Trip Report 4/19-4/26
Our fantastic week in St. Maarten started with great flights on United. We actually arrived 25 minutes early! Immigration was easy and we quickly retrieved all of our bags. We rented our car from Panoramic. A little red Honda Accent that we nicknamed the "clown car". Why? I'm really not sure but we had a lot of laughs because of it! We stuffed the luggage in the clown car and we are off to Oyster Bay Beach Resort.
This was our second trip to SXM and our travel buddies first time. This area of the island is new to us, we stayed in the Maho area the first time, and I'm surprised by the huge hills!! My first impression of OBBR is that it feels congested and everything is white. It isn't giving me the tropical feel that I want. We go to our room which is street level, so no stairs to climb, and it is right on top of Beau Beau's. We have a 2 bedroom suite and it is very clean and typical of a Caribbean room with tile, rattan furniture and floral prints. It has a full kitchen, dinning table, living area w/tv, 2 bedrooms and 2 baths. We all step out onto the balcony and are instantly on vacation!! Ahhh....now that's what I'm talking about! We absolutely LOVE the view! In the week ahead this balcony becomes our command center. We have our morning coffee and strategy meetings here, our afternoon cocktails, our night caps and everything in between. We never even sit at the dinning room table, not once!!!!
Next on our agenda is beach & drinks and we do both!! As a matter of fact we do this drinking thing quite a bit! <img src="http://www.traveltalkonline.com/forums/images/graemlins/toast.gif" alt="" /> I won't bore you with our minute to minute activities, I'll just stick to the facts.
Beau Beau's: We love open air dinning and this place is nice, staff was friendly and on Sunday nights there is a very good singer, (sorry I don't recall his name). Meal was ok. We ate here again on Fri. night for the BBQ and Karaoke, both were OK.
Mr. Busby's/Daniel's by the Sea: We had 2 breakfasts here that were good. One night we had dinner and the meal was ok, but the setting is nice. They also have $1 beers from 11-4 during the day.
Orient Beach: LOVE this beach! We tried Kokomarina. Try it, you'll like it! We loved everything about this place. Service, ambience, drinks, meals - best hamburger and salad - I wish I could say we tried something more than just a burger but that's what we like, and the rum shots afterwards are the best! Our travel buddies had never had a shot before and they really enjoyed them!! Took lots of pictures to show the kids!! Orient wasn't crowded at all, lots of empty chairs. We returned on Friday to do it all again and loved it!!!
Friar's Bay Beach: First time for us on this beach. Lovely beach not crowed at all, very relaxing. The water was spectacular! So clear and calm.
Grand Case: Went to Calmos Cafe for a drink, oops, make that 2 drinks. I could sit there forever! Love the view! Then went over to Talk of the Town for ribs and chicken and Caribs. Great dinner, love the casual setting and so much fun.
Pinel Island: Fun little boat ride over, $7 each round trip. I sat in a spot where I got soaked from the water spray. I laughed the whole way because the water wasn't hitting anyone else, it almost seemed to be going over the man in front of me. We got blue chairs, which are more expensive than the orange chairs but since we were settled and in the front row we stayed. The water here is extremely calm and shallow. I didn't like the vegetation in the water but the water is so clear you can walk around it. We had a good lunch, the name escapes me but its the first place you see. The sand is extremely hot!! As I said its very calm so there isn't any wind, this was definitely our hottest day.
Philipsburg: Went there to look around maybe do some shopping. The only shopping we did was get the $1 beers!!! We ate lunch at the Greenhouse. Very nice place with good food. Parking is very convenient & they validate 2 hours for you if you eat there.
Peg Leg Pub: Fun, fun place, Shawn is the best! Nice setting and there was entertainment that night, Cover to Cover. We had no trouble getting a table. We had the Chicken Caesar salads and they were very good!
Casinos: We went to the Westin, Hollywood, Princess and Casino Royale. We made donations at all of them. Grrr........ <img src="http://www.traveltalkonline.com/forums/images/graemlins/cloud.gif" alt="" />
Dawn Beach: Didn't spend as much time on this beach as we would have liked, so I guess we'll just have to come back next year
<img src="http://www.traveltalkonline.com/forums/images/graemlins/Clapping.gif" alt="" />
On Saturday, after stuffing our luggage in the clown car, we say "good-bye" to OBBR. We aren't that sad yet because we are staying another night in Maho, at the Sonesta. We stop for breakfast at ZeeBest in Simpson Bay. The pastries are delicious and we stop just at the right time because the traffic is backing up because of the bridge opening. Our rooms are ready at the Sonesta and after dropping off our luggage we go to Mullet. My hubby loved this beach on our last visit. It truly is a beautiful beach with crystal clear water. I, too, love this beach as long as its calm, I hate those rogue waves! This beach is by far the most crowded beach we've been to all week. We have a snack of ribs and caribs at Rosie's! They are good, but we liked Talk of the Town's ribs better.
Now we are going to go to a favorite place of mine, Sunset Beach Bar. I just loved this place from my last visit. Hubby thinks I'm crazy but I love to watch the planes. We get to see the main event while we are there, Air France taking off! We also see a few other planes arrive/depart. Our travel buddies enjoy the planes too!!
For our last dinner on SXM we go to Pasta & More. We have no trouble getting a table at 6:45. We get a glass of wine and our meals, which were excellent and enjoy the evening. We aren't ready to give it up yet though. We go to the Red Piano Bar at the Pelican for a drink. Nice atmosphere but I guess we aren't in the mood, we have our drink and leave. Tomorrow is departure day and we are feeling
<img src="http://www.traveltalkonline.com/forums/images/graemlins/cry.gif" alt="" />
All in all it was an awesome week, it definitely went by TOO FAST! Weather was perfect, saw no crime and felt very safe. I've already started saying to my hubby that next year we should go for 2 weeks!!!! <img src="http://www.traveltalkonline.com/forums/images/graemlins/Wink.gif" alt="" />
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