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It was my hope to type up a trip report immediately after our return but you know how that goes.....This was our 4th trip to St. Barts but our 1st tri

Rcorkell

SBH Member
Our first Trip Report - June 12 - 21st

It was my hope to type up a trip report immediately after our return but you know how that goes.....

This was our 4th trip to St. Barts but our 1st trip report. This year we were celebrating our 20th Anniversary!

Our flight from Charlotte, NC to SXM went very smoothly. After arriving in SXM it seemed like we were on St. Barths Commuter in no time. That went perfect too. When we arrived in St. Barts our Black Convertible Mini Cooper was awaiting for us. My husband decided to splurge since it was our anniversary. What a fun car to drive on the island.

We stayed at Villa Nirvana. This was our 2nd time staying at this villa. It is the perfect place to stay. The house has it all. They have it decorated so nicely. The kitchen is anything & everything you need for cooking. The views are incredible & sunsets. The location is in Lurin so we are in town within minutes. Also, very close to our favorite beaches...Saline & Gouverneur.

Highlights:
Fresh baked chocolate croissants & Espresso every morning from the Bakery
Boogie Boarding at Saline & Gouverneur.
Driving around in our Mini Cooper
Having Vanilla Rhum at lunch each day
Doing our shopping at Match and getting all our favorite St. Barts things
Having a bottle of wine at Governeur in the late afternoon.
Sitting under the stars at night


Restaurants:
Le Select- The best burger & fries ever. Marius sat with us for one of our lunches and told stories. Also met Eddie there on one of his last days on the Island.
Santa Fe - Can't say enough about this restaurant. What a view. First of all the owner has to be the nicest. He served us our lunch. It was definitely our favorite lunch on the island.
Andy's - We had dinner at the beginning of our trip. The pizza and warm goat cheese salad is amazing. It is always hard to leave there since its so entertaining. We went back for lunch toward the end of the week and had a great meal. Good value and the best vanilla rhum.
Le Repaire - We always have a fantastic meal there. Our tradition is to play a couple games of Pool after dinner. They serve us vanilla rhum.
Do Brazil - Another one of our favorite lunch spots. The service and the view is great.
Cooked alot of our meals in our villa too. We had a great Weber Barb. and use it for several meals.

Observations

A lot more construction around the island
Beaches weren't very busy
The island was still quiet even with construction

What a wonderful & relaxing vacation! We are defintely going back again next year.
 
Re: Our first Trip Report - June 12 - 21st

RDC,
Thanks for the great trip report! My wife and I have celebrated 20, 25, 30 and 35 on the island!
 
Re: Our first Trip Report - June 12 - 21st

great trip report. one observation about L'repaire, which is also one of our favorite restaurants, is that their vanilla rhum is rarely mentioned in this forum and IMHO is one of the better ones on the island. On a couple of trips to SBH they made us a batch which we brought home and enjoyed a great deal. We've mostly gone to L'repaire for lunch rather than dinner, but we usually stop there for a cognac and espresso on the way home after dinner, especially if we've had dinner in Gustavia.
 
Re: Our first Trip Report - June 12 - 21st

We've mostly gone to L'repaire for lunch rather than dinner

We've done the opposite and did so a couple weeks ago...truly one of our favorite spots...It must be good, we ran into Kevin & Kate there : )
 
Re: Our first Trip Report - June 12 - 21st

RDC,
Thanks for the great trip report! My wife and I have celebrated 20, 25, 30 and 35 on the island!

hubby and i are following suit: we're celebrating #5 (anniversary actually is april, but hey.....)

glad you had a great trip, rdc. thanks for the report!
 
Re: Our first Trip Report - June 12 - 21st

Le Repaire is one of three restaurants in Gustavia that I don't think gets the attention that they deserve. (Le Palace and La Saladerie being the other two.) We try to get there several times each trip - most often for lunch. The best advice that I can give to people is to pay attention to the specials. I've had some great specials there, including a "carre de veau", a rack of small veal chops similar in size to lamb "lolipops". The menu was redone this year, along with the refurbishment of the restaurant. Some favorites are gone, but there are lots of new things to try. One new item that we tried was Risotto de Gambas au Fume de Langouste - they nailed it the first time that we tried it, it wasn't quite as perfect the second time, but was still very good.
 
