Three ways to avoid baggage fees.
Will baggage fees ever stop going up?
Every penny – or thousands of pennies – counts.
Air travel must-haves
Here’s a quick list of air travel must-haves:
Food and beverage. No one’s serving anything for free and what you can get tastes just as bad as it always has on a place, regardless of how much more attractive the packaging is now relative to the past. Exceptions to the “no free food” rule are generally routes to or from European destinations since non-Americans traditionally have higher expectations of service – even on our domestic carriers. Check with your airline if you’re unsure of the accomodations, or (much better still) bring along healthy non-liquid items that will be a much better caloric investment. Remember, you’re going to be more or less dormant for several hours so light occasional healthy snacking is easily your best bet. As for drinks, water’s still free on every flight – or at least it is at the moment.
Easy, organized access to items you plan to use on the flight. Walk through your expectations of what you’ll be doing on the flight, especially if you’ll be cramped in the metal tube for over a couple hours. You’ll be surprised at how inaccessible simple things like headsets are when you want them. While your at it, reconsider the security process. Where do you intend to put your jewelry, wallet, or other important items you’d prefer not testing with the metal detector? When I went through this process the first time I realized I didn’t own a bag that worked for my purposes and hopped online to purchase a new one. Stranger yet, the next time I traveled my old bag was more well suited to the trip I was taking. This is a really important step to making your trip easy and predictable.
Two pens. If you’re traveling internationally, this is a must. You will fill out customs paperwork. If not, it’s always a good habit to have pens on hand to document things like dings in your rental car or contact information when you meet someone new. You’re going to thank me on this one, because someday when you take an international flight you’ll be begging one from a neighbor after the one you have stops working (or you’ll just want your flying partner to help expedite all the forms writing).
Anything that keeps children in your custody extraordinarily quiet. You’re likely used to the cacophony of family life but your nearby seatmates are often nervous at the prospect of even getting on a plane. That tension is amplified when the simplest of actions – a bumped chair, a continual banging or clicking noise, or a crying child – interrupts an otherwise focused attempt to stay calm. Some might be offended by what we’re saying here. After the number of flights we’ve been on where we’ve seen ourselves and others fray at the seams, we side with them over parents who take anything less than full responsibility for their childrens’ actions. We’re parents as well, and sadly there is such an overwhelming prevailing lack of responsibility people have often felt compelled to thank us for our child’s behavior despite it being our responsibility and not some bonus we threw in for the heck of it.
Your itinerary. If you aren’t going nonstop, and your next transportation or action plans if you are (nothing sucks more than landing and wanting to move things along with no interruptions or confusion, and a bonus would include previous trips to websites which help you know what to expect – things like sitting at Heathrow for 4 hours waiting to get through security instead of enjoying London)
Cabo – The Day Before
So I spent most of the day at one point or another trying to get our seats locked up for the flights. You’d think this would have been done before now – I purchased the tickets about eight months ago, so things ought to be pretty locked up at this point. No. Our friends at Orbitz, who will readily pass the blame to the fact that they are working with the airlines to ensure seats are committed, seemed to have the ability to procure seat reservations on an ad hoc, purely random basis. For example, I had reserved three seats in the 12th row of the American 737 we’re flying on, and Willy and Syd’s spots were left intact, mine for some odd reason moved about three rows forward. Can you imagine being the person who gets stuck next to a wife and her child, all by yourself, while that woman’s husband is stuck in another row after reserving your seat? Doesn’t sound like a position in which I’d want to be if I were looking at this from the angle of a business traveler rather than a husband and father. If this in fact isn’t an Orbitz issue, the airlines need to get it together. If it is Orbitz, they’re just plain stupid for making their customers feel that reserving their seats is any different than running around pretending they’re the next British monarch.
Having been promised – in an online way, albeit – that the seats were once again reserved, only to find they weren’t, I wound up calling Orbitz while we were traveling to dinner. After the usual but still annoying 10 minute wait to get a customer service rep on the phone that most likely uses the exact same web interface customers use to assist, a surprisingly American (and southern sounding) woman took my call. After explaining the situation, she attempted unsuccessfully to lock in any seat changes, the said, “Hold on. I am going to try something else.”
Once she returned to the phone to inform me it didn’t work, I asked her to recall my itinerary to tell me what we had. What came next was shock and horror: not just on the other end of the line but on mine as well. “Did you just cancel your flights, sir?” I responded, “How could I? I am in the car, on the phone with you.”
A healthy pause followed, and several passive-aggresive urges hit me all at once. “I have no idea what happened, but someone has canceled your reservations. I am going to need to forward you to a supervisor.” Knowing there were no more than two or three remaining seats on all our flights to begin, and feeling pretty confident that the customer service agent and flight cancelation specialist were one in the same, I reluctantly held the line.
Quick theory: if you’re in this business and occasionally commit such a strong party foul, wouldn’t it be a good idea to make sure there are “holy crap” supervisors just waiting by the red phone to take the call? Here we are, hours from our flight, and I am flopping over mountains with a mobile phone that has a 50/50 shot at even surviving the call. Wait time to talk to the supervisor with zero flights: 10 minutes.
Claudia (Employee ID MAU – by the way, how do you get a three letter code for an employee ID? Can you imagine Bob Segar singing the song “Feel Like A Bunch of Letters”?) was our supervisor agent, and in the customary practice of companies everywhere, apologized for the situation without taking any responsible on behalf of Orbitz for the relative terror thrown our way. Reminds me of Eliot Spitzer resigning… sorry you’ve been let down, now I am going to resign and return to private life for doing nothing that I plan to discuss outside my apartment.
After Claudia told us she was going to handle the situation with literally no specifics, I asked for her name and ID one last time, thinking I could trust that there was an understanding between us regarding the severity of having no tickets the night before a major vacation. As far as her commitment goes, I am convinced there was, but I’m not so sure there’s an understanding regarding the time expectation for representatives in this situation. When someone has lost seats for a flight that begins in 12 hours, they’re thinking 20 minutes is a rough estimate for their remaining non-communicated sanity.
When 40 minutes went by, I called Orbitz back thinking I’d be able transfer right to agent MAU. No such luck, and no way to do that. Wow. Now I’m really blown away. Supervisors handle escalated issues and represent the embodiment of the solution for customers with challenges, and this huge operation doesn’t even get that. This expectation is not excessive: this is how we did it in every customer service environment I’ve been around, whether based on in-person, phone, email, or IM contact.
