Wingman, You aren't the oldest on this forum but IMHO you have us all beat for years on the island!!! I love to listen to your stories growing up on the island so to speak. All the restaurants, all the beaches. The little shops. the people the vibe!!! One day, you should write a book!!!
2002 Divi Little bay. I remember talking with Louise when she said there a few places near the airport with fun things to do. I thought, WHY would I want to stay anywhere near an airport???? This coming from someone was thinking this could be busy like JFK on it's busiest days/nights! LOL!!! Divi was nice, but wasn't our cup of tea. After trying more than a few of places around the island we found the Simpson bay area, thanks to TTOL !! Beachside villa's. SO many places to try, so many places to have fun!! That was over ten years ago!! Photo: Peg Legs pub date unknown, a long time ago! Still have all my Rima's shirts too!!
Our first week visit to SXM was in March 1998 at Oyster Bay Beach Resort. We had bought an even year, bi-annual week from ARI in St Louis in February 1997 and this was our check-it-out trip. Came with four friends and stayed in the then, Junior Suites. Most of the Resort was under construction.
In 1989 my mother was working for Hilton and my sister was a FA for American Airlines. My wife and I (both in our late 20's at the time) wanted to plan a vacation that was "something new". We were on a tight budget and thought if we flew American and stayed at a Hilton we could make it work. We picked SXM even though all we knew about it was that it is an island in the Caribbean. Little did we know it would become an annual trip for (nearly) the next 30 years.
As I said, we knew nothing about the island when we first went. We always laugh when we talk about our arrival on our first trip. We landed around 10:00 at night and we took a taxi from airport to LBC. After we got through the bright lights of the Maho area it got more and more desolate. We were looking at each other wondering "what have we gotten ourselves into". When the paved road ended and turned into a dirt road we were convinced we'd never be seen or heard from again. Well, at some point the dirt road became paved again and we finally arrived at La Belle Creole. Whew!!
89 - 90 ….La Belle Creole
91 - 95 ….Club O
96 ……….No trip while Club O was being rebuilt after Hurricane Luis
San Tropez on french side now it’s a residence in front there is a washer service . We enjoyed this place when you order a drink they would put 1 ice cube in it by the time you received it it was gone very relaxing this place even had a dance club probably it was ahead of the times
We were traveling with friends. We had stayed a week in St. Thomas before landing in SXM. We rented a car and headed to Le Mecure Simpson. I was driving and as I was pulling into the parking lot, I noticed by the front entrance they had a raised area so when you got out of your car you didn't have to step up into the place. As I reached the raised area I began to pull up onto it and since there were 4 of us and all our luggage in the car, the car got stuck. Couldn't go back or front. The other three had to get out of the car and grab the luggage so I could get the car off the inclined area. After checking in we decided to get some lunch so we entered their restaurant. NO ONE spoke English! Someone went to the kitchen and brought a fellow out who could speak English so we could order. We changed into our bathing suits after lunch and as we were about to enter the water, they told us it wasn't safe to swim in the water in front of the place since it was so polluted. Have never been back to that place. That was 20 years ago and many, many visits since.
Was booked at Royal Palm Resort for 2 weeks in Feb. 1992 however, because of a "Noreaster storm the bookings were overlapped and we were sent to Sonesta Maho for 2 nights before returning to Royal Palm.
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Nice pic, by the way! 
Wow, guess I can blame it on only one cup of coffee so far?? 
I changed it.
