We just finished our fourth trip to SXM in five years. Here is our trip report with miscellaneous comments at the end.

FLIGHTS: Flew out of snow in Hartford on American through San Juan; no problems either way -- until we got back to Hartford and it was only 3 degrees! The equipment to offload luggage wasn’t working properly due to the cold and we waited well over an hour for our luggage. Which meant we arrived home, very tired, at 1:15 a.m. Better coming home than going though!

RENTAL CAR: “Aged” Toyota Corolla from Michael at Unity. Great service as always. Unity is a TTOL sponsor so check them out.

ACCOMMODATIONS: The Dove’s Nest, Grand Case. We cannot say enough about how absolutely fantastic these accommodations are. We like peace and quiet and privacy – all of which we found here. We had reserved a one bedroom but it was not available so we were given a two bedroom for the same price. The villa currently has 5 units for rent now – 2 one bedrooms and 3 two bedrooms. All of the units except one of the two bedrooms have a balcony with a water view. Our unit was immaculately clean and very nicely equipped with everything except food! There were complimentary beverages in the fridge, extra towels for the beach and daily cleaning service. Also, they have 110v electricity available which is nice for our American blow dryers, shavers, battery and cell phone rechargers and mp3 players. We were given 2 tickets to go to Pinel which we used and were promptly offered more if we wanted to go again. Suzy and Emile Larmony, the hosts and owners, are absolutely wonderful… they live on the property and are readily available if you have any issues at all. Daphne is the cleaning lady and she is just an absolute joy. One of our fondest memories is sitting on our balcony in the morning listening to Daphne singing and humming. We would definitely stay here again. The Dove’s Nest is a TTOL sponsor so take a look at their web page.

BEACHES: Le Petit Plage, Pinel, Dawn, Le Gallion, Orient. We were completely disgusted at the development on Dawn Beach but still got to enjoy Ms. B’s fabulous ribs. Each trip we try to find a “new” beach. Le Gallion was that beach this time and will become part of the regular repertoire. Since the “ground seas” were running and even Petit Plage had some waves, it was nice to be at a beach that was completely calm. There was a ruckus at one point on Orient because some nudists insisted on walking up and down. (We were at the Bikini Beach section.) Even the vendors were trying to tell them that the gendarmes would come and fine them. One of the nudists then proceeded to flip the bird at those of us sitting in our beach chairs. I took a walk as I always do down to the end of the beach and found that Coco Beach was swamped with nudists. The dh said he thought they might be off a cruise ship and maybe they didn’t know they shouldn’t be traipsing around the more family oriented sections. I actually think people were more surprised and did not get offended until the idiot decided to flip people off. Too bad.

RESTAURANTS/FOOD: *****=Superb; ****=Excellent; ***=Very Good; **=Just Okay
Le Ti Coin Creole **** – we really like the French/Creole food here and it is always our “night in” restaurant. My beloved husband orders the same thing every year: the conch salad and the mahi mahi. Carl Phillips (owner/chef) is wonderful and makes divine dishes – and we like the fact that we are supporting a truly local business. His banana cake is not to be missed – we took some out to our friends who are from Grand Case and who happened to be on island the same time as us this year and they raved about it and wanted to know how to get more! Carl said business has been slow and we would love to see a few more folks venture down his way.
The Blue Martini *** – we enjoyed our meal here a great deal and found the restaurant to be very comfortable. After dinner we went outside to the lounge and listened to the Reggae Band for a while. Very nice.
Il Nettuno ** – we ended up here after being treated so rudely by a French woman at Les Brasserie des Isles that I refused to stay. The food at Il Nettuno is good, but I felt it was too much like any other Italian restaurant at home. Plus, they had a wandering guitar player/singer and he was way too loud. It sort of became a game with us to look down when he got near us so he wouldn’t stop and sing one of his bad Elvis songs. We probably would not go here again.
Sunset Café at the Grand Case Beach Club **** – this was our first time eating here (which is interesting because we stayed at GCBC in 2002) and we fell very much in like with this place. We actually chose to have appetizers and drinks instead of dinner. It was still plenty of food and the taste and presentation were wonderful. They brought us the complimentary rum at the end of the meal and I liked the passion fruit rum so much, we purchased a bottle. It is made right there by the fabulous Judith. Also, we were delighted to discover that Oliver, our favorite waiter from Le Cottage is now working at Sunset Café. We ended up going back several times at sunset for drinks.
Spiga ***** – I have been bugging the dh for the last 2 trips to go to this restaurant. He finally gave in and was he ever happy he did. This is truly one of the best restaurants in Grand Case. It may be Italian but the cuisine is so innovative, it’s not your mama’s spaghetti. This will definitely be a repeat restaurant for us. Reservations are a must – we wouldn’t have been able to eat there without one. Our waiter was brand new to SXM but you would never have known – Jonathan from Spain. He is trying to learn French and English. Amazing.
Le Cottage ***** – our favorite restaurant. They have a new chef and a new menu and we still couldn’t have been happier. We invited our friends to come along because they had never eaten there and they were delighted. We all did the “wine dinner” where Stephan will provide a glass of wine for each course. All you do is tell him if you want white or red. Of course if you prefer bottles of wine they have an extensive list and Stephan will help you choose – he’s a very knowledgeable sommelier. We all ate four courses and left satisfied both physically and spiritually.
We also ate at Chez Cheryl lolo several times; got the tasty rotisserie chicken and some side dishes from Le Bounty; and as mentioned before, had ribs from Ms. B’s. Our breakfasts are usually bread and fruit that we’ve picked up from the bakery and markets and we make coffee every day in our room. One day towards the end of our visit, we started with an “American” breakfast from Baywatch – it was delicious of course.
MISCELLANEOUS: We usually go to SXM in late May or early June so we expected to see lots more traffic in January, and we did not, which was a pleasant surprise. A gentleman we met on Orient who owns 3 weeks at the Pelican told us this was the slowest high season he’d seen in 20 years. The weather was wonderful but a bit cooler than May (i.e. 85ish during the day, 70ish at night). We didn’t mind and actually enjoyed the cooler evenings – though the cooler temps didn’t discourage the mosquitoes! The restaurants were busier than in May and we were glad we had made reservations in advance. We got to enjoy Harmony Night in Grand Case and what a fun time that is. Everyone should try to go at least once. I think the handicrafts and art work are actually better at this street fair than at the Marigot market. If you want to sit at a restaurant during this, DEFINITELY make a reservation as there is even a wait at the lolos! This vacation was different because our best friends were there and since they were born in Grand Case and have immediate family there, it is going home for them. They cooked and fed us a couple of times and gave us a different perspective on many things. Plus the walk down the boulevard on Harmony Nights was like old home week. The only time we went to Phillipsburg (or even to the Dutch side, outside of going to the airport and Dawn Beach) was a couple of hours with our friends who had been over there shopping already and needed to pick up a piece of jewelry. Ultimately we had a vacation of fine food, good friends, good wine and sand gravity – perfect!