Thank you. We are going in the beginning of April.
We stayed at the Westin, although concerned from conflicting reviews, we were very satisfied with everything about the hotel.
Exceptions are: location, and willingness to accommodate us with a fridge or allow us to bring in a microwave before we actually got there. They said when we check in they'll possibly upgrade us since we're SPG gold bit can't guarantee. We would have preferred to bring Pomegranate meals, but since we werent sure if it was going to go to waste didnt risk it and relied on the meals they have to offer in the hotel.....highly not recommended. These meals are meant to have a shelf life of 1 year it seems, and you can tell. As it turned out, we were upgraded to a ocean front room, and the mini bar was sufficiently cooled to keep our back up food throughout our trip. When we were checking in it seems they were really trying to find us a room with a kitchen, had we wanted one...since at that point we didnt one we just went with the ocean front. A week before we went I called the front desk and asked what the availability was like to determine what the chances of us getting upgraded were, he told there was a good chance (although it wasnt so easy to extract that info)...we still didnt want to risk bringing all the pom food and finding we couldnt get the upgrade....
The other disadvantage was the location of the Westin is at one side of the island and the main cities (simpson bay, marigot, cole bay, phillipsburg) were at the opposite end of the island, so it was somewhat of a nuisance, but we knew that before going so wasnt expecting otherwise.
The main attraction for us was relaxing, sat by the beach mostly and tried out a few different ones.....can't really go wrong as far as beautiful beaches and scenery go. Sitting by the hotel beach is beautiful, we were told it is a bit windy and it is, but not that you cant enjoy it. It was very convenient to have the bar right on the beach (nothing quite like drinking ice cold beers on the beach). Day one didnt go far...next day spent some time again at Dawn beach, then went to the French side to check out the sites at other beaches...Pinel Island is a ferry ride (10 min) or rent kayak (25-40 min) absolutely beautiful, bought goggles and a snorkel and swam with the fish, absolutely beautiful. Then went to Anse Marcel, probably one of the nicest views I've ever seen, the waves and wind is far calmer there, really peaceful. Rented a waverunner there, really enjoyed going out into the middle of the ocean and shutting off the engine and just taking in the scenery. From there went to walking in Grand Case, they had some festival so was a lot of fun, all the shops had booths in the street..bought a bunch of gifts there for the kids.
We really wanted to go zip lining in the rain forest, but third day there was raining so we went shopping in Phillipsburg, every store there is either a jewelry store or liquor store, liquor is quite cheap (cigarettes are incredibly cheap, I don't smoke but couldnt resist buying for some friends who do $17/carton), cute town, there is a boardwalk running alongside the main street in phillipsburg, was the busiest beach we saw, didnt care much for it, but of course was still quite beautiful. Wen that night to mullet bay to the casino and shops there, pretty boring (and unsuccessful), but we were quite wiped by that point.
That covers much of what we experienced there. We really enjoyed our entire trip....would highly recommend to someone who enjoys similar type of vacation.
Few points:
Cell service, I tried arranging with queenofsxm.com but didnt do it until too late, so ended up using my verizon cell and racked up a decent bill, not too crazy, but couldnt get 3/4G to work, so only had internet in hotel (free wifi throughout) and random places across island. Her rates seemed quite reasonable.
Le Grand Marche had a nice amount of kosher food, another option which we hadn't considered, assuming you can get a room with a kitchen is take advantage of what they have to offer, their prices were quite reasonable too.
Renting a car was a breeze, rented from sixt, less than a minute from the airport, I returned the car 11/12 full of gas, and she insisted before I rented that I return it full...she was kind enough without even asking not to charge me plus since we thought we were a little late someone hopped in the car and drove us to the airport..overall people on the island were really friendly, fyi.
I never wrote a TR before, and I'm not too proud of how unorganized the thoughts are...let me know if you have any questions.
