Looking Through My Heart: Trip Review- Part I St. Martin

We arrived in St. Martin on Friday afternoon, and were greeted by sunshine and temperatures in the mid 80s which would be the case for the entire week. We picked up a Hertz car and map near the airport and our exploration began. Due to arriving in the afternoon, we encountered a good deal of traffic on the Dutch side of the island as we made our way to the Radisson on the French side. The road leading to the Radisson was up a very steep twisting hill, and provided for some impressive views of the mountains. We checked in, put our stuff down, and headed for the pool. The pool was stunning, as it should be since it is the largest in the Caribbean! It had an infinity edge and looked out at the ocean, very pretty! All of the grounds at the Radisson were lush and well maintained. The room was also nice, tastefully decorated, a comfortable Sleep Number Bed, and a trendy bathroom, but not a lot of privacy in the this area. All rooms have a balcony; we did not get a view of the ocean or pool but either would have been pretty. For dinner we decided to just stay at the resort and eat at the sit down restaurant. The restaurant on the Radisson property was located along the beach, and the setting was lovely. The service was average but the food was very good, especially the vegetables in the salads and side dishes, and portion sizes were large. We both had the snapper for our main course and the tomato based sauce that it was served with complemented it well. After dinner, we walked over to the neighboring resort for a drink and then called it a night.

Day 2 of trip was spent exploring St. Martin/St. Marteen. We made our way around most of the island. While the mountains provide a beautiful back drop, the island is very developed and some properties are not well cared for, especially on the Dutch side. We didn't find too many beaches with white sand and teal blue water. Orient Bay was nice but crowded with people, restaurants, and resorts. We ate at CoCo restaurant along Orient, it was fine but we wished we could have found Baywatch, as we had heard great things about the American owned restaurant. I think Baywatch may have just been further down on Orient Beach. After hanging out on Orient for a while, we continued exploring. We made our way to the beach in front of the Westin which was spacious and secluded. This looked like a great hotel to stay at based on what we could see from walking around the grounds. The Westin had an impressive pool, with a pool bar and view of the ocean. We didn't visit the beach on Grand Case during the day but we were in the area for dinner. The beach did look nice from what we could see. The town of Grand Case however seemed a bit like a bad neighborhood in New York City. I would not have walked alone through the streets here. We ate at Le California for dinner and had good service and good food. I had grouper stuffed crab and Nate had mahi mahi. The restaurant had an extensive dessert menu comprised primarily of ice cream combinations, right up my alley! We both had huge sundaes for dessert, yummy. Le California accepted the US dollar 1:1 to the euro which saved us money on dinner!

The next day we woke up and ate at the continental breakfast (as we did both days while at the Radisson), the selection was large and included several hot items as well as fruit, made to order eggs and omelets, breads and cereals. It had been exactly one year since I had been in the Caribbean and one thing hasn't changed--Europeans still do not know how to wait in line. It drove me crazy last year in the Dominican and it was no different when battling the crowd at the Radisson for breakfast. Anyway, after breakfast we decided we had seen enough of St. Martin and headed to the ferry to depart for Anguilla.

Overall, I found St. Martin fairly unimpressive and lacking in charm as compared to other Caribbean islands. The locals in St. Martin/St. Marteen are not overly friendly and do not go out of their way to make your stay more enjoyable. The the mountains were beautiful and I'm sure at one time when the island was more untouched it was a very peaceful and relaxing place. However, I did not find this to be the case now. If you are looking for a party in a NYC or South Beach atmosphere with casinos and nightclubs this might be the place for you.