TravelTalkOnline Forums Travel and Vacation Forums St. Maarten - St. Martin Trip Report May 12-19

I thought I'd share a few highlights from our recent trip to SXM. We were able to spend two full weeks split between the French side and Dutch so I'm going to do two separate reports with some photos.

My wife and I flew direct from Atlanta to SXM on Delta Friday May 12 without issues regarding time but condition of the aircraft was another matter. I opted for exit row seats for the extra legroom but found the seats to be very narrow compared to regular main cabin seats with unmovable arm rests. The entertainment screen on my seat didn’t work and the frame was hanging off and appeared to be missing some clips. Not a new aircraft and in need of a good cleaning.
Arrived in SXM as only aircraft on the ground and sped through immigration. We had two checked bags which were among first group on the baggage carousel which got us to the Hertz rental office within 30 minutes of landing. Unfortunately, it took 30 minutes to get our car. We had reserved a Toyota Corolla and ended up with a 2020 Toyota Yaris. The office wasn’t busy but they said they were still working on getting our car. 20 minutes later the car pulls up. The vehicle has damage on every panel of the car from the trunk to the hood which made the walkaround pretty easy as long as they marked every panel. The good news was the interior was clean, no warning lights were lit on the dash and A/C worked. It took another 10 minutes to get someone to check the vehicle out and sign off on our paperwork. Not a good transaction.

We rented Villa Esther (https://gobeach.com/islesc/esther.htm) a townhome in Orient Village that was a couple of rows back from the beach but had a small pool. It’s a 3 bedroom 2 ½ bath but the interior living space is small. It was very comfortable for the two of us. The house was clean, A/C worked as did the wifi. We were prepared for the water issues and our representative from the rental agency told us about the scheduled time water was going to be available. We thought that was great because if we know when the water was going to be on we could plan around it and all would be good…….not. The first 4 days the water was available pretty close to the schedule but then it just stopped. The water was off after 8pm on Monday May 15 and was still not on all day on Tuesday May 16. It finally came back on Wednesday and then shut off that evening. No water on Thursday and still off as of 8am on Friday May 19 when we departed. I took a video of a water line break bubbling up in the street behind the restaurants in Orient Village before we went to dinner on Thursday thinking someone would be out to fix it that night but the joke was on me. I took another video the following morning of the same bubbling water line and the rental agency couldn't understand why we still didn't have water. Funny how that works.

The good news was the beaches and food were amazing as always!

We ate well....really well. Dinners at La Piment, Spiga, La Pressoir and La Villa and La Trattoria. We tried a couple of new places with one being good and the other not so much. Bona Mama replaced Bo's Pizza in Orient Village and our pizza was soft/undercooked in the middle.....blah. 978 Beach Lounge in Friars was very nice! Heavy wooden loungers covered in a nice pad were pretty comfortable and the food was good.

Tried Captain Frenchies on a Sunday which was a big mistake. We were there about an hour before the heavy techno music started next door and we left. Beautiful beach and comfortable chairs.

We spent most of our beach days at Orange Fever. Great service, very little to no seaweed and calm winds.

We enjoyed our French side week but will not rent again in Orient Village without knowing the place we're staying at has a large cistern. Unfortunate for the rental agencies but they should be letting the potential customers know the reality of the situation and not what the government or utility provider is promoting in the way of wishful thinking regarding a schedule.

Great week overall!

Friday the 19th was moving day to Beachside Villas.

I think we looked at that villa at one point in the past. It is so disappointing, what is happening with water supply issues on the French side. Glad you still had a good time, overall. looking forward to hearing about your second week.

Nicely done and thank you. Sorry about the mishaps and hoping part two was better for you. Looking forward to hearing about it. 🙂🙂

Nice report. Thank you for labeling the food pictures!

My pictures and report pale in comparison to what you've shared but hopefully it'll give some folks the proverbial 'food for thought'.

Thanks!

You are very kind - thank you!