TravelTalkOnline Forums Travel and Vacation Forums St. Maarten - St. Martin Where did you stay on your first visit to SXM?

Le Flamboyant in Nettle Bay 1991

01/1977 The Summit

Pelican Resort 1990. Ended up buying two units while we were there, and stuck with them through all the ups and downs: including this one!

First trip - 1983 Mullet Bay Resort and Casino. Parents friend owned a condo there. My sister was 12 and I was 15 and were like “whatever” we wanted to go to Wildwood NJ or Disney like all our friends! 8 years later I think my now husband and I were the youngest to purchase at The Towers at Mullet Bay - remember “privileged vacation ownership” hahahaha. Fast forward 2017. We purchased a condo in The Cupecoy Beach Club. At times have regrets. But we keep going back!!!!!

LaVista Beach 2006, after that, 12 more visits to sxm.

The Horny Toad Guesthouse, March 2004. We’ve been there every year ( sometimes twice a year and excluding Irma in 2018). Betty was the owner then. Now it’s run by her daughter Deb and husband Doug. Great people, and a new updated Toad. Couldn’t think of a better place to stay. What a gem!

Grand Case Beach Club or Green Cay Villas?

I was 27 years old when we purchased property in Tamarind Hill. WOW that was along time ago! No regrets!

Dawn Beach Hotel in 1984. Second visit was years later at Le esplanade. Fell in love with Grand Case on that vacation and was planning to return in April until AA cancelled my flight. Remember when the grounding of the Max 8 was our biggest concern?

L'Hoste in May of 2000.

Marigot Marina in Nov. 1985 on our honeymoon (it was then a hotel).

Flamingo. 1996 I think.

2005 stayed in a one bedroom condo at the Old Caravansarai....it was a great place then! Danced all night at Bliss,,,ate at the old Bamboo Bernies,,,just so many great times. Fell in love with the island right away and other than a couple of short trips with other groups,,,we always come back to SXM. Oh, the memories made and still to be made. Be well everyone!

Grand case beach club 2000

It was 1987 at Great Bay Hotel

MARY'S BOON 1993...loved it then, love it even more now. Such great Staff and beach. Also stayed at many other hotels and guests houses and Villas on both Dutch and French sides over the years. Trying to go back next month hopefully!

Hotel MountVernon in 1991. Back to Orient every year except after Louis and Irma.

Esmeralda.First year they opened.

Mont Vernon and Club O Fall 1990.

Simpson Bay Resort (then called Pelican) in the mid 90s.

Belair in the mid 90s (the year after the big hurricane). Loved the island much we walked over to Divi and bought a timeshare week! We've been back almost every year since.

Nettle Bay Beach Club--it was in the 80's and it wasn't fully built.

Pat 1973 lucky you... First trip was 1982!

First stay was 1999 but yearly cruise stops since 1989.

We split time between Oyster Pond and The Summit Resort. Following year we purchased TS at The Towers at Mullet Bay.

Cap Caraibes Resort 2006- goes by another name now-been back to SXM every year since..

In 1998 we stayed at Sonesta Maho, across from Cheri’s.
They had a nice, but small beach then on Maho.
Enjoyed it. They had a jazz organist performing nightly
there.
We stayed at Divi since then, after we bought a Divi timeshare for Aruba..

1998-Villa Marbella near Baie Rouge. Thought we had died and gone to heaven!!!!

L' Hoste 2000 Met (virtually) quite a few of the posters on the old Travel Talk board preparing for this trip

March 2002 at the Caravanserai - the island hooked us :-)

Stay safe everyone!

Cathy

Stayed at Casa Boco rented from the Villa Lady.

Caravanserai in the mid eighties

Towers at Mullet Bay 98 or 99

Esmeralda on Orient

The old Pelican in 1995. Have been back every year since other than 1996 when we decided to allow the island to recover from Hurricane Luis.

Divi Little Bay and Tradewinds Sailboat (don't remember exact name) in 2002/03. The only year we have missed since was the year of Irma.

Dawn Beach Hotel/Resort, February 1995. First and last time on Dutch side. Almost every year since at Orient including Mont Vernon, Le Hoste and Palm Court.

Probably too late for anyone to see this. Finally found the old Super 8 video. First trip was in May 1994. We stayed at La Belle Creole in Nettle Bay, then part of the Hilton group. Looks like Luis pretty well destroyed it in '95, and financial battles finished it off. What a shame, it was a beautiful place.

Thanks for the note. We're still here!

Our first visit was a port-of-call from a Princess Cruise Ship, but that story is boring. A better one goes back to 1981 (the year my wife and I got married). That year, three of us couples who were friends all got married that fall. Our one set of friends decided to take their vacation on St. Martin and didn't do my research about it in advance. I'm not exactly sure where they stayed back in '81, but it was obviously close to Orient Beach. My friend's wife was totally unaware of European sunbathing standards and once she encountered topless women and nude sunbathers on the beach, that was it. Never ventured out onto the beach again (any beach on SXM), and it was only the hotel pool after that! The phrase "when in Rome ..." totally did not apply here. Always found that story amusing, and she did eventually recover from the culture shock of that honeymoon (though we never asked them to join us on our many subsequent visits to SXM)!