1. We made our 15th trip to the Island this year and were excited to see how it had progressed from the storm. With one notable exception, the trip was great.
2. We flew Delta to SXM then SBC to SBH without incident. In fact the transit time in SXM was the shortest we have ever had. The return was fine also except that, as others have noted, the SXM departure tent is smaller than needed so if you're there for hours it will be not great. But all in all we were pleasantly surprised by the ease of SXM.
3. We found the Island to be largely as it always is, although the repair work on the main beach hotels is the biggest noticeable issue and there are lots of work crews everywhere. We only saw one American couple the whole time. There were a lot of locals and the Island seemed as busy as usual for June when we normally come.
4. We tried a number of our regular restaurants (Select, Viet Nam, Bananiers, L'Isoletta, and of course Petite Colombe-All great).
5. We are hard core beach people and went to virtually all of them. Flamands seemed dead with the hotel damage. Everything else was great (though several of our favorite shade spots had been lost due to the loss of strategically located palm trees from the storm.) There was significant seaweed on Gouverneur and to a lesser extent Saline.
6. Our only major problem was villa related. Our beloved villa we have stayed in for years is still being repaired and we had a debacle with our replacement. I can't post details on here but anyone who wants details can PM me.
7. The bad taste from the villa has caused us to decide to skip next year's trip, but I am sure we will get back and I look forward to posting a more positive trip review in the future.
2. We flew Delta to SXM then SBC to SBH without incident. In fact the transit time in SXM was the shortest we have ever had. The return was fine also except that, as others have noted, the SXM departure tent is smaller than needed so if you're there for hours it will be not great. But all in all we were pleasantly surprised by the ease of SXM.
3. We found the Island to be largely as it always is, although the repair work on the main beach hotels is the biggest noticeable issue and there are lots of work crews everywhere. We only saw one American couple the whole time. There were a lot of locals and the Island seemed as busy as usual for June when we normally come.
4. We tried a number of our regular restaurants (Select, Viet Nam, Bananiers, L'Isoletta, and of course Petite Colombe-All great).
5. We are hard core beach people and went to virtually all of them. Flamands seemed dead with the hotel damage. Everything else was great (though several of our favorite shade spots had been lost due to the loss of strategically located palm trees from the storm.) There was significant seaweed on Gouverneur and to a lesser extent Saline.
6. Our only major problem was villa related. Our beloved villa we have stayed in for years is still being repaired and we had a debacle with our replacement. I can't post details on here but anyone who wants details can PM me.
7. The bad taste from the villa has caused us to decide to skip next year's trip, but I am sure we will get back and I look forward to posting a more positive trip review in the future.
