Wanderlust Traveler: May 2013

The harbor in Gustavia, St. Barts.

We spent 11 days visiting the island of St. Maarten/St. Martin in March of 2013 for our honeymoon.

While on St. Martin, we participated in three different day trips including Anguilla, Pinel Island, and the island of St. Barts. This blog entry will cover the day trip we took to St. Barts.

St. Barts (sometimes referred to as St. Barthelemy and St. Barths) is located 15 miles southeast of St. Martin and is an overseas collectivity of France. St. Barts is well known for being one of the most expensive islands to visit in the world and is often referred to as the French Riviera of the Caribbean. The hilly island is eight square miles and contains 21 white-sand beaches, all of which are open to the public and typically uncrowded even during the high season. The island caters to the rich, wealthy, and famous with hundreds of yachts filling the harbor of Gustavia and the many inlets that line the island.

The island can be accessed from St. Martin via a ferry boat or short plane ride. Initially, we had planned on flying to St. Barts as it only takes ten minutes, but after looking up prices on the two major airlines (Winair and St. Barth Commuter) and experiencing massive sticker shock at roundtrip airfare that cost $200-$300 per person, we knew we'd be taking the ferry. There are three points around St. Martin (Oyster Pond, Marigot & Phillipsburg) from which you can take a high-speed ferry. Voyager uses the ports in Oyster Pond and Marigot while Great Bay Express offers a 40 minute boat ride from Phillipsburg. We ultimately ended up choosing to use Voyager from Oyster Pond as it not only offered the shortest ride (30 minutes versus one hour from Marigot) but also because it was two minute drive from our condo in Dawn Beach. Our round-trip cost for two adults was 134 Euro (about $175 USD). Ridiculously expensive, but still much less than what we would have spent on airfare. Be forewarned that the boat ride over to St. Barts can be quite choppy. On our visit it was relatively calm but if you suffer from motion sickness, then I highly encourage you to take all precautions (Dramamine, eat a light breakfast, have a lemon-lime soda hand) in order to avoid getting sick.

The harbor at Oyster Pond.

We knew that visiting St. Barts was going to be expensive, but I don't think we were completely prepared for the high cost of things on the island. On our simple day-trip, after taking all costs into account (ferry, car rental, gas, two small meals) we spent about $350. To us, that seems quite spendy for just a nine hour visit. I don't even want to imagine how expensive it would be to visit for several days, let alone a week or more.

Sadly, our visit to St. Barts happened to occur on one of the worst weather days of our entire trip. We had some time planned during the first half of our day to visit a few beaches, but only ended up stopping at two as we spent quite a bit of time sitting in our rental car seeking refuge during torrential downpours hoping it was just a passing cloud. Luckily, it eventually did clear up though not until about an hour before our ferry left.

While on St. Barts, we did the following:

Ate an early lunch at Kiki-e Mo in St-Jean
Laid on the beach in St. Jean
Stopped at Flamands Beach
Explored the seaside town of Gustavia and its harbor

Kiki-e Mo Traiteur:
As mentioned, St. Barts can be quite painful on your wallet, especially in the dining arena. However, there are fortunately some "budget" eateries that are sprinkled throughout the island called traiteurs. Essentially, traiteurs are delis that offer sandwiches, salads, pastas, cheese, wine, etc to go for considerably less than what you would find at any restaurant. After arriving at the harbor in Gustavia, we grabbed our rental car and headed to St. Jean. Intially we were planning on going straight to the beach but since it was pouring down rain we decided to eat first. Kiki-e Mo was located directly across the street from the beach in St. Jean. They had several different types of Italian sandwiches and paninis to choose from as well as pasta and pastries. I chose to order some pesto pasta and a crossiant while Shyawn requested a cafe as well as a sandwich, which came with a side of fruit. For this small amount of food, we spent about 30 Euro ($40 USD). In comparison to St. Martin/St. Maarten, this was, of course, quite expensive. However, in comparison to the nearby restaurants where many of the main courses at lunch started at 25-30 Euro, this was a relative bargain. The food here was good, certainly nothing that wowed us but it left us satisfied.

Pesto pasta salad at Kiki-e Mo traiteur in St. Jean.

Crossiant at Kiki-e Mo traiteur in St. Jean.

Cafe at Kiki-e Mo traiteur in St. Jean.

Sandwich at Kiki-e Mo traiteur in St. Jean.

Side of fruit at Kiki-e Mo traiteur in St. Jean.

