LindaP
Senior Insider
Trip Report April 30-May10
Left JFK Wed.April 30th On time, to St Maarten. Used our mileage to upgrade to business class; and enjoyed mimosas to start our 25th anniversary celebration trip to SBs!
Arrived early into St Maarten, met by Bevon, holding a sign with our names on it. Went with him to Gate 10, never saw immigrations, and were ushered into Gate 9 for a short 20 minute wait.*(More on Bevon later)Enough time for a Carib,then we boarded Winair, and I sat behind the pilot.
I asked if I could take photos, he was a young pilot, and said sure.....and kept turning around to smile(even while flying the plane!). After a slightly tipsy approach to Sbs runway, we landed safely. Both pilots laughed, and said"sorry about that, blame it on the rudder". Just glad I had those mimosas and Carib!
Met by SB services, they picked up our bags,we got our Budget rental, and we were on our way!!! Stopped at match for essentials, beer, water, bread and cheese, and headed on to St Jean and Emeraude Plage. We were shown to our old room, cottage #2, the closest bldg. to Filao. This was our second trip to SBs, we were there 2 years ago....and this was where we had stayed. It instantly felt like I was home again.
They had added a new addtion to the large room; a built-in wooden dresser and desk, very nice.15 minutes later, Aileen(? unsure of her name) came over from the office and brought us a chilled ice bucket filled with champagne, 2 glasses and hibiscus.....wow!
Swam at St Jean- the water was 85 degrees(according to my husband's watch)-and it was clear, calm and soft.
Spent 3 perfect days at Emeraude Plage. Discovered Le Plage was indeed closed for a month for "dissruption"(so it may be open the end of May?). This is what Mario (the bartender at Filao) told us......by the way, he said he was retiring in 2 years and will go live in his house in St Lucia. He alo told us that Eden Rock was turning the 30 rooms at Filao into 15 suites.
Sat. may 3 Moved to Carl Gustaf for one night. They allowed us an early check-in time @ noon. They also upgraded our room at no extra charge...so we had a room just below the terrace with great views, 2 floors, a hugh living area, kitchen, plunge pool, and bdrm with a separate deck. After giving us a glass of champagne on check-in....they showed us all this, and ALL the roooms had flowers everywhere, beautiful. Better than our honeymoon, 25 years ago!!!
Sun. May 4 Met Sibarth at the airport and followed them to our villa, sib CLO. For those on this board that said they will be staying there-all I can say is that the photos don't do it justice at all.Its breathtaking!!!!! The kitchen is all new, light, bright nautical decorations, the endless pool is amazing , and the upper deck(crowe's nest)is fantastic!!!! It has, speakers, another refrig., hammocks, table, chairs.....and a 180 dgree view from St Maarten to Gustavia. Inbetween, you can see Saba, St Eustasius, St Kitts, Nevis). Beautiful sunsets, and it gets ALL day sun.
The second day we were there, the owner, Betty(she lives above CLO) came over and introduced herself, and gave us a bottle of wine. Very nice woman. The villa itself is extermely private, perfect for our anniversary.
LUNCHES:
Sand Bar...excellent. The waiter was great, he told us he got a job in the Hamptons for the summer. I had a traditional French fish soup and an aspargus salad, my husband, Bill, had thai chicken, all wonderful. With A bottle of Pellegrino and wine- $135.00....ambiance, "priceless".
Nikki Beach......I had a 2lb lobster, grilled to perfection.But I did share some with my "groom".....lots of families there the day we went.
Do Brazil.....unfortuately we had a couple "raw" hambergers, but the waiter was great, and the tomato/mozzarella/pesto salad we shared as an appetizer was excellent.
Isle de France.....excellent! Our waiter recommended a bottle of Rose, that I wished I had saved the name of. I t was light and delicious. We shared a tomato/mozzarella salad(see a pattern? Cant get enough of fresh tomatoes).....great. Then we both had the lobster/veg. salad. It was presented wrapped like a pkg. with palm leaves around it. Filled with lobster, baby lettuce, aspargus, snow peas, zucchini, carrots and a light french-type dressing....wonderful.
Le Piment......excellent cheeseburgers in panini and fries!
DINNERS
Andy's (twice) the best pizza....my husband had duck once, and enjoyed it. Met Andy and talked about sbhonline....said he's been very busy....and both times were crowded!
Tapas.....We had all fish; the mahi mahi in a ratatouille sauce was great.
Le Repair.....shrimp salad for me, duck salad for Bill, both very good.
