Disclaimer: This was our first trip to St Martin, we are not "sit on the beach" people andI am not big on great food, restaurant, or wine. With this in mind here are my impressions:
Beaches: We stayed at L'Hoste on Orient Beach but spent two half days touring the island by car and saw about 10 of the other beaches. Orient was by far the best if you like to see some action. Other beaches were relatively quiet with few people present. It was nice walking Orient and watching all the other people. C/O at orient beach resort, however, was not an attractive look. The elephant seals I saw on the California beach were, overall, more photogenic.
Snorkling: Snorkling at the end of orient beach at the orient beach resort was good. There is some coral there and fair number of fish. Lots of fun and relatively easy to do. One day we also went to Pineal Island. Snorkling there was very good. Its also a nice beach to sit around at. Lots more people on weekends but not too crowded.
Hiking: We took a great hike to the top of Paradise Peak starting from the main road across from the entrance to Orient Beach (not the resort, the first entrance closest to Philipsburg). It's about a three hour hike with time to enjoy the many spectacular views. There are great views of Orient Beach, the lowlands, Philipsburg, Grand Case and Anguilla. We never saw Marigot though. The hike was almost cut short though. We started on a dirt road (past a chain) which had a goat farm at the top. As we continued on the path (after the road ends), we came to some barb wire and decided to turn back. On the way back, we met with the guy who owned the farm coming up the road. He told us hikers were welcome and the barb wire was only to keep the animals in. He gave us some detail so as not to get lost on the way back. (we said we wouldn't really get lost but end up in Marigot or Grand Case). Very nice guy. As an aside, he had just bought a number of goats which he had shipped from Atlanta. We wished him good luck.
Restaurants: Every place we at was good. Prices were not too high and only a little more than you might expect to pay in the states. Of special merit was Poullette in Orlean outskirts (close to Orient Beach on the main road). It was a one man show with the owner being the chef and waiter. He still had time to talk to all the guests (though there were only three couples that night). He said that he was just recouperatating from Louis (in '95) when 9/11 hit. He said they were getting a little better but still have not recovered to previous levels. The food was excellent and relatively inexpensive.
L'Hoste: Great location right in the heart of Orient Beach. Good value with continental breakfast included. NIce room. Would have liked a hot tub though.
Car rental: We rented from Hertz. Not a great experience. Waited 20 minutes for someone to pick us up at the airport. We would have walked had we know. The also have a strange system to prevent car thefts. There is an alarm system which is inactivated by an electronic clicker. If it gets wet (like we're not in the desert- there water all around) , it doesn't work and not only does the alarm make a lot of noice but the car won't start and you're not going anywhere. We were stuck at Cul de Sac. We had taken the ferry to Pineal and not thinking totally, kept the key with me when we went snorkling, thus drowning the clicker. There was a telephone at the dock but rquired a credit card which we didn't bring (Island doesn't accept them so we didn't bring one). We were wearing sankals but decided the only solution was to walk back to our hotel. It seemed like it was going to be about 4-5Km the way we came on the road. We decided to risk it and make an adventure of it. We thus walked along the coast as best we could. We past a resort, a deserted hotel and finally made it to the Mt Vernon HOtel It was actually fun and took us about 40 minutes to get back. Hertz came after about two hours with a new clicker. Unfortunately it only worked intermittently and we had a few nervous moments. Hertz said they would give us another car but by then we were heading home. They did give us a 10% discount for our trouble.
Customs: Despite the word here, it only took us 20 minutes to get through customs. We came in on US Airways and they required either a passport or birth cirtificate with a separate photo id. The room was about 2/3 filled when we got there (we were towards the end of the plane). The line seemed to move at a relatively reasonable pace.
Philipsburg: If you like to shop, I guess it's worth going to but don't expect any bargains. At night it was something else. Not being too familiar with the area we decided not to stay there and ate elsewhere.
Overall: We loved the vacation and would definitely go back. Next time we would like to take day trips to the surrounding islands. I wish all the hard working people on the island the best of luck.
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