TravelTalkOnline Forums Travel and Vacation Forums St. Maarten - St. Martin May 1-8 Trip Report

After the disaster of 2020 which included our March trip three days before departure when the island shut off flights from the US and our rental owner stilling us for our full rental payment, May 2021 more than made up for it.

7am flight from JetBlue flight from Boston arrived early. Got through immigration, customs, baggage pickup, duty free and met Lesley from Kenny’s Car Rental right outside and we were off the grocery store and hotel, by 11:15. We were checked into our hotel and made our way down to Club O beach before Happy hour started. Never had a trip where everything fell into place on travel day like that before.

Orient Beach Hotel was as the pictures show. The old Blue Bay Beach Hotel has been totally rebuilt and remodeled. Florence and Junior were exceptional hosts for the week. Only draw back for us was that brand-new pool closed at 6pm. Our first time on the island that we could not enjoy an after-dinner swim or hot tub. Hope that changes once more travelers return to the island.

Our stay included free chairs at several locations on orient Beach, but we for the first time in a long, we spent the entire week on the same beach. Tried to head off to Cupecoy and Happy Bay on two different days, but the traffic was insane. I guess we needed an earlier start.

Early morning beach walks are our favorite way to start the day followed by grabbing some pastry for the beach or breakfast at Good Morning Cafe. Oh, by the way, we did not have any issues during our au naturel walks, but we were also usually back at our hotel by 7:30.

Anyway, Cedric and his crew continue to do a great job keeping the Club O beach clean and the food and drinks at Perch Lite were great. And best of all nobody grabbing at your feet for a message and no hawkers trying to sell you stuff.

We checked in at Orange Fever for a couple of lunches. Luc is well and his beach chairs and restaurant were packed as usual.

Multiple dinners at Le Piment, a great prime rib and red snapper dinner at Rancho Del Sol and as usual we finished off most days with dinner and drinks at Yellow Sub or somethings just drinks.

Can’t wait for our next trip back to SXM and hopefully we can get away longer next year.

Good for your good Folks and till next time . Stay safe.

SKJay: Without wanting to bring up bad memories of 2020, would you be willing to share whether your rental forfeiture was through a direct booking with an owner or a travel site like VRBO.

Yes. After 2020 it was a great feeling to touch down at PJIA. Enjoy every minute of your stay. We sure are.

Yes, after a horrible 2020, so good to have a lovely trip, even if short.

We had never gone with the rental option prior to that 2020 booking. We had found a nice place in the Village above the shops on the main street. Directly across from all the restaurants, nice view of the ocean from balcony and pool access. Reached out to the owner and booked directly with him with a 30% deposit at booking, Final payment 30 days prior to arrival. Scheduled to arrive on March 23, US flights stopped on March 20. Contacted the owner, his response was he would be enforcing his no refund policy. Never allowed us reschedule and didn't responded to any follow up emails. He shut down his website and Facebook page. PayPal and credit card company said there was nothing they could do to help us. One of his rentals, Le Beach Loft, showed up on one of the island rental sites about two months ago. I contacted that site and I was told the previous owner had sold that apartment to a Canadian couple a few months back. I obviously have no one to blame but myself for trusting this rental process, but will definitely not go that route again. We will always stay in Orient Bay area, but will at least make sure my credit card protects me fine if I end up dealing with someone like that again.

Sounds like a great start. Club O beach, Perch, Le Piment, Rancho del Sol are all favs of ours. Thanks for making us anxious (9 weeks from today).

SK,

I’m sure you already know this but we all can commiserate with your situation with the unscrupulous land owner. A cheat is a cheat is a cheat and it’s sad anyone would take advantage in this situation.

We along with so many others ran into the same types of cancellations due to both storms and the Covid 19 island closures but thank goodness, the people we rent from are totally scrupulous and worked with us every inch of the way, offering to refund our rental costs or play them forward to a future rental, which ever worked best for us.

I just want you to know most property owners aren’t of the sort you encountered and if our preferred rental was on OB I’d give you their contact info in a heartbeat as they are wonderful people to work with. Good luck with your future visits and I hope you never experience something of this sort again. It’s a sad world when you can’t trust people to ‘do the right thing’ even though it’s of no personal benefit to them to do so.

We just booked our 2022 JetBlue SXM flights for end of March/first week of April. Not sure where we will stay yet, but we have plenty of time to figure that out. Might try to spend a few days on St Barth's during our next trip.

Bring your Gold card if you're planning to spend any time on Barts. LOL

Looks like I can leave the Gold card home. The place we have been wanting to stay at is not available for our dates