I did get another supervisor – one that was connected to me via a highly latent tin can / string communications system that sounded like it terminated somewhere in Malaysia. It always makes me chuckle when comms systems are so bad that the callers find themselves waiting 5 seconds to hear the other participant respond. After some on and off chatting with this supervisor, she determined that Claudia was still working the issue and would call me within an hour. I’m sure she was able to figure that out because the sum total of supervisory manpower at Orbitz amounted to three frustrated women sharing a desk and two rotary phones in a cabbage patch somewhere (not intended to offend, rather to point out the ridiculous nature of phonebound customer service here now – of course our sagging dollar will at least give these goofballs a chance to ring their call centers back to America, particularly to Detroit based on newly available workforce).
We finally returned home and I got the call. Though I could barely hear her, Claudia seemed to essentially say that everything Orbitz had lost and I had spent the last three hours attempting to retrieve had in fact been re-reserved. Good thing: when I tried to check alternatives on Kayak, I found one flight out a day and a half later with a 12 hour layover through the night at LAX – grouch material for sure.
One flight, one landing, two takeoffs
We got out early and right on time. In case you’re unfamiliar with how ‘on time’ works in our family, it roughly calculates to thirty minutes after we say we’re going to leave. I’m generally ready and cocky about it, Syd’s generally ready and easy going about it, and Willy’s generally late and smug.
Thankfully, in this case we were way ahead of the game. Willy likes to get to the airport 12 hours before CONUS itineraries and 24 hours for all others. Just kidding – I guess it only seems that way. Personally I like a good adrenaline pump, so I figure out a time that will get me there 100% of the time under ideal circumstances and 85% of the time otherwise, so if something goes wrong I can still feel my pulse working nicely without the workout I am always too lazy to knock out the day of a flight.
Great thing lately at Dulles has been the ease by which a normal, everyday bloke and his family can make it through security. Since we were flying Dulles’s ‘bastard stepchild’, American Airlines, we had a feeling ticketing would be fairly quick and it was. With both of these behind us within 20 minutes and a 5 minute ride on our favorite 1960s Jetsons artifact, the “mobile lounge” (which most would call the giant, tall bus with a tail wing), we dropped in to one of the many HMS-run dogfooderies: Moe’s. (Honestly, it was kinda uncool for me to say that because the food was surprisingly good.)
Jaime was very nice and gave us what we needed but didn’t crowd us, and the food – a ham and cheddar omelet for me and a breakfast combo for the Willy/Syd biumverate – was hot and fresh when it arrived. I finished quickly and went to grab some cash, then headed to the gate.
Still way ahead of the agent, we sat around and chatted in anticipation of what whacky seating arrangement might be thrown our way. To American’s great credit, they seemed to pick up on the fact that we had a 12 year old in our group and just might want to be sat together. When I arrived at the counter with my seatless tickets, three tickets with seats in the bulkhead awaited and were already sitting on the surface next to the agent. Quick exchange, first ones on the plane (always awesome), and stowing our goods, the FA intercommed to let us know the flight would be full and we shouldn’t get to frisky with neighboring seats or too slow in our commitment to getting our butts belted in seats.
This began to seem odd to us, because no one else was getting on. First inclination was to believe something was going on in the airport, and that perhaps someone had committed a security breach and no one was allowed on to any plane that had not already been dispatched. With a three hour layover we weren’t too concerned, only fascinated. The pilot, who made his way into the breezeway with a few highly kind acknowledgments to the waiting crowd, was now on the mic to entertain the troops and shared the news. Apparently, some “recalcitrant goofball” had breached security as suspected, but shortly we’d start to see the remaining passengers working their way down the aisles.
Finally, everyone was belted, the obligatory notices were shared, and we were first in line for takeoff. Screaming down the runway, all of a very abrupt sudden… “RRRRRRRRRRRRRT.” Brakes screaming and engines shut down, we very suddenly stopped close the end of the runway. The immediate reaction of the passengers was panic, but my thoughts were that whatever might have happened was essentially averted, so while the fearful cries were working their way out of others’ mouths, I could only chuckle a bit. To me it felt like that ride at Disney’s Animal Kingdom that climbs the snowy mountain and then suddenly stops and reverses course. Of course that ride killed one more person than this flight, so no worries (of course we’re in mid-flight as I write this).
After a rapid episode of telephone from routed from passenger to passenger, the pilot took the intercom once again. “Ladies and gentlemen, it seems we had a large contingent of birds on the runway and rather than have one or more of them knock out an engine requiring us to return to Dulles we’ve decided to give this another shot. They were the first ones here, but we’re bigger so we plan to turn back momentarily for takeoff. Once the airport trucks took a swipe at the runway to ward off the northbound aviary air force, a plane departed just before us to assure the runway composition would consist solely of intended elements.
Heading to Cabo on Alaska Airlines
When we landed – uneventfully – at LAX I turned to phone on the find that the one hour extra it took to get in would be easily offset by the 45 minute delay going out which appeared in my inbox via Orbitz alerts. At least there’s one thing I really like about having booked on Orbitz!
I wanted to get my barf bag autographed by the pilot as we deplaned – after all, it was empty despite our rapid deceleration from 250 to 0 MPH and he did a heck of a job scaring the crap out of the birds while keeping us from one or more fether-filled, dead engines. It wasn’t going to happen, however, because he and the co-pilot were busy filing reports.
We knew we had plenty of time after getting off, and we also learned we’d be moving from terminal 4 to terminal 3 to reach Alaska’s hub. The lack of signage detailing how to accomplish this task was what surprised us. Anyone changing terminals at LAX needs to know it isn’t necessarily going to be trivial. For us it meant finding a shuttle to the American Eagle departure building and walking to another bus from there that would reach terminal 3. If someone had an hour to transfer and found themselves a little behind schedule chances are good that a terminal transfer would do them in.
