When my daughter and I traveled to St. Martin, we went to Tijon Perfumery, the only place in the Caribbean where you can make your own fragrance. It was an amazing day where we learned so much. You can read all about it on GoGirlfriend where I described our day and shared some photos. I would love it if you could pop over and read about it. It was a once a in a lifetime event (and it had kind of a surprise ending for me!).

When my daughter and I traveled to St. Martin, we went to Tijon Perfumery, the only place in the Caribbean where you can make your own fragrance. It was an amazing day where we learned so much. You can read all about it on GoGirlfriend where I described our day and shared some photos. I … Read more →

Some of the beautiful blooms I found within our resort on St. Martin.

 

 

Some of the beautiful blooms I found within our resort on St. Martin.    

I love to visit new places to experience the culture, soak up the scenery, enjoy the food, and immerse myself in a different life. But let’s be honest here, the thing that gets me the most excited is the shopping (to the dismay of my teenage son).

Caribbean islands are tough nuts to crack when it comes to local artisan shopping. Although there are seemingly many artists who make their homes in this area of the world, seeking them out is harder than it should be. St. Martin was no different.

Philipsburg

St. Martin has a French side and a Dutch side. There are two large cities, Philipsburg (Dutch)

and Marigot (French). Philipsburg has the largest number of tourists due to the cruise ships that dock here. Colombian Emeralds and Diamonds International make me shudder. I want locally created crafts and art. The only shop worth visiting in Philipsburg was the Guavaberry Emporium, where you can buy guavaberry, an alcoholic spirit that is a specialty of this island. I was hoping to find some other guavaberry items in the shop, but other than honey, everything is alcoholic in nature. My daughter brought home a bottle of this to add to her limoncello from Italy.

Marigot

Marigot was another disappointment to me. There is a lovely harbor in this town but the shopping is disappointing. If you want designer goods, head to the West Indies Mall. Gucci is not a souvenir I need

however, so instead we went to the Marigot market which happens every Saturday and Wednesday right on the harbor. The market is similar to those you’ll find in most other Caribbean ports – lots of goods made in China or India, very few from the island. This market did offer some locally produced goods, but not as much as I had hoped. There was a booth filled with hand painted tiles showing scenes from the island. There were a few painters scattered throughout. But all in all, I was not impressed. I did buy a small wooden turtle box for my son, but I doubt it was made in St. Martin.

Cupecoy

The Cupecoy beach area on the Dutch side sounded promising. There is in fact a small courtyard with a cute collection of shops. Unfortunately all but one were closed the afternoon we made it there (I really wanted to visit the Bloomin’ Baskets shop).  I did go in the Shipwreck Shop here. The Shipwreck shops are an island chain with several locations – I’d breezed through one in Philipsburg, but this shop didn’t feel like a junky souvenir shop as the one in Philipsburg did. There were some very nice collections of Fresh Produce clothes (a brand you find in Florida and the Caribbean) as well as some other beach-y brands.

My daughter bought a very cute bathing suit cover up here. I found 2 notecard sized prints of

paintings I liked, a set of two bookmarks, and I bought a wooden box with hand-painted tile set in it.  I also found a coffee table book of St. Martin (I always buy one wherever I go). And I found my magnet (another item I always buy). I almost bought a small steel drum that had been hand painted, but walked away from that.

Grand Case

I’ll be doing another post about the food in Grand Case (not to be missed!), but it was also the place with the best shopping. We actually shopped this tiny town twice (which is easily walkable from one end to the other). Many shops are open in the evening, when the restaurants are open, which is when we shopped.

Tuesday nights are when the town has its weekly street festival and this is when you really want to be sure to go. The main street is closed to traffic (meaning you park outside of town and hoof it – it wasn’t too far however). The street is lined with vendors selling jewelry, handcrafts, art, food, and alcoholic drinks, in addition to the regular shops.

In a funny little shop called Oops we each bought a piece of larimar jewelry. Larimar is from the Dominican Republic and is sold throughout the Caribbean. It’s a beautiful light blue stone with more marbling than turquoise. I bought the necklace and my daughter got the ring. The shop sold the jewelry according to weight, which was an interesting method. At the same place I bought a sheep. I have a large flock of sheep that I tend to and am always adding to it. This sheep was made of something I’d never seen before. It’s called vegetable ivory and is made from the seed of the tagua palm tree. The seeds fall from the trees, harden into what looks like ivory and are carved. This was a fantastic find and one I will definitely treasure.

