TravelTalkOnline Forums Travel and Vacation Forums St. Maarten - St. Martin Do you move around less now?

This question is for those who have been to SXM many times. Honestly I never leave the villa and if I do go to a restaurant it is in the local area where I am staying. The beach since Irma has not been on my mind and I am sad.

Yes, much less.

Nothing has changed for us.

Moving around, and seeing different places and experiencing different eating venues has always been a part of our holiday.
I am hoping that some unrest on the island settles by end of January when we will arrive. We don't move around everyday, but always have newbies with us and like to show them the island.
Only been coming to sxm since 2005,,but every year have always had a least one newbie with us. We love showing people all the things we love about sxm. I hope that never changes, but I am really wondering these days????

We actually move around more than when we first started visiting the island. The one thing we don't do as much is have dinners in Grand Case. With the traffic as it is, and the great food to be found on the Dutch side now, we haven't had dinner in Grand Case for several years.

I have not been to Grand Case or Marigot for three years.

Didn't hardly go to French side back in the 80's. Too much attitude towards Americans. French side then figured out that money is money and we would hardly eat on the Dutch side in the 90's and 2000's. Then the Dutch side started in with very good places to eat and with Irma issues the pendulum is now swinging back the other direction. Still use vacation as an excuse to go out and enjoy the "foodie" world on all of SXM.

Traffic was the worst this recent trip I have ever encountered but we also know why. However even before the strikes it was bad on the Dutch side and certainly restricted us as I am not coming on vacation to sit in traffic so just turned around and either went back to the villa or ate elsewhere. What a tough life, so can’t really complain too much, just have to improvise.
Still think the place is magical but certainly felt uncomfortable at times with what has been occurring as no doubt we all did or do.
Exploring new ventures/restaurants is high on our list though so will just watch and see how this all works out but will not book months in advance for our next trip which probably means higher flight costs but rather be safe than sorry.

We move around more now than we did pre-Irma.

Wendy,

As I’m sure you know, John and I have been visiting SXM every year since 1973 and often multiple trips in any given year so your question is of particular interest to me.

Back in the early 70s we would usually plant our sorry butts on Mullet Beach for the day and took many/most of our meals right there at Mullet Resort with the occasional trip into P’Berg and/or Marigot but that was about the extent of our travels. The roads weren’t great and we were less certain of our environs.

In the early 80s we began bringing our girls and later their friends and we started to do a whole lot more exploring all over the island. We found places we never knew existed and we loved the exploring. We thought we’d really come to know the island well but then our girls got married and started having families of their own and doing their own exploring which often included us. The unique thing about SXM is there’s always something new to find and find things they did so yes, more exploring.

But I guess things really do go full circle because in the last few years prior to Irma we found ourselves once again more inclined to spend many of our days at Mullet, and surprisingly, we were even content to spend many a day without budging from the Towers Pool.

But Irma brought about more changes and once the first few post-Irma trips were behind us, and we’d seen the devastation across the island along with the recovery efforts made and in some areas missing, we became once again more content to stay in our new environs. During the full two weeks we were on island in April, if we hadn’t had so many dinner plans we might never have left Beachside Villas and were perfectly content to relax there without the running from place to place.

Over so many years we’ve explored most of the near islands, and for what it’s worth and purely IMHO, with the possible exception of Saba, once you’ve seen them once or twice, that’s more than enough, my theory being a beach is a beach is a beach and the Caribbean sand and beautiful waters on SXM can’t really be beat! We have our favorite restaurants and shops to visit and island friends made over the years but for some of us, comes a point in life we just want to sit back and enjoy the things we’ve already found.

So to answer your question, yes! We are definitely more inclined to be perfectly content for the most part, staying put and relaxing in a spot we love and enjoy, socializing with people we’ve also come to enjoy without need to travel around as we once did.

Pat, great reply.

Yes - every year I seem to do less. Maybe it laziness - or old age! - But I stay in Maho where's there's plenty withing walking distance, and Simpson Bay is just down the road.

Years ago, we would stay on the French side, sit on Orient Beach all day long, go to dinner in Grand Case, and then travel, almost every night, to the Dutch side to the casino. Then we started staying on the Dutch side, maybe 10 years ago, mostly at Beachside Villas. Being on the beach there these days, we mostly don't need to go to the 'beach', because the beach is at our doorstep. In a 10 day trip, we may go out to lunch somewhere, mostly French side, about three or four days. For dinner, we eat in half the time, maybe go to the French side for dinner once, and the other half the time, somewhere on the Dutch side.