Once we made it to terminal 3 we did pick up on some LAX themes:
1. The terminals we were in desperately need an opportunity to make it out of the 1960s
2. Inter-terminal transportation that many folks take for granted at their home airport is in dogged supply
3. Anything you might get at a typical airport in the way of food and drink will likely cost you up to twice as much, and the choices probably won’t be very enticing either
How does LAX get by with what seems to be a second tier facility, despite the heavy movement of international traffic through the airport? Despite having the means to (reasonably) easily get from terminal to terminal at Dulles via mobile lounges which would make early Austin Powers jealous, DC travelers have been all over the WMATA for years about adding an underground train system – which, incidentally will be completed soon. And international transfers are very simple, with final destination passengers even being split from the continuing ones, assuring they won’t get shuffled out to the curb as we did at LAX before starting all over again.
Once we grabbed an icky $35 meal from California Pizza Kitchen’s “ASAP” (wait – does that stand for “as sucky as possible”?!?) we headed back to the bus, er plane, terminal to settle in until an agent appeared at our gate. I gave the ground personnel my now familiar story regarding all three of us being scattered to the four winds of the airplane seating chart, and despite a packed house received another round of changes which allowed Willy, Syd, and I to sit together.
Takeoff was a good hour behind schedule due to a late plane and a ground delay on the Cabos side, but the much-friendlier-than-American’s-norm staff made a fairly no frills, modern cabin fairly comfortable (honestly, how comfortable can you get in a sealed metal tube?).
These international flights are always kinda funny, in that you see waves of activity through the cabin which are always unique. It’s amusing to me watching hundreds of people navigating bags underseat and overhead, hunting for the passport and pen they knew doggone well they were going to need for the last six months or more. Add to that rolling beverage carts and the occasional duty free and snack box sale, then through in the reasonably frequent 2+ culture mesh already in the mix and you have one of the better prescriptions for ad hoc team dork dancing.
London, England
The nice thing about a flight that leaves at 11pm – you have all day to finish up last-minute packing. ‘All day’ is a lot shorter than it would at first seem. We left our car at SQ’s office in Reston and took a cab to Dulles from there, after being a bit late leaving (due to some last-minute blogging by me). We are flying Virgin Atlantic – bonus!! I had talked SQ into taking our rolling carry-on for all the electronic equipment he was carting over. And he has a RIDICULOUS amount of it! You’d think we were headed to a gadget convention. When we were checking in, the Virgin agent told us it was too big, and way too heavy. SQ was irritated at me now, I guess rightly so. So he pulled out his Digital SLR and the laptop, and Virgin was nice enough to give him a tote bag. He checked everything else….without a security lock. The whole experience with Virgin Atlantic so far has been great. We got to Dulles 3 hours early, so of course the security line only took us 10 minutes. I ended up buying SQ a TSA lock so he wouldn’t drag me all over London looking for one, instead of enjoying the sites. Then we had to just sit, waiting, waiting, waiting to board the plane.
The plane was completely full, and the seats in coach pretty tight. The lady sitting next to me had no sense of personal space and elbowed me several times, shifting all over the place. The plus is that each seat had it’s own TV on the back of the seat in front of you. There are pillows and blankets in each seat, and they give you headphones and a ‘personal care’ kit complete with toothbrush/toothpaste combo. I attempted to sleep, it’s hard to do on a plane when the seat doesn’t go back very far and your head bobs around. The flight was about 7 hours, and we were a bit late getting to the gate at Heathrow. The walk to Immigration and Customs was quite long, then we had to stand in line there for about an hour. The agents asked a lot of questions, but are at least nice about it. All of our luggage made it, which was an unexpected bonus these days. It was fairly easy to navigate out to the taxi stand, and no lines to get one. Probably because we are the only idiots not taking the Tube. The taxis are totally adorable though, clean and quite large. The fare to our hotel was outrageous, around $100. We are staying at the Marriott County Hall, which is right on the Thames River and in front of the London Eye. This is a place we would no way be able to afford, we used up all our Marriott points just to get this one night here. The location is great, but our particular room has a really crappy view of the trash courtyard. The hotel doesn’t seem busy so not sure why we got stuck in this room. But it’s quite large, and clean, and has tons of room for all of us. The staff are very nice, typical for a Marriott…except not that timely on getting our luggage to us. They were supposed to bring it up right away, and half hour later we still didn’t have it. I called down to request it again, and another 45 minutes went by. I was really irritated as it was now almost 4:30pm and we didn’t want to waste anymore time waiting for our bags. Our time here is really limited and we had purchased tickets for the Big Bus Tour in advance. Now I was getting nervous we wouldn’t have enough time to do this, it’s about a two hour round-trip tour, and we were supposed to meet Kirstin and James for dinner at 8pm by the Eye. I finally had to go down and show up in person to get them to bring up the bags.
We left for the bus tour, there was supposed to be a stop just in front of the hotel, but they were having a problem finding our reservation, so we were delayed another 20 minutes or so. Not much was going our way in terms of timing so far. Next time in London I need to remember to allow most of a day for travel transfers. Syd really wanted to go to Harrod’s, and the bus tour makes a stop right in front, but at this point there was no time. We sat on top (no cover) and had a great view of all the sights. The live commentator was great, full of good stories.
We didn’t make it back to the hotel until 7:15pm, which didn’t leave us much time to get ready for dinner, and we were pretty wind-blown by then. We met up with Kirstin and James (our first time meeting him!), and headed over to an adorable place called Giraffe for dinner, which was quite popular based on the crowds there. The weather was gorgeous so we decided to eat outside on the patio. And no rain so far! The menu is really diverse, and I decided to get the Grilled “Tandoori Murghi” burger, which was grilled chicken marinated in yogurt sauce, topped with mango chutney, onion, lettuce and tomato. SQ ordered the Chicken Schnitzel BLT, and Syd had a beef teriyaki stir fry. The food tasted as good as it smelled, really yummy. Kirstin and I shared a bottle of Pinot Noir, while James and SQ slugged Red Stripe most of the evening. Around 12:20am we realized we were the only customers left. I think this was the first time I’ve ‘closed a restaurant down’ for the night. We could have sat and talked with them all night, it’s too bad we aren’t spending more time in London.
Overall first impressions of London: The town is quite lovely, incredibly old, and it feels comfortable and accessible. Kind of reminds me of Washington, DC in a lot of ways, but much larger. The buildings are all not very tall so it feels very open. The neighborhoods are beautiful and it was great fun to people-watch from the top of the bus as it moved through different parts of the city.
