Saint Martin

INTRODUCTION 

My wife Pam and I left for Saint Martin on January 1, 2000 for a fantastic two week vacation. This was our sixth year vacationing in Saint Martin during January.

Be sure to pick up a copy of Ti Gourmet (left) early in your trip. You can find a copy at the airport or in stores and restaurants. Ti Gourmet continues to be my favorite travel guide on the island because it contains so much information in a small format. We found the artist who painted the picture on this year's cover and we purchased one of only ten signed copies of it!

You can find more travelogues on my Travel Page or in the Caribbean Travel Roundup (which has hundreds of travelogues about St Martin and other Caribbean islands). As usual, this year's travelogue covers the weather, rental cars, beaches, restaurants, and miscellaneous topics. I'll start with my "favorite finds" on this vacation, which I hope will make your vacation even better. There are lots of great things about Saint Martin that I don't cover each year - but you can find information about those things in my travelogues from 1995, 1996, 1997, 1998, and 1999.

This Year's Favorite Finds

East Caribbean Cellular (ECC)

Bring your cellular phone! I've had this tip on my Saint Martin Tips page for a long while, but this is the first chance I've had to actually try them out. They're great!

ECC sets up your cellular phone so that it works locally. Visit their their web site, stop by their office on Richardson Street in Philipsburg, or just dial "0" when you get to Saint Martin. Here's an introductory paragraph from the flyer they gave us when we used their service:

There is no registration for daily roamers. To register for "credit card roaming" service, dial "0" on your cellphone to register (7 am to midnight). Charges must be billed to a credit card (Mastercard, Visa, Discover, or American Express) and a detailed invoice will be mailed to your home address. There is a $3 daily fee only for days of actual usage.

We absolutely loved this service. Calls to the United States cost us $2.00 per minute instead of the $3.20/minute charged by our resort. Incoming calls from the States were only $0.60/minute! Local calls were $0.75/minute. You only pay the $3 roaming fee once a day - and only if you use the phone that day. Connections were crystal clear.

Dona Bryhiel - Artiste

Dona Bryhiel is the artist who painted the cover shown on this year's Ti Gourmet. She has exhibited in Paris, New York, Stuttgart, Madrid, Sienna, Tokyo... We went to her shop in Oyster Bay on a road that "goats wouldn't take," according to my wife. Follow the signs to Captain Oliver's and then continue about a mile past the good captain's turnoff to find Dona's gallery. A new road is being built, but until then, even the lousy road is well worth the trip. You can buy her original oil paintings, watercolors, pastels, lithographs, T-shirts, postcards, and other souvenirs.

Dona is a very sweet, engaging person. She speaks excellent English and she loves to chat with her customers as she walks with you through her gallery. We bought several paintings, including a copy of her "logo," pictured on the right. The subject of that painting was a Puerto Rican woman living in Saint Martin.

Dona has a web site, but it won't be set up properly until the spring of 2000. Meanwhile, you can e-mail Dona at donabryhielart@best-caribbean.com. Her telephone number in Saint Martin is: (590) 87 43 93.

Supermarche Match

I have always recommended that folks go to one of the large supermarkets on the Dutch side to fill their refrigerators and cabinets, but this time Pam and I tried two French Match supermarkets that we think are much better than their Dutch counterparts.

The one in Marigot in Howell's Center (on the main road near the school) was a riot. The night we went there was a small band with a female singer doing Mustang Sally! The parking is a challenge but the atmosphere, selection, and freshness of the food makes this place a winner. Another Match supermarket is located in Marigot on the main road near the marina. Pam and I recommend that you forget the Dutch side supermarkets if you can get to the French Match groceries - much better.

Richard's Crepes Cafe

This little gem of a cafe, described in the restaurants section is hidden away in Royal Village II in Simpson Bay. They are open from 7am to 7pm and I bet if you go there you'll love it.

Magic Spice

Now I'm sharing a secret with you that I discovered several years ago. At the Marigot Market find the spice vendor you see in the picture and buy some 'Magic Spice'. He wouldn't identify the ingredients for me ("That's why it's called Magic Spice."), but we put Magic Spice into a family recipe called "Dad's Superburgers" and, I'm tellin' ya, you can't make enough of these darn hamburgers to keep everybody happy! They are delicious, and the ingredient that makes them so special is Magic Spice. You can buy a ice cream-sized scoop for $2 (we picked up 10 scoops!).

WEATHER

Thirteen of 14 days were gorgeous at least half of the day and usually all day; the remaining day was too overcast to go to the beach. It's always partly cloudy in Saint Martin, thank God, and the breeze has been consistently greater than it was before the 1999 hurricanes. It seemed to us that the worst part of the weather often occurred between 8am-9am, and then the clouds and rain would move out. The weather overall was heavenly.

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RENTAL CAR

We used Adventure Car Rental (011-43688) this year and were very satisfied with their service. You can reserve a vehicle via their web site, but be sure to do so at least several days in advance (I waited for the last minute and because their server was down for a couple of days my reservation didn't get processed). Regardless, we rented a brand new Suzuki Grand Vitara Jeep that had been delivered to Adventure only the week before. It was gorgeous - a bit pricey at $360 per week during high season compared to the $270/week we paid last year at Empress for a much older jeep. Adventure was quoting $70/day for new Wrangler jeeps (which I used for one day), but we liked the Grand Vitara much better. We felt that the new jeep added so much enjoyment to our vacation that it was worth the extra expense.

Use that rental vehicle to head for Marigot Market. Best days are Saturdays and Wednesdays.

Adventure has a booth at the airport and their free shuttle will take you to and from the airport. Sara (from England) or one of the other very friendly people at Adventure will take good care of you, and their dog Mocha will expect a scratch behind the ears!

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