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

We've been traveling to what I euphemistically call "my island" St. Martin for 25 years or so and have been lurking on this board
which has provided a wealth of information for as long as I can remember.

My 24 year old daughter decided that she wanted to bring her boy friend to St. Martin after traveling with us on several family
trips. Against my best advise (storms, closings, curfews, Covid, etc) she chose to travel from August 21st to August 29th. I arranged for
a two bedroom townhome via Megali Bertho at Island Escapes for her in Orient Village, with air via Delta (best direct fare at the time)
from JFK and of course a Toyota from Lesley Bruce at Kenny's. I made these arrangements for her in May. Their Covid testing and EHAS
submissions went without a hitch, flight was good and Leslie was his usual efficient self.

A couple of weeks after making my daughter's arrangements I realized that my 25th wedding anniversary was in the middle of her trip, so I asked her
if she would mind if "Mom & Dad" joined them in the middle of her vacation. I connived with my daughter to make our trip a surprise for my wife and
kept it "hush, hush" until about 2 weeks prior to our scheduled August 25th (Anniversary) departure. I also made a dinner reservation for that night at
Sole E Luna in the Cul de Sac. This is one of my wife's all time favorite restaurants. We were sitting on our deck at home having dinner a couple of
weeks before departure and my wife suggested an overnight in Boston with a special dinner for our anniversary. I told her that I had already made a
dinner reservation to which she of course replied "where". I told her that I would only disclose the restaurant if she could correctly guess. It only
took her 3 guesses.

We extended the Orient Village townhome stay for a few days and traveled via JetBlue from JFK. Covid testing and EHAS did not go as planned.
We made multiple testing reservations with both the State of RI and CVS. CPR tests on Sunday and RT tests on Monday for Wednesday departure.
Hurricane Henri interrupted these plans when the State testing sites were shut down on Sunday. We were able to get the PCR tests on Sunday at CVS,
but were warned that it might take a couple of days or longer. This posed a potential problem since we were driving to NY on Tuesday evening for an
early morning flight on Wednesday so we followed up with RT testing at CVS on Monday and received negative RT results within an hour.
I received my PCR test early Tuesday am and successfully made the EHAS submission. We waited awhile on Tuesday for my wife's PCR test and
finally submitted her RT test late in the afternoon and received her "green light" just before leaving for JFK. JetBlue flight was great and Lesley Bruce
was kind enough to taxi us over to Orient Village and point out the Pharmacy near Marigot for return Covid testing.

We spent the next fabulous week in Paradise half with our kids" and half by ourselves enjoying some of our favorite beaches, beach bars and
restaurants. When we arrived several of our usual haunts were already closed for vacation through September, Coco Beach and Kon Tiki on Orient
and a few restaurants in Grand Case and Orient Village. As our vacation progressed there were many more vacation closings around Orient and
Grande Case and then the Sargassum sea weed rolled into Orient on Monday. I never saw anything like it in St. Martin. 20 feet from waters edge
onto the beach at least a foot thick the entire length of Orient with large pads floating in the bay making the water and beach uninhabitable. WE took
a chance and drove to the beach near Rainbow in Grande Case, but that beach also got attacked by Sargassum.

Thanks to this board and especially reports from Erik and Carrol we bailed out of our residence in Orient and made an emergency escape to
Beachside Villas for our last full day in paradise. We were the only one's in occupancy at Beachside and had a blast swimming and watching
planes.

Best dinners were at Sole E Luna, Ocean 82 and le Telegraph. Daily baguette and pastries from Good Morning in Orient Village, breakfast at
Zee Best and Rainbow and get away casual dinner at Buccaneer Beach Bar. We also spent a day with our kids at Friar's for the first time.
The island was surprisingly clean. I expected a lot worse since this was our first trip back since Irma. We did have to deal with the 8 PM curfew
during our entire stay, but that was an easy adjustment to dinner at 5:30 PM instead of the usual 7:30 PM.

Even with all of the unusual circumstances it turned out to be a wonderful trip.

thanks for the report! Sounds like a wonderful anniversary trip. Sorry for the seaweed, but glad you were able to enjoy Beachside, even if only for a day!!

Great way to spend your anniversary.

Thank you, thank you. I’ve been craving a trip report for ages so this was perfect. Lovely to spend special times in special places and with special family. Glad it all turned out well, particularly your night at BSV - it really is a little piece of heaven here on earth.

Again, thanks for sharing your experience. 😊😊