TravelTalkOnline Forums Travel and Vacation Forums St. Maarten - St. Martin Trip Report--another Friday and Saturday

FRIDAY
Before we left home, we had made a reservation at Medwork in Simpson Bay for our Covid tests to return to the states. You make a reservation for a specific time and pay online. I wasn't real happy about paying ahead of time, but I guess if something happens, you can get your money back. The location is in the building with Avantika, which we have never been to before, and which we THOUGHT we knew where it was. Wrong. Anyway, we went all the way through Simpson Bay and came back and found it. It is directly across the street from the OLD Toppers location, which possibly is still open, I couldn't really tell.

We arrived at 8:45 for our 8:50 appointment. The email said to bring ID, we decided to bring our passports, which actually is what she asked for. I assume without knowing they would take your driver's license, although with the passport, they put the passport number on your results, so that is best. We were out of there by no later than 9 o'clock. I'm not really sure you needed an appointment, as someone walked in without an appointment when we came in. You do need a mask, of course.

We weren't confident about getting our results printed out from an email, so we asked to come back to pick them up, which was no problem. While waiting for the results, we headed out to a new place for us, Réveil Matin. The location is right next to the Simpson Bay Yacht Club (NOT the Yacht Club right by the bridge.) It's not the best location, being right on the street and no view, but the menu is quite varied and interesting. Most of the meals are quite large and we found it a tad expensive for breakfast, at $40, without any alcohol.

I had a crepe, filled with ham and cheese and scrambled eggs.

Eric had a ham and cheese omelette.


Both were excellent, along with some coffee, and they served tap water. In future, I would probably order one meal and split it, but we both wanted different things this time. I would definitely go back, for either breakfast or brunch.

After breakfast, we went back and picked up our printed out results, but they were also emailed to us, before we got back to BSV. Over all, I would highly recommend Medwork, if you're staying on the Dutch side.

After we finished getting our test results, I had somewhat of a bad idea, as I wanted to head to Club O beach. We came back and packed up and headed out. Unfortunately the wind was howling over on Orient and the seaweed was thick in the water. After a couple of hours, it clouded up and started to sprinkle and looked like it was in for a long haul of rain, so we packed up and headed back "home" to BSV.

We got rained on a couple of times heading home, but it cleared up somewhat. We had some leftovers for lunch, and hung out for the afternoon. The winds had calmed down to almost nothing here, and the waves were dead flat calm.


Dinner was steaks on the grill and another lovely day in paradise, notched on the belt.

SATURDAY
The weather was pretty iffy first thing on Saturday, so we had our scrambled eggs, toast and mimosa inside. The sacrifices one makes!!



We had hamburgers on the grill for lunch again, and then I proceeded to watch the passing show at the airport! We already knew before we left home, that it would be a busy day at PJIA on Saturday. At the busy time, from around 1 to 3 PM, I spent most of the time on the viewing platform here at Beachside. At one point, there were FOUR American planes on the ground at the same time, and I watched two take off over the mountain, and one over the water, within about 10 minutes. What a cool photo op!!











Saturday evening we decided we had a hankering for Mexican and decided to check out Banditos, which is where Bavaria used to be. We headed out around 6:30, and were able to find a place to park out front, which was good. When we walked in, there was only the bartender serving and things were pretty slow. A male waiter came in, and after that, service improved vastly. They serve free chips and salsa, and both were pretty decent. I ordered a stuffed poblano, which actually wasn't at all the same preparation as I get in the states, but it was good.

Eric ordered a burrito, which again he thought the preparation was a little unusual, but the taste was very good.



Our 'bar' for Mexican is pretty low, but to me, I thought it was pretty good, and once the male waiter showed up, the service was good. I would go back again.


As we were heading back around 8 or so, it started raining. We noted that the guy manning the new security gate heading into Beacon Hill had left the gate up and were hiding inside their booth... Had to laugh at that..
Thus endeth another day in paradise.

Safe travels home. The Mexican food actually looks pretty decent.

I’ve really enjoyed reading your trip reports, and the pictures are gorgeous! Your trip sounded so relaxing, as it should be.

We, too, had a good experience with covid testing at Medwork Lab. They were very professional and efficient. Highly recommend.

The winds at Orient were pretty brisk last month too. Lots of sandblasting, or was it exfoliating? Lol

Special thanks to you and JazzGal for the great photos of the dishes you enjoyed. I promise I'll do a much better job with pictures on our next visit (whenever that may be). It is so much better seeing photos of the food rather than reading about every bite someone takes on their vacation. And, although I'm not big on Mexican food I agree with J.D. regarding those snaps above from Banditos. That place is now on my short list.

Thanks. I have a few more pictures to post from the final couple of days, including an absolutely stellar meal at Moulin Fou, which was our final night.

In the meantime, we're back home -- ugh -- so it may be a couple of days before they are posted.

Looking forward to the rest of your photos Carol.

Soon come..

Carol, so important on your last night to have a great meal and pleased it was at Moulin.

bran--I had a really excellent meal, did a couple of things I hadn't had so far this trip--a warm goat cheese salad, and then French onion soup, and no entre', and then we shared a molten chocolate cake at Moulin. These days I basically never get French onion soup, as it is too filling.. Theirs, as well as the salad, which was also huge, were excellent.

And that's exactly what I have done in the past, several starters, no entree de table and then had various deserts which are very good indeed.

they had like an array of small desserts on the menu at Moulin Fou, which I thought about trying and wish I had. The menu described the cake as having bruleed bananas with it, and there weren't any, which was somewhat disappointing.

That goat cheese salad is to die for! I have it virtually every time I go there.

It is very similar to the one at Bistrot Cariabes, which I used to have every time. Really good!

Welcome home! Thanks for the trip report and photos.

Everyone has to go home eventually I guess. Sure doesn't make it easier..

But it makes it so much easier when you already have the next trip scheduled, don't you think?

Yes, that is definitely true!! ...which we do!!