TravelTalkOnline Forums Trip Reports (Read Only) SXM Trip Reports and Photos SXM-Trip Report, 7/5-12 (long)

Travel to SXM: <br><br>On 7/5 we were up at the horrible hour of 4:30 am to catch 5:00 am hotel shuttle to Dulles. On the bus we got to hear airline personnel discuss how little sleep they got. A sleepy flight attendant doesn't concern me too much, but I prefer my pilots refreshed! When we boarded our flight to Miami I checked to make sure I didn't recognize any of the crew! The flights to Miami and SXM on AA were uneventful. We landed at SXM at 2pm. Got thru immigration and baggage in excellent time. Myra from AAA car rental was there with a sign and had our car. It only took a few minutes to get to the AAA lot and do the paperwork. We had no problems getting to Club Orient with Myra's excellent directions. You have to be patient at Orient Beach because there are 2 or 3 O.B. turns before the one to Club Orient. The road to Club O is very bad. They were doing some work on it during our stay, but I can't say I noticed any improvement. On one trip Becky tried to drive slowly and dodge holes. I decided it was better to drive fast and get it over with! We checked into our chalet at 3:00 and were on the beach a few minutes later. <br><br>Accomodations: We stayed in garden chalet 130 at Club Orient. It was only a few feet farther to the beach than a beach chalet. And we could see the water from our porch. The chalet is a nice accomodation with a separate living room so if someone is up late or early they don't disturb the sleeper in the bedroom. Also no adjoining walls! Nice kitchen with eating area. We found that it worked best to close the bedroom door to keep the A/C on in there, but just open the doors and windows to cool the rest of the chalet. We looked at the studio (very small!) and the minisuites and deluxe minisuites. The minisuites appear to be nice enough if you are trying to economize.<br><br>Activities: <br><br>Beach volleyball: Most days it was too windy to play at all. The other days it was always your team vs. the wind more than the other team. But I enjoyed playing all the same. <br><br>Tennis: The first night I met some folks who play tennis and most mornings we would meet at the courts at 7:00 to play doubles. This was a lot of fun. By 8:30 it would be getting pretty hot. My first time playing tennis sans clothes. Where do you put the second ball when you are serving? What do you wipe your hands on when they get sweaty? <br><br>Snorkeling: Snorkeled in the afternoons a couple of times. Saw some interesting fish including sea stars and a ray. Mostly snorkeled at the southern end of the beach at Club O. It was nice, but did not compare to Cozumel or Buck Island (off St. Croix) We also snorkeled at Tintamarre, which was pretty much the same quality, coral in a bit better shape there.<br><br>Beach & Swimming: We stayed on the beach in front of Club O. Great weather the entire time. We did walk the beach a couple of mornings which was good. The strong breeze kept you from getting too hot. We tended to eat lunch at rest at the chalet between 12 and 2 to avoid the strongest sun. The water was lovely! We met lots of great people on the beach. Nudists are so friendly! Near Papagayos there was an interesting sand sculpture that looked more or less like a rugby scrum. <br><br>Tiko Tiko: We did this on Monday 7/9. This was the least windy of the days we were there so it was a smooth sail out to Tintamarre. We enjoyed the Sea Breezes on the way out and the Pina Coladas on the return trip. The sand at Tintamarre is the best I have seen since Playa Papagayo on Lanzarote in the Canary Islands. Emanuelle and Filipe (sp?) served a wonderful lunch of grilled fish (also available are steak and chicken) on the back of the boat. From the table setting and the quality of the food you'd think you were in a fine restaurant in Grand Case rather than a sailboat! We did the mud bath thing which was fun. Interesting to see naked green people. The only bad thing about the Tiko Tiko trip was that Becky got a bit of sunburn on her back. [img]/images/icons/sad.gif[/img] Even under the beach umbrella you get a lot of sun. Also since the beach faces St. Martin, there is not so much breeze and you tend to spend a lot of time in the water keeping cool, so it is easy to wash off the sunscreen. Next time we'll be more careful. <br><br>Wine and Cheese Party at Club O: We enjoyed this. I drank a lot of wine! It was good that this came on the last night as we already knew a lot of people to talk to. Might be less fun if you had just arrived at Club O. Although we met folks our first night there by crashing a party at a nearby chalet! [img]/images/icons/laugh.gif[/img] <br><br>Shopping: I went to the Wednesday market in Marigot with the woman from the chalet across from us. Becky was struck down by the sand gravity that morning. Enjoyed the fruit and vegetable market, getting a fresh pineapple and jerk seasoning. Picked up t-shirt, wooden