St Maarten

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Warm up in St. Maarten
A trip to this sunny island escape is the perfect antidote to the winter blues.
By Abby Luby

Just 30 minutes after landing at Princess Juliana International Airport (SXM) in St. Maarten, I found myself standing on a beach, feeling the deep azure waters pull fine white sand gently between my toes. This Caribbean island is only about 13 square miles (34 square kilometers) and 37 stunning beaches are mere feet to lush hills and ancient volcanic mountains. As small as it is, the French and Dutch, each holding claim to about half the island, peacefully share St. Maarten. Except for a few road signs, you'd never know that you'd crossed over to a different country. Most everyone speaks English but on this multicultural island, you'll also hear French, Dutch, Spanish, Creole and Papiamento.

GETTING THERE
I took a quick, four-day jaunt with an old friend, both of us looking for a mid-winter, warm-weather fix. Getting to St. Maarten was easy. Most major airlines fly nonstop to the island and it's only a three-and-a-half hour trip from New York. I flew Continental Airlines from Newark, New Jersey; on January 18, 2008, low-fare carrier Jet Blue began the nonstop run out of JFK.

UPON ARRIVAL
Driving from the airport to Philipsburg is 15 kilometers. We went through Simpson Bay, a docking haven for large sailboats and yachts. A mile after Simpson Bay, we climbed a steep hill – steep for St. Maarten that is, and high enough to see one of the many incredible vistas the island offers. Even at a distance, the waters are a deep blue. The blue draws you in, makes you never want to leave the beach. From where we stopped, we could see both Little Bay and further down, Great Bay where our hotel was located.

SONESTA GREAT BAY RESORT & CASINO
We booked the first night at the Sonesta Great Bay Resort & Casino on the Dutch side. It's a laidback beachside resort, just a five-minute stroll to downtown Philipsburg, St. Maarten's capital on the Dutch side. We took the beach route, which paralleled the main street, dipping our feet in the lazy surf before we hit the main Front Street. The water on the bay is clear and calm and wonderfully refreshing.

The hotel staff was extremely friendly and accessible and there was a nice relaxed feeling. Breakfast, lunch and dinner were served buffet-style, and although it wasn't haute cuisine, there was enough variety and plenty of it … just what you'd expect at an all-inclusive resort. Some dishes, like the fish, were better than others. Meat dishes included beef in gravy, fried chicken and chicken and rice. Large bowls of salads and fruit were on long, separate buffet tables and two special tables offered nine or 10 types of desserts, everything from cakes and cookies to fruit. The dining space was an open-air verandah overlooking the water, with wait service for drinks. Yummy pina coladas can be enjoyed at the swim-up bar, the downstairs bar near the buffet or at a bar in the main lobby.
,br> We had a small suite of rooms in the apartment wing with a comfortable medium-sized bedroom, an average sized living room and a small kitchenette. A sliding door opened out on to a semi-private terrace overlooking a gorgeous stretch of beach curving around Great Bay. A small complaint; some of the bedroom lights didn't seem to work. There was a safe in the closet and each room was furnished with its own air-conditioning controls. Just a few steps from the terrace was one of the resort's three swimming pools, complete with Jacuzzi. Sonesta Great Bay Beach Resort & Casino, 19 Little Bay Road, Philipsburg, St. Maarten Netherlands Antilles, Tel: 599-542-2446.

Strolling along the beach to the quaint shops and eateries of Philipsburg were enticing offers to rent a chaise longue, with a complimentary beer or two for the day for just $10. The American dollar isn't as strong as the euro, one of the main tenders, but US currency is accepted everywhere.

The best way to get around the island is by taxi, especially if you want to get to the other beaches, some of the mountain spots or the French side. Fares depend on how far you're going. It cost us about $20 to go to Maho Beach, about seven miles away. If you have a lot of time on your hands (we didn't) and want to mingle with St. Maarten residents, there is a bus, which costs $2, but the wait is long and it's a bit unreliable.

PHILIPSBURG
Philipsburg is an old Dutch town with gnarly cobblestone streets, lined with colorful buildings painted pink, green, orange, blue, red ... colors that seem to work in the pure Caribbean light. At the end of Great Bay is a large pier, a hub for major cruisers. If you go into town just after the cruisers open their floodgates, expect it to be crowded. But usually after 4pm, pumpkin time for guests on the massive floating hotels, the streets quickly clear and the tiny streets are quiet. Myriad duty free shops selling diamonds, cigars and liquor brandish price tags that are enough to make you drool: two liters of Stoli, if purchased together, cost $8 apiece.