There are several clothing and jewelry shops in Grand Case, and my daughter bought a scarf with silver and blue beading at the ends of it at one of them. We ogled but did not buy the many white flowy tops and dresses at one store, as well as a shop that sold a variety of fine Dogeared.com-style necklaces with the tiny round charms.

Grand Case is home to Tijon, a perfumery. They sell a full line of lovely fragrances for men and women and also offer classes.

At the street fair I found an artist I liked, named Asif Hakh. Originally from Guyana, he lives and works on St. Martin. Although he gave me instructions for how to find information about him online, all of the pages are no longer working, so I can’t share any links with you! Asif had a large collection of prints, of which I bought two (one shows Orient Beach the most famous beach

on the island, and the other shows the Radisson Blu where we stayed). He also had some original work that incorporated rope or string to create multi-media pieces of hammocks or wicker chairs in a tropical scene (I’m adding these to the gallery in my mind).

A small table near the end of the street held baskets freshly woven from palm leaves – and the artist was making them as we watched. I’ve seen this method before on other islands and have a flower made by a peddler who went around a restaurant in Puerto Rico. What intrigued me was the beautiful pattern in the center of the basket, so I was happy to bring one home to add to my basket collection. It’s still green, so it will be interesting to see how the basket changes as it dries.

I was happy with my finds, but wouldn’t you know it? As we drove to the airport to leave, we passed a handcrafts store? No time to stop, so I’ll always

wonder what I might have found there….

I love to visit new places to experience the culture, soak up the scenery, enjoy the food, and immerse myself in a different life. But let’s be honest here, the thing that gets me the most excited is the shopping (to the dismay of my teenage son). Caribbean islands are tough nuts to crack when … Read more →

My daughter and I just returned from a relaxing girls’ getaway in St. Martin for 5 days. It’s a lovely place and I’ll be posting more about the island, what to do and where to eat in later posts (not to mention the shopping!). First things first though is the hotel. And I have a lot to say about it, so I thought I’d do a whole post.

We stayed at the Radisson Blu, in Anse Marcel, on the French (north) side of the island (the southern part of the island is St. Maarten and is Dutch). It is located north of Marigot, the main French town, and very near Grand Case, which is where the best restaurants are. It is also close to Orient Beach, the best known beach on the island.  We wavered a bit about where to stay since this hotel does not offer oceanview rooms. The property backs up to the ocean and the rooms have either garden views or marina views. I generally prefer to have an oceanview when I’m staying in a place that is all about the ocean, but we decided we probably wouldn’t be spending much time in the room anyhow. We reserved a superior room with marina view.

Getting There

The hotel web site provides driving directions from the airport so we brought those along in

case our GPS did not work. When we arrived, it wasn’t working (of course!). I also asked the car rental place for directions. Both sets of directions combined were a bit vague. St. Martin has only a handful of stop signs and traffic lights. There are roundabouts and very few road signs. It is difficult to distinguish a main road from a side road since most roads have no center markings and none are in very good condition  All of this made getting to the hotel extremely challenging! It’s hard to know when to turn when there are no signs. We missed a turn and got a little lost, but finally figured it out.

The next challenge in getting to the hotel is that you must literally go up and over a mountain to get there. The road to the hotel is narrow, very steep and filled with blind hairpin turns. When we arrived it was dark which made it even more terrifying. The hotel doesn’t post signs along this road. There are turnoffs where it would have been helpful to have a little sign guiding me!

At one point, there is a breath-taking view of the cove the hotel is in, but there is absolutely no way to pull over since it is on a hairpin turn. We discovered a spot to leave the car just below this and were able to hike up the hill to get the photo (St. Martin is filled with photo opps like this. You will be driving up a giant hill and suddenly at the crest, you will gasp at the sight below you, but there is nowhere to pull over to get a picture and you are always being tailgated by someone who is annoyed by your driving.

Check-In

We finally managed to find the hotel, which is hidden behind a manned entry. The exterior of the hotel is very pretty  – white with big colored curtains. My photo did not turn out well, but

I’m sharing to give you a sense of it. I pulled the rental car up to the front door and we went in to check in. There was no bellman in sight. The front desk was very busy and the woman who checked us in was unfriendly, soft-spoken, and difficult to hear. Part of our package included membership in the My Time program, which entitled us to perks like a fruit basket in the room and a food and beverage credit during our stay (both of which we did get). We were also supposed to be greeted with a cold towel and a tropical drink. This did not happen. We were supposed to be given a special My Time card to show during our stay. I learned later that the little paper business card with our room number handwritten on it was this card (would have been nice if someone explained this, but I’m not sure what good this card would have done us). The program was also supposed to include a call on the third day of stay to ask how things were. No one ever called.

