Trip Report - Feb 04 – Feb 18/06

Thanks TTOL – although I have been reaping the benefits of this site for years this is my first trip report. Had such a great time, tried a few new things and used great sponsors I wanted to share my experiences. We traveled with my parents and met other family members who had never been to SXM before. This was our ninth and definitely not last trip to the island.
Traveled to SXM from Toronto with Signature Vacations and Skyservice. Booked 2 weeks at L’Hoste. Best value for Canadians even making the drive from Ottawa. If you’re wondering flight and hotel was $2400 (Canadian, including tax) for two weeks, per person. Breakfast not included.

Cabbed it from the airport – 4 of us lots of bags, $60.00 (including a $20.00 tip for making all that luggage fit. We were sitting at Baywatch within an hour of landing. Record time. Saw Cheryl right away who welcomed us home.
The Car Rental Saga…
We rented 2 cars from Marius at St. Louis car rental. He dropped them off and picked them up at our hotel at no extra charge. One car rental went quite smoothly the other had a few glitches but were handled professionally. Marius brought us a black Kia, on our first drive around the island we noticed the car overheating. We returned to the hotel and someone was there shortly to check the car. They topped up the coolant but when we took it out the next day it began to overheat again. We called Marius again who arranged to have a jeep delivered while we were out at the beach. The jeep ran well and we parked it overnight. The next morning we went for gas (seemed to go through it too quickly) and the attendant noticed that the hose had been cut. Overnight someone had removed the rear panel of the jeep, cut the hose and siphoned the gas out of the tank. We coasted back to the hotel and called Marius again. He was there within 20 minutes and was quite dismayed at the damage to his jeep. He was out of vehicles, so we rented one directly through the hotel. He agreed to reduce the amount of his rental, if the one we got from our hotel was a higher rate. The last car ran fine and lasted us the remainder of our holiday. When Marius returned to pick up the other car from my parents he insisted that the portion of the car rental that we used from him was no charge. We tried to get him to take partial payment as we had used his vehicles and gas for 3 days, and the damage to the jeep was certainly not his fault. He insisted that there was no charge. It’s easy to provide excellent service when everything works well. When things go wrong and they are managed better than you expect it says a lot about a company. Thank you Marius, you’re a class act.

I won’t share every meal with you but will mention a few places that were new to us.

Ti Bouchon – Thanks for this suggestion, every bite was delicious and very reasonable. It is located at the old Piccillo sight in the Cul de Sac. Although most of us (5 out of six) love the creativity you find in the cuisine on SXM we did travel with one person whose tastes are a little more “homestyle cooking”. He did request that his meal be made differently than described, but was somewhat embarrassed when the owner seemed put out. It was not an outrageous request (different sauce, well done beef ) but he was made to feel rather uncomfortable by the time the meal was delivered.

Au Grain de Sel – Also in the Cul de Sac. Was this the pizza place that used to be up the road on the side of a building? Great food, fun clean atmosphere, generous portions, reasonable prices and friendly, genuine service.

Hidden Forest Café at the Lotterie Farm – I can’t say enough about this place, but truly one of the most enjoyable meals in the nine years we’ve been coming to the island. The setting is unique (like dining in a tree house) and the food delicious. Among the dishes the six of us enjoyed were a chicken satay (I will be trying for a year to recreate this recipe), shrimp cocktail, baked brie, beef tenderloin, seafood lasagna. The wine list was varied and fairly priced. The service was exceptional and certainly less expensive than many meals we’ve had in Grand Case.

Spent Harmony Night/ Valentines Day at Il Nettuno. We wanted to show the two first timers the beautiful view in an Oceanside restaurant. The were taken away with the view, and enjoyed our dinner. Despite our reluctance the roaming guitar player serenaded us. Not our cup of tea but certainly had a few laughs about it afterwards.

Some unsettling news…
I don’t know if this has been reported or not but the fellow who owns the Internet/Video shop in Orient Village was beaten and robbed (Monday Feb 13). He said that he went to Bikini for a drink after he closed shop and was robbed of his daily receipts. They snuck up behind him as he headed to the parking lot, clubbed his forearms and took several thousand dollars. The police didn’t think this was random and he was likely targeted as they new his routine but disturbing nonetheless.

For the more adventurous…
Did you know the Lotterie farm has a zip line, and some sort of trapeze contraption running through the forest behind the restaurant. There was no shortage of people wanting to give it a try, the “Cable Guy” was busy all day. Wear proper footwear, no flip flops, looked like fun. Had I known it was there earlier in the trip I would have spent one of the cloudy days there.

This was a cooler year than we were used to, but still better than Ottawa weather. This was the worst year for bugs that I’ve ever seen. Only 2 of the six of us reacted to the bites but we were quite uncomfortable for a lot of the trip. Bug spray did not seem sufficient. The hotel was spraying the mattresses, sheets and bedcovers – I’m not sure which is worse for you the spray or the bugs.

Thanks TTOL for many great suggestions over the years. Had a wonderful trip, if we’re lucky enough we’ll be back again.