I've learned so much from this forum that it's only right to try to give something back. So here goes.
Flew out of JFK 8 am arrive 1pm SXM time. Was wisely told not to book the 2pm Winair flight and take the 3:30 by this group. Good advice - our flight was delayed because of late arrival by 45 mins. Still we landed and were through immigration at 1:30 and with tickets in hand told if we had our bags and at the gate in time we could catch the 2 o'clock. As fate would have we decided to check bags (originally we weren't but figured since we had the 3:30 why not) and they were the last to get off the belt. Go through the second round of immigration and security and by this time it was 2:30. So... a little wait and we were in the air looking forward to the famous landing at St Barths airport. We were not disappointed! Having woken at 2:30 am that morning ( we live on the east end of Long Island, 1 1/2 hrs from JFK and who knows what kind of time is needed for security with this Gov't shutdown) by the time we got settled in our rental we were pretty well beat. Went to L'ardoisse in L'orient and after a longer wait for the food than we were prepared for we settled in for a good nights sleep anticipating fun in the sun for the next ten days. We are staying in modest accommodations in Vitet. AirBnb pool house with a great view looking towards the north with the east end of St Martin to the left and Anguilla in the distant. Very quiet here with the owner nonexistent.
First day and night was fabulous. Got to Saline beach with sandwiches from Petite Colombe before lunch and spent the day there. Beautiful beach. A side note; we have just turned 60 and have been traveling throughout the Caribbean since 1981 (Our honeymoon in St Thomas). Saline is right at the top. Anguilla has nice beaches also but at this point we are nit picking. Anyway. Dinner at Ociela, on the rail with that wonderful view. Very enjoyable, nice guitar music with female vocalist. Martinis were prepared well and we were happy. We had 3 small plates and two entrees. Small plates were kale salad, tabouli & avacado dip. Entrees were fetticunni alfredi and shrimp with zucchini noodles with pesto. At about 8 o'clock (we are early diners usually 7 - 7:30) we heard drumming down below and were told they were practicing for Carnival. They started marching up the street and became so loud our musicians had to stop! The drummers continued on into town and we resumed our meal. Having finished dinner, we went looking about the town and hearing the drumming we were drawn like moths to the light. What fun! Something about drums. The rhythm and power. They had steel drums, snare drums and different sizes of bass drums. When the the guys started banging on the big bass drums you could feel the air being moved. Everyone was dancing and mesmerized. The drummers would hang out at various bars, restaurants (we caught up with them at Le Select) then move on. They would move ahead for 50 feet or so then walk backwards for 30 feet, hang out then on we all went to our next destination. We finally left them around 11. I think they are ready for Carnival! A great end to our "first" night in St. Barths.
Yesterday, our second day, was just as good if not better. Slow start to our day and being inexperienced caused us to miss our beach time. The inexperience because we do not know the beaches. Since our beach time was short, we decided to go close to home and try Grand cul-de-sac, didn't really care for it, then Petit cul-de-sac, no good either, then Toiney, then Grand Fond. None were our cup of tea but we parked along the side at Grand Fond, pulled out our chairs, and enjoyed the raw nature of the land and sea with our salads from Petite Colombe. Then drive back home, shower and ready for our evening and in town by 3. Why so early? We had a lot planned! Thanks to Amy from an earlier post on the main Forum we went to Domaine Felicite. And she was right. What a treasure. We were the first to arrive as they open at 3. Allan Magras and his sister greeted us and asked if we spoke French. Nope. No matter, Allan spoke good English and for the next 2 hours he treated us as royalty. I don't want to go into too much detail but the buildings on the property are loaded with Gustavia history and especially his family history. The Magras family being one of the "original" (after the Indians of course)11 families have an interesting history on St. Barths. Shopkeepers from the beginning I believe he said they control 250 shops. Don't quote me here a lot was thrown at us. Allan owns/manages the AMC stores, his cousin the C.C. P. F. along with Lou Lou's marine and many others. What he has done with Domaine Felicite is a gift to this Island. They just opened in November and I believe will become an institution. We had plans to go to the Anglican Church for the Hawaiian Music concert and Allan was still going strong with his tour. There were other people there, they were on their own but Allan was our personal guide! We were finally heading out to the gardens,, and they are absolutely beautiful, the time was 4:40 and I didn't know how to tell Allan we needed to speed it up and go to our concert. But tell him I did and graciously he did his best to get us on our way and satisfy himself that we got our money's worth, all 5 Euros worth!. His knowledge of the plants is fascinating and the garden is diverse. Many rock features along with the plants. We may be first timers but I bet we have as good, if not better, knowledge of the island then many old pros!
