TravelTalkOnline Forums Travel and Vacation Forums St. Maarten - St. Martin First two days

Arrived yesterday around 4pm, went thru the immigration in about 10 min, another 30 min and we got our luggage. Got a car from AAA, Myrna was waiting for us outside. Got a beautiful “Irma special” car, just what I wanted, lol! When I asked the guy if we need to mark anything on a rental agreement, he just smiled- you can’t make her looking any worse than it is now, lol!
Drove to the Apartament that we rented via AirBnB, all went good.
Decided to go to Tropicana for our first dinner. I was able to find a parking spot right on the Main Street behind the marina, so the place was well lit and with other people around. The main parking lot didn’t look very inviting, all the buildings along the way to the restaurant area are under construction except of one.
Tropicana was literally empty! May be 2-3 tables were taken. As I mentioned in another thread, people are afraid to go there after dark. Apparently, lots of robberies by the locals... We ended up booking a few days there anyway...
Met Bob the Chair guy at the whole in the wall bar, he basically confirmed that people on a Dutch side had enough of French lawlessness and don’t go there anymore. I guess the riots in the fall didn’t help either.
Decided to head to Zee Best for breakfast. Wow was it a disappointment! The pastry wasn’t nearly as fresh as they usually are and even my crape tasted like a cardboard! Told the owner, he said it is because of the regatta, they have to bake them and make them ready by 3am instead of 6am usual time...
Went to Mullet bay beach today and it was beautiful. Lots of people there, lots of new chairs and umbrellas. Was told that Rosie is no longer there even the place still has her name. No more frozen drinks there either! My girls had two cocktails, both were meh at the best....
For dinner we went to Vesna tavern, first time for us! We were pleasantly surprised with the food and service. Food was absolutely delicious and service was very good too. The owner also told us about problems on a French side and that even locals refuse to go there now.
Decided to go check out what’s happening at the Port De pleasantness marina. We got lucky, they had a regatta party there and our daughter made a friend at the Viv Clique booth.... Champagne for the family was on a house, lol!

Thanks for the report, enjoy the rest of your trip. Never a fan of Zee Best, I much prefer La Sucriere.

Thanks for the start to the report. Enjoy the rest of your stay!

Thanks for the report - enjoy rest of trip.

La Sucriere was recommended to us on our first trip. I don't eat breakfast - coffee and something to snack on (bagel, donut, granola bar) and I'm good to go. Wife had a breakfast sandwich from La Sucriere the first morning on our trip and could not stop raving about it! Someone told us about Zee Best. We checked it out - we will stick to La Sucriere.

I have to correct myself... breakfast sandwiches my wife had were from cafe atlantico - not Le Sucriere. But Le Sucriere was preferred over Zee Best. Apologies for the confusion - we only have 1 trip (so far) under our belts.

I actually didn't even know that Le Sucriere made breakfast sandwiches! Will have to check that out!! We usually get quiche from there. And we got a killer croque monsieur last time!

Not sure if they still do it but Zee Best used to "recycle" uneaten pastries from the basket they sat on the table. La Sucriere has a lot of good options.

Yes. Those recycled pastries were a turn off for us.

I was turned off to Zee Best all the way back to the original Marigot sidewalk location because of this practice once I realized what they did. We tried the Simpson Bay location and gave up on it, too, for the same reason.

But because the Zee Best pastries are really so very good and because of their convenient location for us we get them at the take-out location and bring them back to our unit and freeze them for use each morning. They defrost quickly and reheat beautifully. We also enjoy the Serafina and Jules pastries and frequent either one depending on what we’re closest to.

Nothing better than coffee and warm pastries on the deck as we watch the boats and ships pass by through SimpsonnBay.

Rosie is definitely there. Her husband passed in the fall and she wasn't at the beach very often. She told me that now she spends almost every day at her place as it keeps her busy. I even met her mother who spent one of the days there with Rosie. Nina isn't there because her husband is quite ill and is hospitalized on another island. Rosie had no idea when she'd return.