shout out and thank you!

Beachcomber said:
No. I love Anguilla but when I needed something I couldn’t get on Island I would head over to SXM. I dreaded the trip and could not wait to get back home to AXA. Back then I would never had considered actually staying on SXM if I could avoid it. In my mind it was a place you went through, not to. I have been completely overlooking the best part of the Island. This time I went from my nice big comfy seat on the plane straight through to concierge pick up and was whisked away to the villa where the rental car was waiting. We found a great Italian restaurant a few minutes from the villa in Port Cupecoy that first night and had an interesting goat cheese and honey pizza. Stocked up at the Super U the next morning and started looking for interesting restaurants for the duration. The prices were so reasonable I felt guilty. The main reason we did not push on to SBH was that I only had 7 days off. That’s just not enough time for a proper SBH vacay so we decided skip the commuter flights and try something different. Usually when we have a longish weekend we would go to the Standard in South Beach but we did that so many times during Covid that it just seemed old and we wanted to mix things up. We will still go back to SBH but will probably split our time with T-B.
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For a dinner in Grand Case, Bistro Caraibe was the best, IMHO.
 
Interesting, the conversation SBH vs SXM with some Anguilla mixed in, love it!

I used to travel to SXM a few decades back before discovering SBH and it was pretty busy even back then. that said - I can see how some folks would and do prefer SXM to SBH, specifically the French side, you get the European food and culture without the much, much higher price tag and hassle of the flight or ferry. I get it. I am sure there are nice quiet pockets of tranquility even on a very densely populated island.

re: Anguilla, I actually spent a week there before this visit, and honestly I loved it, its very quiet, the people are friendly and overall the restaurant food is actually better than on SBH (GASP!). It's also very expensive mind you and with all the GST and service fee it adds up man. Super calm and much less traffic than SBH (in shoulder season) I understand AXA can get also jammed for the holidays.
 
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cassidain said:
Anguilla GST 13% ?
Click to expand...
Yes. 13% on hotels, car rentals, etc
15% service charge practically everywhere.

My understanding is that when the GST was implemented restaurants also charged, meaning menu prices were ++ after an outcry by stakeholders restaurants were exempted.

Talk about sticker shock!

Yes SBH prices are high but at least you pay the price on the menu. 😉
 
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thomasj said:
Hello everyone :cool:

I mostly just lurk here from time to time, I don't travel to SBH as often as I used to, having moved to the Caribbean in 2020.
I have just finished week 1 of a 2 week visit to the island and I wanted to thank everyone who has been posting, kindly sharing all their experiences on the island, restaurant and otherwise. Myself, I mostly cook at the villa, therefore I'm pretty select with the places I'll go to, however in the spirit of sharing and contributing, I want to give kudos to the following:
- Chokola Vany (new discovery for me), lovely owners and best pastries imo, the love handles are loving it! :D
- Ti' Corail never disappoints, friendly service, easygoing ambiance and great food 🌴
- Nyama (new for me also), such sweet owners, nice staff and the food is pretty good! 🥢
- Black Ginger TO GO, very solid and pretty authentic flavours 🇹🇭
- SO Cuisine, good place to grab and go some healthy eats, parking ain't great 🥗
- Le Papillon Ivre (second visit), very charming staff, it's super easy going and the wine selection is obviously great, the food, its good (not great) but it's a nice change of vibe, owner Julie is fun 🍷

Places on the list for week 2:
- Pearl Beach
- Manapany
- La Casina
- returns to Nyama and Corail.
- Grain de Sel
- ???

