Trip Report 11/17-11/26 w/ 8yo Daughter

steelpe

SBH Insider
This is a trip report for our visit to SBH from 11/16-11/26 for my wife and my 8yo daughter(her first visit… our fourth… 11,16,19). Sorry for the long report. FYI, I wrote this in SXM on our way out

Arrived on 11/17 after a very long travel day that saw us get up at 2:00 am and land in sbh via sbc at 5:00.


SBC… never flown with them before, so I had no idea that sbc was more “stand by” at sxm than organized flights (or maybe it was just this day). After not hearing any flights called, I finally figured out the process, unfortunately that took two and a half hours. SBC made sxm a breeze on the way down though.


Stayed in Villa Wish for the first half of the week. Nice villa with a good view and a heated pool, but the planes were a bit loud which we didn’t realize until later. Wi-Fi wouldn’t work in the second bedroom…. And the outside lights didn’t always work.


Stayed in Villa Upside the second half of the week. Very nice villa. I could not get the tv to work for the life of me…. And the pool was a bit cool after the first few days with a heated pool. In the end we ended up liking this villa more than Villa Wish.


Beaches


Saline…. (Friday)Nice but too rough for our 8yo
St Jean…. (Friday, Thursday) Much calmer, daughter loved it, went here two different days (I think I may have had an Eve sighting the on the second visit).
Columbier…. (Saturday, Friday #2) Daughter loved this beach and requested a second visit in our last full day. Tons of erosion due to loss of vegetation post Irma. Friday #2 was packed with charter yachts who set up shop on the beach.
Shell beach…. (Sunday, Thursday #2) daughter loved the fish at this beach.
Lorient… (Monday). Were only there for 30 minutes for lunch on


Restaurants


Eddys… (cod fritters, mahi mahi) always great
Bananiers…. (Pizza) Good pizza
Black Ginger… (don’t fully remember…. Maybe mahi mahi). Wife wanted to go here for her birthday celebration …. So we did. Good food and the black ginger mojito was really good.
Rivage…. (Cacio e pepe) Nice setting with good food a bit pricey, but still very good.
Zion… (burnt shrimp and veal) they did a good job renovating this place. Food was really good. Wife did not like her smoked mashed potatoes... so I ate them
Sante Fe… (tuna tar tar, chicken supreme), loved the tuna… we were entertained by the gecko hunting for moths.... very suspenseful.
L’esprit… (tuna tar tar, black pork) the tuna was the best dish I had on the island. The lime sorbet was a huge surprise which I loved.
Bakeries…. Are way too many sandwiches from the bakery….. you don't realize how good they are until you hit reality at sxm. Pastries were awesome.


I would say Zion, L’esprit and rivage were my top three (not in that particular order).


Daughter loved all the wildlife we saw. Turtles, hermit crabs, goats, lizards, geckos, cats (one tried to bite my finger off when I tried to get him out of the villa… then he continued to taunt me every day until we left).


Sbc to sxm. May have had an eve sighting as we flew over st Jean.

Rented through Gumbs. No issues to this point. Extremely easy return vs what others were experiencing with long wait time at the airport on Sunday. I heard a few say it took them over 45 minutes to return their vehicle because of all the people trying to return vehicles at the same time.


Premium IV through sxm…. A bit pricey but no stress at all…. Cut to the front of lots of lines. Like a walk in the park.


Sxm, wasn’t overly full when we arrived, but by the time I was done outlining this report it was a complete dumpster fire (which is probably an insult to dumpster fires). People were shoulder to shoulder with no space to move at all.


Hopefully we will make it back again.... but will more than likely be a few years.
 
You sure did a lot. Glad you covered so many bases. Not an easy place to travel to, but like no other island. Glad you are planning a return visit in your future.
 
Thank you for your very interesting report! We hope your daughter had a wonderful time! I will have to find out where the bakeries with sandwiches are, since we only did take out sandwiches once before and it was at a bakery at L'Oasis (note to self..don't go without a fold up cooler to take your lunch to Saline-think I got more sand in my sandwich than was on the whole beach:rolleyes:)..I'm afraid I will get addicted to the pastries and then there goes the jeans:laughing-cry:. I am glad you had a good experience with Premium IV as we have them on Thursday and it could not be more pleasant anticipating the lack of problems with them.
 
Thanks for sharing. Like your daughter, our newbie friends loved all the wildlife. The cats in our area are super feral and avoid us like the plague, but we can watch their antics from the deck.
 
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