TravelTalkOnline Forums Travel and Vacation Forums St. Maarten - St. Martin Our observations

We have been here since December 23rd , we have been coming to SXM for the past 20 years or so, we have been for Regatta, in the summer with our kids and for the past 10 years or so we started to come for Christmas to NYE. This is our observation I am not going to post pictures to shame any restaurant or bar but I know people have posted that they have a different experience from us.
Restaurants/Bars
We ate or had drinks
Izi, District 721, Greenhouse, Pizza & Co, Lolo’s ( Simpson Bay)
Bodega, Bar Code, Fat Tony’s, Tao (Jordan Village)
Spice of India, The Dive Bar, Hole in the Wall, Rosie’s ( Maho)
Perch lite, Sun Beach ( Orient)
Holland House, Cindy’s Roti Shop ( Phillipsburg)
Lolo’s ( Grand Case)

Beaches
Mullet
Phillipsburg
Friars Bay
Happy Bay
Orient
Grand Case

Casinos
Sport Book
Casino Royale
Hollywood

Grocery Store
Maho Express
Carrefour – Cole Bay
Chinese Grocery Simpson Bay
Chines Grocery Jordan Village

The beaches are packed, chairs are place the width of the umbrellas…so not much social distancing no mask at the beaches or beach bars.
Restaurants/ Bars are not busy, we usually eat dinner between 8-10 PM, we try to make a reservation even though they are dead, just in case they decide to close early or their kitchen closes early.
Not many mask at the restaurants or bars for patrons or wait staff and if they do wear a mask it is a chin strap or they pull it down to talk to you.
Mask is mandatory at the grocery store and people seems to be following that
Mask and temperature check is mandatory at the casinos and people seem to be following that

People are happy to see visitors and they want to talk to you which makes the social distancing a bit difficult
The price of groceries, drinks and meals have gone up. But you can still get a beer for $2.00 and a wine for $3.00 at the Lolo’s

We are here for another week, today we are going to Pinel and we are not sure what is going on tonight some people say there is fireworks at Maho and Marigot , some people say no there is no fireworks.
We also heard that there is a big party tonight at Sunset they are expecting 1000 yes 1000 people, the bars also got permission to open until 4 AM .

Most restaurants have a fixed price menu for tonight we have seen a big range of price from $49.99 to $119.00 per person

Happy New Year from SXM.

Thanks for the report. Can't imagine 1000 people at Sunset. Enjoy your evening, regardless of where you are.

Thanks for the report, much appreciated. Enjoy the rest of your time.

we were told normal years they get 2k+ people!?!?

OMGoodness. 2000? Really? I would definitely NOT want to be a part of that - but I also wouldn’t want to be a part of Time Square either. I can imagine it would be great fun for those who do enjoy the crowds.😊😊

I would think 1000 will beome a super spreader. Very irresponsible.

Scubaman--Oh, they are going to be giving out supper??

Correction made.

Interesting experience very different than ours. But what stands out is we have been dining out for lunch versus dinner. Again outside at a table as far away as other diners possible.

If we do go out for dinner it’s on the early side as we are typically tired from boat work/projects all day. We are usually back at our boat before 8 pm, 9 pm tops.

With that said, I noticed 2 establishments with live music that have been jam packed with patrons in Simpson Bay. Bar/pub type establishments.

Regarding tonight, I will be completely surprised if there is a fireworks display. It’s far too windy as Christmas winds and north swell have arrived and expected for a few days. We are in Simpson Bay Marina and have been registering up to 41 knot gusts throughout today. Not sure if anyone will want to go to a beach and get sand blasted either.

The restaurants we have dined at include: Sint Maarten Yacht Club, Anse Marcel Beach Club, The Palms, Roxxy, Reviel Matin, Toppers, La Succriere Bakery, Lagoonies, Frenchy Lugos and Pizza Italy. Out of this list, 2 servers at 2 of the restaurants did not wear their masks properly.

Wow! ~ 47 MPH.

Pretty healthy tradewind.

we canceled our plans for Pinel today because of wind concerns, so we decided to go for lunch in the Marigot marina where it was pretty windy...afterwards we stopped at Karacter for a drink, where it was pretty windy and the waves were crashing pretty good...we then went to Mullet for a couple of hours, expecting to see some serious wave action, but the surf was surprisingly mild...right now on the balcony in Cupecoy there are some occasional gusts, but no serious constant strong wind...go figure

Happy New Year Everyone!

I was quite surprised to hear fireworks last night given the wind forecast but there was a lull in wind a few hours early this morning. These winds remind me of Santa Ana winds in SoCal and fireworks would have definitely been canceled for safety. The are not consistent tradewinds, rather strong gusty winds, not conducive for sailing.

Anyways one more day of Christmas winds from the north east, then back to normal.

we watched the fireworks from the Driftwood Boat bar....there was a bit of a snafu...at 12 some fireworks started going off from Sunset Beach Bar, but they were pretty wimpy and sporadic...people were disappointed and started leaving after a few minutes....but then like 10 minutes after 12 the real fireworks started going off from over the water...they were decent and lasted about 10-15 minutes...then a few more went off over Sunset...all in all a good time 💥

thanks for the report. Was there a huge crowd at Sunset?

I just looked at the sunset web cam. Was very surprised on the lack of trash left behind. Looked very clean and sparsely populated.

as you can see from the pics posted by Trinigerl, Maho beach and the road were full of people watching the fireworks...from Driftwood i couldn’t tell how many people were actually at the Sunset party...supposedly the 1k people estimate was based on the limit of tickets they would sell for the event, which they claimed was sold out in advance....whether this is true, or just hype they were trying to create, i can’t say

Maho had lots of people on the streets, mostly local kids...but surprisingly the bars weren’t too packed, so you could still make it up to the bar to order without too much trouble...except for 3 Amigos, they seemed to be completely packed

OK, thanks. Enjoy the rest of your stay!