Carl Gustaf.....I had the sea bass, but it tasted a little too fishy. Bill had the duck(hes starting to quack)....said it was great. The molten chocolate cake was outstanding.
La Saladeria.....House botle of red wine, excellent. I had the veggie pizza, very good(but sorry, Andy's is the best). Bill had a tasty chicken sandwhich.
Eddy's ....squid ceviche was ok, Bill had shrimpw/ ginger coucous, good. I had grilled mahi mahi...very good. Bill went with the wahoo, but said mine was better.
But the best was the passion fruit sorbet, yum!!!!(More on passion fruit later).
Maya's..... excellent.(I didn't see any cockroaches as in another post). Appetizer: we both had "bonbou"...marinated slices of beef, baby lettuce, bean sprouts, snow peas, chinese noodles, scallions, cilantro, chopped peanutsw/ ginger - thai vinagrette, wonderful!
I had shrimp scampi and Bill had chicken satay for our main course, great. While the owner came over, Bill asked if the ladies at the table next to us were from Wimco(as he had overheard them)....he said, "they ARE Wimco". So we were introduced, and we thanked them for helping us find the best villa for our anniversary. They were great.
2 days later, a girl from Sibarth drives up to our villa, and gives us a bottle of champagne, with a note that read: Happy Anniversary, from Brook and Wimco. That was so great!
Le Ti St-Barth......opening night May 8th, and it was packed!!!! I'll try and send photos...loks the same, and the food was great.
E'Sprit de Saline.......we ended up going there our last night, and it turned out to be the best. Pretty surroundings, we started out by sharing the calamari tempura; it was light and cooked perfectly. Then we both got the scallops in a passion-fruit sauce that was light and absolutely delicious. I tried to get the recipe, but the waiter said it would cost $20,000.....oh well, guess I'll have to write Bon Appetit and try!!!!!
Post-Scrpt:
Best vanilla rhum: Andy's
Best passion fruit rhum: Eddy's
What was it about passion fruit that I could not get enough of? Maybe its because I live upper NY state.....but I've become addicted to it. I had passion fruit rhum, sorbets, jam, and the fruit itself(they had it at Match). Yum!
I have to try and send this, as I lost it earlier....have a small part 2 to follow .
Left JFK Wed.April 30th On time, to St Maarten. Used our mileage to upgrade to business class; and enjoyed mimosas to start our 25th anniversary celebration trip to SBs!
Arrived early into St Maarten, met by Bevon, holding a sign with our names on it. Went with him to Gate 10, never saw immigrations, and were ushered into Gate 9 for a short 20 minute wait.*(More on Bevon later)Enough time for a Carib,then we boarded Winair, and I sat behind the pilot.
I asked if I could take photos, he was a young pilot, and said sure.....and kept turning around to smile(even while flying the plane!). After a slightly tipsy approach to Sbs runway, we landed safely. Both pilots laughed, and said"sorry about that, blame it on the rudder". Just glad I had those mimosas and Carib!
Met by SB services, they picked up our bags,we got our Budget rental, and we were on our way!!! Stopped at match for essentials, beer, water, bread and cheese, and headed on to St Jean and Emeraude Plage. We were shown to our old room, cottage #2, the closest bldg. to Filao. This was our second trip to SBs, we were there 2 years ago....and this was where we had stayed. It instantly felt like I was home again.
They had added a new addtion to the large room; a built-in wooden dresser and desk, very nice.15 minutes later, Aileen(? unsure of her name) came over from the office and brought us a chilled ice bucket filled with champagne, 2 glasses and hibiscus.....wow!
Swam at St Jean- the water was 85 degrees(according to my husband's watch)-and it was clear, calm and soft.
Spent 3 perfect days at Emeraude Plage. Discovered Le Plage was indeed closed for a month for "dissruption"(so it may be open the end of May?). This is what Mario (the bartender at Filao) told us......by the way, he said he was retiring in 2 years and will go live in his house in St Lucia. He alo told us that Eden Rock was turning the 30 rooms at Filao into 15 suites.
Sat. may 3 Moved to Carl Gustaf for one night. They allowed us an early check-in time @ noon. They also upgraded our room at no extra charge...so we had a room just below the terrace with great views, 2 floors, a hugh living area, kitchen, plunge pool, and bdrm with a separate deck. After giving us a glass of champagne on check-in....they showed us all this, and ALL the roooms had flowers everywhere, beautiful. Better than our honeymoon, 25 years ago!!!
