Saint-Martin, Saint-Barth, Sint-Maartin
Saint-Martin
The French Side
Despite being an easy direct flight from Charlotte, Saint-Martin wasn’t a destination on either of our radars. Neither of us had spent a lot of time in the islands, preferring longer international travel to Europe and Asia when we have the chance to get away. However, a friend put together a group trip for his 40th birthday and that seemed a good a reason as any to go explore a new place.
The group (16 people in total) rented a pretty wild villa for a Saturday to Saturday stay. This place had everything from three pools to tennis courts to multiple kitchens to a movie theater room. Everyone had their own room and there were so many different sections of the villa that there was a good bit of privacy, which helps when there are so many people together on one trip that don’t necessarily all know each other.
A couple general things about the island. It’s half-French and half-Dutch, hence the two different names, Saint-Martin on the French side and Sint-Maartin on the Dutch. The two halves are very different, with different architecture, cuisine, and activities present in each place to make it a pretty distinct experience depending on where on the island you are.
Predictably, the French side is more disorganized and messy, but has the better food and more interesting island culture, while the Dutch side is where the cruise ships come in, so also where you find all the tax-free jewelry stores, touristy beaches, and hotels and restaurants that cater to folks stepping off a ship for a couple hours to have six margaritas and impulse buy something shiny.
This isn’t meant to denigrate either side, they each have their charms and their drawbacks, like everywhere else. We rented a car and circumnavigated the island several times during our stay (it’s not a huge island, for the record), and stumbled on places we enjoyed and places we didn’t equally on both sides.
The main thing about Saint-Martin though, is how friendly the people are. “The Friendly Island” is printed on the vehicle license plates and it really is true. We met several people on the way down and while we were there that had been coming every year for 15, 20, 25 years and we kept thinking what could be so great about it that you’d want to come back every year like that when there are so many other places to go. By the end, we understood why.
We Rented A Villa
Spent the Day on
The Boomerang Catamaran
Hiked & Had Lunch at
Loterie Farm
Above is the view from the infinity pool that overlooked the bay of Marigot, which is the main city on the French side. When at the villa, we mainly spent our time around this pool, sipping on the local beer Carib, listening to music, chatting with our companions, wading in the water, and soaking up the view.
If it’s possible for you to do Saint-Martin this way, getting a group together and renting a large villa like this one, we highly recommend it. Even though we only did planned whole group activities on a couple of the days, it was great to have somewhere like this to come back to, and get to know all the others through sharing the experience of a new place with them.
Overall, the cost was super reasonable for such a lavish place, coming in around 3K per couple for all seven nights. The villa could have housed a few more couples, which would have brought the price down further if desired.
During the days, people mostly did their own thing. We were the most aggressive explorers of the group, spending the most time away from the villa checking out the island. We rented a car and drove to different destinations each day, finding favorite places like a breakfast spot in Marigot that we went back nearly every day that we were on the island.
Fair warning for the faint of heart and nervous car passengers, driving around the island is an adventure in and of itself. It’s not clear that there are any actual traffic laws to speak of, with mopeds zooming all around and by you, needing to drive on and off of curbs to avoid other cars, navigating intersections without traffic lights (there are only two on the entire island that we saw, near each other on the Dutch side), and generally needed to just kind of put your foot down and hope for the best in a lot of situations or other people will go and you’ll never get out of where you are. One of us loved this whole thing and had a great deal of fun doing what he termed “Island Driving”, shouting that out with a laugh each time something ridiculous happened on the road, which was basically every few minutes. Others of us had less fun and occasionally rode with eyes closed; more proof that there’s something for everyone here.
Island Driving
Grand Case Beach
Grand Case Beach was one of the cooler spots on the French side, with a notable shoutout to The Rainbow Cafe. Though a large proportion of the buildings on Saint-Martin have fallen into disrepair after the latest hurricane and give certain places a sketchy abandoned kind of vibe, there are some fun, beautiful, and nice places amidst the ruin. The Rainbow Cafe is one such place.
Best of all, you can rent chairs on the beach, where the sand is lovely and the water clear and warm (at least in April, when we were there). The building itself is recently redone and nice inside. It’s definitely trying to be a bougie experience and in our opinion, there are two distinct categories of bougie: bougie and worth it, and bougie and not worth it. Though food and drinks here were some of the most expensive on the island, we both felt this place is worth it. Cocktails, coconut shrimp, fries, and sushi roll were all super tasty. We’d definitely come spend another day on the beach here next time we’re in the area.