Observations:
- the island is GORGEOUS!
- SO MANY CARS!
- Gustavia, wow, tried twice at different times, however since it's basically impossible to find a parking spot, I've given up on trying again, I am quite happy to stick to the other side of the island.
- that said, the roads are so much more improved - great job! Still TOO MANY CARS!
- Sargassum is pretty light on the beaches I frequent (Saline, Governeur, Toiny), to compare I saw way more in Mexico a month ago, and zero on Anguilla, where I just spent a week before coming to St Barts.
- I am glad I visited this week, the island is pretty busy, but word on the street is this the "quiet" period before the Christmas and NYE Crowds descend (no thank you).
- for those "complaining" about how the island has changed please show me a place that hasn't. Nowhere is the same as it was in 1980 or 1990 or even 2010. I travel a lot for my work, and there are very few places on earth that are untouched - some for better, most for worse. St Bart's isn't the same island it used to be, however, as far as I can tell, it has managed to maintain it's unique style, feel and in some spots, wild nature where one can relax and enjoy the good life. There's still no island like it.

Let's see how week 2 goes...

Thanks again all, appreciate everyone - this board is swell.
cheers,
Tom
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Salut everyone,

I hope everyone had a nice Christmas and those of you visiting the island now are able to enjoy amid the mayhem.

Wanted to come back here and revise my post with some updates to the places I visited and some impressions.

For context, I spent 2 weeks this time, luckily before the Holiday high season.

Week 1
- Chokola Vany (4 times) excellent pastries and friendly family run.
- Ti' Corail (planned 2 times, ended up going 3) one of my top favs, at this point I've eaten the entire menu, can't go wrong here.
- Nyama (twice) first time very good, second time only ok. The owners are so lovely and love the quirky off the beaten track location, so much wanted to love, the food is only ok.
- Black Ginger TO GO (twice), Reliable, solid and pretty authentic.
- SO Cuisine (3 times) one of the few spots to get healthy-ish food, tasty however portions have shrunk. A lot!
- Le Papillon Ivre (once), Julie and her staff are quite charming and it's very low key. Again I wanted to LOVE it, but it's just fine, but should be better honestly. Portions also have shrunk since my last visit. Wine excellent but $$$$.

Week 2
- Pearl Beach (once) fun location and the staff Is friendly and not pushy at all. Food is alright, nice lunch, but prices are very high for the mid-quality IMHO.
- Manapany (once) staff was super green, friendly. Not crazy expensive for being a hotel restaurant. I like the setting and feel of the property.
- La Casina (once) silly me, I thought this was an island run place, turns out it's St Tropez owned. That said, the pizza is A+ and not insanely priced, cough cough, Lucali.... again the staff arrived on island the week prior but did good. Quite the people watching here I must say.
- Grain de Sel (tried 2 times) couldn't get a table sadly, hence went to Corail a 3rd time. Friendly staff, busy, the food looked good!
- Bouchon (twice), locals place, the smoking was insane however you know what, it's good! I kinda forgot about it the last couple of island visits, which is strange since its right beside U at Oasis, however didn't have reservations and popped in. The fish, burgers and pizzas are tasty, and again it's one of the few places locals eat with their friends and kids which is my kinda vibe.

other than that, I mostly cooked. Absolutely spent way too much money on cheese, wine and bread (do not regret) at the U and that fancy gourmet shoppe at Oasis.

Few additional notes:

- mosquitoes were heavy this visit.

- as mentioned before, traffic is just too much, the local government really needs to start to think longer term with the island.

- most of the staff we met are this years arrivals and very young. It used to be that you would see the same staff over many years, but given the current cost of living on the island I suspect that most hospitality staff just don't stay past 1 season like they used to. Shame.

- Tipping? I hate it, luckily didn't encounter it too much. There were a few gentle prompts at a few places above, a simple NON works fine.

- As mentioned previously, the island is gorgeous, esthetically it really is a jewel. Especially the "wild side" where every morning I took a brisk walk along the Grand Fond road to Toiny (to work off the croissants eh) however that said, the island government has their work cut out for them to keep this essence going given the popularity and pressure all the visitors and new money place on the island. A lot of local people I had the fortune to meet over the last decades have sold and left the island. I used to plan of moving to SBH one day when I got older, however I am very happy I chose another island that I love very much.

Thanks again everyone and wishing you all a HAPPY NEW YEAR, enjoy St Barts in 2026!
 
