Part 1 of 3

This was mine and my partner’s second trip to St. Martin. This year we invited two of our friends and it was their first trip. The four of us rented a villa in French Cul de Sac (Villa Cote Mer) for 9 days and we had an amazing time! Details and pictures below. Many thanks to everyone on this board whom I gained much valuable information from!

May 9 – Departed from Charlotte, NC on US Airways 1560. Flight was delayed about 45 minutes due to a mechanical issue. Arrived in SXM around 2 PM. Michael with Banana Location was waiting at the airport exit. Rented a brand new Kia Rio for the week. Great service from Michael, we followed him all the way to French Cul de Sac directly to our villa. The villa we rented was amazing. Modern design, very clean, amazing sliding doors that open up the pool and deck completely to the open concept living room/dining room/kitchen. Three bedrooms, with three full baths. The villa manager met us at the villa and showed us everything we needed to know and was a short walk away if we had any issues. The villa is located just past Ma Dou Dou rum in a gated neighborhood on the waterfront. We felt very safe and didn’t have any issues.









After dropping off our bags and getting the keys to the villa, we intended to go shopping for groceries, however our arrival on Ascension Day meant that practically the entire island was shut down – we went to Simply and two different Le Grand Marche locations and found them all closed. At this point I was kicking myself for not taking advantage of Jeannie’s Shop and Drop! After our longer than expected plane ride we were all now starving, and we decided to head over early around 5 PM to Calmos Café in Grand Case. Amazing meal – I had the goat cheese burger and we all had complimentary banana vanilla rum shots.



After Calmos we walked over to La Crepe en Rose where I had a delicious Nutella crepe! “The best!” according to the delightful lady making the crepes. I must agree! We headed back to the villa and crashed as we were all exhausted from a long day of travel.

May 10 – Since we had no food at all in the villa thanks to our thwarted shopping adventure on the day before, we headed over to Mr. Busby’s on Dawn beach for some amazing johnnycakes and home fries.







Then it was off to Le Grand Marche on Bush Road to stock up for the rest of the week. After stocking our pantry and fridge, we were off to Club Orient for the rest of the day. For the two of us it was our second time on the island and Club Orient is our favorite section of beach on Orient Bay. Before Orient however, we stopped and said hello to our friend Bernadine Ali, at the Local Rums and Spices stand at Paradise View. We first met Bernadine last year and what a lovely lady! She is hands down one of the nicest people we have had the privilege of meeting on the island. We were happy to see her again, and she treated us all to the best guavaberry colada on the island! The grenadine and the cinnamon is what does it she says!





After seeing Bernadine we made our way to Club Orient, where we had a fun filled day including some delicious BBC’s and guavaberry coladas thanks to Willie at the Perch. All too quickly it was time to go back to the villa to get ready for dinner. The plan for tonight was Karakter at sunset where I had already emailed to make reservations. On Fridays they have live jazz music and a full tapas menu. We made the drive all the way across the island from French Cul de Sac and arrived around 5:30 where it was already filling up. We had a lovely sofa and table right on the sand. A perfect evening and the lady singing jazz was amazing.

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May 11 – This was our designated shopping and sightseeing day. We were up at 6 AM and prepared breakfast in the villa – eggs, crossiants, bacon, cheese and fruit and coffee. After a lovely breakfast watching the sunrise on the deck of the villa, we made our way over to Marigot for the market. We found a few souvenirs and saw all the fresh seafood being sold. We then headed over to Sarafina’s where I sampled an almond crossiant. I must say I was expecting more after all the talk about them, however I was not impressed. (Zee Best bakeshop by the airport on departure day was a different story however!) After Sarafina’s, where we were also harassed by a druggie outside accepting donations, we drove up to Fort Louis. Hiking up the steps was a good workout and the view we were soon rewarded with was breathtaking. Definitely worth the trek!

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The sightseeing and shopping continued - on to Philipsburg where we visited Rima’s and strolled down Front Street and the boardwalk. It was hot and miserable with no breeze. To me, Philipsburg is just a crowded tourist trap catering to the cruise ship crowd. The rest of the island has so much more culture and experience to offer. We quickly made our way through Philipsburg – stopping at the Guavaberry Emporium for a colada and to stock up on the delicious BBQ sauce.

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We continued our counterclockwise journey around the island, this time stopping yet again at Bernadine’s Rum and Spices at Paradise View. You can’t visit Bernadine without sharing a rum shot! Always lovely seeing her. After cleaning up at the villa we headed to Grand Case where we met Elvis at Sky’s the Limit lolo. Elvis was super friendly and seated us all the way at the back at a closed down lolo right on the water and personally took care of us. Food was great and so was the service.

Continued in next post