Day 4:
Woke up a little bit late, and had our yummy chocolate crossiants on our deck @ Le Petit, did I mention these things are addictive??! The fresh squeezed OJ is also to die for. I would gulp down about 2 glasses in a row...mmm!
Headed over to Baie Rouge. This is also a LOVELY beach. So nice and quiet with beautiful cliffs framing the strip of beach. Totally picturesque. Chairs & umbrella - $12 with a little bargaining. This was my favorite beach on St Martin (I think, it's so hard to choose!).
Headed over to Chez Raymond for lunch. The service here, although nice was VERY VERY slow. We waited about 20 minutes for the Raymond Special which I ordered, but the waiter made up for it by giving us one free. We each had a fish sandwich which I highly recommend. It was very simple: fish grilled with a lemony flavor on some very crispy french bread with some lettuce & tomato. I had a side of potato salad and my fiancee had the rice & beans which he said were okay. This cost us around $33. Get the Raymond Special!! It is strong and will give you a little buzz but it's yummy!
Headed back to hotel: that night went on the Aqua Mania Tango Sunset cruise. This was a nice departure from our normal nighttime thus far and ended up to be a booze cruise basically ha! I would suggest this for people who are a little older than us (we are 27 & 28). We made friends with some fellow NY'ers and ended up having a great time anyway! They serve you dinner which was good, unlimited drinks & you dock by La Samanna for a while. This was $65pp. Good if you drink a lot. Be warned Aqua Mania tacks on a 5% service charge if you use CC. I suggest paying cash.
After this...headed to.. you guessed it, the casino! Also Casino Royale but I couldn't stay too long since it was like a wall of smoke in there!! Wow, they need ventilation big time in that place!!
Day 5: This my favorite "activity" that we did. I highly 150% recommend taking a tour on the Bluebeard 3 from Simpson Bay area to Anguilla (they also do a tour to Prickly Pear). They leave from the Lady C & the phone # for the tour co is in the Aruba Nights magazine. We got to the Lady C about 830am gave our info & took a dingy over to the Bluebeard. There were only about 10 people on the sailboat so it was like having your own private sailboat with a GREAT crew. This cost us $85pp + $12 docking fee - 10% discount from owner Bruce, who is very nice & helpful.
You sail over to Anguilla, have a snack on the way, unlimited drinks as well. You are then picked up by a local driver named Dennis who is super friendly & gives you a mini tour of Anguilla. You are then taken to Shoal Bay which I found to be probably the nicest beach I've ever seen in my life, including Hawaii. The sand is a fine powder and sooooo very white and the sky is a different shade of blue here. It is truly amazing. One must take a deep breath just to absorb the natural beauty & peacefulness of this beach. I LOVED IT!!! Personally I thought Anugilla was nice to visit, but too quiet for my Fiancee & I if we were to take a week long trip there. Also on Shoal Bay you get a welcome drink, and a nice lunch included. Chairs & umbrella here were $10. We stood here for a few hours & then headed back to the sailboat. We then got another snack & more drinks on the way back to St Martin. Arrived back @ marina around 530ish. I thought this was a great value for the money. The crew was exceptionally friendly & informative. We saw the Aqua Mania tour & the ship was soooooooo full -- Bluebeard deserves the business lol. They do Wed -- Prickly Pear, Thurs -- Anguilla, Fri -- Prickly. We were tempted to do Prickly on Friday we liked it so much!
Headed over to Sunset Beach Bar -- this was also loads of fun. That bar seems to have found one of the best spots ever to watch the sunset. Truly a perfect location; it's amazing. We each had the swordfish burger/sandwhich here w the spicy seafood sauce which was good. I had a Pina colada which was also strong & very tasty. We got some great pix & the meal was definitely good for the $$!.
Headed back to Le Petit & went to bed early since we were out all day. This was the first time all week we turned on the tv!
