The Insiders' Guide to St. Barths: SXM-AXA Report

1/27-2/3. Left PHL technically on time on USAIR 1465 but 10 feet from the gate, the bar from the tractor pushing the plane broke. I hour later we pushed off again and made up 1/2 hour in the air. Picked up at the airport by our hotel- Le Petit Hotel in Grand Case. First time there but not the last- what a gem. 10 rooms, all oceanfront, the hotel is on the sand with a great view of all Grand Case. Ours was a junior suite, king bed with a 4 inch pillowtop, kitchen, dining area, all polished wood including the ceiling and marble floors, balcony with breakfast table and chairs and Adirondack Chairs to relax in. It is in immaculate condition and the manager, Muriel, was great. Because we were at the western edge of Grand Case, the beach was so quiet we had it to ourselves most of the time.
Eating in SXM is always a difficult choice because of the quantity of places but we ate at some old favorites and some new.
LePressoir is always haute cuisine and didn't disappoint.
Marios was great as always but a little pretentious- to see and been seen you know.
We took the ferry to Anguilla expecting to go to Scilly Cay, a lobster eating experience on the far northern shore, but were told it is only open 3 days a week now because of the drop in tourism. We went to Shoal Bay East not a bad second choice since it is one of the beautiful beaches in the world. AXA has extended the airport, the St. Regis is building a resort with a Greg Norman golfcourse. It is expected that this will take a lot of visitors away from SXM and from Barts I would think- which is not a bad thing.
Some other eating places were Le Balaou, next to our hotel owned by an old friend- Joel- whose last endeavor on the beach got blown away by Hurricane Luis in 1995. Joel gives 1$ to 1E and the prices and food are great- 2 lbs. lobster for $34. On the last day, we had lunch there and the Langoustine with garlic, parsley butter was divine.
Other notable eating places were L'Alabama, Tastevin, Spiga- the latter now taking the place of Sabastiano as my favorite Italian restaurant in SXM. Tuna carpaccio and Gnocchi with arugula and gorganzola cream sauce anyone? Oh my cholesterol.
My wife had so much shellfish- lobster, shrimp, escargot, scallops- I counted nine different times, that she broke out in major hives on both legs. It's either Roseachea or Urticaria but no more shellfish for a while.
There was another USAIR story- our friends came down on Saturday- USAIR 1465. The windshield on the plane was cracked and they had to borrow a plane from Charlotte- 6 hours later they got to SXM at 9:45PM. We were told that in PHL before the plane left there was an announcement that anyone going to St. Barts could go home because there were no rooms in SXM for the night and to come back on Sunday for the flight. OH YEAH? It is my belief that they have to put you up if you miss your connecting flight if it's an airline problem. I think that USAIR lied because there were a ton of rooms in SXM- the island was very quiet- and going down on Thursday the plane was 1/3 empty and coming home on Thursday was only 1/3 full.
The weather was great except for Sunday's rainstorm which cost me a day and my lunch with BillK in SBH.
By the way, the Transit fee for SXM is now $30.00 and I think the clerk is still recoiling from my rant and rave- a disgrace.
Oh, well- back home in time for the EAGLES win tonight.

Edited by andynap (02/06/05 12:17 PM)