Front Street is the main drag, running parallel to the beach, with alleyways branching off, usually with small open markets. At the end of Front Street is the infamous Sint Maarten Guavaberry Emporium where they make a legendary island folk guavaberry liqueur. Outside the emporium is a giant bottle of the liqueur labeled with the iconic Guavaberry Man, chuckling under his top hat. The berry was plentiful on St. Maarten but when Hurricane Luis devastated the island in 1995, few berry fields were left to bear enough fruit to produce the liqueur. Berries are now mostly imported from other parts of the Caribbean. The Guavaberry Emporium is built on the site of an abandoned 18th-century Jewish synagogue. Inside is a great tasting bar run by a group of ladies clad in bright plaid folk dresses, who will pour you a small cup of anything from rum-flavored guavaberry juice to other mixed drinks with the berry juice. Liqueurs are sold in beautifully hand-painted bottles created by local artists. Sint Maarten Guavaberry Emporium, No. 8-10 Front Street, Philipsburg, Sint Maarten, Netherlands Antilles, Tel: 599-542-2965.

DINING IN PHILIPSBURG
Restaurants in Philipsburg offer much diversity. You can chow down at any one of a number of Indian, French and Chinese restaurants or at many of the bar-and-grill stands – lots of these are right on the beach. Folks recommended L'Escargot on Front Street, but we never got there. We were told that they dish up good French cuisine, situated inside a brightly colored Creole house. Instead, on our first night, we dined at the hotel restaurant, La Cucina, which had pretty good Italian food. The menu offered traditional pasta dishes, but also fish and meat dishes. I had the salmon and my partner had steak, both served with tasty sauces; soup, salad and dessert were included with the entrée. The wine list was small, but offered some decent looking labels from Chardonnays to a few bottles of bubbly to Pinot Noir, Burgundy and Chianti. We enjoyed a good table red.

This dining room is laid out for dinner theatre with a large, main stage in the center and tables surrounding it. When we ate there we were thoroughly entertained by singer/guitarist, Teri Edwards, who had an incredible repertoire. He sang in different voice styles from operatic Pavarotti to rock and roller Mick Jagger. L'Escargot Restaurant, 96 Front Street, Philipsburg, St Maarten, Netherlands Antilles, Tel: 599-542-2483.

EXPLORING THE ISLAND
There's something really magical about butterflies and you can see for yourself at The Butterfly Farm on the French side in D'Orleans. Built in 1994, the farm is under a huge mesh tent with butterflies dancing from one lush plant to another. A place like this really brings out your inner, child. The exotic fluttery insects settle on tropical flowers or slices of orange or banana. It was hard to put down the camera and stand still long enough to see them all. If you wear bright colors and spritz yourself with fragrant perfume, one or two of the pretty winged insects may grace your hand or shoulder. Guides showed us the different stages of the moth and butterfly's life cycle from microscopic eggs to caterpillars. If you visit early in the morning, you might even catch a butterfly birth. The Butterfly Farm, Tel: 599-544-3562.

LOTERIE FARM
Check out the expansive zip line course at Loterie Farm, where you can swing from ancient mango and mahogany trees in this 35-acre, private nature reserve. Unlike many zip line parks, Loterie has great obstacle course/lines with the zips. It's a bit of a challenge, but really a lot of fun. Expect to find suspended ladders spanning trees with slats a foot apart, tightrope-type wires, rope bridges and hanging swings. The folks who fit you with the harness and give you the safety spiel are friendly but professional. I was shaky about doing the course, but they are very encouraging. Then you're ready for the thrill of speed – especially when you are up at some of the high points just under the reserve's canopies. People of all ages, shapes, sizes and weights were giving it a try and enjoying themselves and screams from the zip rush” echoed from hill to hill. The novelty for me was the speed of the zip in the relative quiet of the forest. It was a bit surreal but really fun. The main course of zip lines takes about an hour, depending on how fast you're moving. About half a dozen guides are posted at tree landings throughout the course. There is a special lower course for kids.

You can also hike the reserve's forest and marvel at the 200-year-old mango and mahogany trees on your way to the highest peak at 900 feet above sea level. Guided hiking tours are available, some as long as two miles. You can also check out the trails on your own. Loterie Farm, Tel: 590-590-87-86-16.

Shrugging off the wild jungle and relaxing with a good meal works great right after "zipping" around so when you get your sea legs back, you can bounce over to the Hidden Forest Café right there at Loterie Farm. It was crowded when we checked it out, which to us, indicated that the cuisine was pretty good. The menu was nouveau gourmet and the restaurant had been written up in Gourmet Magazine. We hung out at the bar space where soft, wide couches induced us to hoist our feet up slurp down a beer under the high opaque tent ceiling.

On our way back to the hotel, we stopped at Orient Beach, where bathing suits are optional. (My friend was more curious than I was!) This is a long, wide beach with water sport shops, bars and restaurants and beach clothing huts, one on top of the other buffering the beach from the road.