We are going to attempt to wake up early enough tomorrow morning to take Syd to Harrod’s before catching the train to Edinburgh. We’ll see how that works out…
Scotland for Syd
So we are leaving on Wednesday night for an extended UK trip with Syd and SQ’s parents. This trip is really the realization of Syd’s dream, and the nagging from her since she was about 5 or 6 to take her to Scotland. I’m not quite sure how she became obsessed with Scotland in the first place, but it’s firmly there now at the age of 11. It must be genetic. I did the same thing at about the same age (perhaps even as early as 4), however the object of my affection was France. At the age of 36, my obsession is still there.
We are flying into London first for an overnight to see my dear friend Kirsten and her boyfriend, James. Kirsten and I met on a flight from Boston back to Dulles about 3 years ago. She, of course, was traveling on back to London. I had decided on a whim to upgrade my seat to Business Class at the last minute while checking in. There were several seats available, the one I happened to choose put me in the row with Kirsten. Our plane was very late taking off from Boston, we started talking and didn’t stop all the way back to Dulles. We traded e-mail addresses and have been friends ever since. She has come out of her way to meet up with us twice here in VA over the past couple of years, it’s our turn to reciprocate.
After London, we’re off on a train ride up to Edinburgh. Having never been to London, Scotland, OR on a train this should be an interesting adventure….
Now, if I can just get Syd to remember that the Blarney Stone is NOT in Scotland, but in fact over in Ireland. It’s totally adorable the ideas she has about time, costs, and foreign countries at this age. She thinks we can just ‘zip over’ to Ireland for a quick look ’since it’s so close.’ She also still firmly believes that the Queen will be there to greet her personally as she gets off the plane in London (yes, she thinks she’s royalty as well), and that Scotland is completely overrun with Westies and Scotties. Perhaps I should just let her form her own opinion about the Loch Ness Monster??
Headed to Scotland Next Week
We’re headed off to Scotland next week and will be attempting to report on our daily progress as live as we can. This will be our first experiment with just-in-time blogging, so we’re eager to figure out exactly how you get net connectivity from the highlands (of course that’s what we were thinking last month when we looked up and saw several WiFi Access Points hanging from the ceiling at our timeshare in Sint Maarten).
The world’s definitely getting closer every day and we’re looking forward to contributing a tiny piece of that sea change right here. Stop by and see where we go as we get there!
St. Martin – Day 9 – Flying Home
Last day in St. Martin – well, partial at least. It’s Mother’s Day today, and I feel bad that we’re spending with neither mine nor SQ’s. We had to be out of the room by 10am but our flight wasn’t due to leave until around 4pm. After asking for a late checkout we packed up and headed toward Maho and Simpson Bay for some lunch. Mainly because that’s the direction of the airport. We were going to give Ric’s Place a try but changed our minds after checking out the inside. It’s basically a cliche sports bar supplanted in the Caribbean. Not what we came for. So we drove back to Sunset Beach Bar (next to Bliss), in Maho Bay. While this seemed to be another cliche altogether, it’s a pretty unique experience. It sits at the end of the runway for the Princess Julianna Airport and you can see all of the planes land and take off. There’s nothing quite like eating a burger and drinking a Rum Runner while being deafened and shaken by the back end of a jet ready to take off. The food is so-so and the drinks need to be blended up a bit more, but hey – topless girls drink for free (or so the sign says)! I assume that is an evening thing since we didn’t see any while we were there. Legend has it that in high season the girls flash the pilots as they are coming in to land on the runway. This all just kind of sums up the Dutch side for me….
We were still way early at this point, but after melting in the Caribbean sun we decided to head for the air-conditioned airport. The rental car return experience with Lesley Bruce of Kenny’s Car Rentals once again couldn’t have been easier. We were early so we had to call him to meet us, and he was at the airport within ten minutes. We checked in (my bag was overweight, but they didn’t charge me!) and made it through security very quickly. The airport has a decent selection of shops so we snagged some adorable bottles of Ma Dhoudhou (flavor-infused rum) for ourselves, my parents and our best friends back home. I also somehow ended up with candy and a T-shirt for Syd, and a very overpriced zip-front sweat shirt hoodie for myself – with ‘St. Barth’s’ stitched across the front. Not that I’ve been to St. Barth’s…yet. SQ gave me a hard time, but as soon as I whipped it out to put on (cold in the airport), he was now jealous of my ‘cute sweatshirt’ and had to have something for himself.
One last BBC at the airport tiki bar and we boarded the plane. After all the great food I’ve had all week I’m now left with a $5 snack box on the US Airways flight back to Charlotte. If we didn’t miss Syd so much we might not have come home at all. SQ even jokingly suggested trying to jump on the wrong plane, an Air France non-stop headed back to Paris. Maybe next time…
St. Martin – Day 8 – Wedding
We don’t have much time out today since the wedding is at 4:30pm. I decided I really wanted a ‘C’est La Vie’ T-shirt so I talked SQ into ‘zipping back to Philipsburg.’ No small feat normally. We stopped at Zee Best in Simpson Bay for breakfast – wow, incredibly yummy!! SQ had some egg dish and I had the banana almond french toast, made with their homemade croissants. The orange juice is literally freshly squeezed right when you order, great coffee too. They also bring you a basket of fresh baked pastries, you just pay for what you eat. As if I didn’t already have enough food. It was nice to sit outside, but the views weren’t all that spectacular. Simpson Bay is a bit tacky and dumpy, disappointing.We had no problem getting into Philipsburg, again taking our ‘back road’ into town. We browsed through a couple of jewelry shops, I got my T-shirt, and SQ finally found a nice white linen button-down shirt. He had been eyeing the one on a very dapper French guy earlier in the week, so he’d been hoping to find one. We left town going out towards Oyster Pond and Dawn Beach, and stopped to check out the new Westin Resort. It was not something that appealed to us, very American looking with zero charm. I later found out that the locals call it ‘The Compound’, I supposed because it does give you that impression looking down on it from the top of the hill. Not a spectacular first view of the place. The location is also in a very inaccessible spot, but the marina and bay at Dawn Beach are very pretty with all the boats bobbing around. We stopped to take some photos, then drove over to Grand Case again for lunch. We had decided on Sunset Cafe, which is on the grounds of Grand Case Beach Club. The resort itself is very pretty, lots of charm, and sits at the north end of Grand Case. The restaurant was cute and had great views out to the ocean, but the food was rather unremarkable. We finally had a less-than-outstanding meal on the French side. I ordered the flank steak sandwich with onions on a baguette, and a side salad. It was not bad, but not great either. SQ got the club sandwich with fries, then complained that these were the worst fries on the French side. He’d