – it just took a day or two), the maid cleaned each day and was very nice/attentive but the villa could use a good thorough cleaning – pool deck was pretty dirty – a thorough mopping or pressure wash would make a huge difference. The ugly: kitchen had a horrible septic smell, screen in sliding window in kitchen was heavily duct taped to repair a rip and had to remain closed or bugs got in, lots of ants in the kitchen, appliances were very pretty banged up.
Day 1: Spent the day a Club Orient. Nice weather, in and out clouds, rain shower in the PM. We met some nice folks. Day was a little bit mired when one of the wives opened the wash room door behind the Perch and found a man peeing in the sink!
Long day, everyone was tired, dinner at Rancho Del Sol. Great meal, everyone very much enjoyed it. All meals were well prepared, tasty, plentiful, etc.
Day 2: Spent the day at Pinel Island. We had another great day; intermittent sun, spent most of the day on the beach side, but hiked over to the back later in the day. The food was very good; we had a few appetizer plates with great spring rolls, mozzarella sticks, pizza, etc. Drinks were strong, plentiful and service was excellent on the beach and at the bar.
Dinner was at the house this night.
Day 3: Spent the day at Happy Bay. Had no issue finding Friar’s Bay, asked around about Happy Bay and everyone was very helpful in showing us the trail. We hiked over – 15 minutes or so, beach was quiet, weather was threatening and it stayed threatening all day, but never really rained. The rain seemed like it was right behind the beach (very dark, ominous clouds that looked almost on top of us) but it never rained. HB is a busy place and it should be as it is beautiful and unique in its seclusion/privacy. The cruise ships bring quite a few folks there to snorkel. Capt Alan brought a clothing cruise in the AM for mud baths and Peggy/Paul brought a C/O group in the afternoon. We got to meet Peggy which was great as we were going to St. Barts with her the next day. She was awesome; we knew were going to have a good day!!! She gave us directions to the dock and offered some suggestions for dinner and the island in general. We ordered wings and ribs from Danny in the beach “bar.” One word: FANTASTIC!!
Then there was the person I am assuming is the “BUSHWACKER,” some weird dude walking the beach, staring at women when their husbands weren’t around and the reaching in his shorts to “adjust.” Too bad something like that has to happen. At one point the guys were getting the food and he got a little too close to the girls. As soon as we started back down the beach towards the girls he moved along. I felt comfortable in a group of six. I would not have felt comfortable with just my wife. He moved from couple to couple staring before heading off into the bushes or further down the beach to do his thing.
Dinner this night was at Big Fish. We set out to find the dock for the next day’s PP trip and came across Big Fish. What a lucky find; every meal was fantastic, beautiful atmosphere, awesome service and very reasonably priced. This was our best meal of the week and highly recommended!!!

Days 4-7:

Day 4: St. Barth’s trip with Peggy/Paul. As I mentioned we met Peggy the day previous at Happy Bay and knew we would have a great time. We met at the dock at 9:00, our group of 6 joined 2 other very nice couples, we did some prep paperwork and went over the particulars and we were on the water almost immediate. Peggy/Paul is an amazing team. Peggy’s personality is infectious, she’s funny, caring, sexy (not offensive), quick thinking….I could go on. Paul is the straight man; cool, calm and calculated but very witty – some great one liners. He has that School Boy Heart and you feel nothing but safe with him at the controls. They have something special as they appear to really love what they do and they work very hard to insure you have a great day!! The St. Barth’s trip started with a snorkel or swim outside the St. Barth’s harbor – beautiful snorkeling, crystal clear waters, and some unique fish/sites. Next stop was Gustavia for shopping and a drink for our group at Le Select. Back to the boat and we stopped at Saline beach for more snorkeling/swimming while PP made lunch. Lunch was fresh sandwiches, pasta salad, fruit salad, and chips with beers and rum punch! Beers, rum punch, soda, water were plentiful all day. Next we went on a snorkel led by Peggy; some more good sites along the cliffs beyond Saline beach. Back to the boat and we were off to watch the planes land at the challenging St. Barth’s airport. By now this fun day was ending and took the trip back to the marina. I can’t say enough good things about this trip/excursion. 5 star plus+
We crossed the road from the marina and hit Mr. Busby’s beach bar just under the happy our wire, ordered 4 pizzas to go and returned to the villa for dinner and an early night following a long day. We all thought the pizza was excellent. We were impressed as they made sure we got in on happy hour as it was almost ending. We were pretty happy with Mr. Busby’s.
Day 5: Cloudy, overcast, no sign of sun and forecast called for rain. Plan B: Shopping. We headed over to Phillipsburg mid-morning. The girls shopped, guys grabbed a few beers. There was only one cruise ship in town so it was fairly quiet. We spend a few hours there and headed over to Sunset Beach to watch the planes come in. We grabbed lunch watched some decent size planes come in. It was a fun afternoon. We stopped at the Marigot Harley Davison dealership for some tee shirts and headed back for the evening; burgers and dogs on the grill for dinner, early evening.
Day 6: Final full day. We feared a repeat of the prior day’s weather, but we were pleasantly surprised upon wakening to broken clouds and a promising looking day. We headed down to Orient Beach Resort mid morning. By this time it was hot, sunny, and pretty humid. We sat in the sun most of the morning and enjoyed an awesome beach day. Around 2:00 we headed over to Andy and Cheryl’s for lunch. We had a phenomenal lunch. We started with mussels as an app and everyone had their various lunch items from margarita shrimp salads to jerk chicken. Food was extremely good, plentiful. Cheryl is a gracious host - friendly, flexible – as she changed around and substituted most of our menu choices. Rain rolled in late afternoon as we exited the beach. We got stuck in a pretty heavy downpour and poked into Texas/Paris (I believe) right next to Bikini Beach. We grabbed a few beers (it was dead) and waited for a break before heading up the hill to the villa.
We weren’t in the mood for going out for dinner or cooking so we ordered take out from Rancho Del Sol. They delivered dinner very timely on a scooter in a pouring rain storm, threw in a free bottle of wine and a lottery ticket!! We ordered some apps and burritos. Everything was great. We ordered 4 burritos for dinner for 6 adults and had enough left over for breakfast burritos!!!

Day 7: We departed. Shuttle was timely, Craig from Pack Light made returning chairs and phone simple. Flight was on time and we were back to New Hampshire that evening.
We had a great trip; we used as much knowledge as possible from this website and learned as we went along. TTOL is a great resource. We’ll definitely return to SXM in the future.
I also wanted to note we used Shop and Drop upon arrival. This is a great service. They showed up timely with the items we ordered, stocked the refrigerator and shelves, all items were fresh, beer was cold and everyone was smiling! This is a great service to use at any point of your stay.