After having such a good time on our Honeymoon in St. Martin last year we decided to come back this summer. Since it is low season I was able to book everything just 3 weeks ago.
Our flight from Atlanta was uneventful and we got into St. Martin about 30 minutes early. Since we flew on a Friday the airport was very quiet and we got through immigration in 5 minutes and our bags came out a few minutes later. We met Lesley Bruce from Kenny’s Car Rental and were on our way in about 5 minutes. Traffic from the airport was heavy as they are doing bridge rennovations on the Simpson Bay bridge. Once we got over the bridge, traffic eased and we headed to Princess Heights on Dawn Beach where we are staying for the week.
(We stayed at Princess Heights last year and loved it! Here is my review from last year)
We found our way over to Princess Heights and checked in. Since we were staying in the new building up the hill it was quite an interesting drive to access it! Although the office is a few hundred feet from our room you had to drive up a very narrow and steep road to access the upper rooms. I was a little worried walking out from the car as they are still finishing up all the landscaping so it looked like a construction site. My fears were quickly gone as soon as we stepped in the room. The room was BEAUTIFUL! I also quickly realized that they had upgraded us from a studio room to a 1 bedroom. This was easily the nicest hotel room we had ever been in. Marble floors throughout the entire area, stainless steel appliances, granite countertops, complete sets of plates and utensils, two Sony LCD tvs, Jacuzzi tub with shower, beautifully decorated, and a balcony overlooking Dawn Beach with views of St. Barts. I looked at Crystal and said “Are you kidding me!” – We are paying $112 a night for this place! I was thinking to myself there must be some sort of catch. But after 8 days there was no catch. We had a great time staying here and highly recommend it. It was a 12 minute drive to Orient Beach and 20 minutes to Phillibsburg and Simpson Bay. It was perfect for a quiet Honeymoon. I think there were only a couple other guests staying here. We felt like we had the place to ourselves. If you are looking for a lot of action or a full service hotel this is not the place but a quiet vacation getaway we can’t imagine a better place to stay.
Here are some pictures from the hotel: https://andrewknight.smugmug.com/gallery/5562063_kdxYF#340870355_zpdiX
This year we got the same suprise as last year: they had given us a free upgrade from a studio to the same 1 bedroom we had last year! After unpacking some things, we quickly got our suits on and headed down to Dawn Beach. The beach was very quiet and we just enjoyed swimming in the ocean and relaxing after traveling for most of the day.
Before coming last year, I spent a lot of time reading the TTOL (Travel Talk Online) forum. We go so many great tips and recommendations from this board. If you are coming to St. Martin just lurk around on TTOL and you will save yourself a lot of time and frustration! Since St. Martin has so many great food options narrowing down the options using TTOL was very helpful. Before I get into the food reviews a few notes on our perspective. We don’t eat out that much at home but enjoy good food that is not over the top elaborate. We both don’t drink and we usually just go with a main course so our bills will be much lower than most! All totals include tip.
For our first night out we headed to Mark’s Place for the best ribs on the island. We went to Mark’s last year for the all you can eat ribs and I had been looking forward to these for an entire year! Mark did not disappoint- the ribs were amazing. Total bill was $30. This might be the best value on the entire island!
Orient beach is is up tomorrow.