been getting hand-cut fries at every other place. It made him just downright mad. He then whined about it the rest of the day.The restaurant was slow – running on island time – so we had to beat a path back to the condo to get ready for the wedding. I had made an appointment at the Marie Antoinette salon (on Sapphire property) for a hair styling, but they did nothing like I asked…I even had a picture! But the pedicure was lovely, and I think the cheapest one I’ve ever paid for. The wedding was on the beach – literally, about two feet from the waves – out in front of the bride’s villa, Villa Little Jazzbird. I’m only giving the names in case anyone ever reads this and decides to research these villas, they are absolutely spectacular. The reception was at Villa Mes Amis, the largest on the island. I could not even put into words how amazing this place was. It literally took your breath away. It sits way up on the cliff overlooking Baie Rouge and was made up of three separate structures. I really could have stayed all night on the upper balcony just staring down at the water, and the lights in the distance. The villa had eight bedrooms and a gorgeous heated infinity pool. You just knew someone was going to end up that before the night was over. And they did – about half the wedding guests, including the bride’s father, jumped in while still fully clothed. The reception was also catered, and I had lobster tail again but it paled in comparison to the lobster at Karibuni (Ilet Pinel). We left after they set off a stunning fireworks show, around 11pm. Flying home tomorrow 
St. Martin – Day 7 – Orient Beach
We stopped for breakfast this morning at a very charming place called Sarafina in Marigot. They have an onsite bakery and the pastries were outstanding. The staff weren’t quite as smiley as in other places, but they all wear these cute little outfits and straw hats that make them look like they should be lining up in a Madeline book. I felt like this was the best deal we’ve gotten so far on food, other than the lolos. We purchased two croissants (huge!), a pear tart of some kind, a Quiche Lorraine, two coffees and a large bottled water for $14. We made it into Marigot a bit earlier this morning so no problems with finding a parking spot. By the time we left town it was packed, cars were double-parking and traffic was very stop-and-go.
We made our way over to Orient Beach – our favorite spot when we were here 14 years ago. The island dogs continued to be amusing, saw a German Shephard by the road this time wearing a very large sleeveless T-shirt. Orient Beach was very disappointing in several ways. The beach is covered with chairs and umbrellas, and the price to rent them is a ridiculous $25/day for the set. It’s a much more crowded beach and the shoreline seems to have changed dramatically since the hurricane several years ago. You can pay to participate in any kind of water activity you choose and there are Americans everywhere. The surf is much more gentle than Baie Rouge however, and the breezes are better. The conversations going on around us are hilarious, but the beach vendors are even more annoying here. I could see Pinel off in the distance – I want to go back over there! The sand on Orient is still great, very powdery white and soft.
After lounging on a chair for the afternoon, and watching a scary cloud come very close to shore, we went back to the condo and finished off my pizza from the night before, along with the bottle of Pinot Noir we had purchased at La Gout du Vin earlier this week. The evening’s activity was the rehearsal dinner for the bride and groom, at the bride’s parents’ villa (Marine Terrace) – down a street in a gated community in Terre Basse. This was a catered event, most appetizer-y food, so I won’t go into anything here.
St. Martin – Day 6 – Marigot
Slept in a bit today, then headed into Marigot to do some shopping. We were both a bit burned from yesterday (I was even under an umbrella all day!) and needed to give the beach a rest. After two days of being lazy in a chair I needed to do something. We couldn’t believe all the huge tour buses that had clearly brought cruise ship passengers to Marigot for the day. We had a difficult time finding a parking spot, and when we did the car was angled funny so SQ was nervous all day that the rear view mirror would get knocked off. The West Indies Mall was our first stop. This is a marble behemoth (at least for the Caribbean), but the shops selection wasn’t that incredible. We walked by the water and almost stopped at La Vie En Rose for food, but the staff was fairly rude so we opted out. With all the obnoxious Americans taking over I’m not sure I can blame them. We walked to Marina Royal, which was much quieter, and checked out Tropicana. The menu looked great but they didn’t open until 12noon. I was starving, that granola bar earlier in the morning just didn’t do much for me. So we walked over to Bistro de la Gare to kill some time by drinking a Leffe Blond.
The staff working at Tropicana are so nice and welcoming. Cristophe was our server and he made some fantastic recommendations. SQ had the veal special, I had the lobster bisque soup, and we split a half bottle of Rose wine. Once again, the food was amazing. We decided to splurge on a dessert, so we got the special for the day – a chocolate mousse cake (more mousse, light crunchy bottom, very light) with mango coulis and a scoop of coffee ice cream. After ALL that Cristophe brought us two shot glasses and a whole bottle of banana-infused rum. On the house, all you care to drink. I had two shots and then attempted to shop. My legs felt like lead, and it was so hot outside. We decided to go back to the condo for a nap, and we almost overslept through the cocktail party at Bliss for the bride and groom – they were the whole reason we were in St. Martin!
Bliss is an uber-chic nightclub right outside Maho, and the bride’s parents had rented it out exclusively for the wedding party and guests for a couple of hours. As we walked up and saw the velvet ropes and bouncers I knew this was not the place for me – a bit too Miami/South Beach. But they had tons of hors d’oeuvres and an open bar. The whole club is completely open-air, beautiful heated swimming pool, and there are large plantation beds and couches kind of scattered everywhere. Probably the best thing about Bliss is the sunset view and watching the airplanes come in to land at the airport close by.
There were some grumblings for dinner around 7:30 or 8pm and a group of us started to walk over to Sunset Beach Bar. When one of the wives found out there was no reggae tonight, but rather a ‘muscle man show,’ I talked them into going back over to Grand Case for food. We all met up at Blue Martini, which is on the non-beach side of the main road, but has beautiful gardens. We grabbed two large tables, and seemed to be the only patrons. Were we early, or late?? Hard to tell at this point, but I hoped the food would be good since I snookered everyone into coming here. Someone in the group ordered the ‘Land and Sea’ salad for the table to share. It was absolutely huge and had quite a bit of shrimp, scallops and duck breast in it – delicious! I ordered a ‘Funghi’ (mushroom) pizza, which turned out to be enough food for four people it was so large. But it was so yummy! SQ ordered the Pork Mignon, and he wasn’t crazy about his dinner, but everyone else seemed to love theirs. Good, I’m off the hook… The atmosphere is nice, it’s quiet but not sure what it’s like in high season. The hookah pipes on several of the tables were pretty funny. And more dogs running around, no shock, they seem to be everywhere. I also got another couple of rounds of Leffe Blond – yum!
St. Martin – Day 5 – Marigot and Baie Rouge
We drove into Marigot this morning in search of breakfast. I was tired of eating granola breakfast bars, but food here is very expensive and you could easily blow $50 by lunchtime. We wanted to eat at Zee Best, which has a branch on Simpson Bay and one I saw passing by in Marigot. They weren’t open so we went to a place called The Croissanterie. SQ and I both ordered crepes, mine was filled with bananas and oranges and topped with chocolate sauce. They were yummy, and the coffee was great too.
After breakfast, we drove back to Baie Rouge beach, also on the French side, to camp for the afternoon. The price to get the two-lounge-chair/umbrella combo here was the same as on Pinel – $15 for the day. The surf on this beach was incredibly strong, not a great beach for kids. At times the waves were so strong they came all the way up under our chairs, and we were nowhere close to the edge of the water. I did get in the water, but the undertow is so powerful I felt like I might be dashed on the sand. I just ended up with a bathing suit full of sand. SQ had fun bodysurfing with a couple of older gentlemen from England, who I called crazy after watching them all day. I’ve heard the snorkeling is good here, but I was too afraid of floating out to sea to do it. This beach is a definite change from the calm waters and packed sand of Pinel. The people here today also seem to be primarily American. There are two beach bars – Gus’s and Chez Raymond. The beer is cheap, $2 for a Red Stripe or similar, and the 80’s tunes are cranking here too, though of a more subdued variety than last night at Calmos. A beach peddler kept coming by, trying to sell her things similar to the beaches in Mexico. It irritated me…I instantly wanted to go back to Pinel. It did rain for about 5 or 10 minutes, but it’s so hot it seemed to dissipate as soon as it touched your skin.
We decided to take a walk up the beach, and it became very ‘clothing-optional’ the further along we went. The sand was very difficult to walk in, so we headed back for food. The late lunch/snack we had at Chez Raymond was outstanding. Another delicious plate of grilled ribs with some sort of yummy spice on them. The two blokes from England seemed to be continuing their quest to not let the waves get them, and now were doing cannonballs into the surf. We bailed out around 3pm, still attempting to get the sand out of our swimsuits. It was just like the consistency of birdseed and sticks to you like glue even when it’s dry.
Back to Sapphire for showers, then over to Grand Case again for dinner. We had a reservation at the Fish Pot, one of the best restaurants on the island according to reviews. They weren’t busy when we arrived, and there were only five tables of diners the whole time we were there. But this isn’t exactly high seasone either. The restaurant is gorgeous, and sits up off the beach so you have great views of the ocean, and of the island Anguilla off in the distance. Our very friendly waitress was Isabelle, originally from Bordeaux. SQ and I split an Onion Soup Gratinee, which was outstanding. Then I had the red snapper with a vanilla sauce for dinner, while SQ had chicken stuffed with shrimp. This was the best meal we’ve had on the island so far, and probably one of the best we’ve ever had anywhere. SQ was ’tisked’ for not ordering a glass of wine, but amused himself by sprinkling bread crumbs into the bowl on our table with a goldfish in it. So typical!! Isabelle also gave us a great recommendation for a boat to Anguilla, should we desire to go. I did, but I wasn’t sure if we would have time now, with all of the wedding festivities coming up.
We walked through the shops up and down the main road of Grand Case – they stay open until around 10pm. I wanted to go for a drink at Blue Martini (they have Leffe Blond on tap!). SQ preferred to go back to the condo. So we went back and called it a night.
St. Martin – Day 4 – Islet Pinel
We planned to go to Islet Pinel, a tiny island visible from Orient Beach, on the French side. It was a bit cloudy in the morning, we were hoping it wouldn’t rain. We left the condo around 10am, needed to get to an ATM for cash, but were told there are none on the French side. A few raindrops started to come down as we were driving through Marigot so we almost stopped, making a shopping day instead. But we kept driving, and were rewarded with bluer skies on the other side of the mountain. We parked in Cul-de-Sac (a town name, that’s not just generic :->) then boarded the small ferry to Pinel. It’s $6 per person round trip, and was so incredibly loaded with people we felt like Cuban refugees trying to make it to America. I was hoping the boat wouldn’t sink before making it just to Pinel. The boat ‘captain’ was pretty salty but seemed to loosen up as we docked at Pinel. Yeah! We made it! There were padded beach lounge chairs and umbrellas all over the beach – $15 to rent a pair of chairs and umbrella for the day. So we parked our things, paid the overly chatty money-collector (not sure what his actual job title was, and he seemed to be more interested in sleeping than working). As more people showed up on the island we seemed to become surrounded by more obnoxious Americans by the minute. All the quiet Europeans (mainly French) were off to the other side. Note to self…
We did meet a very nice couple from Grand Rapids, MI who’ve been coming to St. Martin for the past eight years.
The drinks on Pinel are expensive, but still more reasonable than New York City, so I won’t complain. There are two restaurants/bars on the island, but a third was under construction while we were there. We chose to eat at Karibuni (I had read about it in Conde Nast Traveler magazine), the oldest beach bar on St. Martin. I desperately wanted lobster, but at the price they were charging – 6 Euros per 100 grams – it needed to be a small one. The dollar is so weak against the Euro right now, it makes everything so much more expensive. Our sweet waiter went digging through the crates of live lobsters floating just off the dock and ended up getting pinched by one. I felt bad, but he finally found one that was only going to cost us $45. SQ and I decided to split it for lunch. The waiter brought us both a salad and all of the side dishes, so it was actually pretty filling. And it was absolutely the best lobster I’ve ever had in my life. They split it and grill it, then serve the lobster with sides of butter. After we were finished eating, we were served shot glasses of banana-infused rum.
