TravelTalkOnline Forums Travel and Vacation Forums St. Maarten - St. Martin Arrival and first week report

We arrived from Miami on the 4:15pm on Monday 1/13. No jetway, but close enough to walk to the terminal. Bathrooms are available just inside before you get to immigration. I filled out our forms about a week before arriving. The immigration line wasn’t too bad and there were at least 20 terminals and airport staff keeping everyone moving. The computers worked fine for us and shockingly our luggage was on the belt when we got down there. We landed at 4:14 and we were in our rental car by 4:46….and then it took us an hour to get to Orient.

Dining
Le Piment – Our first meal after arriving. Hanger steak was as good as always. We had great service despite it being very busy.

Calmos Café – One of our favorite places. Fun atmosphere, smiling, attentive staff and great food keep us coming back. This was the place that introduced Todd to Ti Punch and he hasn’t looked back since. We enjoyed excellent triggerfish and flank steak with chimichurri. This is a great place to enjoy the sunset. Make a reservation for 5:30 and request an outdoor table.

L’Atelier – Alex and his crew do an excellent job and provide a wonderful experience. For starters we had the crispy egg on pumpkin veloutte (the egg is like a scotch egg but without the sausage inside) and the French goat cheese and olive jam. For mains we had braised short rib and the Manhattan steak which is the center cut of a NY steak. It was some of the best beef we have ever had.

L’Auberge Gourmand – We are big fans of Le Bistronome so naturally we wanted to come here and see what it was like after they took ownership. We were offered the complementary champagne cocktail which is always a nice touch. We both started with salads – goat cheese salad and Caesar salad. Both were excellent, the goat cheese was wrapped in filo and had a nice accompanying salad, the Caesar was dressed with a lovely garlicky dressing and anchovies on the side. For our main course we had John Dory fish and the lobster pie. The fish was pan fried perfectly, and oh my goodness the lobster pie was incredible. Chunks of lobster in béchamel sauce with spinach all wrapped in puff pastry. All paired with a nice Chardonnay, a very lovely meal.

A few observations – The island is green and lush. There are new recycling receptacles everywhere on the French side. There is a lot of building going on, both residential and commercial on both sides of the island. Traffic can be heavy during peak times, and I fear the infrastructure will be unable to handle the growth. The weather has been windy, right on the edge of too windy for me to sit on the beach. We did make to the beach 3 times this past week; winds are supposed to calm down so hopefully get a few more in this week.

That’s all for now!

That is disappointing that the Miami flight is not getting a jetway. Sounds like you did have a good experience overall with exiting the airport though.

Sounds like some lovely meals so far. Would love to see some pictures at some point!

Enjoy!

The airport is actually very nice now, would be perfect if everyone fills out their stuff correctly. I think too many negative posts here, especially people who haven't visited recently.

L’Auberge Gourmand... everything sounds marvelous and lobster pie, be still my heart... I think this will be a must go for next month. Thanks for the review. Way too many restaurants for a 9 day trip this year.

Glad I checked in here and learned about the immigration form. Will get that done here in the next week. I am so hoping immigration and the whole airport experience is better than last March. That outdoor line in the heat was just so long and we had no checked bags. The departure terminal goat rope was a mess too. So many people in such a small space. Like squeezing 10 lbs of potatoes in a 5lb sack.