thomasj
SBH Insider
Hey all,
1 week on the island so far and didn't take long to get into relax mode obviously, perhaps an entire 5 minutes - where else in the world does immigration take 1 minute? :up:. Great vacation as always however observed some things I'm not personally liking but yeah change is hard. Overall as much as I love, love St. Bart's I think this will be my last trip here (unless some obscenely rich Russian invites me on his yacht that is ). Shouldn't be hard with the high amount of bling bling on the sea and in Gustavia harbour this winter.
What I've noticed and overheard (observations not meant to be a review or critique per se...)
- visitors are down from last year. Hearing this from all shop owners, staff at hotels and restaurants. Zika is being the most frequently sited reason. US election second most reason (which I don't get, but hey I'm Canadian so what do I know?)
- traffic is way way up. Noticed much more trucks and larger vehicles on road. The main road in st Jean is pretty nonstop all day. Gustavia roads busier than I remember. Parking during day a challenge but surprisingly no issues on the nights I've gone.
- mostly American visitors as usual for winter with fair amount of French, German and Brazilian Portuguese heard. Haven't heard any Russian or Spanish (yet)
- beaches are the busiest of all the times I've visited (usually November). Busy as far as St Bart's gets anyways - Saline is still stunning, uncrowded and snorkelling has been more colourful this year (more fish). I enjoy occasional sun bathing sans clothing and noticed less nude sunbathers this year all week, the ones that do speak German and American. Lots of topless French beauties thou, just saying...
- restaurants not busy, seem quite understaffed this year, service is rougher than years past i.e. sat at Hideaway and Grain de Sel ignored by staff for over 15-20 minutes (threshold in NA is 10 mins. Newspapers show lots of hotel and restaurant job openings. Some spots have nice service but overall service quality is low (and slow) even by Caribbean standards. Funny enough best service we got was at Nikki Beach, which was packed with lots of day trippers from SXM. Food still solid there.
- 2 underrated finds (for me) are So Cuisine and Kiki e Mo. I've never been to either before and both have good quality food, friendly service and decent for SBH prices. So cuisine offers very clean and healthy food which is a nice break from the heavy French/American food at more traditional restaurants. Tom's Juice is also great - fresh food, juices, smoothies and friendly obliging staff.
- prices at restaurants are up which I guess equalized with the rise of the USD is zero increase.
- so much construction!
- nasty smell in the air in St Jean, cannot wait to move to my Saline rental this weekend. Side note: super depressed to see soooooo much garbage dumped all over in the nooks and crannies of St Jean (pop/soda cans, food garbage, boxes and millions of cigarette butts) isn't there a fine for littering here? Actually tons of cigarette butts all over the island - it should be criminal to do this to such a beautiful island what's wrong with people???
- have not noticed more or less mozzies than years past, tons of course but that's been the case for years. Rec: I find that the best non-Deet spray is one called Natrapel. Haven't been bit even once so far while using it.
- boat still is sitting on St Jean beach. What up with that?
1 week on the island so far and didn't take long to get into relax mode obviously, perhaps an entire 5 minutes - where else in the world does immigration take 1 minute? :up:. Great vacation as always however observed some things I'm not personally liking but yeah change is hard. Overall as much as I love, love St. Bart's I think this will be my last trip here (unless some obscenely rich Russian invites me on his yacht that is ). Shouldn't be hard with the high amount of bling bling on the sea and in Gustavia harbour this winter.
What I've noticed and overheard (observations not meant to be a review or critique per se...)
- visitors are down from last year. Hearing this from all shop owners, staff at hotels and restaurants. Zika is being the most frequently sited reason. US election second most reason (which I don't get, but hey I'm Canadian so what do I know?)
- traffic is way way up. Noticed much more trucks and larger vehicles on road. The main road in st Jean is pretty nonstop all day. Gustavia roads busier than I remember. Parking during day a challenge but surprisingly no issues on the nights I've gone.
- mostly American visitors as usual for winter with fair amount of French, German and Brazilian Portuguese heard. Haven't heard any Russian or Spanish (yet)
- beaches are the busiest of all the times I've visited (usually November). Busy as far as St Bart's gets anyways - Saline is still stunning, uncrowded and snorkelling has been more colourful this year (more fish). I enjoy occasional sun bathing sans clothing and noticed less nude sunbathers this year all week, the ones that do speak German and American. Lots of topless French beauties thou, just saying...
- restaurants not busy, seem quite understaffed this year, service is rougher than years past i.e. sat at Hideaway and Grain de Sel ignored by staff for over 15-20 minutes (threshold in NA is 10 mins. Newspapers show lots of hotel and restaurant job openings. Some spots have nice service but overall service quality is low (and slow) even by Caribbean standards. Funny enough best service we got was at Nikki Beach, which was packed with lots of day trippers from SXM. Food still solid there.
- 2 underrated finds (for me) are So Cuisine and Kiki e Mo. I've never been to either before and both have good quality food, friendly service and decent for SBH prices. So cuisine offers very clean and healthy food which is a nice break from the heavy French/American food at more traditional restaurants. Tom's Juice is also great - fresh food, juices, smoothies and friendly obliging staff.
- prices at restaurants are up which I guess equalized with the rise of the USD is zero increase.
- so much construction!
- nasty smell in the air in St Jean, cannot wait to move to my Saline rental this weekend. Side note: super depressed to see soooooo much garbage dumped all over in the nooks and crannies of St Jean (pop/soda cans, food garbage, boxes and millions of cigarette butts) isn't there a fine for littering here? Actually tons of cigarette butts all over the island - it should be criminal to do this to such a beautiful island what's wrong with people???
- have not noticed more or less mozzies than years past, tons of course but that's been the case for years. Rec: I find that the best non-Deet spray is one called Natrapel. Haven't been bit even once so far while using it.
- boat still is sitting on St Jean beach. What up with that?