It got a bit cloudy again…but the breezes were so nice, and it was so relaxing to just hang out on a chair all day (something I find hard to do normally). We ended up catching the second-to-last boat back to Cul-de-Sac. We were told if you miss the last boat at 4:30pm they don’t come back for you, and you spend the night with the islands only residents – wild goats. We drove back to Sapphire for showers, then over to Grand Case for dinner. We chose a place called Calmos Cafe for dinner, and it didn’t look like much from the front, but it does sit right on the beach in Grand Case. The diners seemed to be primarily French, and they were very busy. But they did fix us up with a couple of tiny tables and plastic Adirondack-style chairs literally right on the beach, which is where most of the tables are. We were very close to the surf, and ended up with a very smile-y waiter named Nikol (sp?), originally from Biarritz. ‘Surfing is my region!’ he told us in a very excited voice.
SQ and I both ordered cheeseburgers and Rum Punch, a drink that’s seemingly a specialty of St. Martin. These were some of the best burgers we’ve ever had. Who knew the French could cook a hamburger so nicely? The atmosphere was great, very dark and primarily 80’s tunes being played. The funniest thing was the Black Lab dog who kept chasing a crabs all over the sand. He apparently didn’t want to eat them, but just thought they were toys. There were also lots of adorable children of the French families camped at the restaurant for the night (no wonder it’s hard to get a table!). They ran around playing in the sand and the gentle waves, good entertainment so the adults can talk the night away. To cap off dinner we each had a BBC (Baileys Banana Colada), another St. Martin specialty drink. It was so good, but more like a dessert. Nikol gave me the traditional French cheek kisses and told us we needed to come back. We’ll look for him when we go back next year.
St Martin – Day 3 – Philipsburg
We got a late start out today, on purpose – there’s only so much shopping you can do in the Caribbean (yes, I know this is contrary to what any woman reading this is thinking). We had a dinner reservation in town, didn’t want to drive all the way back to the resort then back to town again. The drive into Philipsburg can be brutal and filled with a frustrating amount of traffic, but we got some pre-trip advice from mom and dad on ‘the road less traveled’ into Philipsburg. We were a bit disappointed once we did make it in. The capital of the Dutch side has become overrun with jewelry stores – no doubt due to the ever-increasing number of cruise ships that come into port now. I remember there being a number of jewelry stores 14 years ago, but they seem to have multiplied like rabbits since. Front Street, the main road going through town, is a riotous mix of locals and cruise ship tourists.
We went straight for our chosen lunch spot, Saveurs de France, which is a little French deli that seemed to have popped straight out of Paris. This gave me the opportunity to try out my French again. And so I proceeded to order a Ham and Gouda on baguette in very slow and stunted French. but the owners were gracious and put up with it. SQ’s accent was worse, so then I felt better. I also discovered my now second favorite beer ever – Leffe Blonde, from Belgium (I just can’t put anything above Guinness). We were the only non-French customers, and in true European fashion had to ask for the check. I also had forgotten how much better cheese tastes outside the U.S.
On to the adorable Belgian Chocolate Shop, which was just across Old Street (really more like a pedestrian alley). We purchased a mixed box of 9 pieces for $12 – and then gobbled them all up in under two minutes. The chocolates were incredible, and Beatrix (the owner) got very upset when SQ suggested she was potentially comparable to the chocolate shops in Marigot. She told us they all imported their chocolates, then charged much more for them. Hers are all made fresh on-site. Even if they were double the money, they would still be worth it.
After a two hour playtime with the jewelry in Touch of Gold (see Haru, she’s excellent!) we made our way to the Guavaberry Factory for a Guavaberry Colada. These were SO delicious, but very large, so one would have been enough for both of us. Then SQ was on the hunt for a linen shirt like he saw on the very dapper French guy eating next to us in the deli at lunch. We finally found one on Back Street, which has several shops as well, but seems to cater more to the locals than the tourists. Over at the Faconnable shop back on Front Street (Rose Street Arcade), we received a lesson in island growth, tourists and politics from the ladies working in the store.
It was almost time for our dinner reservation at Passanghran House. We arrived a bit early, I had had enough shopping and the shops were starting to close up anyway. There were no other diners, they weren’t ready for us and not all that accomodating either. However, the building is really, really beautiful and the back opens up right onto the beach. We finally got our table, and there only ended up ever being two other tables of people the whole time we were there – a lone diner and one other couple. The server didn’t seem like she wanted to be there and the food was unremarkable. We split a French Onion Soup, then a grilled Wahoo with garlic butter sauce. The fish was fresh, but overcooked, and the sauce was very bland and flavorless.
We attempted to make our way to Orient Beach in the dark, and shockingly found it. Our goal was to find one of SQ’s bosses, the groom! Amazingly, we found him too in the sea of restaurants new to Orient since we’d been there before. We spent some time at La Chapelle, which is kind of a sports bar place. We didn’t eat here but the food looked good, and we wished we’d not already had dinner. At this point our French lunches are far out-pacing our Dutch-side dinners.
St Martin – Day 2
Slept in a bit today, then we took off for the Old House/Rum Museum, which is on the French side in the Mont Vernon area. We drove all the way over and they weren’t open – a potential downside to visiting in low season. Two dogs on the property chased our car around while we attempted to get some outside shots of the house. We decided to drive over to the Butterfly Museum…maybe the Rum Museum just needed some time to open? We chatted with a couple from Tampa in the gift shop while a tiny lizard started to attack SQ’s foot. I think all of FL must be in St Martin right now! We drove over to the Orient Beach entrance…I wanted to see if my favorite beach from before was still just as beautiful. We had heard the hurricane from several years ago had changed some things on the island, including Orient.
Back to the Rum Museum, still not open. We decided to check out Plantation Mont Vernon instead. Their marketing seemed a little cheesy and overly touristy, so I didn’t have high hopes. It was expensive to get in, but surprisingly cool. For $14 you get a talking handset which tells you about the plants, and the history of coffe, sugar and rum production in the West Indies. The main house dates back to the 18th century, but isn’t open on the inside to the public yet. The whole complex sits up on the side of a mountain, and the views of Orient Bay were just incredible.
Have I mentioned how hot it is?? Next stop for us was Grand Case, a cute little village that consists mostly of restaurants. They have a reputation for being the culinary center of the island – yippie!! Today we were searching for a lolo called Talk of the Town. Lolos are very casual BBQ places, they are cheap and the food is outstanding. A lovely French family from Brittany sat at the table behind us and their little boy of about 3 or 4 seemed just fascinated with SQ, stared at him through the entire meal. They were quite excited to get the results of the French Presidential election today at 2pm. We ate at a lolo on Orient Beach while here before, and the ribs were just as good as I remembered them to be. Another local had set up old-fashioned ice cream churns and was selling Banana, Coconut or Chocolate. The lolos were offering one dollar to one Euro exchange for using cash. I had heard this deal could be found fairly frequently on the French side in general…we’ll see with the dollar so weak right now.