Definitely we do travel around a lot less than we used to, when we first started coming to stay on SXM (versus coming on ships). We've been staying on land since 1995. I think the fact that we travel around a lot less is a function of just not NEEDING to do nearly as much any more, and being perfectly content most of the time, being at Beachside Villas. A small part of staying closer to home is security concerns, but mostly it's just we're becoming stay at home people in our old age!!

We have been visiting SXM since the 80's. First we stayed pretty close to the Mullet Bay area, only because
we didn't know the island that well.

As the years went by we did more and more exploring and spent a lot of evenings in Marigot and days on different beaches,
when Mullet was too rough. Then it was Grand Case along with Marigot for dinners.

In the last few years, before Irma, we started staying closer to home worrying about our safety.
We got tired of driving with the doors locked and rushing from the parking lot to the restaurant.

We really have no problem with eating at all the restaurants on the Dutch side or at our place at BSV.
The island has changed and so have we.

We just came home 4 days ago. The last 3 days we obviously didn't move around much, as the roads were blocked. We were in Orient Village and were restricted to there and Hope Estate - 2 places not bad to be confined. Now, in the future: We're French side people, to stay, to eat and to go to the beach. Not to mention the friends we have made there. In a worst case scenario, if we could only go to the Dutch side and stay there, if we went at all it would be less frequently and for a much shorter period. I'll probably get slammed for saying this, but go ahead,

Biturbo--No reason why anyone should slam you for your statement. Everyone's likes and expectations are different.

We move around about the same as back in 1979 when in SXM. The difference now is old age has us looking for full lunches at places like Sol e Luna with just a few evenings out to dine instead of the seven nights per week. Driving at night bothers us.

In the past we'd break up the day by taking a drive around the island or to visit another beach. Dining at night was our entertainment. Now we spend time at BSV. Breakfast on the porch watching the waves, then a drive around, late lunch then back to BSV for drinks and light supper.

We are relative newbs, only having a handful of trips under our belt. The first few trips, we drove a lot checking out several beaches, and sites. This years trip, we pretty much stayed in Orient for 6 days and eating in the immediate area. We then moved to the Atrium for the last 4 days, doing everything that was in walking distance. It was a lot of fun and felt like 2 different vacations in one. This years reservations are for 10 days in Orient, but that is now TBD.

Still move around a lot. Into Marigot a lot for lunch & dinner & Philipsburg a couple of times a trip. Bought a beautiful purse at AMA jewelers last January. Love to go to super u to get groceries several times & check out their Bordeaux. Love drive past grand case to get to orient from Friars Bay. Just love it all!

More movement at night to both sides and the beach is still number 1 during the day.

We are Frenchies by preference but stayed Dutch last year for first time.

Going back French lodging in two weeks and plan to go back and forth unless the situation prevents.

We always eat in Grand Case 2-3 nights. We got to Marigot during teh day but not at night.

Went to Yvettes for first time last year.

Hoping free movement is as good as last year this time.

If we fear for our safety, beyond our ALWAYS careful caution, then we might not ever come back. We would return to our old favorite before visiting SXM.........and that would be St John USVI.

Great thread!

We move around about the same amount as when we first started visiting in 1988. On our first visit we stayed at La Belle Creole in the lowlands and explored the whole island.

We now stay on either side (sometimes both) but we drive more when we stay on the Dutch side because we like the Orient area.

The main difference is time of day. At first we would go anywhere day or night. We gradually stopped going to Philipsburg at night, then we stopped going to Marigot at night, then Grande Case. Now In the evenings if we're staying on the French side we go to Orient Village or Cul de Sac. If staying on the Dutch side, we go to Simpson Bay and Maho. We have never had any significant safety issues, just more comfortable in these areas.

We are returning on January 22 for 2 weeks and staying in an AirBnB in Oyster Pond. We'll see how that goes.

Jim

We move around less and it started 4 years ago. We still split our two weeks between the Orient and Cupecoy areas but have limited our dining out to Orient Village and Jordan Village/ Porto Cupecoy. To borrow from Appleby's we like "eatin good in the neighborhood". It is a more relaxed way to enjoy the evening than to travel around the island at night.

We will try Porto Cupecoy next month, thanks!