wind chimes, two bottles of flavored rum, and a silver anklet and toe ring for Becky. Great fun. We also purchased a couple of short pareos from a shop in Grand Case and Becky got a nice pareo two-piece outfit at the plywood mall behind Pedros. <br><br>Massage: Becky and I both got a one-hour massage at Club O. Becky got hers from Ana who is the same woman that gave us massages on the beach at Club O ten years ago on our last visit to Orient Beach. My masseuse was Christina. The massages are very relaxing. It's hard to stand up afterwards. <br><br>Restaurants: <br><br>Papagayos: We ate there our first night. After waiting quite a while for a waiter, Becky went and fetched us (and the folks at tables near us) some menus. The waiter did come and take our order reasonably promptly and we didn't have to wait too too long for our food. The food itself was mediocre. We also had breakfast at Papagayos the next day and the service was better and the food okay. The only plus to Papagayos is that you don't have to get dressed. We had drinks there a couple of nights and that was fine as you just place your order at the bar. The beach bar down at the Pedro's end of the beach served Becky a large tequila shot over ice with a splash of lime and called it a margarita! <br><br>Tastevin: This was the first restaurant we ate at in Grand Case. We were the first people there in the evening and go t the best table in the house. Becky says the grilled tuna in a light cajun sauce was the best meal she had on the trip. I had roast duck breast which was very good. Also my creme brulee was excellent. Becky liked her chocolate mousse tort. Tastevin was the most expensive restaurant we ate at. <br><br>Le Piccolo: This is a little place in French Cul de Sac that folks we met had recommended. It was very good and much less expensive than the restaurants in Grand Case. I had a delicious grilled snapper and Becky had penne with grilled shrimp. My appetizer of mushrooms stuffed with crab and salmon were excellent. Becky enjoyed her greek salad. For dessert I had a yummy chocolate mousse with coconut and mango bits. Our waitress was a bit confused when Becky asked to get her leftover penne to go. Oops, we forgot that SXM is Europe not America and getting a "doggy bag" isn't done! [img]/images/icons/blush.gif[/img] But to her credit, she did bring Becky's penne nicely wrapped in foil. <br><br>Talk of the Town (lolo): This was our visit to the lolos in Grand Case. We each had ribs which were very nice. They didn't have any plantains though, which was disappointing. We will have to go back to try the lobster as we heard many good things about it, but we were trying to economize that night. Our meal came to $16, so we did pretty good. <br><br>Rainbow: This was another seaside restaurant in Grand Case that had been recommended. It was great! We got there a little later in the evening, but it being low season we still got a table on the row nearest the water. My creole-style crabcake appetize was delicious. Also I really liked my salmon with spinach in a pastry puff main course. This was the best meal I had on the trip. Becky enjoyed her gespacho (sp?) and grilled chicken but was not as impressed as I was. <br><br>Baywatch/Surf Club South: This is Cheryl and Andy's beach bar. We had a great breakfast and many lunches here. everything was great and Cheryl is the friendliest woman you could ever want to meet. My only complaint is with the overpriced, so-so iced tea we got on our first visit. Oh well, I shouldn't have expected folks from Jersey to know how to make good iced tea. After the first visit I stuck to water and beer and was happy. I definitely recommend the ribs and the meatball sub and the marinated flank steak and the calamari and the chicken philly and the grouper sandwich. I suspect everything else is great too! <br><br>Trip Home: [img]/images/icons/sad.gif[/img] Our last morning we exchanged contact info with wonderful people we had met. We had pastries from L'Orientique for breakfast and got a final few hours in on the beach. We checked out of Club O at 11, but hung out on the beach until it was time to go have a final lunch at Baywatch. Then we drove back to the airport stopping to get a few liters of gas. We came back via San Juan. Customs and immigration at San Juan were annoying, as we had to wait in 4 lines. [img]/images/icons/mad.gif[/img] Back to Dulles, where we got the hotel shuttle back to our car. We still had a 1.5-2 hour drive to Berkeley Springs, WV where we had deposited our son with Becky's sister. This makes us appreciate the fact that we live 10 minutes from RDU, our normal airport. <br><br>Summary: We had a great time! Got lots of good information from the forum here. We will definitely go back as we hardly scratched the surface of all there is to see and do and EAT in St. Martin. [img]/images/icons/smile.gif[/img]<br><br><P ID="edit"><FONT SIZE=-1><EM>Edited by Administrator on 7/16/01 03:48 PM.</EM></FONT></P>