Dear All:
Just back from a week at the Esmeralda with three of my "girl" friends from high school and slightly beyond...
It was wonderful... My friends' first time to SXM and they adaptedly marvously--- especially to Orient Beach. I was a bit nervous-- my spouse and I have been going 2-3 weeks a year for 10 years so I was the designated tour guide... but it worked out great..
Did not get to do everything we wanted to do but here is what we did.
Rented a car through Dollar. Third time with Dollar and very happy with them. Cheap. $133 per week including taxes. And, we were upgraded to a Kia Rio- their mid-sized car (if you have ever seen a Kia Rio you will know why this is funny!). But the car worked great, had a terrific radio. We drove everyday and one tank of gas did us fine!
Esmeralda was wonderful. We had two superior rooms in a very private location. It was exactly what we expected. And, of course it came with a cat named Chat...
Spent much time at Coco Beach-- which remains my favorite beach bar on Orient. Love the very French feel of the place.
Dinner and Drinks at L'Astrolabe. Attentive and knowledgable bartender, host and waiter. Great restaurant cat. Service was some of the best I have had and the food was exquisite. Highly recommend it.
Barbecue with Chloe and Thierry at the Summit. Great ribs, terrific company and (again) best view in St. Maarten or St. Martin. The Summit always feels like coming home to me (Gary and I have owned there since 1994 and hardly ever trade).
Dinner at Les Village on the Marina. My friends loved the Marina experience of walking around and having the maitre'd people vie for your business. Good mussels-- and although they told me they were from France my guess is they were actually from New Brunswick/Maine-- bigger and sweeter than French mussels.
Dinner at Claud Mini Club and the lobster buffet. Again, terrific. Didn't have reservations but someone cancelled and they gave us a great table outside, overlooking the harbor. There was a festival going on in Marigot we had music on the breeze. The hostess took the lobster and grilled it for us. Gave us more wine. Again, wonderful.
Lunch at Layla's. This was a big hit. They have changed their menu from the last few years -- well, actually have a menu now instead of a chalkboard. And, I think it is better-- more salads, less creole... Very good wine list. Discovered that French pink wine is cote d' provence and is no way related to American pink wine! We sat for hours.
Shopping at Rimas (this impressed them-- certainly made it look like I knew the island well!) They spent much money but there really is just so much you can spend on pareos.
Left two on the beach and my best friend and I went shopping in Phillipsburg. Good jewelry shopping day! No cruise ships in port so good prices.
Lunch at Passangrahan. One of my favorite secret, non-touristy lunch places in St. Martin. Wonderful view, usually quiet, light salad type lunches and cool and shady when its hot out.
People on this board were right-- the new boardwalk does look good... and I think more people from the cruises are staying on the P'burgh beach-- much less traffic on Orient, even on cruise ship days...
Went to the butterfly farm one day-- still a great place. They are expanding!
Papagayo for lunch one day with a few hours on chairs outside the restaurant. I had wondered how my friendswould be at the 'nude' beach. No problem. I drove down and dropped them off at Papagayo (one has some trouble with her kneed). New policy-- could not park outside Papagayo so drove back to the parking lot. By the time I got back they were seated, had ordered and had nothing on but pareos around their waists.
The weather was not great.. Lots of wind and rain but it didn't really stop us. When it rained we sat on the verandah, drank wine and ate brie. Actually did that quite a bit..... No bad food! No bad wine!
Things I noticed that were different from last August when I was last in SXM:
--Orient Beach has a beach again. Good thing.
--Papagayo, Watersports and Perch are now painted yellow with brown, red, green, trim. Looks very good. MOre like the old Papagayo from before Luis/Marilyn 9 years ago.
--Esmeralda/Coco Beach beach is now a bit more than 1/3 nude. Separate section but set up nicely. No longer up against the rocks. This is a good thing.
--The no nudity signs at Mont Vernon are gone and I saw some nude sunbathing under their palapas/shade canopies.
--The building between Mont Vernon and Coco Beach- which has been unfinished for as long as I have been going there- is more finished than it has ver been in the past.
--Seemed to be fewer cruise people on Orient even when the ships were in
--Building, building, building everywhere on SXM but particularly in Orient (they just keep building!!!. I kept saying to my friends who ooohed and ahhhed the villas and the colors of the hotels behind Bikini Beach and that area-- but they weren't there three years ago....) and Cupecoy.. lots of signs of construction going up but not much acutally seems to have happened since last July.
Sat for a few hours on the way back at Cafe Juliana (airport restaurant). Chicken Satay salad was terrific.
So, good time all around.
Flight back through Philadelphia was the seventh level of hell but that is par for the course in PHL. . Was to get back 5/17 around 9:30p. Got in to PIT at 1:30am and finally got home the next day (after a night in a hotel and picking up my luggage in the morning!) But, I would still do it all over again....
And-
I will be returning w/my spouse for two weeks in August...
only 2 months and 3 weeks and I go back..
BethK
.
