TravelTalkOnline Forums Travel and Vacation Forums St. Maarten - St. Martin Belated trip report 11/30--12/14

We were scheduled to stay on the island from November 30th through December 14th. But thanks to American Airlines, we were delayed a day and arrived on the island December 1st. Our plane out of Wilmington had a nail in the tire and it took 5 plus hours to replace the tire and we missed our connection flight. We were rerouted through Philadelphia on Sunday the 1st.

We arrived on the 1st and rented our car from Thrifty. We stayed at the Simpson Bay Resort and the room was great and housekeeping cleaned the room twice a week. We picked up our basic supplies at the Market Garden and then finished our food supplies at the Carrefour’s in Cole Bay (nice store). We brought our own reusable bags as they charge for bags.

We eat at all the normal places; Pineapple Pete’s, Toppers, Yacht Club, Buccaneer Beach Bar (BBB), Greenhouse and Taco Macho. The happy House and Bang Bang shrimp at the Greenhouse are always good. The chicken and beef tacos at Taco Macho were great and reasonable (3.50 per taco). The burgers and ribs at BBB were great. The chicken kabobs at Toppers were probably the best meal we had on the island.

The traffic was terrible, the worst we have seen in years. We missed the yacht crashing into the bridge but I am sure that screwed up traffic for a while. https://www.newsweek.com/superyacht-crashes-bridge-control-booth-1477491 . It took us 2 plus hours to get from Orient beach to Simpson Bay Resort going through Marrigot and through Simpson Bay. We still like going over the hill and back behind Philipsburg as the best (fastest) route to get to Orient from Simpson Bay. However, there is a detour in Orleans that has 15 speed bumps that will shake your teeth.

Orient beach was great the first 9 days but then the December winds came and they were strong. The beach chair rental was humorous. We arrived at 9:00 AM and were able to rent the chairs and umbrella for the weekly rate of $120. Our friends arrived at 11:00 and the club O guys were no longer offering weekly rental. So our friends talked to Colin , right next to the Club O umbrellas, and he charged them $100 for the week; 2 chairs, umbrella and table. The beach was in great shape and lots of sand and not much sea weed. There was little change in the Club O property. The regular road to Club O was a disaster and we started using the road through the back of the beach, which was much smoother and less big pot holes.

We missed the protest on December 12th and 13th but some of our friends were trapped on the French side. We couldn’t go to Club O on the 12th and 13th as both roads were blocked by burning trash and tires in the middle of the roads. Garbage cans and old cars blocked the roads along with hundreds of protestors; bad situation.
Both the arrival and departure from the airport were crowded but better than in 2018. I would guess that only about 40% of the airport building is being used, but there is air conditioning. It went smoother than we were expecting.

Our flight home on Saturday the 14th, through Philadelphia, was great. We cleared customs and rechecked our bags in less than 20 minutes. We do have Global Entry and they may have helped.

We are already looking forward to our next visit in May 2020.

Wishing everyone a Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

Thanks for the report!! Sorry about the delayed arrival. That really stinks, having a day of your holiday taken away. Glad it overall was a good trip though!

Happy holidays to you too!

Thanks for the report and sorry you missed a day.

Nice report

Thank you for sharing your trip. We’re only back just under a month yet it seems like a lifetime ago, ergo any and all trip reports are hugely appreciated.

Thank you for your report.

Thank You for your report. Sorry you missed a day, I'd go crazy with that. I'm sure once you arrived, all was good.

One thing we forgot to mention was the water in front of the Atrium on Billy Folly Road. Every day there was water about 6 inches deep and 200 feet long in front of the Atrium. There was only the far side of the road that was passable without water hitting the bottom of your car. There was only one lane that could get by and the on-coming traffic had to wait. This existed even when there was no rain and it really got bad when it did rain.

I hear it's that way a lot of the time. It rained hard a couple mornings in April and it was just as you described for at least a couple days.