Day 6:
Headed to Hilma's. OH MY GOD! OH MY GOD! LOL! Words cannot express how tasty this sandwhich is! It is such a flavor combo that I have never had that is soooo very good! I was not sure how I would feel about saltfish & johnny cakes but let me tell you, she is the master! You must try this! We had a nice little chat with her as well. When talking to her, she mentioned that some American tourists had come around 8am which is her busy time & were getting very angry that she was not chatting with them (as she known for this) and ended up banging the hot sauce & what not. Note to anyone who does this: you're making us tourists look bad!! It seems there may be some small undercurrent among the locals who may or may not feel that someeee tourists (not all) feel a little entitled possibly in the people of St Martin's HOME. For goodness sake, be polite & don't be angry if a woman who works alone in a trailer can't sit and chat! (This is just an aside -- not saying anyone would do this) She also mentioned that all the cars & building has hurt her business a bit. My advice: go to Hilma's & support a FABULOUS local establishment. Oh man, I could go for one right now! She is located in the brown trailer next to RBBT bank across from the Mailbox store. GO here!
Headed to Phillipsburg. It started to rain a little which was perfect timing. Tons of jewelry stores here & from my comparison shopping to NYC not that great of prices. I have a Movado which my fiancce bought me in NYC for 500 (retail 1k) and they wanted 650 @ one of the shops there. Also another Movado we saw in NYC for 1200 (2500 retail) was 1500 in Pburg. I suggest shopping around & negotiating a great deal here. Otherwise just generic souvenirs. Got 2 bottles of gauvaberry rum & I had a guavaberry colada. Now that was goodddd stuff as well!
Went to L'esplanade (Le Petit gives you 2 free drink tix for the bar here). Very nice hotel but I preferred Le Petit for our taste since we liked to be on the beach.
Went to Marigot. Not too many good stores here, seems like more restaurants. The West Indies Mall is very chi chi but not that great stores if you ask me, ha! Stopped @ Mannex & got a quick souvenir.
Back to Le Petit & got ready for dinner @ Bamboo Bernies. We loved Bamboo B's! The sushi was yummy, not the best I've ever had but great atmosphere & nice location & decent value for the $$. Service was also very good here. My fiancee is very into tikis (he even has a big tatt of them!) and we both loved the atmosphere @ Bamboo Bernies. 2 tiki punches, gyoza, 2 special rolls & 1 spicy yellow tail was around $75 + tip. It was pretty quiet here, maybe 10 tables full around 8pm. Did not bother us at all. We saw some kind of scary sea creature out in the water with giant antenna! haha!
We were supposed to go to L'escapade this night but decided it was too pricy. We felt like we were hemorrhaging $$ on this trip! I am glad we went with Bamboo Bernies, especially if they are going to move into a hotel. The thatched roof vibe is super cute & we don't see a lot of places like that back East.
Head back to Casino Royale (do you see a theme here) lol. I won a few $$ on the slots and that was that. We then went home & enjoyed our last night on our terrace @ Le Petit. We were so sad & wanted to stay longer!
Day 7: Sad day!!
Woke up & had to leave!!!!!!! We wanted to stop @ Hilma's but traffic was so bad AND our flight ended up getting pushed up w.o. our knowing it.
Almost missed our flight; the counterperson didn't give us the right info about checking the alcohol w our luggage, so we brought it thru security & my fiancee had to go alllll the way back down to check it. Not fun, especially when you're running late. Got back to NYC in one piece though!
And the conclusion is this: we love St Martin! Every single thing was greatttt! There is so much to do & it has a great location. I think the must do's are Pinel, Anguilla on the Bluebeard (you must see Shoal Bay no matter how you get there), Orient, Baie Rouge, Hilma's & the lolo's!
I also think a must do is to be open minded even when people may be quite poor & look differently than you. It's pretty simple. Be respectful that this island is home to many people. Talking to Hilma really opened my eyes to how some tourists are being perceived due to their bad behavior. Be friendly & for goodness sake, don't be suspicious! There are bad people everywhere & from my viewpoint it was very easy to avoid them in St Martin.
Okay thanks for reading my very very very long trip report! I can't wait to return!!
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