My First Visit Recap

hoosiercane

SBH Member
Hello,
First off, thanks so much for all your recommendations. We had an absolute blast. I have seen some really great recaps, and I am not as great with the pictures and all but I will give it a shot.

We flew in from Miami to St Marteen, and then took Winair to St. Barts. We did the VIP service, and it was great and seemless. They were able to put us on an earlier winair flight and that was nice.

We stayed at Hotel Christopher. It is a beautiful hotel, with a great view and pool. Our room was one of the ones that makes it seem like you are on the water, but still had a view of the bay. The hotel was perfect, with the only exception being the pool service. I wasn't sure if it was the culture or not, but you literally had to hunt people down to place an order.

Review the food, which was amazing.

La Isola- Great place. It was empty when we went but we thought it was just great. The seabass was as good as I have had, and the proscuitto was delicious as well.

Tamarin- We really enjoyed this as well. The service was great and the garden was beautiful. The food was delicious as well.

La Isoletta- We went for lunch and the pizza was great. We got the truffle pizza, and the Italian sausage and both were just terrific.

Black Ginger- Amazing service, the food was solid, but was not on the same level as the other place.

Orega- This was our favorite. Greg is awesome, and his food is special. Such a cool environment, and the sushi and waygu dumplings are to die for.

We did Jicky Marine half day catamaran, and that was such a blast. The snorkeling was average, but the views are perfect. They do such a great job making us comfortable and preparing a nice lunch on the boat.

The day we were going to leave there was really bad weather so Win air cancelled all their flights, so we had to stay another night. Normally we wouldn't ever think that could be a negative, but we were ready to get back to our 1 year old as this was our first time away. But we made it count one last night.

Overall, we absolutely loved the island. The beautiful beaches, the mountains, the people. I can see why everyone keeps coming back. My wife and I were talking about how we weren't sure what we would do next time in terms of a Villa, or at a hotel. We love the idea of having amenities and service, but we think a villa could be very cool as well. I posted a few pictures, and hope this review was worthy of the amazing visit and the amazing advice and help you all gave us before. We look forward to continuing to post and watch for more trips to paradise!
 

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Good solution for that particular predicament.

Happy yourvresearch paid off and that you had such a super trip.
 
Nice report and pictures! And I agree with Dennis on trying a villa out. It’s an awesome experience. When we first started going to St Barth, we stayed at a hotel, then our second visit we rented a villa and never went back to a hotel.
Thanks for sharing your experiences with us!
 
Great report and photos. We agree about Greg and Orega- he makes it a special experience on top of wonderful food! We did not see l'Esprit on your dinner list reviews and figured it was closed for vacation or just too many choices and too little time?
Also we are Hoosiers and wonder if you are as well and what part of the state you are from?
 
That's a pretty good trip report. Sounds like you had fun.

What services did you get with a hotel that you think you might be missing if you rent a villa?

If you rent through an agency you will have a concierge available to you. On our first trip to SBH we hardly used the concierge, but on our second and third trips we used them to make dinner reservations and book special dinners at the villa. Granted, you will not have people bringing you drinks poolside at the villa, but you will have privacy.

Just an FYI, I have never stayed at a hotel on SBH and based upon my villa experiences, I probably never will.
 
L'Esprit had plans to reopen the first week in August...just a vacation break and not a closing.
 
We can not compare between the two, we have always stayed in Villa’s. Of course, we know all the Hotels from many trips to Paradise. Not a single regret having not partaken in a Hotel stay.
 
Some of the advantages of a villa. You have the ability to cook and enjoy as many meals as you want in the villa. Once you are shown your villa there are no other people that you have to deal with, unless something doesn't work. All the villas we have rented have great caretakers. You get to enjoy a house and private pool. There is a full size refrigerator for whatever beverage or snack calls to you. You have the opportunity to show your loved one how much they mean to you, by bringing home wonderful pastries and arriving to a table set outside with a fresh pot of coffee ( neither tastes as good at home). Your car will take you to any beach or restaurant that you desire that day. And the villa provides the same person each day to clean the villa. Again they are all wonderful. If you haven't noticed, I miss St.Barts.
 
Glad your first visit went well. Fun to read your report. If you bought trip insurance you can probably make a claim for the delayed return. Contact Winair and they will send you a statement that they were not flying due to wind. A number of years ago that happened to us and insurance paid for our hotel room, three meals, rental car for another day and the change fee from (then) USAir. Way more than the cost of the insurance.
 
Glad your first visit went well. Fun to read your report. If you bought trip insurance you can probably make a claim for the delayed return. Contact Winair and they will send you a statement that they were not flying due to wind. A number of years ago that happened to us and insurance paid for our hotel room, three meals, rental car for another day and the change fee from (then) USAir. Way more than the cost of the insurance.

Oh wow. We did not get trip insurance, but i guess you live and learn!
 
That's a pretty good trip report. Sounds like you had fun.

What services did you get with a hotel that you think you might be missing if you rent a villa?

If you rent through an agency you will have a concierge available to you. On our first trip to SBH we hardly used the concierge, but on our second and third trips we used them to make dinner reservations and book special dinners at the villa. Granted, you will not have people bringing you drinks poolside at the villa, but you will have privacy.

Just an FYI, I have never stayed at a hotel on SBH and based upon my villa experiences, I probably never will.

The services we meant are having a Spa on the grounds. We assumed the cleaning was for us to do and no turn down service, but it seems that's not the case. We like the idea of poolside service. We definitely are going to try a villa next time. We like when on vacation to be able to not have to do a lot of the cooking and cleaning. However, we can still go to restaurants. At night we took cabs to dinner, is there a concierge that would set that up for us as well with villas? Not that we couldnt call our-self, but just wondering.
 
We have rented through Wimco and St Barts Properties (we prefer Wimco). Both have concierge services (I'm sure others do as well).

They can and will set everything up for you. Dinner/lunch reservations, spa visits, in house personal chef (for a private dinner), villa provision prestock, car rental, beach picnics, in villa massages, babysitters..... anything you can think of they will arrange for you. Now, you do have to pay for added items (massages, car rental, picnics, prestock etc) but that is no different than what you would have to pay if you were staying at a hotel.

One other item, we have never done this, but sometimes you can have lunch or a spa treatment at a hotel (say Cheval Blanc, Le Guanahani etc) and you can use their pool and beach chairs for the afternoon. So it's almost like you are staying at the hotel but you are actually not staying there. Again, there is a cost, but depending on the time of year, the additional cost is minimal.

I understand not wanting to cook, but you can always grab lunch at the bakery and eat in at the villa. Or you can go to the market and grab some more extensive provisions for lunch (thinking items you can grill that don't make much of a mess).
 
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