TravelTalkOnline Forums Travel and Vacation Forums St. Maarten - St. Martin Trip Report 4/14-4/18

My wife and I took a quick trip from 4/14/ to 4/18, our first trip in four years without the kids and our first trip to St. Martin. We had previously flown through St. Martin on our way to St. Barths for our honeymoon 14 years ago. Our pre-approval process went smooth. We tested at our counties local testing site on Tuesday the 13th. We submitted our forms online at about 11 am and had our approvals at about 5 pm. We live just south of Tampa, so we made the drive to Miami to fly direct. The drive is a little over three hours, so we left around 5:15 am and arrived at Park n Fly Miami at about 8:30. We got to the terminal about 15 minutes later and made our way through check in. The airport was very busy, and the security lines were very long. Fortunately, the AA agent told us to walk all the way down to door 11 and go through that security checkpoint, which was closer to our gate and had shorter lines. We made it through security with about an hour to kill before boarding. The flight down was smooth, with the plane only partially full. It looked like the flight was restricted to two people on each side of the aisle instead of three. We arrived about 20 minutes early and made our way to customs via bus. Getting through customs took about 30 minutes, however we were the second to last people off the plane, so most people made it through much quicker.

We were staying at Residence Adam and Eve (AE) and had our rental car arranged through them. The rental company picked us up at the airport and drove us to Orient Village. After a quick check in at Adam and Eve, we walked down to check out Orient Beach. There weren’t any real food options in the Miami airport so by this point we were starving. There is nothing like starting off your vacation with a big Rum punch from Le String on an empty stomach! They had finished serving food at this point but made us some crab avocado dip with bread to help us survive. We stayed on the beach for an hour or two and made our way back to AE. My wife was craving sushi, so we went SAO (?) in the village for dinner. It was Ok, not great, not bad.

I started the days with a run, and then joined my wife for coffee by the pool. We didn’t go out to breakfast at all, just had coffee and some bread we got at the market. Thursday, we spent the day at the Club O beach and walked down to Chez Leandra for lunch. Dinner was at Le telegraphe and was very good.

Friday was a little cloudy with some on and off rain and sunshine coming in and out. We headed to Friar’s bay and made the hike to Happy Bay. We spent a few hours at Happy Bay and hiked back to Friar’s bay for lunch at Friar’s Bay Beach Café. Lunch was so so and pricey. We left Friar’s and Continued around the island to Cupecoy. We met Danny and had a great time at Cupecoy, Snorkeling and lounging on the beach. After a couple hours there we headed to Toppers Rum for a rum tasting and to pick up some bottles for our babysitters at home. We made our way back to Orient and had dinner at the Italian place in the village, can’t remember the name.

Saturday the weather was perfect. We spent the whole day at Club O and snorkeled over to Green Cay returning just in time for happy hour. We had lunch at Le string which was excellent. We headed back to AE and sat by the pool, talking with some newly arrived guests. Wednesday until Friday night we were the only guests at AE. We didn’t feel like doing much for dinner, so we ran and grabbed a pizza in the village.

Sunday was two quick hours on the beach, packing up, an hour by the pool, and off to the airport. The trip home was smooth with no long waits or issues. Our flight landed about 6:30 and we pulled in our driveway at about 11. It went by waaaaayyyy to quick, but we had a nice relaxing time and will definitely be back.

Thanks for the report and the pictures.

Wow quick trip. Nice report and pics, thanks.

👍👌

Kudos for getting away with each other with kids at home. It is so good for you, in my experience anyway, so good for you two.

The pics put a smile on my face, thanks. Great report as well