November 2025
This is the third trip for my wife and I to St. Barths. Wife says it has been 15 years since our last trip. We love St. Barths, but there’s a whole world out there! Our previous visits were also November trips.
We traveled toward the end of the US government shutdown and were happy that none of our flights were affected. I had given us ample time to make the connection in SXM to Saint Barths Commuter and since our flights did arrive on schedule, we were lucky enough to board an earlier flight to SBH.
Our villa rental was with Wimco and the rep was ready to meet us on arrival and assist with luggage and escort us to villa Hurakan (separate review in the villa forum). Our car rental was with Odile at Gumbs and everything there went smoothly. We had rented with Avis on previous trips and did encounter some issues, so I was glad I followed others’ advice and went with Gumbs for this trip.
Our primary focus for traveling to St. Barths is for quiet, relaxing time together (private villa vs resort hotel) and to go beach hopping. On this trip we visited Saline, Gouverneur (x2), Colombier (x2), and Petite cul de Sac. Overall, we found the beaches less crowded than we recall from previous trips!? There were only a handful of cars at the parking lots for Saline and Gouverneur. The beach at Gouverneur seemed smaller from sand erosion than we remember, but I guess this varies from year to year. Saline was just as beautiful as before! We hiked both routes to Colombier and were able to easily park at both starting locations. The “wooded” hiking path has been improved with stairs at multiple locations; however, I rate this as the more difficult hike – especially the return trip which is mostly uphill. The coastal hike is much more scenic and has less elevation change (at least not as steep). While there were less people making the hike and populating the beach at Colombier, the whole secluded, nature experience of the beach was ruined by multiple day trip catamaran party boat charters that would anchor 15 yards offshore and destroy the view and quiet solitude. I am guessing these charters are fueled by the cruise ship arrivals (something that we don’t recall from years ago). The day we visited Petite cul de Sac was windy and therefore we only spent a short time there. We spent the remainder of that day circling the island with brief hikes at Toiny and Grand Fond.
We enjoyed shopping at Super U, as compared to previous visits at Marche U. We were surprised by the relatively large wine selection now available and readily took advantage of it. While many people park along the access road in front of the store, we found it much more convenient to drive past all of that and take the ramp to the rooftop parking.
Many evenings we prepared meals at the villa, but dined at Les Bananiers on multiple occasions. We found the food and service there to be very good and at moderate prices. On a special night out we dined at L’Esprit which was gorgeous and the food was absolutely delicious – highly recommended! It was not difficult to obtain reservations at either restaurant.
We drove into Gustavia to pick up some Euros at an ATM and found the traffic and parking situation just horrible, and did not return to Gustavia though we would have enjoyed a walk around town and the harbor. We fondly recall dining at the Wall House from previous visits. It is sad to learn it is no more, though we knew it had closed many years ago.
P.S. Please forgive my obsession with parking. I am from a small town where shops and restaurants have…(wait for it)… parking lots!! The idea of just stopping along the side of the road, or pulling up over the curb and parking half on the sidewalk are just absolutely foreign concepts to me.
This is the third trip for my wife and I to St. Barths. Wife says it has been 15 years since our last trip. We love St. Barths, but there’s a whole world out there! Our previous visits were also November trips.
We traveled toward the end of the US government shutdown and were happy that none of our flights were affected. I had given us ample time to make the connection in SXM to Saint Barths Commuter and since our flights did arrive on schedule, we were lucky enough to board an earlier flight to SBH.
Our villa rental was with Wimco and the rep was ready to meet us on arrival and assist with luggage and escort us to villa Hurakan (separate review in the villa forum). Our car rental was with Odile at Gumbs and everything there went smoothly. We had rented with Avis on previous trips and did encounter some issues, so I was glad I followed others’ advice and went with Gumbs for this trip.
Our primary focus for traveling to St. Barths is for quiet, relaxing time together (private villa vs resort hotel) and to go beach hopping. On this trip we visited Saline, Gouverneur (x2), Colombier (x2), and Petite cul de Sac. Overall, we found the beaches less crowded than we recall from previous trips!? There were only a handful of cars at the parking lots for Saline and Gouverneur. The beach at Gouverneur seemed smaller from sand erosion than we remember, but I guess this varies from year to year. Saline was just as beautiful as before! We hiked both routes to Colombier and were able to easily park at both starting locations. The “wooded” hiking path has been improved with stairs at multiple locations; however, I rate this as the more difficult hike – especially the return trip which is mostly uphill. The coastal hike is much more scenic and has less elevation change (at least not as steep). While there were less people making the hike and populating the beach at Colombier, the whole secluded, nature experience of the beach was ruined by multiple day trip catamaran party boat charters that would anchor 15 yards offshore and destroy the view and quiet solitude. I am guessing these charters are fueled by the cruise ship arrivals (something that we don’t recall from years ago). The day we visited Petite cul de Sac was windy and therefore we only spent a short time there. We spent the remainder of that day circling the island with brief hikes at Toiny and Grand Fond.
We enjoyed shopping at Super U, as compared to previous visits at Marche U. We were surprised by the relatively large wine selection now available and readily took advantage of it. While many people park along the access road in front of the store, we found it much more convenient to drive past all of that and take the ramp to the rooftop parking.
Many evenings we prepared meals at the villa, but dined at Les Bananiers on multiple occasions. We found the food and service there to be very good and at moderate prices. On a special night out we dined at L’Esprit which was gorgeous and the food was absolutely delicious – highly recommended! It was not difficult to obtain reservations at either restaurant.
We drove into Gustavia to pick up some Euros at an ATM and found the traffic and parking situation just horrible, and did not return to Gustavia though we would have enjoyed a walk around town and the harbor. We fondly recall dining at the Wall House from previous visits. It is sad to learn it is no more, though we knew it had closed many years ago.
P.S. Please forgive my obsession with parking. I am from a small town where shops and restaurants have…(wait for it)… parking lots!! The idea of just stopping along the side of the road, or pulling up over the curb and parking half on the sidewalk are just absolutely foreign concepts to me.