The My Time program also allowed late check out, but when I asked, I was told I would have to ask on the morning of departure, which defeats the purpose since we couldn’t plan to be able to stay.

On the plus side, we were told we had been upgraded to a deluxe room.

While we were checking in, a bellman came and asked me for my keys since my car was in the way. He moved the car and removed some of our luggage and brought it in.  He did not bring all of our belongings and he didn’t tell me where my car was (I assumed since they moved it, they would retrieve it).  The next morning, my daughter and I had to wander the three parking lots to find our car – there was no accountability for where it had been parked.

About 10 days before we left, I contacted the hotel to let them know I am gluten intolerant and to ask if their chefs would be able to accommodate me. I got an email back saying one of the chefs would be emailing me. No one did. Two days before we left I responded and let them know no one had contacted me. No response.  At check in I asked

again and was told a chef would call me in my room. This didn’t happen. At breakfast one morning I tried to get some assistance and the response was quite poor.

The Room

After the nonsense at check-in, we were happy to go to our room which had a king size Sleep Number bed (you can adjust the firmness on each side), a table and chairs, armchair and stool, balcony, and large bathroom. The room was a soft yellow and very comfortable. One feature I liked was that in addition to a chest of drawers, there were huge baskets under the nightstands for storage, as well as two closets and small storage baskets near the minibar.

The bathroom was huge with two sinks, but it wasn’t very usable since the tub/shower had a glass door and the toilet area didn’t have a door, so essentially only one person could use the room at a time.

I don’t think I would call our view a marina view. I could barely make out some boats through the trees. Despite this, I was very pleased with our room which appeared recently renovated and was spotless. I do not believe the room was vacuumed during our stay however, since the same crumb remained on the floor by my side of the bed the entire stay.

The Resort

I have nothing but glowing things to say about the grounds of this resort. The lobby area was open to the outside and there were many comfortable couches and chairs in the area. There is also a lobby bar. The grounds have beautiful flowering shrubs. There is a bocce ball court and a ping pong table. There is a spa, but we did not visit it during our stay.

The place where we spent all of our time was the beach and pool. The resort backs up to a big

crescent-shaped beach that is shared with several other resorts, however it is not crowded or busy at all. The waves come all the way up to the retaining walls, so there is not a lot of space to actually sit on the beach (and there seem to be no tides, since the water was always up to the edge). On our first morning, there were lounge chairs on the sand, so we sat there. The waves would wash up under our chairs. It was nice, but I was constantly worrying about our bag, which I kept lifting in the air to keep dry. After that morning, no lounge chairs were allowed on the beach, but they were right next to the beach, set up underneath palm trees with a spectacular view. There is a beachside bar with one waiter who makes the rounds. We got one round of frozen drinks and didn’t think they were very good.

The sand is soft and flat with no shells or rocks to speak of. The beach is in a little cove and there are boats anchored there. You can see Anguilla across the way. It is a magical little cove. Be aware that the beach is tops optional! The beach is long enough for a nice walk, which we enjoyed several times. The water had a bit of an undertow, but once you got past where the waves broke it was pleasant to just float in the turquoise water.

I am still not recovered from the glory that was the pool. This was the biggest, most comfortable pool I’ve ever been in. There are 4 sections. There’s a rectangular area where a water fitness class was happening one day. The next section has a sand area next to and no steps – you just gradually walk in like you would at a beach. This was not very deep and was perfect for children.

There was an intermediate area that was a bit deeper, then it opened up to the infinity pool section that was about 5 feet deep. The infinity edge meant that not only could you look out over the ocean as you swam, but there were no waves or splashing, since the water cycles

over the edge of the pool.  It was so big that 4-5 times around this section of the pool

constituted my half hour daily swim.

There were plenty of chairs, umbrellas and palm trees around the pool. There were a few cabanas for rent but really were unnecessary since you could find so much shade. There are two resident iguanas my daughter saw casually swimming across the pool!

The pool bathrooms were pretty dirty and rarely had toilet paper, so that was the only complaint I can offer.

I would go back just for the pool and beach area alone.

The resort seemed to be very popular with families from France. There were also many couples (some young, but many in midlife) who were American. It never felt crowded or busy and the atmosphere was relaxed and delightful.

If you’re looking for a wonderful getaway, you will find it in this resort!

My daughter and I just returned from a relaxing girls’ getaway in St. Martin for 5 days. It’s a lovely place and I’ll be posting more about the island, what to do and where to eat in later posts (not to mention the shopping!). First things first though is the hotel. And I have a … Read more →