Budget

The wife and I are planning a trip in spring 2016 and staying at GCBC so within distance of good restaurants. We both like to eat well when on vacation so we have enjoyed reading the reviews of restaurants in Grand Case. What should we expect to spend for a dinner for two and two or three drinks/glasses of not high end wine per night.

Since most of the high end restaurants tend to be competitive on price, I'd suggest you check out their individual menus to offer some idea of the prices of the dishes you may want to order, since there is a decent gap between the lower priced meals and higher priced ones. Pick one of the restaurants--Bistrot Caraibbes, L' Auberge Gourmand, Le Cottage, L' Estaminet, et. al. for a general idea.

House wine tends to run 7-9 Euros a glass, but I have no idea what cocktails go for.

I'd say $100 is a minimum for a light appetite, and $150-175 is about what we spend, on average, for a more extensive meal--more if you have more that 1 bottle of wine, or better taste than I in wine.

$130-$150 approximately including appetizers and desert

Hi from ENC!

I agree with the $130-$150 estimate. Understand that, on the French side, this includes the service, so you will not be adding an additional 15-20% for the tip. Generally you'll leave 5% or so in cash for excellent service.

Cruzer's suggestion that you check online menus to compare prices is a good idea. Yet, each place has it's embiance or speciality. We usually spend about $110 food & wine but interlace days with places like Enold's for true caribbean flavors for less money. Still great food.

And with all the great choices you don't have to rent a car so the money saved on that allows a bigger budget for those finer restaurants.

Hmmmm, I dont really think in terms of a 'budget' either, but if it helps at all, on our most recent trip our dinners seemed to average from $85.00 on the low side to one evening where our dinner ran over $170.00 for two but that did include one bottle of wine with dinner and a shared dessert souffle as well as apps before our main selections. I think the average dinner out (or lunch on two separate occasions...) ran about $105.00 for the two of us with never more than a glass or two of wine included. And while that would definitely add up over two or three weeks of vacation we counter-balanced those meals by the fact there were many days when it was either lunch or dinner out and other days when we didn't eat out at all and enjoyed the luxury of meals on the balcony of our timeshare.

And as embarrassing as this is to admit, when talking in terms of eating/SXM, quite honestly, we thoroughly enjoyed those fresh baguette sandwiches with some fruit and island cheeses and a glass or two of wine thrown in for good measure - thank you Jeannie for providing the best eating in provisions available - almost as much as we enjoyed our higher end dinners out. There are days you just don't want to have to eat out and we seemed to have quite a few of them this past trip. And then there's the reheat nights - and we had a few of those, too, and with our oven and micro put to good use, we enjoyed them almost as much as the original dinners - I'm always amazed at the size of the portions some restaurants serve......

St. Maarten/St. Martin has such a wide variety of eating/dining choices that you really can do it as inexpensively or as high-end as you are personally comfortable with. We're not particularly what you might class as real foodies but we can definitely be little piggies at times!! <img src="http://www.traveltalkonline.com/forums/images/graemlins/jester.gif" alt="" /> <img src="http://www.traveltalkonline.com/forums/images/graemlins/jester.gif" alt="" />

You've gotten some good advice but here's my "rule of thumb" that I've used for years to estimate the cost for dining out when I travel. It works not only for St. Martin but for places all over the world. You can use it to calculate the cost of one meal or for your entire trip.

It's really simple - You estimate what you'd spend if you ate a similar meal and drank a similar number of cocktails and/or wine at a similar type restaurant (i.e. casual, moderate or upscale) back home. Do this for each meal you think you have while traveling. Add 15% to 20% to that total number and you'll come up with a very workable "meal budget" for your trip and you'll probably have a little money left in your pocket at the end of your trip.

Most of the numbers quoted here are similar to our experience. One way we like to give our wallets a break but to still eat well is to eat a the Sunset Cafe right in the GCBC. Prices there tend to run at about 75% of the restaurants "downtown" and Sunset does a very nice job. Check with them about specials; they vary during the week. I good Sunset night is the same night as the guest mixer, which is worth attending.

Have fun!

There's a place in Cul de Sac off road to Pinel Ferry dock called Le Taiitu that served a fixed price 3 course meal and a drink at lunch time for 25-30 euro a year ago. We'd then snack at night.

It's on the road to Mt. Vernon

Apparently there is a 20 Euro 3 course meal at Sol e Luna for lunch now also. A real chance to enjoy a fabulous meal for not much money.

We probably ate at Le Taitu 4 times last year for lunch, but had their lunch specials at 12 Euros each. Drink, meal, and coffee afterwards. It's the best deal for a very tasty French meal I've found on the island.

Lots of local residents dine there for lunch. The evening meals are very good there too!

Thanks for the info and keep it coming if you have additional suggestions. We usually spend $100-$125.00 when we go out to the better restaurants near us, so the prices are very much in line. Of course here at home we wouldn't do that for 4 or 5 nights in a row like we may on vacation. Just did not want to get surprised and blow the budget on one or two meals. But my general rule for vacations is pack half the clothes and take twice the money.