St. Martini

Carib, Creole BBQ and Beach was how I spent my six days in St. Marteen and it beat out any Thanksgiving feast I may have been missing. After winning two free American Airlines tickets, the tough part was deciding where to go. One long Saturday resulted in St. Martini, the “Culinary Capital of the Carribean” heavily inspired by the NYTimes article, St Martin in 36 hours. I expected nothing less then six blissful days laying on the beach and eating some gourmet food, while staying at a four star resort of course.

The highlights were:

• Mullet Bay Beach - where we spent the majority of our vacay enjoying the Carib, Creole and BBQ, and occasional waves. Much preferred over popular Orient Beach which was much too windy for my liking.

• Pain Et Chocoloate - nuff said! This pastry shop on the French side of St. Martin immediately took me back to Paris the only place where enjoying chocolate before 11 am is the norm, almost enough to lure me to stay on the French side if I ever go back.

• Loterie Farm - while it was difficult to tear ourselves away from the perfection that is Mullet Bay we managed to go on an adventure in a tree house known as Loterie Farm. The zip lines were an exhilarating break from a rather lazy holiday and were followed by a delish lunch in the tree house restaurant where I tried my first, and only, Guavaberry cocktail, St. Martin rum.

• Room upgrade, it is my belief to never settle while on vacation. If traveling to St. Maarten do not stay in Phillipsburg! We learned the hard way spending our first night in a mosquito infested room dining on Dominos at Sonesta Great Bay . Luckily we were able to upgrade to the Sonesta Resort on Maho Beach the next day! If this were a work email there would be a sub bullet for grabbing a bottle of red something from the French wine shop and relaxing on our balcony, oh to be able to go outside like normal non-Chicago people.

• Airplanes #nerd alert! While Kevin enjoyed this much more than I did it was still very cool. St. Maarten is home to a world famous airport where planes come in so close to the ground you can touch them. Not so much but it certainly looks close.

TIPS: A few things I wish I would’ve known when planning, the island is bigger than it seems and there’s traffic! Stay on a side and in an area where you can easily get to everything you could want. Despite being next to the airport, the Sonesta at Maho Beach is a fab resort and you can’t even hear the planes. Don’t pay for internet, just go to the cafe next door - they’re everywhere and make great lattes. Most importantly:

Don’t plan, just relax!

What’s your favorite beach getaway?