Background Info
This is a report from my wife and I (newlywed honeymoon). We are both 33-34yo and neither of us have ever been to the Caribbean. We are not that 'touristy' by our nature and we prefer private surroundings. You will never find us ordering drinks from a beach chair or even go to those beaches, for example the beaches we went to are Grand Case, Petite Cayes, the far-side of Pinel, Tintammarre, and Rendezvous Bay (Anguilla). Although this is my first post, I have posted a few time unregistered (lazy) and have been following this forum as well as the TripAdvisor forum for 6 months or so(thanks to everyone for info in your posts!).


Day -2 (Saturday March 23)
Wedding Night......Everything went perfectly.

Day1 (Monday March 25th)

Arrived at 1:15pm from Detroit (through Charlotte) with no issues. Lesley Bruce was waiting at the airport to give us our Corolla. Car was full of dings and scratches but was perfectly functioning, after 4 minutes of paperwork we were off.

First stop: Le Grand Marche in Cole Bay for supplies (I waited in the car with the luggage in the trunk while my wife shopped).

Next stop: our villa at the Flamboyant Beach Villas (basically next door to the Grand Case Beach Club). Since we booked in July, we had the most desirable room, upstairs on the water side….the accommodations aren’t fancy but they had everything we needed/wanted and at a great price ($160/nt). It seems very secure and there is an electronic gate that closes from dusk to dawn where you have to use your key to access the property. Here is the link and pix: http://www.vrbo.com/346111

[Linked Image]
[Linked Image]

We were fairly hungry so we didn’t even unpack when we walked the beach to the GCBC for lunch at the Sunset Cafe….we just made lunch hours by 10 minutes. Monday is their Mojito special day and I must say it was nice to leave snow 9 hours earlier, get hot in the sun, and then have a frozen cocktail. Both our meals were good we both had seafood dishes not only there but over the entire week so the 12 seafood meals tend to blend together.

After unpacking and taking a dip or two the sun was down and we got dressed to walk down main street window shop at the boutiques and board shop for a light dinner. Since we ate a late lunch we weren’t that hungry and ended up at La Villa for a couple of cocktails and a couple of bowls of soup. I had the rockfish soup and my wife ordered the Lobster Bisque but they screwed up and served her the pumpkin soup…. it was good enough that she didn’t want to switch so we didn’t say anything. We split a desert and after the complimentary rum punch we were ready to make it back for bed.


Day 2

Woke up early and got active. We drove over to Philipsburg, parked and walked around for a while. It was pretty busy as there were 3 ships in and the passengers were arriving in town about the same time. We ended up eating breakfast on the boardwalk near the cruise ferry dock. We shopped for an hour or so and bought some silver & gem jewelry, some liquor to take home, hat, and a pair of sunglasses. We made our way back to Grand Case plenty early enough to miss the Harmony Night (or whatever the new name is) traffic. We cooled of with a swim and then walked the water down to Calmos Café for a couple of salads and cocktails. Later we walked back into town to see the festivities and buy a few gifts from the street vendors. I picked up my SXM Privilege card from Voila. We ended up eating at Ti Coin Creole. The food was good but Chef Carl seemed like he was holding us hostage because his restaurant was empty and he, presumptively, didn’t want an empty restaurant. It took about 20 minutes to get our Rum Punch after it was offered and then another 10 minutes to get the bill.


Day 3

Woke up and drove to the other side of Grand Case to pick up some pastries for breakfast. Packed up the cooler and backpack and drove to the landfill. Made the 40-50 minute hike to Petite Cayes. It was windy and raining so even though it was warm outside it was a bit chilly. By the time we got to the beach it stopped raining. We ate simple lunch of olives, cheese, and salami. Went for a few swims, laid out in the scattered sun before finally hiking out. After sundown we went to Spiga for dinner but even though the restaurant was nearly empty they couldn’t squeeze us in so we made reservations for the next night and walked down Main Street for another dinning option. We ended up at Il Nettuno and had a great time.