On to the Hawaiian Music. I don't have their names handy unfortunately but the trio are special people. The whole affair was special. The old stone church ( I am a mason by trade, working for the rich and famous on the east end of Long Island NY and love looking at old structures), the local people, Gustavia, the weather, champagne at intermission in the courtyard, just everything. We are blessed to be able to experience such things. The guitarist was an expert in Hawaiian Slack Guitar. He explained what it is and his skill was phenomenal. The percussionist also phenomenal. His father pioneered "exotica" percussion and he learned from his father. Exotica percussion incorporates nature sounds along with the traditional percussion instuments. The way this man whistled sounding just like tropical birds, incororated other instruments to sound like waves and wind, added with the guitar music, along with the beautiful young lady performing the traditional Hawaiian dances, was a treat to the sense. So glad we were able to experince these two venues.
What could be the perfect ending to the afternoon?
Dinner at Tamarin! We sat in the garden for cocktails. Beuatiful. Full Moon. Palm trees. Lilly ponds. Music. and my Loved One period!
Dinner was 2 green salads, burrata, tuna tar tar, chicken and veal. Sorry I've forgotten how they were prepared! I will have to take a picture of the menu next time to get the ingredients correct. I'm not a big poster on these forums, nor a food critic. I do love food! Who doesn't? Food was great. We sat in the "main area under the wooden roof. I would have preferred, and I recommend to you, to sit in the garden area to the side. Intimate dining there and a little quieter with just enough plantings to give you privacy but still feel like you are out and dining - seeing and being seen!
So, I spent too much time here on the deck pounding away on the computer keys. Two rainbows have passed over the sea and a faint third one is lingering. Rain every night since we've been here and sun all day. We are off to Gouverneur beach and have no reservations for this evening. Maybe we'll linger at the beach or cocktails right after the beach in a casual beach bar or.... whatever! Other reservations remaining are: L'Esprit, Orega, Sante Fe (maybe we'll see our fellow Long Islanders Amy & Phil!), Black Ginger & Quartier General.
Thanks too all who post,
Dan'l
Flew out of JFK 8 am arrive 1pm SXM time. Was wisely told not to book the 2pm Winair flight and take the 3:30 by this group. Good advice - our flight was delayed because of late arrival by 45 mins. Still we landed and were through immigration at 1:30 and with tickets in hand told if we had our bags and at the gate in time we could catch the 2 o'clock. As fate would have we decided to check bags (originally we weren't but figured since we had the 3:30 why not) and they were the last to get off the belt. Go through the second round of immigration and security and by this time it was 2:30. So... a little wait and we were in the air looking forward to the famous landing at St Barths airport. We were not disappointed! Having woken at 2:30 am that morning ( we live on the east end of Long Island, 1 1/2 hrs from JFK and who knows what kind of time is needed for security with this Gov't shutdown) by the time we got settled in our rental we were pretty well beat. Went to L'ardoisse in L'orient and after a longer wait for the food than we were prepared for we settled in for a good nights sleep anticipating fun in the sun for the next ten days. We are staying in modest accommodations in Vitet. AirBnb pool house with a great view looking towards the north with the east end of St Martin to the left and Anguilla in the distant. Very quiet here with the owner nonexistent.
First day and night was fabulous. Got to Saline beach with sandwiches from Petite Colombe before lunch and spent the day there. Beautiful beach. A side note; we have just turned 60 and have been traveling throughout the Caribbean since 1981 (Our honeymoon in St Thomas). Saline is right at the top. Anguilla has nice beaches also but at this point we are nit picking. Anyway. Dinner at Ociela, on the rail with that wonderful view. Very enjoyable, nice guitar music with female vocalist. Martinis were prepared well and we were happy. We had 3 small plates and two entrees. Small plates were kale salad, tabouli & avacado dip. Entrees were fetticunni alfredi and shrimp with zucchini noodles with pesto. At about 8 o'clock (we are early diners usually 7 - 7:30) we heard drumming down below and were told they were practicing for Carnival. They started marching up the street and became so loud our musicians had to stop! The drummers continued on into town and we resumed our meal. Having finished dinner, we went looking about the town and hearing the drumming we were drawn like moths to the light. What fun! Something about drums. The rhythm and power. They had steel drums, snare drums and different sizes of bass drums. When the the guys started banging on the big bass drums you could feel the air being moved. Everyone was dancing and mesmerized. The drummers would hang out at various bars, restaurants (we caught up with them at Le Select) then move on. They would move ahead for 50 feet or so then walk backwards for 30 feet, hang out then on we all went to our next destination. We finally left them around 11. I think they are ready for Carnival! A great end to our "first" night in St. Barths.
