Trip Report in Progress

Hello All, We are FINALLY on the island! Had to push back our reservations 3 times since May, but we made it.

My wife and I, and our best friends scheduled our Covid tests on September 21st, for tests to take place on Monday, Sept. 28th at Passport Health in Sarasota, Fl.. We had our results by 8 pm on Tuesday, filled out the online form and uploaded our test results to the SXM portal. Within an hour we had our approval for entry into St Martin. Left home on Thursday, drove to Miami and stayed at EB Hotel, where we had booked a park and fly package (https://www.ebhotels.com/miami/packages). Hotel was very nice, I would reccomend it. Hopped on the hotel shuttle at 8 am for a 10:45 flight to St Martin. We were all flying business class, but even the Priority lines at AA were surprisingly long. AA does check both your Covid test results and Approval For Entry form. Our flight was probably 75% - 80% full. The service in first class wasn't what it used to be. A bag of snacks and full selection of booze were available. In flight service was great! We arrived on time in St Martin, passed through immigration more quickly than any of our 17 previous trips, grabbed our bags, and met up with Michael and one of his helpers for a short ride to the Unity Car Rental office. Paperwork was quick and easy, and we left with two SUVs and headed to Care Four in Cole Bay. Picked up groceries and made it to our villa ariund 4 pm. We have stayed in this neighborhood many times, but this is our first time at Albacore (https://dream.villas/rooms/orient-bay-572-572). Beautiful villa with amazing views and awesome pool! We were met by Samantha who filled us in on everything we needed to know about the villa. After unpacking and showering, we headed to Le Piment in Orient Village for a great meal and fabulous service. We guys had the blackened ribeye, the girls both got pizzas. They also have great Rhum Punches with a hint of passion fruit flavor. Perfect end to our travel day!!!

Day 2: Breakfast in the villa, then off to the the south end of Orient to rent chairs and umbrellas from Cedrick. Including the four of us, they had a total of eight customers on the beach. We walked the entire length of Orient and marveled at the amount of destruction still visable from Irma. Had lunch at Le Telegraphe in the village. After a dip in the pool and cleaning up, we were off to dinner. Got some incorrect info from a local about restaurants that were open. We headed over to Sunset Beach Cafe in Grand Case only to find out that they are only open for breakfast and lunch. Had noticed that Spiga was closed when we drove bye, so we headed to Bistrot Caraibes. They were also closed. Headed over Sol de Luna. Closed too. Oh well, back to the village. Le Piment couldn't seat us as they were packed. Went next door to La Trattoria. Food was good, but the service was lacking due to them being overwhelmed by the size of the crowd. The places that are open are prospering!

More to come soon!

Glad you arrived! So good to hear some news from the island! Sounds lovely so far, despite the communication issues about restaurants. Even pre-Covid, I preferred meals in Orient Village versus Grand Case.

How is the road through the middle of Grand Case? Is the Super U open in Hope Estate, as someone else reported the one in Marigot is closed.

Enjoy!!!

We heard a rumor over the weekend that US citizens weren't being allowed into SXM - guess they were wrong! Glad you finally made it - have an amazing time!

glad all went well and hope you have a great time.

Thanks for the update.

Thanks for the update. Looking forward to reading more...

They have been "allowed" since August 1. There are restrictions but nothing to the "rumor" you mention.

Day 3: Breakfast at the villa, then off to Pinel. The ferry was about half full, most everyone was wearing masks while waiting, and on the trip over to the island. Karibuni was closed, but Yellow Umbrella was packed! Got chairs, umbrellas and Mai Tais, which were delicious. Had a late lunch around 2:30 pm. By that time, all the fish selections were sold out. Had cheeseburgers and fries, which were good. Left Pinel at 4:30, nobody wore masks on the return trip. Had snacks at the villa and enjoyed the pool and Ma Doudou in the evening.

Day 4 (today): Emailed an order to Emma at Fabulous Feasts for dinner today and tomorrow. It was a rainy morning, so we didn't head to the beach until noon or so. Nobody home at the south end of Orient, so we turned left and got chairs at Sun Beach Clubber. There were maybe 20 people there. We walked the entire length of Orient again today. Along the entire stretch of the beach, there were 3 options; Sun Beach Clubber, Le String, and Bikini. The places that were open had small crowds. During our first 4 days on the island, we have not encountered any other Americans on the French side. I'm sure that there must be a few, but not many. The roads between the airport and Grand Case are in horrible condition! You might be able to go 20 - 25 MPH in that stretch. Beyond Grand Case, the roads are better. The road through Grand Case is in bad shape too. The island is still a LONG WAY from recovering from Irma. Very sad, to say the least. We are hoping that when we return next May, things will more resemble what we enjoyed on our previous trips. Time will tell...

Thanks for another update.

FF--thanks for the update. Enjoy the rest of the trip!!!