Day 4

Woke up and again make the trip to the other side of town for breakfast pastries. Next we geared up for a trip to Pinel. We immediately marched to the backside of Pinel to swim and snorkel at the secluded beach in the surf rather than the touristy side. We ate at lunch at Kabuni (my wife’s favorite meal of the trip), which was great and then snorkeled a little at the marine reserve. After getting back to our car we went back to Phillipsburg because my wife wanted to get the matching earrings and pendant to go along with her bracelet to make the set. We didn’t stay long as we made it back to Grand Case to relax for a bit. Later we went to Spiga for my best meal of the week.

Day 5

Woke up and again make the trip to the other side of town for breakfast pastries. Took it easy all day. We finally made it to the lolo. We went to the lolo with the French name that is acrros the sidewalk from Scoobi’s. The wait for our food was LONGGG and while I liked my Red Snapper my wifes lobster was WAYY overcooked and half of the meat was dry and hard like a salad crouton. The server took $10 off the price but it still wasn’t worth it. We ended up at Piazza Pascal for dinner. My wife had her best dinner (Seared Tuna) and we were impressed that the bill was so low….after SXM Privilege 10% off I think it was $66 for bottle of water, two cocktails, one appetizer, and two entrees.

Day 6

Hell day. Wind and rain storm throughout the night. It was really winding in the morning. This was the day we had tickets for the Winner Touch catamaran trip to Crocus Bay, Anguilla. The trip was sold out for days and sold out for this day too…..but we should have known something was off when only 12 of the 30 people showed up…..turns out that 18 people were smart and canceled…..even if they did have to forfeit their money. We pulled out of the Calmos meeting point and I will quote George Costanza from Seinfeld: “the sea was angry that day, my friends like an old man trying to send back soup in a deli.” I have never seen waves so big. We fought the waves for an hour and arrived at Tintamarre for a 45-minute break of snorkeling with the sea turtles. My wife was feeling seasick so we swam with the fins straight to shore to get some solid ground under her feet. Most of the people that snorkeled around the boat did see some turtles. We saw one next to the boat before leaving. We went full sail with the wind and ended up at Rendezvous Bay Anguilla because the wind. The wind was wailing going straight over Anguilla. I ate the roast pig with the other 10 passengers (all French but good people....couple of younger folks spoke decent English and made a point to include in my lunch conversations) while my wife layed down. After lunch, the crew motored us to shore (I believe illegally) and got some none moving land under my wife’s feet again. After an hour or so they picked us up on shore and we headed back to Grand Case (a couple hours early than the itinerary but no one complained). The wind was so strong that it ripped one of the sails. My wife never tossed her cookies but was visibly sick and so were three other passengers (that's 4 out of 12). I'm assuming that the trip wasn't canceled all together because it was sold out and they would have had to refund everyone's money (including the majority of passengers that were smart and didn't show up). Lesson learned...watch the weather (although I will never be able to get wife to go on a similar trip)
We got back early (4:15ish) and went out to dinner after sundown to the cafe next to the Octopus Diving souvenir stand called Le Quinze. There cauliflower cream soup was amazing. My fish was good but the sauce was too strong for my taste and overpowered the fish flavor but my wife's pizza was huge and seemed to be a bargain. Unfortunately my wife still felt ill from the waves and we left dinner quickly and we called it a night early...it was the black hole day of our trip.

Day 6

Woke up and again make the trip to the other side of town for breakfast pastries. Took it easy all day and never made any trips of significance. We at leftover pizza and some purchased bacon. We ended up back at Piazza Pascal with no complaints.

Day 7 (A cruel return to reality...what a horrible April Fool's joke)

Woke up and again make the trip to the other side of town for breakfast pastries. Went to Marigot to the market but being the Monday after Easter 95% of the town was closed up. We ate lunch at Calmos. My wife spilled her mixed drink and they were nice enough to mix another one for her and the waiter was very gracious when he found out we were leaving in an hour or two. We drove to the airport and gave the car back to Lesley Bruce. Bought some bottles of local rum at the duty free as a last minute purchase and boarded our flight home. Lines were huge in Charlotte but so was our layover so no worries. Made it back to the 25 degree weather at about midnight.




All and all we had a GREAT time with no issues (except for the boat trip). This was our first time in the Caribbean and if we went back to St. Martin we would stay at the Flamboyant Beach Villas again without hesitation but we may check out a few other islands first.