TravelTalkOnline Forums Travel and Vacation Forums St. Maarten - St. Martin Trip Report-Mar 24-31

We just returned from a great week on the island last Sunday. We haven’t been there since the year before Irma and it was not what we expected. We flew Jet Blue from Ft. Lauderdale. This was a first for us, as we usually leave from JFK, but have taken up residence in Naples, Florida. We drove across Alligator Alley the night before and spent the night at the Hampton Inn South. Our flight left right on time on Sunday the 24th of March—7:49 a.m. Great flight not full. Alain from Triple A was waiting for us and after signing the papers off we went to our home away from home for the week—LaVista Beach Resort. We have stayed at LaVista many many times but never here. Our room was directly on the first floor overlooking the beach. It was perfect.

The island is still being worked on. Flamingo and Royal Palm still need a lot of work and am wondering how it can be ready by 2020. Great restaurants some new ones and some old. After checking in, taking a quick nap and picking up a few grocery items we headed down to The Greenhouse for some happy hour and jumped next door to BBB for a burger and a few beers. Seeing as we were up early we made it a early evening and headed back to chill and relax.

The rest of the week was quiet. Beach every day at Orient under the orange umbrellas. It was perfect. A few trips to Front Street to say hello and pick up some “new” jewelry pieces at Shivas helped make the trip well worth it. Breakfast was simple with a few visits to Zees in Simpson Bay, Simpson Bay Yacht Club and the Hideaway at LaVista. Dinners were great. We hit Toppers, The Spaghetti House in Cupocoy, Pineapples Petes, Marks Place and twice at Sale and Pepe, which was absolutely fantastic.. Not one bad meal.

Airport departure on Sunday was a breeze. Arrived 90 minutes early, check-in not a problem and we left right on time at 11:49 a.m. We went down with carry-ones but made few liquid purchases so our bag had to be checked in. We had no issues with customs as we have GLOBAL entry, grabbed our bag, got a car and was back to Naples by dinner time.

The island is taking shape. The only thing we didn’t like was the amount of solicitors in front of the stores on lower Front Street which were very annoying. A great quick trip and after seeing the island and our friends we can’t wait to go back.

Thanks for sharing. Yes the island is taking shape. Did you mean the yellow umbrellas on Orient?

Thanks for the report. Sounds like you ahd a good time.

Thanks for sharing.

Nice report. We frequent the same restaurants but have never been to the Spaghetti House.

Love Spaghetti House!

They had orange umbrellas which were mixed in with the “yellow” ones. The Spaghetti House was very good. If we had more time would have gone back.

Nice informative report. Glad you had a good time.

Nice report! Thanks for sharing with us. Now it is time to book another trip soon!