You might call me a Caribbean connoisseur. I love the white, winding beaches of the Caribbean islands and can give you comparisons on most of them.
So check out my reviews of what restaurants are worth it and what activities are not in St. Martin.
When We Went: Dec. 26, 2015 – Jan. 1, 2016
Where We Stayed: We rented a 3-bedroom house on VRBO located on the French side of the island just across the Dutch side border. My mom was in charge of booking and found this house for a third of the price of most of the homes! Also, it was right on a private beach where as most of the other homes on VRBO are up in the hills. Fun fact about our house, the one next door was owned by Donald Trump.
Where We Ate
Oceans 82: We actually found this restaurant thanks to Mario Batali who posted a photo on Instagram. It’s located in Grand Case on the French side of the island. It’s part of a long strip of very nice restaurants right on the water. I had a tuna steak and everyone LOVED their meals. You will definitely want to make a reservation here if you plan to have dinner.
Dreams Beach Bar: We had lunch at this ocean front spot on the French side of the island. The menu is massive with salads, burgers, sushi, pasta and other seafood. Pretty decent lunch and didn’t need a reservation.
Skip Jack’s: This lagoon front restaurant in Simpson Bay has great seafood with a view of some pretty massive yachts. It was one of our favorite meals that we kept talking about even after we left. Mostly seafood but other options as well. It has great atmosphere and service. I recommend making a reservation.
Yacht Club Restaurant: We chose this dinner spot in the moment while shopping in Marigot. We picked this Italian restaurant because of its proximity to the harbor. There are huge yachts everywhere in St Martin and this was a great spot to watch them come in. The pizza is amazing! I know it’s sacrilegious to not eat seafood in the islands but it was damn good. The Yacht Club wasn’t crowded at all so you probably won’t need a reservation at this spot.
What We Did
Maho Beach: Call me a tourist, but I was very excited to cross this spot off my travel bucket list. Maho Beach is on the Dutch side of the island and is where the planes land on the runway just past the beach. There are a couple restaurants right on the beach where you can get a beer or some food and watch the planes come in. Large planes (Delta, JetBlue) come in about every 20 minutes and private jets land much more frequently. For us, there were way too many people so we watched a couple planes come in and then hightailed it out of there for some ice cream.
Pinel Island: Pinel Island is a very tiny island just off Orient Bay. It’s covered on one side with lounge chairs and a couple beach restaurants. The other side is rock and completely untouched. We heard it’s a spot where locals go but when we got there, it was all cruise ship tourists. There were eight cruise ships on the island that day so they must have heard about this spot as well. Either way, we enjoyed the change of scenery from our private beach! Cost: $14 round trip water taxi
Dinner Cruise: We booked an amazing buffet dinner cruise on a catamaran through Aqua Mania Adventures. The crew was great, the food was even better and perfect timing for the sunset. It was a highlight of the trip. Cost: $75 for adults and $35 for children ages 5 to 12.
Some other miscellaneous photos from St Martin:
