First time visit - mid-July

I have been reading this forum for a couple of days now and hoping for some advice. Wife and I are planning an anniversary trip in Mid-July. We are looking at possibly visiting St. Martin, focusing on the Le Petit Hotel as we typically like small, boutique hotels with great food around. After canvassing multiple sites, we are a little concerned about the recovery around the Grand Case beach area. Can anyone provide any guidance about our choice of location and timing of our trip? Also, after reading the thread about the Grand Case restaurants, we are a little concerned about options during our trip. We would love to visit and support the island's recovery, but we keep seeing how the French side is struggling with recovery. Thanks to all in advance for any assistance.

First, Le Petit is a great choice for a hotel, provided they have space. Have you checked availability? They are pretty small, so often book out many months in advance. As far as restaurant choices in Grand Case, unfortunately, most of the water side restaurants are NOT open. However, there are plenty of wonderful options on the land side. I assume you read the one thread that listed everything that is open? And, just because you stay on the French side, doesn't mean you have to dine there also, at least not all the time. There are plenty of wonderful restaurants on the Dutch side now. As far as timing, we go almost every year in June, which is not much different than July, as far as weather. And there are less tourists than high season, which is a big plus, to me. It might help to know what other islands you are considering.

We spent the day in Grand Case yesterday. The area was hopping.....we spent most of the day at The Rainbow, FYI George, previous manager of LaBelle Epoch is running the restaurant now, big improvement. Staff were very friendly and great sax player and singer. Lots of people on the beach and many more restaurants have opened since our November trip.

And jic LePetite does NOT have availability, the Grand Case Beach Club is a great alternative choice. It’s a very small but FULL SERVICE resort with a beautiful newly redone pool and restaurant. Chairs and drink service on the beach and a very easy walk to the GC eateries.

GO! My daughter and son-in-law stayed at Le Petite Hotel in October because Grand Case Beach Club had to delay their opening. She took lots of pictures of Grand Case for me for our annual February visit (at Grand Case Beach Club). The amount of work done in those 5 months was not to be believed. The beaches are wonderful, a lot of the restaurants are being worked on and may even be open by July, and the warm welcoming of the people is fantastic. My kids loved Le Petite Hotel but since we have been guests at GCBC for 17 years they feel that is "home."

All--

Thanks for the quick response. Le Petit does have availability. Hopefully, we will make a decision by tomorrow and book. With regards to other locations, we are looking at Turks, outer islands of Bahamas, and Grand Cayman (least desired). Other sites (tripadvisor, etc...) have not provided much information about the island.

Please don’t hesitate, the island is coming back fast and strong. This is our 3rdvisit since Irma and can’t believe the progress we’ve seen.

Hi Bip ... all the info above is spot-on and the couple who runs this little hotel are just lovely. They gave us a tour a few years ago, but unfortunately they were always booked when we tried to make reservations here. Another nearby hotel that's really nice is the Bleu Emeraude hotel/bed & breakfast which is essentially right next door. They should have availability if Le Petit is completely booked. I'm fairly sure they're back up-and-running at full speed so this would be a solid back-up choice.

If you read the various posts on this message board there's a very detailed one about the restaurants that are open in the Grand Case area. I know that two of our favorites from the past are open (Bistrot Caraibes and Rainbow Cafe), but there are many other choices within walking distance so you should be fine. The beach at Grand Case isn't the most exciting one we ever visited, but the sand there is very nice and it's good place to lay out and relax if that's what you are looking for. Good luck!

Bjp--Now, I'm wondering why you bring up that blog in particular? There is a ton of info on the net about the recovery from Irma. Nice blog, but it appears the main purpose of that blog is to sell the paintings done by the owner of the blog.

Not trying to sell anything. My apologies and will remove it. It was the pictures that interested me the most. If there are other blogs that I can find or if you can point me in the right direction, please do. Not my intention at all to sell or promote. Google has not been friendly in finding out much trustworthy information.

With regards to location,, "isn't the most exciting one we ever visited" is exactly what we are looking for.

Again, thank you all for your responses.

Bjp--Thanks for removing that link. There are lots of trip reports here on TTOL also.

With regards to your other choices, the out islands of the Bahamas are totally different than SXM, and there are very few choices there for a foodie, which I kind of got the impression you are. Turks and Caicos, we've only visited on a ship, but it seems much more a place where you stay at your resort most of the time. Again, very different from SXM.

