St. Martin
Trip Report: 3/4 - 3/11, 2011
This was our fourth trip to St. Martin. The first was in February,
1997, the second was in February, 1999, and the
third was in February, 2005.
General Impressions:
St. Martin is again more crowded now than it was six years ago. The
roads, especially, were busier. The road heading east from the airport
through Simpson Bay takes 40-45 minutes at a slow crawl just to get to the
roundabout that forks to Philipsburg or Marigot. I know on the map it
looks shorter go this way to get to Marigot, but I would recommend going the
longer way heading west from the airport. We never even went to
Phillipsburg this trip because we wanted to avoid the traffic.
Orient beach was more crowded too. Many of the beach bars had expanded
further and there were more of them. One day there were so many 'boat
people' (cruise ship passengers that were dumped onto the beach and were loud
and obnoxious and never seemed to know how to relax) that we went to Friar's Bay
for the afternoon. Orient Village had more restaurants and shops than
on our previous visits. There were also more beach vendors than in the
past, and although not nearly as agressive and annoying as other location (e.g.
Cabo), it's a disturbing trend.
Flights:
- On Friday, 3/4/11 we had a 5 1/2 hour direct flight from Minneapolis on Sun Country.
- On Friday, 3/11/11 we had a 6 hour return direct flight on Sun Country to Minneapolis.
Both flights went well and were on time. A couple of negatives about Sun Country:
- Pricing when purchasing on the website. The initial price is
low compared with other carriers, but then as you go through the purchasing
process, they ask if you want a reserved seat and that costs extra. A
reserved seat in the aisle costs even more. Then you get prompted about
prepaying your checked baggage. After we added all these options, the
price was closer to the other carriers. However, since this was a direct
flight it turned out to be the best option, it just feels like you're being
nickel & dimed.
- Running out of food & water. We were seated in the middle of the
plane and they served drinks/food starting from the front and back. On
both flights by the time they got to our row, they had run out of many
items. Unless you are in the front or back, don't rely on them for
food. On the return flight they ran out of water just over half way
back. They put hand sanitizers in the restrooms, but there was no
drinking water and no way to make coffee.
Hotel:
We stayed at Alamanda
Resort right in the middle of Orient Beach for 7 nights. We had a
nice second floor room with a balcony overlooking the pool and the beach in the
distance. There was a little problem a couple of weeks after we booked via Orbitz. We received an email from Orbitz saying they didn't have the "Ocean
View" room type we booked and instead were booked into "Garden View" room (at
the same price). After some back and forth with Orbitz, they said the hotel was giving us a
complementary upgrade to the "Ocean View". Since all the rooms faced in,
we figure that the difference was getting the upper floor which could see the
ocean where the ground floor view would have obstructed view. Note
that the upper floors also had an "attic" above it that they told us was
intended for children. It could sleep 2-3 and had it's own bathroom.
To get to the beach you do have to cross a dirt parking lot, but it wasn't
far. The hotel is located in the middle of the two-mile beach, so
getting to any one of the Orient Village establishments or beach bars
was easy. The extras that the room had were as follows: small refrigerator, hair
dryer, microwave, two burner range, and a room safe.
The one extra that was great about the hotel was two free beach chairs,
umbrella, and table at Kakao's beach. That saved us about $20 a day. The only
catch was you couldn't use the first row of chairs unless you paid.
Another great extra was the free continental breakfast (coffee, juice, fruit,
& baked goods). This saved us about another $30 a day. You could
order extras (e.g. pancakes, french toast, omelet, etc.) for a price.
We thought the rooms were very clean and quiet and the service was
great. We enjoyed the balcony when we wanted to get out of the sun
completely.
Car Rental:
We rented a Hyundai i10 from Dollar
Rent a Car for $217.83 for 1 week (including taxes & fees). Everything
worked out fine with the car and the service. Note that you should make
sure to bring the car back with a full tank of gas as I thought I overheard them
about to charge someone who didn't $15 a gallon. We only used a half a
tank during the week and it cost us 21 EUR to fill up a Cadisco station in
Orient Bay. One weird thing about the gas gauge in this car is that it
didn't appear to move after the fill. It took at least 15 minutes of
driving before it slowly got to "Full". I'm not sure what would have
happened if we filled up right near the rental company.