Sun. May 4 Met Sibarth at the airport and followed them to our villa, sib CLO. For those on this board that said they will be staying there-all I can say is that the photos don't do it justice at all.Its breathtaking!!!!! The kitchen is all new, light, bright nautical decorations, the endless pool is amazing , and the upper deck(crowe's nest)is fantastic!!!! It has, speakers, another refrig., hammocks, table, chairs.....and a 180 dgree view from St Maarten to Gustavia. Inbetween, you can see Saba, St Eustasius, St Kitts, Nevis). Beautiful sunsets, and it gets ALL day sun.
The second day we were there, the owner, Betty(she lives above CLO) came over and introduced herself, and gave us a bottle of wine. Very nice woman. The villa itself is extermely private, perfect for our anniversary.
LUNCHES:
Sand Bar...excellent. The waiter was great, he told us he got a job in the Hamptons for the summer. I had a traditional French fish soup and an aspargus salad, my husband, Bill, had thai chicken, all wonderful. With A bottle of Pellegrino and wine- $135.00....ambiance, "priceless".
Nikki Beach......I had a 2lb lobster, grilled to perfection.But I did share some with my "groom".....lots of families there the day we went.
Do Brazil.....unfortuately we had a couple "raw" hambergers, but the waiter was great, and the tomato/mozzarella/pesto salad we shared as an appetizer was excellent.
Isle de France.....excellent! Our waiter recommended a bottle of Rose, that I wished I had saved the name of. I t was light and delicious. We shared a tomato/mozzarella salad(see a pattern? Cant get enough of fresh tomatoes).....great. Then we both had the lobster/veg. salad. It was presented wrapped like a pkg. with palm leaves around it. Filled with lobster, baby lettuce, aspargus, snow peas, zucchini, carrots and a light french-type dressing....wonderful.
Le Piment......excellent cheeseburgers in panini and fries!
DINNERS
Andy's (twice) the best pizza....my husband had duck once, and enjoyed it. Met Andy and talked about sbhonline....said he's been very busy....and both times were crowded!
Tapas.....We had all fish; the mahi mahi in a ratatouille sauce was great.
Le Repair.....shrimp salad for me, duck salad for Bill, both very good.
Carl Gustaf.....I had the sea bass, but it tasted a little too fishy. Bill had the duck(hes starting to quack)....said it was great. The molten chocolate cake was outstanding.
La Saladeria.....House botle of red wine, excellent. I had the veggie pizza, very good(but sorry, Andy's is the best). Bill had a tasty chicken sandwhich.
Eddy's ....squid ceviche was ok, Bill had shrimpw/ ginger coucous, good. I had grilled mahi mahi...very good. Bill went with the wahoo, but said mine was better.
But the best was the passion fruit sorbet, yum!!!!(More on passion fruit later).
Maya's..... excellent.(I didn't see any cockroaches as in another post). Appetizer: we both had "bonbou"...marinated slices of beef, baby lettuce, bean sprouts, snow peas, chinese noodles, scallions, cilantro, chopped peanutsw/ ginger - thai vinagrette, wonderful!
I had shrimp scampi and Bill had chicken satay for our main course, great. While the owner came over, Bill asked if the ladies at the table next to us were from Wimco(as he had overheard them)....he said, "they ARE Wimco". So we were introduced, and we thanked them for helping us find the best villa for our anniversary. They were great.
2 days later, a girl from Sibarth drives up to our villa, and gives us a bottle of champagne, with a note that read: Happy Anniversary, from Brook and Wimco. That was so great!
Le Ti St-Barth......opening night May 8th, and it was packed!!!! I'll try and send photos...loks the same, and the food was great.
E'Sprit de Saline.......we ended up going there our last night, and it turned out to be the best. Pretty surroundings, we started out by sharing the calamari tempura; it was light and cooked perfectly. Then we both got the scallops in a passion-fruit sauce that was light and absolutely delicious. I tried to get the recipe, but the waiter said it would cost $20,000.....oh well, guess I'll have to write Bon Appetit and try!!!!!
Post-Scrpt:
Best vanilla rhum: Andy's
Best passion fruit rhum: Eddy's
What was it about passion fruit that I could not get enough of? Maybe its because I live upper NY state.....but I've become addicted to it. I had passion fruit rhum, sorbets, jam, and the fruit itself(they had it at Match). Yum!
I have to try and send this, as I lost it earlier....have a small part 2 to follow .