Enjoy, regardless of where you pick!

For the record, we started visiting SXM in 1973 and we were hooked. Have been back at least once a year every year since, and often times multiple yearly trips.

But over the years we have also vacationed on Anguilla, Antigua, Aruba, the Bahamas, Barbados, Bermuda, Grenada, Oahu, Saba, St. John, St. Kitts, Vieques and have visited but never vacationed on St. Thomas, St. Bart’s, Puerto Rico and at least three other of the Hawaiian islands via cruise ship. We have found prettier islands, cheaper islands, more expensive islands, more sedate islands, islands with lesser food options and at least a couple where the food is as good, and believe it or not, at least one that is more convenient to get to.

But we have never found any island that has it all as nicely packaged as SXM does. And to make it even better, they drive on the same side of the road as we do?

Enjoy your vacation where ever you go.

We've gone in July many times and I would not hesitate if I were you. If you have a car (recommended), in addition to the wonderful choices in Grand Case - we especially love Bistro Caraibes - GC is only a short drive to Orient Village, Marigot & others. And for advice, this forum is much more insightful than TripAdvisor or Google Travel. The reviews are written by actual SXM lovers.

We always go in July (August last year) and enjoy our time. I think it is technically rainy season, but I haven't experienced a rain "storm" longer than probably 5 minutes. It's less crowded except when the cruise ships come in. We aim for a more laid back experience, so off-season works great for us.

Just needed a little nudging. We are confirmed for July. Thanks again to all. I will be following this forum over the next long four months. Glad I found it and hopefully I can contribute upon my return.

Looking forward to hearing about your trip. Enjoy!

I have read the island is not hard to navigate by car. I am not usually hesitant to drive; however due to the recovery any reason not to our first time out? While I do foresee ourselves hanging out a good bit around Grand Case as we only have six days, we will also try to explore different areas, especially for a good meal or beach. The idea of this trip is to get away, relax, have good food/wine, rinse and repeat.

During our trip last year we didn't venture far from Philipsburg and Maho but we didn't have any trouble traveling by car. You should be perfectly fine on the main roads. If you don't already have it, get the Google Maps app for your phone and before your trip download offline maps covering SXM. Signage wasn't great before the hurricane and certainly didn't get better. Google Maps will cover you pretty well though.

Bip,

All of SXM is basically an easy drive - you really shouldn’t have any major difficulties but remember - rush hour traffic is rush hour traffic, even there. And you do want to take note of the bridges opening and closing times - they can create some major back-ups. But other than that you really shouldn’t have any big issues.

On additional question, we like to hike. Trying to fit a plane ride over to Saba and hike for a day cramming too much into this trip?

i may be the wrong one to respond here because I absolutely adore Saba and have both day-tripped and over-nighted there so to me, a day spent on Saba is more than worth it but that said, it took us twenty years to go over the first time.

We took the Edge that first trip (which can be a tough ride if you tend to suffer from mal de mer) as part of a packaged tour that included some sight-seeing and/or hiking time for those who wanted to hike, and a lovely lunch at one of several locations. Our daughter and granddaughter attempted the hike to the top of Mt. Scenery but unfortunately, they were unprepared as the hike was a last minute decision. They didn’t have good hiking shoes or enough water but they almost made it to the top none the less. Time was also an issue because they had to be back to the pick-up point at a specified time.

The next time we went over we flew and it was a beautiful experience. If you took the early morning flight you would have plenty of time to for the hike and sight-seeing but do yourself a huge favor and go prepared with an extra shirt since you might get pretty grubby on the climb, sturdy shoes for hiking and plenty of bottled water to keep yourself hydrated. You will need it and with all of that you might also toss field glasses and a good camera into your knapsack.

The only downside is giving up a day on the SXM beaches and that’s a call only you can make.

I’ve never been to Saba and hiking isn’t my idea of vacation... but doesn’t Loterie Farm have hiking trails? Might be a good alternative to traveling to Saba if you’re worried about time.

My personal opinion, and we are not hikers, snorkelers or divers, is that Loterie is lovely but there’s just no way it compares to Saba. It’s a good alternative SXM day off the beach, but a Saba day, be it by boat or by plane, is an experience from start to finish and if - big IF for sure - you do have the time to work it in to your trip, I don’t think you’ll regret doing so.