Bars and Restaurants:
In general we found that food prices seem to be high although drink prices
were reasonable.
Orient Beach:
- Bikini Beach --
We had lunch there. Good food, but we thought the food was a bit over
priced. Use the coupon from the website to get a free drink with lunch
or dinner. However, it was a great place to grab a drink (or more) at
night. Corrina was the most friendly and fun bartender we met
on the island.
- La Playa --
Similar in price and quality to Bikini. We only had a drink here.
- Waikiki -- We only had
drinks here, but they had a fun party on Sunday afternoon with people
dancing on the tables.
- Andy & Cheryl's
(formerly Baywatch) -- Good food at a good price. Service is included on your
bill. No restrooms, you need to use the one at Pedros for 50 cents.
- Zen Cafe Concept -- Good
crepes. Maybe slightly higher in price then the surrounding beach bars
in this area. But the restrooms didn't have toilet paper nor water/soap
to wash up. Makes you wonder how the poeple who work here wash their
hands?
- Safari
Grill -- Our only bad meal of the trip. Over priced and bland,
awful food.
- Le Piment --
Good Italian food. Recommended.
- Tap 5 Pizza -- This is now just take out. Good pizza and value.
- Tap 5 Deli -- Had good sandwiches on fresh French bread. Good for a quick
lunch. Very reasonable.
- Paris Texas -- We only had a drink here. A Tex Mex restaurant
affiliated with Bikini
Beach. Wait staff not very friendly.
- Kon Tiki -- We
were planning on going there for the Sunday night party, but apparently they
don't do that any more.
Other Restaurants:
- Le Cottage -- Grand Case. Our favorite fine dining
meal. Very expensive. Reservations can be made on their
website.
- Piazza Pascal -- Grand Case. Excellent Italian dinner. We
sat on the upper Terrace. They participated in the 1:1 Euro to Dollar
cash program and we found a 10% off coupon at our hotel. You can make
reservations via email from their website. We went there on a Tuesday
night, which is Harmony Nights in Grand Case. We couldn't park in the
normal parking lots and it look long time to find a parking spot at 6:30.
- Paradise View -- Orient
Bay. Nice view of St. Barts. Good food, however, it
has expanded its seating area since the last time we visited and the
kitchen cannot keep up with the amount customers, and it was only about half
full. Be prepared to wait 20-30 minutes for your food and enjoy the
view.
- Rancho del Sol -- Orient
Bay. We went here three times. Twice for dinner and once for their
2 for 1 Happy Hour 4-6 pm. Very good food and value. Try the
chicken kabobs with mushroom 'sauce'. Excellent. Free after dinner
shots - infused rum. Accepted credit cards.
- Sunset Bar & Grill
(Formerly Sunset Beach Bar) -- Maho. Took lots of pictures &
videos of the planes. The food and prices were good, but the service
(except at the bar) was awful. Besides us, we heard a lot of people
around us complaining about the service.
- Buccaneer Beach Bar -- Simpson
Bay on the beach of the Atrium. We had a beer here and some appetizers.
Casual and a good value.
Grocery Stores (they all took credit cards):
- We went to the US Market outside of Grand Case for our
major purchases.
- We went to the larger grocery store (name?) in Orient Village for medium
purchase.
- We went to the Tap 5 Deli in Orient Village for small purchases.
Beaches:
- Orient - Since we had the free chairs just a few yards from our hotel
room, we spent almost every day here.
- Friar's - Nice quiet picturesque beach. Many families with
children. No "boat people".
- Maho - The beach looked good, but the beach immediately adjacent
to the Maho hotel was gone. It was all rocks.
Links:
Questions? Contact Paul,
or Edna,
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