Trip Report: March 23rd to March 31st --- Best SXM trip yet!

Our family of five (parents, 17 year old daughter, 15 year old twin daughters) and our au pair that they haven’t seen in 5 years surprised them at the airport. I had been working on getting Charlott. our aupair, to surprise them for six months.

We have previously visited with our kids and rented at Grand Case Beach club and in Orient Village at Matisse #1 and Matisse #4. This year we rented Villa Joie da Vie. It was about 200 yards farther than the others but considerably less money. Villa Joie de ve he only issue we had was that they had forgotten to turn on the water when we arrived. The unit had a private pool and fenced yard.

Air Travel
In the past, we traveled on United direct from Chicago (ORD) to SXM. This year the pricing on the direct flight never went below $1100 and usually was close to $1300. We ended up booking our flight there through Philadelphia and coming home through Charlotte. We extended our stay by a day and saved an extra $150 a ticket and only spent an extra $225 on the villa. The tickets were $750 each.

Car Rental
Reserved a van through Michael at Unity. He was the best price and was waiting for us when we got there and had no problems.

Saturday, March 23rd
Connections through Philadelphia were on time and we landed a few minutes early. The girls ran over Charlott when they first saw her. We put 6 people in a Ford explorer and ended up with bags on everyone’s laps as we headed through Cupucoy-Lowlands-Marigot-Orient with no traffic. We quickly unpacked and headed to Grand Case for a late dinner.

Our first night dinner is always at Il Nettuno. After checking the free lot, we ended up at the pay lot. As we walked out of the pay lot, Matteo (the guitar player) saw us and ran over to give us all hugs and welcome us back to the island. Raymon immediately came and greeted us and showed us to a table at the waterfront.
Dinner started with complimentary bruschetta. We had Veal Saltimbocca, Veal Limón, Lobster Ravioli and ??. The veal is so thin and tender it was delicious.

Sunday, March 24th
Breakfast in the villa and off to support Elisa at the Original Bikini beach. We immediately saw the imposters and took out the original bikini chairs and umbrella’s and set them up. One of the imposters walked up to us but didn’t say a thing. He just scowled and walked away.

That night, we went to Le Pemint in Orient village. I must say this proved to be one of the best meals of the trip. https://www.facebook.com/lepiment.sxm?fref=pb I don’t remember the staff’s names but like all the restaurants its family run and was just awesome. They have their basic menu but then a blackboard with about 20 awesome specials.

Three of the specials were an Antipasta salad with homemade Mozzarella, Filet with Cambert cheese, and Gnocchi with Tiger shrimp and Scallops. We also had tomato and Mozzarella salad, a Pizza and I had Spaghetti Carbonarra. The Carbonarra has truly ruined it for me because it set the standard so high for any other restaurant. Without drinks $200.
Monday, March 25th

Breakfast in the villa and off to support Elisa at the Original Bikini beach or so we thought. We put out our chairs and the beach boy from the imposters picked up the chairs and threw the chairs back towards the restaurant. We had the whole it’s a free beach conversation and unfortunately I didn’t video the whole exchange. So I pulled the chairs out three times to aggravate him and headed to the free chairs at La Playa. The beach guys (they are too old to be boys) where great.

Monday Afternoon, Barbra (My oldest) and Charlott headed out diving with Octopus diving. Barbra received her certification two years ago and Charlott did a discover scuba dive. Octopus diving get a big A++ from us.
Monday night, we headed to Grand Case and Bistro Caraibes. This is always a must stop on our list and it overall it did not disappoint. We started dinner with Frog legs, French onion soup and the Shrimp and scallops in Garlic sauce. The French onion soup was a miss for me.

For dinner, Barbra had Lobster Thermador (LOVED IT), Filet, Rack of Lamb, Pasta & Scallop Special, Rack of Lamb and I had the Veal scallopine and Blue cheese. I was worried the blue cheese would be to powerful but I loved it. For dessert, we had three molten chocolate cakes and the bill was $330 after conversion.

If you compare it to La Villa with their supposed 1:1 it’s almost the same.