Day 5: Quick drive to Orient Village to pick up croissants at the bakery. OMG, they were amazing! Drove to the south end of the beach and parked. Cedrick was open today. Found out that he is closed every Monday. Walked the entire length of the beach at 10 am, and passed a total of 5 other walkers. It is so weird, but also very cool to have the entire place all to yourself. After our walk, we headed back to the villa to veg out around the pool for a few hours. When we were medium rare, we decided to get out of the sun and head over to the Ma Doudou "factory". The gate was open and so was Ma Doudou. This is our 18th trip to the island, but we brought another couple who are newbies. They were like kids in a candy shop at the rhum shack! We loaded up on Rhum, then back for another walk on Orient at 4 pm. This time, we passed 3 other walkers. Dinner at the villa, compliments of Emma at Fabulous Feasts, capped off another amazing day in paradise!

Thanks for the daily reports....most appreciated. Sure hope visitors start returning to the island in more normal numbers soon. Can't help but feel sorry for the people and business owners on the island. Damn shame....

Now you know what it was like in the '70s.

Back then it was easy to spend a day seeing absolutely no one. CO or not was NOT an issue back then. 😉😉

Thanks for the report! Carry on!

Thank-you!

So nice to hear.

We were on the island in June of last year and your reports are making us want to get back there. We live in Sarasota and drove to Fort Lauderdale for the great rates that JB had. We rented a condo in Orient Village and spent 5 of the 7 days letting sand gravity tale its effect! That was also when we went to the Ma Doudou factory in Cul-De-Sac. Much like your newbies, it was our first time at the rhum shop and we brought back a lot of their small bottles as souvenirs and gifts. The gentleman at the store spoke no English and we speak no French but we were able to work it out. Really liking your reports and making us want to leave Sarasota for a Saint Martin fix.

Got home early this morning. During days 5 -9 we settled into a routine of picking up awesome breakfast selections at the bakery in Orient village, taking them back to the villa for breakfast, hanging out around the pool for awhile, heading down to the South end of the beach and renting chairs from Cedrick. Many long walks up and down our favorite beach. We finally did run into other Americans toward the end of our stay. On Friday, Cedrick probably had close to 20 customers, which was huge! Saturday was very rainy, which pretty much eliminated any beach time.I believe that we had dinner at Le Piment 4 times. The food and the service were top notch and friendly every time! I had mentioned that the roads from the airport to Grand Case were in bad shape. In retrospect, it was POURING down rain as we traveled that route on our first day. Having traveled it in the opposite direction, without the rain, it wasn't really that awful. Still a LOT of post Irma destruction visible, which is heart-breaking. All in all, another great trip that we are very thankful for being able to finally take. Navigating departure at the airport was quicker and easier than expected. Flying AA (at least in business class) was still pleasant. Lord willing and the covid doesn't rise, we have reservations for St Martin next May. Leaving for Aruba in less than two weeks, which looks to be more difficult, with more hoops to jump through than St Martin!

Thanks for the update. Was wondering what was going on with you. Would be interested to hear your report from Aruba. (And I'm really envious of you, just returning from SXM and then on to Aruba. Good for you!!!)

It was supposed to be St Martin in May, Aruba in October. Didn't include Covid in our plans...

Hey, Covid has put everyone's plans into disarray. This year will be our first year since 1989 that we will not be in SXM.

First year since 99 for us.

If our Nov/Dec 2020 trip doesn’t happen it will be the first year since 1973 we haven’t managed at least one SXM trip each year. Not gonna’ think that way. Maybe I need more positivity in my life?!

You are one of the good ones, you all will make it to the island.

Pat--I really hope you are able to go! As you say, think positive thoughts!

Would someone add their trip to the calendar, it feels very lonely there!

https://www.dropbox.com/s/rr0g0hz8od2cgcn/2020-10-07%2006.14.15.jpg?dl=0
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https://www.dropbox.com/s/7onlez0r0t65nx5/2020-10-06%2007.03.54.jpg?dl=0

Great photos. Thanks for the reports.

I want to add my thanks to those already given regarding both your trip report and your photos. So many of us are living vicariously through these efforts so they truly are appreciated.

FF--I missed the link to the photos before. I'm not sure I'm seeing the whole photo, with the Dropbox deal on there? Just a suggestion, perhaps you could try to use the feature here to upload your photos directly here? Just use the ATTACHMENT MANAGER, in Full Editor mode. If you have questions about how to do that, let me know..

Thanks Carol. Hope this works.

Ah, lovely!! Thanks!!

Nice pics....

Beautiful shots, thank you for sharing!

The island looks lush and green. Blooming flowers, ahhhhhh you're killing me!

Thank you for posting your trip reports and the beautiful photos!

We have not stayed in the Orient area in many years and I miss it. We just stayed in Beacon Hill and the drive to Orient Beach grew tiring as the days went on. Unfortunately we never made it to Grand Case or Orient Village for dinner. One of my regrets of the trip.

Have fun in Aruba!