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thomasj said:
La Casina (once) silly me, I thought this was an island run place, turns out it's St Tropez owned
Click to expand...
Puzzled by this. It’s owned by two couples. The ones who own Le Piment and Cat and JB who split their time between France and SBH. Cat and JB lived on the island for many years and opened Nikki Beach. Went back to France and then partnered with the owners of Le Piment to open La Casina as a local place. Cat is wonderful. Love her. Has something changed since this past summer?
 
bkeats said:
Puzzled by this. It’s owned by two couples. The ones who own Le Piment and Cat and JB who split their time between France and SBH. Cat and JB lived on the island for many years and opened Nikki Beach. Went back to France and then partnered with the owners of Le Piment to open La Casina as a local place. Cat is wonderful. Love her. Has something changed since this past summer?
Click to expand...
I don't think anything has changed...
 
Beachcomber said:
After years of searching for a place as special as SBH as it was in the ‘80’s and ‘90’s I finally found a corner of the Caribbean that checks all the boxes. I’d been to Terre de Haut, Marie Galante, Deshaies, Martinique, and many other places looking for something at least similar but nothing measured up. It turns out it was hiding in plain sight; Terre-Basses. It was purchased by an American from St Croix in 1955 and divided into 1hectare building plots which is almost 2.5acres. It has not been and cannot be sub-divided any further. My wife and I just got back from a week long trip over the Thanksgiving break. It was perfect. Our villa was incredible and probably half the price as a similar villa on SBH would be. It had a panoramic view of the Caribbean with Saba in the distance. It’s a fully gaited community with almost no through traffic. The main road leading to Marigot had essentially zero traffic the entire time we were there. There was slightly more traffic heading up to Grand Case during daylight hours but it thinned out at dinner time. Restaurant prices are very reasonable considering the quality of the food and are certainly on par with SBH and we were never asked for a tip. I checked out the prices specifically for a bottle of Clicquot as a comparison and there wasn’t any price gouging as one of the members recently posted about experiencing on SBH. I had a conversation with a Maitre de telling him we usually go to SBH but thought we would try something different. In his very French way he said to me that the waitstaff on SBH view Americans as a stack of 100 dollar bills with legs and the game is to extract as many of them for the House as possible during the evening. Sounds about right. Our villa was a stones throw away from la Samana and the beach, Baie Longue, was as nice as any beach you will find in the Caribbean and there were never more than 3 cars in the parking lot for a beach over two miles long. There are two other beaches, Plum Bay and Bay Rouge and given the geography I don’t think it would be possible for all three to experience Sargassum at the same time. After our third day I felt like I was truly in SBH. It was peaceful and impossibly quiet at our villa with no construction or traffic to disturb the peace. If someone had told me 20 or 30 years ago I would be purposely be booking a vacation to St Martin I would have said you’re just as likely to see me staying at a Holiday Inn in Newark, New Jersey for a vacation. I was wrong. Terre-Basses is a time capsule owing to the generous sized parcels that were laid out in the 1950’s. I have not given up on SBH but I think I will do things differently going forward. I will probably stay on T-B for the bulk of the trip with an excursion to SBH for a few days just to hit Saline and a few favorite restaurants. Two islands on the same trip will make it more of an adventure while I learn about all the restaurants I’ve been missing on SXM.
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How or where did you book your villa at Terre-Basses?
 
We booked with St. Martin Blue. I chose them because they also have a sister company on SBH called St Barts Blue which made it easy to compare apples to apples. They were great. They met us at the airport and whisked us off to our villa where our rental car was waiting for us in the driveway which we also booked through them. My 69 year old knees are pretty much shot so my days of flying coach are behind me so I went from a nice comfy seat on a real plane right to the villa in no time. We hit up the Super U in Marigot and stocked up with all the French goodies you can’t get back in the States and were settled into the villa in no time. Baie Longue and La Samana were practically across the street and the path leading to the beach reminded me of the walk to Saline but without the hill and rocks. Seeing the beach for the first time was kind of a Wow moment. I Love SBH and will be back for a few days trips when we are in Terre Basses but it looks like we have a whole bunch of new French restaurants to check out.
 