Yesterday, our second day, was just as good if not better. Slow start to our day and being inexperienced caused us to miss our beach time. The inexperience because we do not know the beaches. Since our beach time was short, we decided to go close to home and try Grand cul-de-sac, didn't really care for it, then Petit cul-de-sac, no good either, then Toiney, then Grand Fond. None were our cup of tea but we parked along the side at Grand Fond, pulled out our chairs, and enjoyed the raw nature of the land and sea with our salads from Petite Colombe. Then drive back home, shower and ready for our evening and in town by 3. Why so early? We had a lot planned! Thanks to Amy from an earlier post on the main Forum we went to Domaine Felicite. And she was right. What a treasure. We were the first to arrive as they open at 3. Allan Magras and his sister greeted us and asked if we spoke French. Nope. No matter, Allan spoke good English and for the next 2 hours he treated us as royalty. I don't want to go into too much detail but the buildings on the property are loaded with Gustavia history and especially his family history. The Magras family being one of the "original" (after the Indians of course)11 families have an interesting history on St. Barths. Shopkeepers from the beginning I believe he said they control 250 shops. Don't quote me here a lot was thrown at us. Allan owns/manages the AMC stores, his cousin the C.C. P. F. along with Lou Lou's marine and many others. What he has done with Domaine Felicite is a gift to this Island. They just opened in November and I believe will become an institution. We had plans to go to the Anglican Church for the Hawaiian Music concert and Allan was still going strong with his tour. There were other people there, they were on their own but Allan was our personal guide! We were finally heading out to the gardens,, and they are absolutely beautiful, the time was 4:40 and I didn't know how to tell Allan we needed to speed it up and go to our concert. But tell him I did and graciously he did his best to get us on our way and satisfy himself that we got our money's worth, all 5 Euros worth!. His knowledge of the plants is fascinating and the garden is diverse. Many rock features along with the plants. We may be first timers but I bet we have as good, if not better, knowledge of the island then many old pros!
On to the Hawaiian Music. I don't have their names handy unfortunately but the trio are special people. The whole affair was special. The old stone church ( I am a mason by trade, working for the rich and famous on the east end of Long Island NY and love looking at old structures), the local people, Gustavia, the weather, champagne at intermission in the courtyard, just everything. We are blessed to be able to experience such things. The guitarist was an expert in Hawaiian Slack Guitar. He explained what it is and his skill was phenomenal. The percussionist also phenomenal. His father pioneered "exotica" percussion and he learned from his father. Exotica percussion incorporates nature sounds along with the traditional percussion instuments. The way this man whistled sounding just like tropical birds, incororated other instruments to sound like waves and wind, added with the guitar music, along with the beautiful young lady performing the traditional Hawaiian dances, was a treat to the sense. So glad we were able to experince these two venues.
What could be the perfect ending to the afternoon?
Dinner at Tamarin! We sat in the garden for cocktails. Beuatiful. Full Moon. Palm trees. Lilly ponds. Music. and my Loved One period!
Dinner was 2 green salads, burrata, tuna tar tar, chicken and veal. Sorry I've forgotten how they were prepared! I will have to take a picture of the menu next time to get the ingredients correct. I'm not a big poster on these forums, nor a food critic. I do love food! Who doesn't? Food was great. We sat in the "main area under the wooden roof. I would have preferred, and I recommend to you, to sit in the garden area to the side. Intimate dining there and a little quieter with just enough plantings to give you privacy but still feel like you are out and dining - seeing and being seen!
So, I spent too much time here on the deck pounding away on the computer keys. Two rainbows have passed over the sea and a faint third one is lingering. Rain every night since we've been here and sun all day. We are off to Gouverneur beach and have no reservations for this evening. Maybe we'll linger at the beach or cocktails right after the beach in a casual beach bar or.... whatever! Other reservations remaining are: L'Esprit, Orega, Sante Fe (maybe we'll see our fellow Long Islanders Amy & Phil!), Black Ginger & Quartier General.
Thanks too all who post,
Dan'l