TravelTalkOnline Forums Travel and Vacation Forums St. Maarten - St. Martin Trip Report 2-23 thru 3-16

Short revue of our 3 week stay
Things moving very smooth since last year as most places
have been up & running for about a year,

Aloha has raised their chairs to $20,00 & menu prices have
taken a nice hike. Spent several days there & Nat was as usual, CRAZY. She had great music on Sunday starting at 4:30

Second week for 3 straight days went to Dawn Beach as wind not to bad. Orient was so windy in fact worst I have seen in 16 years.

Spent 1 day at Friars Bay. This is a great beach area but
the restaurant is high priced & most of the waiters were nasty,

Spent most of our time at Orange Fever with Luc & his crew.
Such a nice guy. His chairs have gone to $16,00 but you
still get 2 free drinks. Menu prices have gone up very little.

I realize their operating expenses have increased dramatically since renovations but Luc has worked very hard
not to pass a lot of this cost on to his customers.

Great 3 weeks & am looking forward to next year.

Nice report, often brevity is the key to effective communication.

Have not been to Friars in a long while, for no reason other than a longer travel.

Bad service and waiters where? Friars Bay Beach Cafe? Is there still Kali's?

That's too bad since FBBC has always been one of our go-to beach restaurants. We've always found their food to be delicious and the waiters, while usually extremely busy at lunch time, have always been pleasant although not particularly chatty. The latter is probably just as well since their English is passable - more or less - and my French really stinks. I will agree though that the last time we were there we did comment on their prices having gone up quite a bit but we were okay with them since the chairs were free with lunch but for the fee for cushions. I understand they charge for chairs now? <img src="http://www.traveltalkonline.com/forums/images/graemlins/Yikes.gif" alt="" /> <img src="http://www.traveltalkonline.com/forums/images/graemlins/Yikes.gif" alt="" />

I was wondering the same thing about Friars Bay Beach Cafe. We haven't been to Friars beach for a couple years, but last time we went we had dinner at Kali's, it was the most disgusting meal we have ever had on the island as well as the worst service. Is it still there or has it changed hands? I hope so!

We went 3 times to Friar's Beach Club in the last 3 weeks. My favorite beach. We paid $10 for 2 chairs, pads, umbrella and a small table.
We also ate lunch there. Great food, and didn't find the prices out of line with other beach restaurants (Grand Case, Orient). We never found the waitstaff to be anything other then cheerful and attentive. (and I am not French!). Beach has even been 'raked" of those pesky black rocks.

Thanks for taking time to post.

Thanks, Marge, for the update. We can all see the same things differently but my experiences at FBBC more clearly resemble yours over many years and many visits.

Looks like we'll be heading back to FBBC in a few weeks. A ten dollar charge for beach seating is more than reasonable and less than half what we willingly pay at Anse Marcel. We have ALWAYS enjoyed the food there and thought it one of the better beach restaurants on the island.

And in absolute honesty, over all our trips to this beach I have no opinion regarding Kali's since we've never eaten there.