SONESTA MAHO BEACH RESORT & CASINO
We checked out of our hotel and checked into another Sonesta resort: Sonesta Maho Beach Resort & Casino, a 10-story luxury hotel right on the beach. This is an upscale hotel in the center of Mahu, with a high-ceilinged lobby, the scene of bustling uniformed concierges, bellhops and doormen. Everyone was very businesslike, but aimed to please and we weren't disappointed. Our room was on the ninth floor overlooking three pools and further off in the distance we could see the bay. The one flaw was the poorly designed bathroom, featuring one of those big, glassed-in showers where the water overflows into the bathroom floor where the drain was too small.

Maho is a real nightlife town, catering to a younger crowd. A live stage show was scheduled right across the street at the Casino Royale Theatre, with live show previews featuring a troupe of sultry dancers doing their thing on the street in front of the theatre, stopping traffic for about 10 minutes – no drivers seemed to be in a rush! Sonesta Maho Beach Resort & Casino, 1 Rhine Road, Maho Bay, St Maarten, Netherlands Antilles, Tel: 599-545-2115 or 1-800-SONESTA.

If you are on a plan, you can eat at one of the three main restaurants and drink at the swim up pool bar. Otherwise, there are a few restaurants near the beach or you can eat at the large square bar in the lobby, where you can also rent Internet time.

We ate at Bajatzu, which is next door to the hotel. It's known for its free-range beef and organic steaks, but the menu ranged from seared tuna to several enticing dishes made with free-range chicken. My friend and I shared the 24 oz. porterhouse and the sushi grade seared rare ahi tuna. Both dishes were prepared with sophisticated garnishes. We paired the entrees with a California Pinot Noir. The wait staff was attentive and good-natured. Bajatzu Bar & Grill, Maho Plaza, Maho, St. Maarten, Tel: 599-520-0625.

The next day, my friend checked out scuba diving back at Great Bay. If you're a novice, you can get scuba lessons in one of the pools, then go for a shallow ocean dive for $95. Snorkeling costs $45. You can suit up right in the shop just under the pool deck, where, if you have your Speedo sea legs, you can opt to take a Jetscursion Lagoon Tour for $160. Located at Sonesta Great Bay Beach Resort and Casino, Philipsburg, St. Maarten, Netherland Antilles, Tel: 599-542-2446, ext. 536.

I, on the other hand, headed north to Marigot, the capital on the French side of the island and where the island's name is spelled Sint Martin. Marigot is a quaint old village on the large Baie Nettle. I checked out some art galleries and especially liked the work of celebrated Sint Martin artist Roland Richardson, famous for painting the island's native tree, The Flamboyant. The gallery was in a 17th-century building, which has been in Richardson's family for centuries. There is a great courtyard in the center with a wildflower garden, one of Richardson's inspirations, judging from his work. Prints started at $175 while the cost of original paintings goes up to five figures.

A note about driving around the island: At 10am, the drawbridges go up (at least on the French side) and traffic comes to a standstill. It happens again in the afternoon rush hour but you just have to hang and remember that you're on vacation. Some of the cabbies told us that the richer boat owners sometimes pay off the folks who control the drawbridge so they can go through whenever they like – something we never personally witnessed.

FRENCH TREATS
There's nothing like French pastry! Café Floria in Marigot offered an enormous array of tasty pastries, including the famous almond cake with a small prize crown hidden inside. Bakers on the premises also made homemade sandwiches, quiches and pizzas. Magnifique! I enjoyed a heated spinach quiche. Sandwiches are served on freshly baked baguette. There were many outdoor cafés in Marigot, with tables under umbrellas flowing out on the sidewalk. There was also a marketplace on the main street near the bay, selling typical tourist tchotchkes. Marigot has a wonderful European feel of an old seaside village with narrow, cobblestone streets, some lined with trees, and old buildings that house boutique shops, art galleries and restaurants.

UNTIL NEXT TIME
We didn't get to all the great restaurants that people raved about but we put these on the list for next time: Le Bouchaneer/French cuisine, Temptation at the Atlantis Casino Courtyard in Cupecoy and L'Escargot in Philipsburg. Fending off the stressful return trip and wintry northeast (we heard it was going to snow a few hours after landing in New Jersey), we treated ourselves to a massage at the Good Life Spa at the Sonesta Maho Beach Resort. A deep tissue massage did the trick for me. My masseuse was a young, talented man named Gabriel and for 75 minutes, I melted under his warm, oiled hands; it was perfect for getting out those kinks. The massage cost $150; 55 minutes cost $100. My friend had a traditional facial ($90 for 55 minutes), and he came out glowing! Both of us floated on to the plane, completely relaxed for the entire flight home. The Good Life Spa, Maho Beach Hotel, St Maarten Netherlands Antilles, Tel: 599-545-2540.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Abby Luby has been in the field of communications for over 20 years and a journalist for just over 10. She has a Bachelor's degree in Communications/Music from Indiana University and attended the High School of Music and Artin New York City. She freelances for a number of publications including The New York Daily News and The Stamford Advocate/Greenwich Times.

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Note: This trip was sponsored in part by Sonesta Hotels and the St. Maarten Tourist Bureau.

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