Tuesday, March 26th
Back to La Playa for another day at the beach…fun in the sun and lunch at Andy and Cheryl’s and my previous post about the service charge.

We went to Marigot for dinner at La Main a la Pate which was good. The exchange was 1.2. They had security at the marina and on the streets. We did have a local ask us to watch our car and we just ignored him considering there was six of us.

Wednesday, March 27th

Back to La Playa for another day at the beach…but it was cloudy and then it started pouring. It rained and rained and rained. We ended up having lunch at Bikini beach hoping the rain would end but that didn’t happen.

After lunch, we went back to the villa and hung out in the pool until the rain ended. We had planned on going to the Simpson bay bridge opening at 5:30. We got to the yacht club at 5:00 and hung out until 5:30. We saw some beautiful sail boats and yachts.

http://www.charterworld.com/index.html?sub=yacht-charter&charter=myblue-moon-3387

For dinner, we went to IZI. We have always liked La Gondola and IZI was good. Barbra’s birthday is on 4/3 but we told them it was her birthday and recorded the celebration. It was fun to embarrass her and the meal was enjoyable. The funniest part was they mixed up the Gnocchi with four cheeses and alfredo. They gave the four cheeses to Jamie, who is extremely picky, and she didn’t notice until I tasted it and told her to switch it with Barbra who will eat anything.

Thursday, March 28th
A morning dive with Octopus diving for Barbra and the rest of us back to Orient and La Playa. Lunch at Andy and Cheryl’s was good as usual for while Barbra and I ate at the Rib shack in Grand Case after her dive.

We didn’t leave the beach until almost 5:30 so we walked into Orient village for dinner and decided on la table de Antonie. For starters, we had their deconstructed tomato mozzarella and an egg and hunter bacon baked concoction which tasted much better than it looked. My kids and I loved bacon so we had to try it and it was delicious. You sort of stir it up and put it on toast.

For dinner, we had Rack of Lamb (nothing special), Mahi-Mahi (Very Good x2), Frog Legs (Devoured in record time) and a steak for the picky one. Deserts were a crème Brule and a trio of chocolate desserts which they liked. We would go back for the appetizer, frog legs and fish.

Friday, March 29th
Back to La Playa. Need to figure out the Caesar salad recipes at La Playa and Bikini!!!!
Dinner we went back to Le Peminet after another long day at the beach 11-5:30. We discovered at Orient village on Friday they have a band and some jewelry stands. We tried the bruschetta appetizer and it wasn’t worth it (Save room for the main course). I of course had the Carbonarra, Barbra had the Cannelloni special, Tomato Mozzarella, Risotto with Tiger Shrimp (4+ stars), Linguini with Salmon (4+) and Rigatoni Bolognese. EXCELLENT MEAL!!!

Saturday March 30th
Back to BIKINI!! We pulled out chairs again and no crap from the imposters. The problem was the skies opened up 90 minutes later so we ate at bikini and headed to the villa to pack for our flights on Sunday.
Dinner was at Il Nettuno with lots of singing with Matteo. We really like the food and service and know the people that have worked there for years.

Sunday March 31st
Time to head home. Our flight was at 4:30 but Charlott was at 12:30. We got to the airport at 10:00 and checked out bags with US Air and there was no line. We said our tearful good-byes to Charlott and headed to for lunch and then Sunset beach bar for plane watching. Our plane loaded on time but sat for 40 minutes to take off.

We landed in Charlott 20 minutes late and got through immigration in 40 minutes. That left us 30 minutes to get back through security and to our gate. It was a rush and we made it.

The hassle for me is that I’ve had an ileostomy for 14 years now and since they came up with these new scanners where you put your hands up I get patted down every time!! I tell the TSA agent before they even ask what they are going to say. The funny part was security in SXM asked me to remove it and I was like it’s impossible and they looked at me like I was from mars.


Other Observations
I agree exchange rates are all over the map on the French-side..

Security/safety issues apparently continue to be an on-going concern on the island based on stories that we had heard. Visitors just need to be cognizant of their surroundings.

Thanks to everyone for the great information throughout the year

MBROTT

Sorry for the spelling and grammar mistakes. I had to do it before I forgot everything.