We stayed for 8 nights. ( 12/18-26). My wife and our 6 and 5 year old.

Flights: Took AA from LAX>>SJU>>SXM
then AA from SXM>>MIA>>LAX
MIA has become huge, since I was there in April. It has becaome more massive. But the immigration and customs was a breeze.
Flights were fairly unremarkable, no delays. Except half way through the our red eye flight from LAX to SJU, my wife woke me up to go handle a medical emergency in front of the cabin. The person ended up doing okay and everyone on the plane was grateful I did not divert the plane to the closest airport.

Car:Rented a Rav4 from Unity. the car was in good shape and the process smooth. However I wished the offer non smoking car. The car just smelled like an ashtray. We had a hard time finding an open gas station on Xmass day.

Hotel:Stayed at Radisson for the entire trip. I was slightly disappointed. . I had chosen Radisson, mainly because of the location, nice pool and the calm beach for the kids. This part was very good. I had stayed at the old Le Merdien couple of times, and was excited when Radisson decided to renovate the property. But it appears they did very little. The new swiming pool is nice. But the room has mildew odor with badly stained cracked old tiles The housekeeping was hit or miss. ( same days they did not leave any shamppo, some day no conditioner , other days not enough towels). It was same with the breakfast buffet. The last couple of days when it got very busy, they could not handle the crowds during breakfast. There was not any food/ beverage service by the pool. We kept loosing power the last two nights. We had to get dressed using my tiny travel flash light, before going out to dinner. I had the opportunity at staying at Westin using my SPG points, but had decided to pay $$$$( because of holiday week) and stay at radisson mainly because of the location and the fact that it was newly remodeled. I think I made the wrong decision. I still very much prefer the Radisson location and will stay here again but not during holiday season.

Dining:All the our evening meals were very good, hard to choose a winner. The food at the non seaside was probably slightly better, but the ambiance was much nicer on the seaside establishment. ( great to see and hear the waves crash, also no noise, smell of petrol to deal with)
Le Ti provencal: best seafood. The new location is gives them a bigger space and much nicer dining room. The giant deep sea langoustine, at almost 80 euros a pound, was to die for.
Sunset cafe, still very nice relaxed atmosphere, best bang for the buck
Le Cottage. If I had to choose, this would be the choice for wining the food category, although they had completely forgotten about our souffle order and we had to wait almost another 45- 60 minutes for that. The taste of shrimp soup was my favorite single dish for the entire trip. While sitting at balcony enjoying our meal , we witnessed our only crime. Two gang members got in to it on the street. One was in the car the other on motorcycle . The motorcycle knocked off the car's side view mirror, and the car proceeded to knock the motorcyclist to the ground. Then people started throwing glass bottles up and down street. Shortly after the police arrived in numbers with show of force waving their machine gun and restoring peace.
L' Estaminet :my wife favorite for the food. However, I was slightly disappointed with my sweet bread preparation. I thought the focus was more on presentation than the food.
Le Tastevin : Food was excellent ( note to Georgia). The veal tenderloin was divine. Although the service was good, it was slightly dry/ indifferent.
L'Escapade, Auberge Gourmande, , La villa. were all good.
Palm beach ( 3 lunches). We enjoyed the ambiance, drinks and the amenities here. That is why we went there 3 times. However I was not impressed with the food. For a beach bar/ restaurant it was pretty good, but I would not call it gourmet. The menu selection was good and smart, however the food lacked the execution and preparation required for a fine dining establishment. More trendy than gourmet.


Excursions:Day trip to Anguilla. Rented a car from Ronnie Bryan at the ferry terminal. The ocean was very rough and it was overcast, so after driving around and having lunch at the Madeariman's on shoal bay east, we returned back to St martin and hit the beach and the pool at radisson. Gwen was already in the midst of rebuilding.

Day trip to St. Bart. We took the St bart commuter from GC airport, definitely the way to go. Rented a car from Avis. Very nice looking island. we will be back for a longer stay. My 5 year old daughter liked the different boutiques in st jeans and gustavia. We ended getting her several dresses. Her favorite was a little store next to Nikki beach, where we had lunch. We really enjoyed the food and the milieu.

Nick <img src="http://www.traveltalkonline.com/forums/images/graemlins/jester.gif" alt="" />