A group of eight (4 couples) just returned from St. Martin (our first time to this island) on Saturday. What a great place to spend a vacation. I hope I can offer some insights that others on this site provided to our little group.
The Villa. This was our first experience with a villa on any island. Villa Suzanne on Dawn Beach was absolutely gorgeous and I HIGHLY RECOMMEND this Villa to anyone. Four bedrooms, king beds, 4 large bathrooms. The bedrooms have large doors that open onto a balcony overlooking Dawn Beach. Also, there is a great pool overlooking the ocean, with small sun deck. The pool, however, was cold for most of the week as half the pool is in the shade most of the day. The villa company, Islandtrips.com, was fantastic. The villa representative met us at the airport and took us to the villa (more on that later). The villa had left us a welcoming basket, including a bottle of rum, which came in handy during the week. The villa supplied a daily housekeeper who did a great job cleaning the bathrooms, doing dishes, towels, beds, etc…. The villa also had a charcoal Webber grill on the deck on which we spent many afternoons cooking burgers, dogs, etc… We were very impressed with the villa and would recommend it to anyone!
The Car. We rented two cars from Avis (an Explorer and a Corolla). This worked out great, since the Explorer fit 8 for us to go out to dinner. Very easy to get to the Avis car rental and it was a snap. Avis was great, for on the first day (actually the first 15 minutes), I was in an accident. On our way to the Villa, a local rear ended me, smashing up the trunk and taillights. Bernard, the villa rep, was great, and not sure what I would do without his assistance (since none of our cell phones worked!) He called the local police, stayed with us, interpreted for us with the local cop, (I honestly could not understand much of what he was saying) and made sure my side of the story was written down on the police report. That afternoon, I called Avis, who very nicely drove a replacement car out from the Airport to me. Avis was great, and I recommend them to anyone.
The Flight. DO NOT TAKE CARIBBEAN SUN! Half of our group got a direct flight from Newark, NJ to SXM. The other half (including myself) had an AA flight from Newark to Puerto Rico, then a connecting flight on Caribbean Sun (as well as on the return). We booked MONTHS ago, timing our flights to get us into SXM at 3pm (to meet the other direct flight group). On Friday, the day before we leave, Caribbean Sun leaves a message for our party (and with only couple of our party – they didn’t even bother to notify me!) that the 2:30pm flight on Saturday was CANCELLED and now scheduled for 6:30 pm! (We were scheduled to land in Puerto Rico at 11:45am!). Nobody cared or offered an explanation. We tried to rebook with other airlines, to no avail. Caribbean Sun also cancelled our return flight (originally scheduled to leave at 3pm), putting us on a 7am flight!! (our return from Puerto Rico to Newark was not scheduled until 6:30pm!). So, we spent hours on the phone Friday afternoon, trying to rebook. We were luckily able to change our return flight from Puerto Rico to Newark to 9:30am, so we didn’t have to sit in Puerto Rico long. However, we lost the ENTIRE day in SXM, and it cost us a change fee for switching our return AA flight. The ONLY positive (but still puzzling thing) is when we landed in Puerto Rico on our way down to SXM, we happened to check in early at Caribbean Sun desk to drop off our luggage. Low and behold there was a 130pm flight leaving to SXM!! We were luckily the last ones on the flight and made it to SXM on time to meet our friends.
The Restaurants. We spent Saturday night inside, enjoying burgers/dogs etc… on the grill. Sunday was the Superbowl. We ate lunch at Mrs. B’s on Dawn Beach (great ribs!!) and spent our evening at Ric’s Cafe (Simpson Bay) watching the game (packed!). Monday we ate at Le California in Grand Case (mixed Italian/French) and it was great as well. Tuesday we ate at Ill Nettuno (Italian) in Grand Case and had a great time. The food was delicious (although a bit on the expensive side) with great views overlooking the water. Wednesday we spent in, enjoying a homemade taco/margarita night. Thursday was spent near the airport. We had some cocktails at the Sunset Beach Bar watching the planes take off and land (great place!), dinner at Grand Café, and then post dinner drinks at Cherri’s. Both Grand Café and Cherri’s was great. The one bad dinner (and it was really bad) was at Hot Tomatoes in Simpson Bay. I do not recommend that location at all. One couple in our group ate at Bamboo Bernies on Friday night and said it was great. I would also recommend going to Bamboo Bernie’s for a happy hour one night – from 5-530 it is free, from 530-6pm it is .50, from 6-630 it is $1 and so on… and can still get a great sunset from that location.
The Beaches. Dawn Beach was beautiful. A bit rocky closer to the villa, but no rocks if you go closer to Scavengers/Mrs. B’s. We also spent a day at El Pinel Island (sp?), which you can reach via water taxi from Cul de Sac. I thought this was the best strip of beach we saw all week. 2 chairs/umbrella for $15. Absolutely gorgeous, with lots of shallow, blue water. The restaurants there were expensive and not that good. I suggest you pack a cooler with booze/lunch and bring it with you. We also went to Anguilla for the day on Wednesday, visiting Shoal Bay and Capjaluca. While Shoal Bay was very windy, Capjaluca was absolutely gorgeous. Soft, soft sand and crystal blue waters. You can see it at
www.capjaluca.com. The Traffic. I didn’t find the traffic to be too bad, except for some peak travel times. Do NOT get caught near Simpson Bay at 530, as that is when the draw bridge is going up for about 30 minutes (of course, the local bars have 2 for 1 happy hours during the drawbridge closing!)
If I can figure out how to link some pictures of our trip for you to see, I will soon…. Any questions, feel free to email me here or at
Andrew.white@dbr.com 
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