Beachcomber said:
We booked with St. Martin Blue. I chose them because they also have a sister company on SBH called St Barts Blue which made it easy to compare apples to apples. They were great. They met us at the airport and whisked us off to our villa where our rental car was waiting for us in the driveway which we also booked through them. My 69 year old knees are pretty much shot so my days of flying coach are behind me so I went from a nice comfy seat on a real plane right to the villa in no time. We hit up the Super U in Marigot and stocked up with all the French goodies you can’t get back in the States and were settled into the villa in no time. Baie Longue and La Samana were practically across the street and the path leading to the beach reminded me of the walk to Saline but without the hill and rocks. Seeing the beach for the first time was kind of a Wow moment. I Love SBH and will be back for a few days trips when we are in Terre Basses but it looks like we have a whole bunch of new French restaurants to check out.
Click to expand...
I was just in SXM last week by necessity for 2 nights before we boarded our cruise; A LOT has changed in 43 years..! I made it to both Super U markets, though!! Both had interesting things but one was newer than the other and brighter. I made a haul (Moscow Rule of Shopping (Suzy Gershman's): buy it now because you probably won't see it again!) and each Super U had different beauty products in stock. Then in SBH, I got to the other 2 and filled in what I did not get, but SXM had a couple of products that SBH did not have, so happy all the way around! SXM has a Carrefour as well but did not make it over there. The wine in the 2 Super U markets in SXM was nowhere near the quality of the wine in the SBH markets, however; we were "obligated" to go to a wine shop and buy more serious wines to take on the cruise (We always share our wine with the sommelier and server, and the cruise was so great about inviting us to do so and they do not charge corkage. However, we never bring our wine to restaurants outside of California, where it is expected that you can bring your own.)

Did not get over to La Samanna area, where we stayed 43 years ago, but it is very convenient. The French restaurants in Grand Case were absolutely incredible in the traditional French genre and the people who own the restaurants as well as the servers, are just the sweetest people. We had dinner at La Villa and Auberge Gourmande; restos that we WISH we had in SBH and we wanted to get into Le Cottage but it was booked as we did it late. The restos are super charming as are the owners. If you have a chance to go up to Grand Case to dine, you will not be disappointed! (On the other hand, don't bother shopping in SXM; it most definitely is not what is was, but nowhere is, I guess..) Resto prices are really good, too!

Another little positive for SXM; there is a new hospital under construction (it will be awhile..) but seems like a great addition when the time comes.
 
davesmom said:
I was just in SXM last week by necessity for 2 nights before we boarded our cruise; A LOT has changed in 43 years..! I made it to both Super U markets, though!! Both had interesting things but one was newer than the other and brighter. I made a haul (Moscow Rule of Shopping (Suzy Gershman's): buy it now because you probably won't see it again!) and each Super U had different beauty products in stock. Then in SBH, I got to the other 2 and filled in what I did not get, but SXM had a couple of products that SBH did not have, so happy all the way around! SXM has a Carrefour as well but did not make it over there. The wine in the 2 Super U markets in SXM was nowhere near the quality of the wine in the SBH markets, however; we were "obligated" to go to a wine shop and buy more serious wines to take on the cruise (We always share our wine with the sommelier and server, and the cruise was so great about inviting us to do so and they do not charge corkage. However, we never bring our wine to restaurants outside of California, where it is expected that you can bring your own.)

Did not get over to La Samanna area, where we stayed 43 years ago, but it is very convenient. The French restaurants in Grand Case were absolutely incredible in the traditional French genre and the people who own the restaurants as well as the servers, are just the sweetest people. We had dinner at La Villa and Auberge Gourmande; restos that we WISH we had in SBH and we wanted to get into Le Cottage but it was booked as we did it late. The restos are super charming as are the owners. If you have a chance to go up to Grand Case to dine, you will not be disappointed! (On the other hand, don't bother shopping in SXM; it most definitely is not what is was, but nowhere is, I guess..) Resto prices are really good, too!

Another little positive for SXM; there is a new hospital under construction (it will be awhile..) but seems like a great addition when the time comes.
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Love Thy neighbor! Every great meal on SBH had its start on SXM, There could not be a SBH without SXM supporting it.
 
