SXM Trip Report
October 25 - 30
Jerry, Joan and our friend from California, Lori

Was heading to St Lucia for a week to meet some friends, and decided that, if we’re going to be that close to SXM…. And you get the rest. FYI, we used our AA miles for our flight from Denver to St Lucia but turns out, that we had to spend the night in San Juan on the way down because you just couldn’t get from Denver to St Lucia in one day (at least using FF miles we couldn’t). Lori, our friend from California with whom we were traveling, had some Hilton Hotel “honor points” to use, so our hotel stay in San Juan was “free”. Turns out that American Airlines had no problem with us flying in to San Juan (on our way to St Lucia) and staying in San Juan as long as we wanted and then continuing our award flight to St Lucia. So that’s what we did. We just wound up paying for a short round-trip flight from SJU over to SXM and then back to SJU five days later to continue our award flight to St Lucia. I’m sure many of you know that you can do this already (prolonged intermediate stopover) but just thought I’d mention it here in case someone may be unfamiliar with this approach. It sure worked well for us.

OK, back to our stay. Arrived into SXM on the FIRST OFFICIAL DAY of the opening of the new airport terminal. Suffice it to say, there were some problems. The jet ways were not working for our American 757, which was OK. The immigration line was long since Air France had just unloaded simultaneously so the wait was significant. But there was a steel band playing, they were giving away free punch and everybody was very friendly and proud of the new terminal. Retrieval of our luggage took forever but it finally showed up on a couple of the new belts (all of it) so can’t complain about that.

Marius of St Louis Car Rental was there to meet us with our rental car, with his usual “welcome back” smile and we were out and away very quickly once leaving the terminal building. Both Joan and Lori couldn’t wait until we drove over to O.B. so we HAD to make a stop at the SSBB for our first Carib of the trip. Took the “back road” (through Sandy Ground) to the French side and the traffic was not bad at all.

Arrived at L’Hoste and they were waiting for us. Check-in was very smooth. Some of the new management was there to greet us and welcome us back. Then we were up to our room, into our swimsuits and on the beach by 4:30 PM. A little about our stay at L’Hoste. I know L’Hoste has received some “bad press” lately (and probably rightly so for their handling of the robbery a few months ago), however, our stay there was absolutely wonderful with no problems at all. The staff is attentive, friendly and courteous, and was always around if we had any questions. Nighttime security was very evident throughout the evening. Our room was clean, well kept and the daily service was perfect. The A/C worked well. Celida and Nina served their usual wonderful breakfast in the mornings under the pool cabana with their always friendly and efficient manner. The dark coffee, fresh croissants, baguettes , fresh fruit, etc. each morning was something we enjoyed. And it’s a great place to meet other guests (which we did almost every morning). L’Hoste remains high on our list as a preferred place to stay on O.B. and we would recommend it to others. Late check-out on our departure date was not a problem.

We hung out at Club O all the days we were there (except one day when we went over to Happy Bay which was nice also). Renting umbrellas and chairs at Club O was no problem - there were plenty available. The Club O section was essentially “full” but not what I would call crowded. There were still chairs available. We did the Tiko Tiko cruise on our second day there. It wasn’t the “Tiko Tiko” but the substitute boat worked perfectly and we had a great sail out past the usual beach and then turned back and sailed up to the beach and dropped anchor. The substitute crew of Fernando (the Spanish captain), Jean Claude (French first mate) and Isabelle, (Belgian hostess), were wonderful and provided us with excellent service. The weather was PERFECT! The resident peacock and his entourage of poulets came to visit us while we were lying on the beach. You have to watch the birds as they will definitely drink from your cups if you leave them unattended :>). But they were fun to watch. Lunch was excellent as was the mud bath. The day passed too quickly. To those of you who haven’t done the Tiko Tiko cruise, it’s something you shouldn’t miss if you get the chance. We made some great new friends on the cruise - Jim & Terri from California, Brian & Loraine from Connecticut and Michael & Evelyn from New Jersey (I think :>).

Lunch on O.B. every day was at Baywatch, of course. It was so good to see Cheryl back. What a great way to spend the noontime hour (or later) talking with Andy, Cheryl, Ross and Adrian and enjoying their wonderful food and service. Got to meet Adrian’s wife and two daughters on Sunday while they were at the beach in front of Baywatch.

We had stopped at O.B. in May when we were sailing and all of the ladies had to have a suit made by Luiz. This trip, Lori wanted a third one so she got another great looking suit this time. Bumped into our friends Wayne and “Louie” from Virginia while at Luiz’ trying on suits.

Sad to see that Le Fish Bar (across from Tap Five) is now closed and there’s a new restaurant there in it’s place. The menu has changed and the prices have escalated significantly. Chose not to eat there but grabbed a pizza at Tap Five one night.

Drove over to Oyster Pond one evening and had dinner at Le Fregate (and yes, that’s the correct spelling). We were greeted by the owner , waiter, server, etc., Martienne, who welcomed us warmly as she always does. We had an excellent meal as usual. The desert was to “die for”. We recommend this little restaurant highly.

Weather was GREAT the entire trip save for a few scattered rain showers that never seemed to last very long. The island is really GREEN! Five days in SXM is not nearly long enough!

Jerry, Joan & Lori <img src="http://www.traveltalkonline.com/forums/images/graemlins/Banana.gif" alt="" /> <img src="http://www.traveltalkonline.com/forums/images/graemlins/Banana.gif" alt="" /> <img src="http://www.traveltalkonline.com/forums/images/graemlins/Banana.gif" alt="" />