Trip Report
December 25 to January 5

I have not done a trip report in quite a while. We go to St. Martin/Maarten several times a year and have been doing so for 17 years. This is the first time we went down during the Christmas holidays. I was a little nervous because the winds have a reputation for being a little fierce at this time of year, but we experienced lovely weather. The breezes were light and the rain limited itself to the evening hours. We stayed in a friend’s house in Guana Bay and had another couple that we are good friends with who stayed at the Dove’s Nest. (I would highly recommend the Dove’s Nest to anyone who is looking for a place to stay). We spent our days lazing, reading, and socializing on Orient Beach. We did take a quick trip to the Marigot market one morning.

Travel: We took US Air down, going through Charlotte, and took the non-stop United Flight back to Dulles International. We happen to arrive home with a very long line at immigrations though, which added a small irritant. All flights were pleasant and uneventful. We rented a car through Unity and again our experience was pleasant and uneventful.

Dining:
Except for coffee and me grabbing a yogurt, we are not breakfast eaters. We ventured off the beach twice for lunch, and both times we went to Cul de Sac.
We had lunch at Hercules, a charming creole restaurant. I had the conch stew, and my husband had a stuffed christophene and the salt fish fritters. We thought the food was wonderful and the host charming; I would caution you on the beer prices that are not listed on the menu. (4 euros). For a casual creole restaurant we thought it a little high.
We also ate at Taitu. They have a fixed price lunch menu and you go in there and eat with a lot of the local French. The food is good, classic French bistro food and the host is very charming and reminds you that you are truly in a foreign country.
The rest of our lunches were had on Orient. Orange Fever is one of our favorites. We ate there at least 6 times. I heartily recommend their grouper and their pizza. Our friends, Jesse and Amy are huge escargot fans, and they thought the escargot were some of the best they tasted. We went to Chez Leandra and had our favorite conch fritters and split a wrap and, we also visited Pedros and had chicken and ribs. It was much better than my last visit there.
Dinner
We ate in many nights. We brought down a frozen wild red salmon, as well as a crown roast of pork. Our friends Jesse and Amy brought down a beef tenderloin. Between us we created feasts that could not be beaten by any restaurant. We all enjoy cooking and entertaining.

Restaurants:
Les Toques, in Marigot: This is a restaurant that took the place of our beloved Durreche, which closed last year. This French bistro style restaurant was excellent. We thoroughly enjoyed our meal. We did experience an electrical outage, but our meal had been served and the power came back on before it was time to leave.

Le Santal, Sandy Ground: This was our splurged. A lovely old style restaurant with gracious, classic French service that brings you back in time. You feel like you are entering an elegant restaurant out of the Eisenhower era: very French, (to me that is a good thing). This is the type of place that you will linger several hours over dinner. It is on the water and the views are lovely. During the meal they had a bubble machine that blew bubbles out over the water. While it might sound corny, the effect was magical.

La Villa, Grand Case: La Villa is one of our favorites in Grand Case. It was full to capacity, so others must agree. Service and food was top notch. Florence made us feel welcomed, and we had a leisurely meal. We ate there on our last night on island, and it was a great way to end our trip.

Le France, Marigot Marina: We went there after we could not get into Mai’s (our first choice) because of a private party. We were not that hungry and had two great appetizers and several glasses of wine. I would heartily recommend the camembert appetizer. The dinner entrees looked great and we would be open to trying it for a full dinner on another night. We are creatures of habit and this was a new restaurant to us.

Green House, Phillipsburg: By default we ended up here for New Year’s Eve. We had a long day on the beach and were looking for an early (8:00) dinner, and we were going to celebrate back at the villa. We went first went to Chesterfields which was closed to the public and then went down to Phillipsburg. There was not much going on at that hour and most places were not taking diners. They were reserved for midnight parties. Green House was open and while we had not heard the most wonderful things about it, we were hungry. We both ordered the fish tacos, and they were really tasty. We would go back. We went home and were asleep before midnight.

Traffic was not as bad as I anticipated. The island did not really seem to get busy until after New Years. This makes me question why a lot of the villas and hotels charge so much extra for those two weeks, since the demand did not seem that high. There was a lot of cruise ship traffic. We had five ships in one day.

Every time I go to St. Martin/Maarten I bemoan the fact that there seem to be so many ownerless, uncared for dogs on the island. Being a dog owner, it pulls at my heart strings.

We had a lovely trip, and spent time unwinding and relaxing. We consider St. Martin/Maarten our home away from home. We are looking forward to coming back in June/July.

Anna