All of the ingredients for great meals arrive in SXM, mainly by Air France, before heading over to SBH. Check out the website and catalog for Epicerie-de-marie as just one example as to how great food finds its way to SXM and SBH.
 
davesmom said:
I was just in SXM last week by necessity for 2 nights before we boarded our cruise; A LOT has changed in 43 years..! I made it to both Super U markets, though!! Both had interesting things but one was newer than the other and brighter. I made a haul (Moscow Rule of Shopping (Suzy Gershman's): buy it now because you probably won't see it again!) and each Super U had different beauty products in stock.
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I should have known you were an aficionado of Suzy Gershman and the Moscow Rule of Shopping! I haven't met anyone in many years who knew that reference!
 
Risa said:
I should have known you were an aficionado of Suzy Gershman and the Moscow Rule of Shopping! I haven't met anyone in many years who knew that reference!
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Yes, she was awesome! Unfortunately passed on to the great boutiques in the sky but was fun to read.
 
Cwater said:
Wonderful report. While change is inevitable people dislike change. First it is ridiculed, then opposed that accepted as reality. As for parking…go behind the church by the anchor. Never a problem!
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I’ve had good luck finding a spot on the steep hill behind Bonito/ easy walk down to Eddy’s/ Black Ginger / Isola and many others
 
thomasj said:
Hello everyone :cool:

I mostly just lurk here from time to time, I don't travel to SBH as often as I used to, having moved to the Caribbean in 2020.
I have just finished week 1 of a 2 week visit to the island and I wanted to thank everyone who has been posting, kindly sharing all their experiences on the island, restaurant and otherwise. Myself, I mostly cook at the villa, therefore I'm pretty select with the places I'll go to, however in the spirit of sharing and contributing, I want to give kudos to the following:
- Chokola Vany (new discovery for me), lovely owners and best pastries imo, the love handles are loving it! :D
- Ti' Corail never disappoints, friendly service, easygoing ambiance and great food 🌴
- Nyama (new for me also), such sweet owners, nice staff and the food is pretty good! 🥢
- Black Ginger TO GO, very solid and pretty authentic flavours 🇹🇭
- SO Cuisine, good place to grab and go some healthy eats, parking ain't great 🥗
- Le Papillon Ivre (second visit), very charming staff, it's super easy going and the wine selection is obviously great, the food, its good (not great) but it's a nice change of vibe, owner Julie is fun 🍷

Places on the list for week 2:
- Pearl Beach
- Manapany
- La Casina
- returns to Nyama and Corail.
- Grain de Sel
- ???

Observations:
- the island is GORGEOUS!
- SO MANY CARS!
- Gustavia, wow, tried twice at different times, however since it's basically impossible to find a parking spot, I've given up on trying again, I am quite happy to stick to the other side of the island.
- that said, the roads are so much more improved - great job! Still TOO MANY CARS!
- Sargassum is pretty light on the beaches I frequent (Saline, Governeur, Toiny), to compare I saw way more in Mexico a month ago, and zero on Anguilla, where I just spent a week before coming to St Barts.
- I am glad I visited this week, the island is pretty busy, but word on the street is this the "quiet" period before the Christmas and NYE Crowds descend (no thank you).
- for those "complaining" about how the island has changed please show me a place that hasn't. Nowhere is the same as it was in 1980 or 1990 or even 2010. I travel a lot for my work, and there are very few places on earth that are untouched - some for better, most for worse. St Bart's isn't the same island it used to be, however, as far as I can tell, it has managed to maintain it's unique style, feel and in some spots, wild nature where one can relax and enjoy the good life. There's still no island like it.

Let's see how week 2 goes...

Thanks again all, appreciate everyone - this board is swell.
cheers,
Tom
Click to expand...
my wife and I have been on the island since Jan 12–we stay at our villa for the most part but for lunch I would highly recommend - Manapany/Le Cabane / Ti’ Corail. We had great meals and excellent service at each and you get to experience 3 different areas of the island!!
 
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