Saint-Barth
So funny story, we actually went to St. Bart’s totally by accident. You see, there’s the port in Marigot where you pick up a ferry to head to either St. Barth’s or Anguilla. Wednesday night we’re sitting around the villa talking about what we’re going to do on Thursday, so we come up with the bright idea to hop on the ferry and check out Anguilla for the day.
Thursday morning, we head down to Marigot, park the car, grab a little breakfast at our favorite spot, buy tickets for the ferry to Anguilla, get in line, and hop on the boat. We’re half an hour into the ride when the couple sitting next to us on the deck asks if it’s our first time in St. Bart’s. Only then do we realize…we’re not going to Anguilla.
We’re happy to report that this turned out to be a wonderful accident. We landed in Gustavia, hopped off the ship, and went exploring. This is the main town on the island, with lots of luxury shopping and restaurants. We had a nice brunch at a pretty little restaurant called Arawak Café and then wandered around some stores before renting a car from a little local place and setting out to see what we could see.
St. Bart’s is like a much more posh version of Saint-Martin. Cleaner, more orderly, more expensive. In a certain way it’s nicer, but also less interesting. If I wanted to go sit at a luxury resort and have someone bring me drinks with little umbrellas in them, St. Bart’s has to be one of the best places in the world for that kind of experience. That wasn’t what this trip was about for us, so while it was a fun day of exploring the different beaches, having a random pina colada at NAO BEACH, and having another nice meal at Kiki-é Mo Deli, I remember the ferry pulling back into the port at Marigot that night as the moment when we both got the magic of Saint-Martin, finally understanding why people return year after year.
More Island Driving
During the week, we did two group activities that were some of the most fun days we had on the island.
One day, we chartered a boat, the Boomerang, to take us all around the island, drinking, snorkeling, drinking, eating, drinking, and drinking. We boarded the boat around 10AM and the bar opened up right after we got the safety briefing about where to find life jackets, and then we were off, motoring around the island. The water was clear and the warm, the crew friendly, and the captain skilled at keeping it a smooth ride and finding the good places to swim with the sea turtles.
We went to a private beach only accessible by boat, where we docked for awhile, jumped off the roof of the boat, had cocktails in these little containers that float next to you (a wonderful invention) and swam with some more turtles.
This was the consensus best day of the trip from every single person. Even if we were only on the island for a couple days, this would be the first thing I’d book.
The other outing was also well-worth it, a hike and lunch at the Loterie Farm. The hike was pretty modest in terms of difficulty and the view from the top was well worth the effort of the climb.
Both the drinks (we basically tried Pina Coladas everywhere) and the food at the on-site restaurant were enjoyed by all. I’d definitely go back and maybe even spend some more time by the pool hanging out or doing some of the other activities.
After this we drove down to the famous bar next to the airport where you can watch the planes come in right over the beach. The airport is small with a short runway that goes right up to the mountains, so the planes land right over the beach and then takeoff right up against the edge to get as much speed as possible for the steep climb up over the mountain. It’s pretty wild to watch them from so close and have them come in right over your head.
The Local Lager
Sint-Maarten
The Dutch Side
Despite being the more touristy part of the island and occasionally having to deal with cruise ship crowds, there are still some excellent things to do and see on the Dutch side of the island.
We had a nice lunch at Caribbean Blend before wandering the streets of shopping and jewelry stores. Everything is tax free here, so you can get quite a deal on things like watches and even designer jewelry like David Yurman. We each got something from a place called the Art of Time, which we liked for its selection and distinct lack of pushy salesmen; an issue in some of the other places we wandered into.
After that we visited The Yoda Guy, who, seemingly randomly, settled in Sint-Maartin to open up an exhibit of not only Star Wars but all the movies he has worked on. Darren’s a big Star Wars fan, so it was cool to chat for a bit with someone who played such a hand in an iconic part of the saga.
On the way back to the villa we stopped at a local Carrefour Market to get some groceries. We always like checking out local supermarkets and this one did not disappoint, with an interesting selection of brands and choices that we don’t have in the states.
