Finally getting around to writing our trip report.
First traveling - We flew from Hartford, CT to Baltimore, MD then on to San Juan on Southwest. (Still using points I accumulated through work.) Very uneventful trip, thankfully. We took Tradewinds from San Juan to St. Barts. We paid for VIP service but no one met us at the gate. I called Tradewinds and they said they'd look into it. After waiting longer than I wanted (bags going aound the carousel concerned me) I got a call back that someone "should" be meeting us at the gate. Well to shorten the story a little, no one ever came so we went to get our bags and up to the lounge. Flight was great. BTW, Tradewinds did reimburse the cost of the VIP service. Flights home were once again uneventful. After seeking advice through this forum we chose to use eMed for testing to get back into the states and it was as easy as can be. Once again we rented a car from Gumbs. Odile is the best and so easy to work with.
We stayed in Villa Les Ramiers in Columbier and it was beautiful. I hate to even put this here because I want to be able to rent it next trip and I'm afraid when people see the villa and the cost it will be even harder to rent. This villa has great views, the owner, who lives below the portion we stayed in, could not have been nicer. There was beer and a meat and cheese plate in the fridge when we got there and on Mother's Day she surprised us with pastries and a baguette left on the pool deck. I was leary about having the owner just below us but we had complete privacy the entire vacation.
There was a lot of construction going on all around the island; roads, new villas, etc. As if driving on the roads wasn't already hard enough. Saw an accident near the airport where a car hit a 4 wheel quad bike and we both thought, shocking we haven't seen more of that.
We're not big foodies but we spent a lot of time at Le Piment, lunches, drinks, appetizers, and dinner once (our favorite place on the island) and enjoyed pizza and dinner at Les Bananiers, had a nice lunch at Shellona, and good appetizers and drinks at Bar de L'Oubli. We went to Le Select one night for dinner and, sorry to say, we were very disappointed. Maybe one of the worst burgers we ever had. Something changed because we enjoyed Le Select in the past.
The beaches, as always, were beautiful. Our favorite is Gouveneur, and we went to Flammands, Shell, and St. Jean but we did not stay at St. Jean because the Sargussum was very bad. There is nothing better than sitting on one of these beautiful beaches reading a book, eating lunch, having a Carib, and going into the ocean for a swim.
Our daily routine is simple. I go to the Le Petit Columbe in the morning to get fresh croissants and maybe sandwiches while my wife makes the coffee. We have our breakfast on the pool deck basking in the sunshine then off to the beach. We spend the rest of the morning and early afternoon on the beach then maybe a drink and appetizer on the way back to the villa for more drinks in the pool. We're not crazy about driving at night after drinking so we usually get a baguette and some delicious cheese and meats and have that with drinks for dinner.
We had fantastic massages one night at our villa by Cleo. We have done this every time we come to St. Barts and she never disappoints us. Such a great, relaxing massage.
Over the years we have been to many of the Caribbean islands and St. Barts is by far our favorite. We always feel very, very safe on the island (driving around may be the exception) and we find the people so friendly. I have already started planning our next trip back to paradise.
First traveling - We flew from Hartford, CT to Baltimore, MD then on to San Juan on Southwest. (Still using points I accumulated through work.) Very uneventful trip, thankfully. We took Tradewinds from San Juan to St. Barts. We paid for VIP service but no one met us at the gate. I called Tradewinds and they said they'd look into it. After waiting longer than I wanted (bags going aound the carousel concerned me) I got a call back that someone "should" be meeting us at the gate. Well to shorten the story a little, no one ever came so we went to get our bags and up to the lounge. Flight was great. BTW, Tradewinds did reimburse the cost of the VIP service. Flights home were once again uneventful. After seeking advice through this forum we chose to use eMed for testing to get back into the states and it was as easy as can be. Once again we rented a car from Gumbs. Odile is the best and so easy to work with.
We stayed in Villa Les Ramiers in Columbier and it was beautiful. I hate to even put this here because I want to be able to rent it next trip and I'm afraid when people see the villa and the cost it will be even harder to rent. This villa has great views, the owner, who lives below the portion we stayed in, could not have been nicer. There was beer and a meat and cheese plate in the fridge when we got there and on Mother's Day she surprised us with pastries and a baguette left on the pool deck. I was leary about having the owner just below us but we had complete privacy the entire vacation.
There was a lot of construction going on all around the island; roads, new villas, etc. As if driving on the roads wasn't already hard enough. Saw an accident near the airport where a car hit a 4 wheel quad bike and we both thought, shocking we haven't seen more of that.
We're not big foodies but we spent a lot of time at Le Piment, lunches, drinks, appetizers, and dinner once (our favorite place on the island) and enjoyed pizza and dinner at Les Bananiers, had a nice lunch at Shellona, and good appetizers and drinks at Bar de L'Oubli. We went to Le Select one night for dinner and, sorry to say, we were very disappointed. Maybe one of the worst burgers we ever had. Something changed because we enjoyed Le Select in the past.
The beaches, as always, were beautiful. Our favorite is Gouveneur, and we went to Flammands, Shell, and St. Jean but we did not stay at St. Jean because the Sargussum was very bad. There is nothing better than sitting on one of these beautiful beaches reading a book, eating lunch, having a Carib, and going into the ocean for a swim.
Our daily routine is simple. I go to the Le Petit Columbe in the morning to get fresh croissants and maybe sandwiches while my wife makes the coffee. We have our breakfast on the pool deck basking in the sunshine then off to the beach. We spend the rest of the morning and early afternoon on the beach then maybe a drink and appetizer on the way back to the villa for more drinks in the pool. We're not crazy about driving at night after drinking so we usually get a baguette and some delicious cheese and meats and have that with drinks for dinner.
We had fantastic massages one night at our villa by Cleo. We have done this every time we come to St. Barts and she never disappoints us. Such a great, relaxing massage.
Over the years we have been to many of the Caribbean islands and St. Barts is by far our favorite. We always feel very, very safe on the island (driving around may be the exception) and we find the people so friendly. I have already started planning our next trip back to paradise.