Re: Our first Trip Report - June 12 - 21st

We actually started going to Le Repaire 4 years ago. We drove by it and liked the atmosphere. They have totally redecorated the restaurant it it really looks nice. Very modern decor. I usually have their fish special. This year I had the Snapper with a sweet potato sauce. It was incredible. The Vanilla Rhum is one of our favorites.
 
Re: Our first Trip Report - June 12 - 21st

We enjoy a lunch there from time to time. If you are ever on the island during Carnaval, it is the best place to have lunch before the parade. Never know which famous forum person you will see there :)


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Re: Our first Trip Report - June 12 - 21st

I didn't get a chance to include some pictures taken in St. Barts. I had to learn how to post pictures first. Thank Tim.

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Having lunch at Do Brazil and this is our view!

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Lunch at Santa Fe. This is by far our favorite restaurant. The owner & cooks are so nice. The were so attentive.

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I had a Goat Cheese Ravoli with Grilled Vegetatbles & sweet potatos. It was incredible.

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Our new favorite place to buy Vanilla Rhum.

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My Husband and his favorite toy on the island. We had so much fun driving the mini around the island.

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Just an incredible view from a villa we looked at overlooking Flammands. How did I do Eddie?

These are just a few of the many memories of our Fantastic 9 days in St. Barts.
 
Re: Our first Trip Report - June 12 - 21st

JEK... significance of uniformed diners at LeRepaire? Lady on right--three stripes (First officer/Co-pilot), man on rear left w/four epaulets a Captain...someone's flight crew?? Costumes for Carnival?
Love those oversize wings on the ball caps.

RDC
Santa Fe and Do Brazil our lunch favorites as well---and the views aren't bad, either...
Just ordered a Mini Cooper for one of our Villa Guests next week---looks like fun.
An excellent anniversary trip!
 
Re: Our first Trip Report - June 12 - 21st

You may recognize one of the "pilots" as a famous poster on this forum - julia, front right! You have have also noticed the L'Avion shirts around the island. The gentleman on the left is the entrepreneur that created those shirts, hence the pilot costumes.

http://www.lavionstbarth.com/
 
Re: Our first Trip Report - June 12 - 21st

RDC...Wonderful shots! Do Brazil is my personal favorite spot for lunch...don't you love that whole experience there?

Gotta get to Santa Fe, the food shot looks yummy...Were you able to get your vanilla rhum home safely? We kept meaning to stop by to purchase some but never timed it right. Guess I need to dig out andynap's recipe and make my own this summer!

Thanks for the pics.
 
Re: Our first Trip Report - June 12 - 21st

Nice report, and excellent photos!
It was nice meeting, even though brief.
 
Re: Our first Trip Report - June 12 - 21st

BTO

We just packed in our suitcase and it made the trip safe & sound all the way back to Charlotte. We just wish we had gotten two of the big bottles. The girl at the Pinta actually wrapped it up with bubble wrap and then in paper bag. She did a really good job.
 
Re: Our first Trip Report - June 12 - 21st

I did my 50th birthday at St Barts and 60th birthday at St Martin.

Definitely a neat thing to do for big occasions.

Nice report
 
Re: Our first Trip Report - June 12 - 21st

Jeff,
We were away, celebrating our 48th wedding anniversary, so I was off-line. Otherwise, I would have fessed-up to being in the photo JEK took at Le Repaire on Carnaval Day, 2008. As JEK noted, we were dressed in "costume" for Carnaval--outfits, cleverly designed to represent l'avion, by Dr. Norman, who created the clothing line. Norman's wife, Susan, is in the front, left side and my husband, Dan, is behind me on the right. In fact, passers-by thought we were real pilots and questioned why we were drinking wine before flying.

We usually dress up for Carnaval and in 2002 and 2004 built floats to participate in the parade, Since those were Olympic years, we were the St. Barth Bobsled team and the St. Barth Rowing team respectively. When not in the parade, we choose to watch it from Le Repaire. Getting back to the original mention of the restaurant in the Trip Report....LR is consistently good and rarely crowded (except at Carnaval). Proof positive is how many of the island residents one sees there regularly.
Julia
 
Re: Our first Trip Report - June 12 - 21st

J & D,
Bon Anniversaire de Mariage!


I didn't know that was you guys!



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Re: Our first Trip Report - June 12 - 21st

LR is consistently good and rarely crowded (except at Carnaval). Proof positive is how many of the island residents one sees there regularly.
Julia

Julia,

I've always considered the number of locals who patronize a restaurant to be a good sign of both quality and price.
 
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