Our winter vacation this year was to St Martin/St Maarten in the Caribbean. We had found a great deal with our frequent flyer miles on American Airlines. We had an early morning flight at 6am, and got into SXM by 4pm.
We stayed at the Atrium hotel in Simpson Bay. It was close to quite a few restaurants and shops and right on the beach. It was an older property, but it was clean and recently updated.
We unpacked and went to Captain's Rib Shack for dinner.
We unpacked and went to Captian's Rib Shack for dinner.
The next day we were up bright and early for a day on Celine Charters Enigma catamaran for an island tour.
The captain and staff were really amazing. The lunch was also excellent and all freshly prepared on the boat. The tour lasted most of the day and we stopped a couple times to swim and snorkel in different areas.
We had dinner at Skipjack's just down the way from our hotel. John decided to select his own lobster.
Finished lobster was huge with lots of accompaniments.
I think I had some sort of fresh fish of the day.
We had breakfast at Zee Best, just across from the hotel off the main road. It was hopping and very busy, but they get everyone in and out quickly.
We took a taxi up to Maho beach to watch the airplanes land at the airport. The runway really is right there! And it is really, really loud when large planes land! The road is right behind these parked cars with the airport property right after that.
We had a couple drinks and watched planes land at Sunset Beach SXM.
We had lunch at Tortuga Maho Beach.
We wandered across to the bar on the other side and had one drink there. Sunset was the better bar for sure. We went over to the area near the casino where there were a number of shops and restaurants. Once the casino opened we played blackjack there a little bit.
Moulin Fou for dinner. I think we just went and put in our names and came back at the time they told us to, which worked out fine.
tuna tartare
ribeye steak for John
mahi mahi for me. The entrees came with excellent garlic bread and some soup in the tall shot glass as well as rice and creamy cajun sauce.
The next day we had a car we rented dropped off at the hotel to use for a few days. We drove up to Grand Case for the day.
Rainbow cafe lunch. It was a very cute, trendy instagrammy type place.
We had reservations at Bamboo House for dinner. It is out of town from where we were staying so we took a taxi there and back. It was up a steep dark winding hill. Glad we did not drive.
We had breakfast at La Sucriere at very authentic French bakery.
After breakfast we drove up to Orient Beach to hang for the day. We ended up at Bikini Beach Club.
rental car
We watched the sunset and had drinks at Roxy Beach Club near the hotel.
We had dinner at the oddly named Balls and Wine. The food and service were excellent though.
We drove to the ferry for Pinel Island and spent the day at Karibuni for the day.
view from beach chairs
Mahi burger
fresh fish possibly wahoo. The food was really good too!
view of St Martin from Pinel Island
dinner at Pineapple Pete's
Breakfast at Astra on Welfare Road.
We drove in Phillipsburg and walked around for the morning until it was time to return the rental car.
downtown Phillipsburg
lunch at Greenhouse, which was a bar and grill next to our hotel
we spent the afternoon on the beach in front of the hotel
view from Lagoonies Bistro
dinner at a new restaurant that had just opened call NOLA Bayou Bistro.
crawfish cake
creole shrimp
blackened snapper
pecan gateau
went back to Zee Best for breakfast again
After breakfast we took a taxi up to Dany's at Cupecoy Beach Bar, which was a very rustic beach bar.
Dany's ribs
chicken
Dany's at Cupecoy beach
Had some apps for dinner at the St Martin Yacht club , which was not fancy, just a casual bar on the bay.
Reveil for breakfast
After breakfast, we packed up and took a taxi to the airport. Our flight was a bit delayed leaving SXM, but it did not matter since we were staying in Miami anyway.
We got to walk on the tarmac to board the plane
SXM terminal views
great views of the island on takeoff
There was a large snowstorm rolling into Minnesota on the day we were supposed to fly home. Since AA issued travel waivers we switched our connecting flight from MIA to MSP to a couple days later. We stayed at the Holiday Inn Miami Beach using IHG certificates/points. It wasn't great, but it was right on the beach and you got access to beach chairs daily. And I think it had just been renovated. I don't think we did anything on arrival day as it was sort of late by the time we got out of the airport and to the hotel.
We had breakfast at Latin Cafe a few blocks from the hotel inland.
Holiday Inn is on the left
view of pool from room
lunch at Piola Mid Beach right near the hotel
We wandered down the beach and had drinks at Bungalow by the Sea pool bar
drinks at TacoTaco, a sort of hidden tiki bar
dinner at Blue Ribbon Sushi Miami Beach
We had breakfast at Soho Beach House next door at Cecconi's
We rode the trolley around for awhile and had lunch at The Tavern which was near the hotel.
After lunch I think we headed to the airport for our flight home finally.
So we made it home, but a couple days later than planned, which was fine. It was better to enjoy a couple nights in Miami than sit at the airport with cancelled flights.
