Background:
Our 35th wedding anniversary was in February, and we usually take a trip to celebrate the milestones. This year, David suggested we rent a villa in St. Martin. After a lot of research, we decided that the price for high season wasn’t really worth the difference (pretty much double), so we decided to go in April instead.
I left most of the planning up to David, which is unusual for our SXM vacations, as I’m always the one in charge. He wanted an “opulent” villa, in a location away from the areas where we usually spend our time, and with a heated pool. He found one we both liked above Orient, and we reserved it through Sonja at Blue Ocean Villas. Before it was even time to send in our deposit, Sonja notified us that the villa was up for sale, and the uncertainty of that made us decide to look further. We then found Villa Happy Bay, which satisfied David’s opulence requirement, so we booked that.
About a month before our scheduled visit, Sonja notified us that there was construction going on below the villa that could cause noise and lack of privacy. We were offered the ability to cancel without penalty, or to keep our reservation with a 30% discount. We decided to try to find something else, but had no luck. Sonja did more research, and said that the construction situation wouldn’t be as bad while we were there, and that none of the villa owners were heating their pools because of the high cost of electricity, so we accepted the 30% discount and continued with our plans. I can’t recommend Sonja and Blue Ocean Villas highly enough; she navigated the hiccups and ensured that we had our dream trip.
Flights:
We live in the Middle of Nowhere, NC, and usually drive two hours to Raleigh to fly through either Miami or Charlotte. This time, we decided to drive the four+ hours to Charlotte for the nonstop flight. We stayed at the Hyatt Place near the airport, taking advantage of their park and fly, and shuttle to the airport. Our flight down was on time, and we had really great cabin crew.
The return flight wasn’t as good. We departed from Gate 6, which is the one on the far right as you come down the ramp into the departure area. We watched our plane land, and go right past the empty slot next to our gate, continuing over to Gate 10, next to the bar. Of course, our departure gate wasn’t changed, so we had to board busses to go the short distance over to the plane. Group One boarding does you no good when there are busses, so it took us quite a while to actually board. Again we had stairs and no ramp, and the handicapped people had a really difficult time with that. The jet bridges are all in place, but of course, not operational. The cabin crew on this flight was nowhere near as good as on the one down.
Arrival at SXM:
Stairs to exit the plane; no ramp. We passed through immigration fairly quickly, and met the agent from Sotheby’s and the agent from SAX outside, after a brief wait. Our car from SAX was supposed to be delivered to the airport, but there was some confusion about that, so the guy had to call and have the car brought over. We wanted to do it that way so that we could easily follow the villa driver to the villa. It being the beginning of Carnival week, there were music and dancers outside, lending to a very festive atmosphere, which would have been more enjoyable had there not been the confusion about the car. Anyway, it was all resolved and we headed off to the villa.
Villa Happy Bay:
The villa is simply spectacular. I’ve posted a few pictures, but to best see the beauty, you should follow the link to the website, where the photos are absolutely representative of the villa itself. Our concierge met us there and showed us all of the features of the villa, as well as offering his services for making restaurant reservations and such. Being seasoned island visitors, we didn’t take advantage of that service, but it would be great for newbies.
The first thing David did was check the temperature of the pool water, as experience with the pools at villas our friends have rented had shown that the pools were surprisingly cold. This pool was quite comfortable, and we discovered later that the pool heater was indeed operating for our entire stay.
Between our welcome package and the few items I had brought from home, we had a light dinner of charcuterie and wine, and enjoyed the sunset view from the pool.
On Saturday morning, we headed to Super U to get groceries. It was fun to explore the different offerings, and we picked up a few necessities. I was disappointed that I couldn’t find the duck confit that Ritchard had recommended; we found the aisle where it should have been, but was apparently sold out, so we ended up with a rotisserie chicken. We had a simple meal with that on Saturday evening, and on Sunday, I made Coq au Vin, which I was pretty pleased with. One other day (they all run together after a while, lol), I mixed the rest of the chicken with salsa and pasta and topped it with some cheese, so we got four meals out of that chicken.
We also found Le Express bakery, which Todd had recommended, and picked up some pastries and a baguette there more than once. It is, indeed, a fabulous bakery!
Our villa days basically included lounging in and around the pool, playing dominoes, watching the sunset, and relaxing. The villa was extremely well-furnished, including a Bluetooth speaker, binoculars, and pool floaties, all of which we had brought with us, but could have left at home.
The construction noise was minimal and our privacy wasn’t affected at all by that. It did provide some interesting entertainment one day.
BTW, Carol, Villa Happy Bay is directly across the road from Villa Canoua.
Beaches:
Our usual SXM routine involves a different beach each day, but this trip we only left the villa twice, once to spend the day at Coco Beach, and another at La Playa. I don’t take food pictures, but we enjoyed delicious meals at both. The highlight of our day at La Playa was the huge iguana falling off the roof above our table while we were eating lunch! A foot to the right and he’d have been on our table!
Dinners out:
There were none. We had originally planned to go into Grand Case at least once during the week, but the villa was so relaxing that we just couldn’t bring ourselves to leave.
https://blueoceanvillas.com/listings/oceanview-villa-happy-bay-french-stmartin/
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When you have a lovely villa with your own pool, it definitely is hard to leave sometimes! The view from the villas in that area is really spectacular. Too bad you didn't venture to Grand Case, as I was truly surprised at how close it is driving to GC. When you say "across the street" from Canoua, do you mean you drive past Canoua? That villa is much more upscale than Canoua, but I'm sure the price is more! Glad you were able to get a discount for the construction noise, but not be too bothered by it.
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