TravelTalkOnline Forums Travel and Vacation Forums St. Maarten - St. Martin Notes from recent trip

Notes from recent trip- 2/12-2/21

8 of us, 6 adults and 2 small grandchildren

Flights- $425 RT out of Dulles
Jet Blue to SXM, all good, flights just about full. Arrival in SXM was good, no line for immigration and luggage was prompt. Very small area for receiving incoming passengers. I am still trying to figure out how they can handle more than 1 flight at a time.

American on return. The departure area is much nicer than I expected. Everyone very friendly, seating was nice, airconditioned. Again, the issue is how they will handle multiple flights. Our flight plus some small plane flights filled the area.
I wanted to avoid a return through Miami, but it ended up being our best option. 4 of us have global entry, so no wait there. My son, DIL and grandkids don’t have it. We took all their carry ons with us and they proceeded to the mile long line with just the kids. Just as they got in line, a woman came up and told them they couldn’t wait in that long line with 2 little kids and she moved them to the front of the line. No telling how long they would have waited, but it would not have been quick.

Rented an 8 person minivan from Michael at Unity. Great service as always. Had a scratch on a door that I wasn’t sure was there when I picked it up. He said don’t worry about it, compared to all the other damage to the vehicles it was no big concern to him.

We stayed in a villa in Terres Basses that we had previously rented, so I was comfortable dealing with the owner and trusted that the place would be ready for renters. It was fine, no issues. Due to having the kids, we didn’t venture out as much as we normally do. As always, we enjoyed some breakfasts at our 2 favorites, Zee Best and the Yacht Club. The destruction is everywhere and tough to see. It is amazing to see the destroyed boats all over the place. We talked to a number of people about their experience and it is obvious that it is still very raw and emotional. Having said that, we didn’t run into a single unpleasant person and everything we needed was available. Construction noise is everywhere but that is to be expected. We took some long walks on Plum Bay and Long Bay and it was as beautiful as ever. Many of the palm trees are gone, but the foliage is recovering nicely.

Weather was windy and mostly rain free (rained quite a bit a night). Mosquitos no worse than usual, but that may have been because of the wind. It may have been a little cool for those that like it hot, but I thought the weather was great.

Everyone in our group wished we could have stayed longer. Glad we went and the minor storm related inconveniences were insignificant to us.

Scott

Thank you very much for the summary of your SXM trip. I’m going in about 6 weeks and after reading posts like yours I’m very happy I didn’t change to another island. Steve

Thanks for writing and letting us know of your experience.

Thanks for your report and observations.

Thanks for posting Scott. Lots of wind? Maybe I should plan on bringing a sweater.

Yes, do. It's cold and windy