Hey folks. Never done a trip report, so I'm not sure what's expected, but I wanted to share some thoughts on our weekend.<br><br>As some of you may know, the weather was, to put it bluntly, crappy. (can I say that on here?)<br>On again, off again, rain made it difficult to commit to sunbathing. But it sure does inspire some drinking![Linked Image]<br><br>Favorite Beach and Bars: Raymond's at Baie Rouge and Kali's at Friar's Bay. Kali is wonderful and his full moon party was a blast. Hubby had the red snapper and I had the chicken kabob--both very well prepared. Highly recommend.<br><br>Orient Beach: Not as fab as I expected--may have been the weather--may have been the abundance of children--but we didn't see anyone nude bathing and therefore did not do so ourselves. Oh well, we probably would have burned. But we did meet Elisa of Bikini Beach. Very hospitable and a good drinking destination.<br><br>Dutch side: Hubby was very disappointed by the lack of Dutch spoken. So, if you're going to practice your Nederlandse--forget it.<br><br>Mercure Coralia Simson Beach: very nice property, excellent location, nice people. Would recommend. Oh, and the price is right.<br><br>Restaurants: Thai Garden and The Cottage. Folks were right--not purely Thai, but excellent! And, the Cottage outdid itself for $85 including a $22 bottle of wine. With seating right on Grand Case it's good for people watching.<br><br>BIGGEST WARNING OF ALL----Do not, under any circumstances, accept free scratch tickets from people on the street. Unless, of course, you want to go to a timeshare pitch for 90 mins. We are the biggest skeptics and we knew that we shouldn't scratch the ticket, but did so anyway. I , of course, won a prize. But you a) don't know what the prize is until after you get to the timehsare dungeon, and b) you can't accept the prize upon immediate entry into the property. Our experience turned quite ugly when they insisted upon taking my CC#, DL# and other id'ing info. We wanted to leave and take our paperwork with us, and they attempted to physically prevent us from leaving teh parking lot. Quite messy.<br>But then we had a drink at the Sunset Beach bar and all was well again.[Linked Image]<br><br>Don't know how helpful this is. I really appreciated the info. shared by others and hope that someone can glean some useful info from this post.<br>Have a great week everyone!