St. Jean Beach:
After the rain finally somewhat subsided, we left Kiki-e Mo's and walked across the street to the St. Jean Beach, which is the best known on the entire island. St. Jean Beach is actually comprised of two separate beaches that are divided by the Eden Rock promontory, home to the very luxurious and famous Eden Rock Resort. Umbrellas and lounge chairs can be rented at several spots along the beach although we opted not to since we knew we weren't going to be sticking around for very long because of the tempermental weather. While the beach was pretty, I certainly didn't think it was any more beautiful than many of the beaches we experienced on St. Martin/St. Maarten.

St. Jean Beach

Eden Rock Resort along St. Jean Beach.

St. Jean Beach

Flamands Beach:
Located in the northwest section of the island, this long and wide crescent shaped beach is the largest on St. Barts. There are several small hotels that line the beach but it is otherwise a calm and peaceful oasis. Unfortunately when we arrived the wind was blowing like crazy and it was actually a bit too cool for our liking, so we snapped a few pictures and then went on our way. I can only imagine how much more beautiful and spectacular the beach would have been on a sunny day.

Flamands Beach

The Methodist Church in Philipsburg.

We spent 11 days visiting the island of St. Maarten/St. Martin in March of 2013 for our honeymoon.

This blog entry will cover the places we visited and activities we participated in on the island excluding beaches, which is covered in a separate entry here.

I highly recommend that anyone who visits St. Martin should rent a car as it is truly the best way to explore the island. St. Martin is much larger than one might expect and it can take quite a long time to drive between destinations due to its hilly landscape and terrible road conditions. While visitors could certainly rely on taxi services, it would likely become expensive rather quickly. There are literally dozens of different car rental companies to choose from which made my decision quite difficult. After plowing through numerous reviews on Trip Advisor, I narrowed it down to about five different companies. From there, we ultimately ended up going with a local company called Tropicana Car Rental as they offered us the lowest rate of the five companies I obtained quotes from. For the most part, our car rental experience on the island was fairly straightforward, however, I would like to point out a few important things: the conditions of the roads were far worse than what we were expecting. Be prepared to deal with lots of potholes, extremely narrow roads, and locals whose cars will inexplicably stop or slam on their breaks for no apparent reason. Additionally, you may occasionally have to deal with a wandering goat or cow. Street signs are few and far between so make sure you get your hands on a very detailed map. Be prepared to get lost. Since it was an island, the thought of getting lost never entered into my mind, however, sure enough, as soon as we drove away from the airport we got lost in Phillipsburg rather quickly. Again, a detailed map will be very helpful in these sorts of situations. If possible, I would highly recommend to rent a small SUV; something that's tall enough to not bottom out on the many potholes but something that's also relatively narrow enough to drive on the small roads. Even with these difficulties, I would still rent a car again in a heartbeat on a future trip to the island.

Although the island is most famous for its plethora of beautiful beaches, there are many other things to see, do, and partake in on St. Martin. Naturally, the beaches were our primary sightseeing focus, but we still managed to find a few other non-beach related things to see and do. There are two major cities to explore (Phillipsburg and Marigot) both of which offer historical sights. There are numerous different activities to participate in including horseback riding, parasailing, snorkeling, scuba diving, sailing, fishing, etc. The list could go on and on. The island is also well-known for its shopping opportunities and wide range of nightlife. I was personally quite impressed with the wide range of choices visitors have on this small island. A non-beach lover could find themselves on the island for several days and not run out of things to do.

Below is the list of places we visited or activities we participated in during our stay, with a detailed description listed further below.

The Butterfly Farm
Horseback Riding with Seaside Nature Park
Phillipsburg
Fort Amsterdam
Marigot
Fort Louis
Loterie Farm
Parasailing

The Butterfly Farm
This wonderful site, located on the French side of the island, contains over 40 species of butterflies from all around the world that fly freely within the walls of the large meshed enclosure. Entrance to the site includes a thorough guided tour that explains the entire life cycle of a butterfly, which we found fascinating. Additionally, each ticket includes a free return pass that can be used at any point during the duration of your vacation. It is recommended to arrive in the morning as that is typically when the butterflies are most active. If you'd like to ensure that some butterflies will land on you during your visit, make sure to wear bright colors or floral scents.

Path to the Butterfly Farm.

Butterfly Farm

Tuesday, May 21, 2013

St. Barts Day Trip

Wednesday, May 15, 2013

St. Maarten/St. Martin (Sightseeing)