Our next agenda item was to hit Loterie Farm, which sits at the base of Pic Paradis, just a bit north of Marigot. There is a highly rated restaurant here, Hidden Forest Cafe, but it’s pricey and we had already eaten. This may be one to hit when we come back next year. The zip line was a popular activity, but seemed a bit tame for us compared to the canopy tour we did in Costa Rica last year, so we couldn’t justify the 40 dollar/person price. We did decide to pay the 5 dollars each to hike up the side of the mountain. This is not an easy hike!! It took us about an hour total and was very strenuous. Did I mention how hot it is?? I wasn’t feeling so bad about the ribs, fries and ice cream I consumed for lunch after this. For all your hard work you are rewarded at the top of climb with some of the most amazing views of Marigot, around to Orient Bay and out across the ocean. I was disappointed not to see any monkeys, but got my fill of lizards! By the time we reached the bottom even I could smell myself…I desperately needed a shower.
After a rest back at the resort, and a cool shower, we drove to SkipJack’s for dinner. They are located on Simpson Bay, Dutch Side of the island, and I had read they have fresh seafood. As my goal was to eat as much seafood as I could possibly get while here, this sounded good to me. As a sidebar, while driving over we were struck by how much the Dutch side of the island has changed in the past 14 years, and not for the better in our opinion. The number of casinos is just so disappointing. I guess passing the giant building with ‘Bada Bing’ on the side sent me a little over the edge. In contrast, the French side seems to have just gotten more charming with time. Back to SkipJack’s…happy hour was on, but being Sunday the place was really dead. The Rum Punch (a specialty on the island) seemed a bit tame at first, then they just about knocked me out of my chair. Daniel, the bartender, was great but he is trying to get back to FL to be near the rest of his family. The food is definitely fresh, but not overly adventurous. If you order either Maine or Caribbean lobster you get to pick it out from the live tank. I went with crab-stuffed shrimp, and it was OK but not memorable. We did sit by the water with great views of the mega-yachts anchored in the bay.
We are off to Philipsburg tomorrow…the capital of the Dutch side!
Departing for St Martin Today
I woke up late this morning because I set my alarm clock incorrectly…for those who know me, this is NOT normal. I was left with one hour to get ready and finish packing – STRESS!! But it’s like Christmas, it’s been 14 years since hubby (SQ) and I have been to St Martin. This was our honeymoon destination courtesy of my very generous parents, and now we’ve come back for our friends’ wedding.
I really don’t like Dulles Airport, but it wasn’t crowded for a change (we had a very early flight). Five people in the security line and some loser decided he needed to jump in front of me to get through the metal detector. The TSA agent said I should have kicked him where it counts. I would have been irritated, but I was headed to St Martin…karma was probably sending him to Boise. Our flight down was on United, my domestic airline of choice for the moment. Coach seating was atually not too bad and we actually scored a couple of blankets. Very interesting girl sitting next to us, all alone and slept the entire four hour flight. The group in front of us was very chatty, drank A LOT, and spent most of the flight trying to get everyone on the plane to meet up at Cheri’s that evening (on the Dutch side of the island). Between that distraction and the screaming child two rows back it was difficult to write. Who brings kids to St Martin??
We landed 40 minutes early (bonus!) and met up with our car rental agent, Lesley Bruce (Kenny’s Car Rental) – “Smartest Man on the Planet”. This is the most efficient person I’ve ever met in my life! If you ever get the chance to travel to St Martin, call him for car rental. The car was in better shape than most on the island, the price was highly competitive, and he had us out of there in 5 minutes.
We are staying at the Sapphire Beach Club, which is where we own a timeshare week. It’s sits on Cupecoy Beach, right on the border between the Dutch and French sides of the island. The drive over from the airport reminded why I wasn’t as crazy about the Dutch side when we were here before. And now it’s worse. Maho reminds of a mini-Las Vegas in the tropics, which just isn’t my speed. Maybe I just need to see it at night??
We were early to Sapphire and our room wasn’t ready, so we dropped our bags and headed to Marigot, capital of the French side. We chose La Belle Epoque for lunch based on a guidebook review I had read. It sits right on Marina Royale in Marigot, great atmosphere but lots of very loud French music seemingly from about 1985 blasting from unknown speakers somewhere on the marina. Between songs I was picking up some discussion on the upcoming presidential election in France, even with my limited high school French. I ordered the Steak Au Poivre with shallots sauce, rare, and a proper glass of Rose. SQ decided that sounded too good to pass up and ordered the same thing. The food was superb, guidebook didn’t steer me wrong. I wanted to inhale the shallots in spite of myself. And French butter is, even on the worst day, so much better than any butter we can get in the U.S. And we had visual entertainment as well – some crazy French guy dancing behind us, in front of the water.
After lunch, we walked down the street to La Gout du Vin. This is the most charming little French wine shop, very friendly and knowledgeable owner. She helped us pick out a great bottle of Pinot Noir (my fave!), then we discussed her trip to California last year and her opinion of CA wine…
Back to the room for a brief nap. Well, hubby slept a bit longer than I did. We went down to check out the ’superette’ onsite at Sapphire. This is just code for ‘tiny grocery store with dim lighting and bad selection.’ I don’t really know what I thought I needed, I brought enough sunblock for at least four people. Eventually we figured out how to get to the Cliffhanger Bar, which literally hangs on the side of the cliff at Cupecoy. I thought we could walk there from Sapphire, but that didn’t seem to be the case. I asked Janelle at our front desk about it, she said she wouldn’t walk down the street, at night and in the dark. She’s a local, I decided to take her advice. It’s low season, there wasn’t a lot of action at the Cliffhanger, plus it’s really tiny. We had missed the sunset and SQ’s belly was hurtin – he needed food. So we had Rum Punch, then drove to Cheri’s in Maho. They have a really crazy show at Cheri’s with a group called Sweet Chocolate (remind anyone of a certain Eddie Murphy movie?). It’s a bit touristy but it was silly and entertaining. The food was just OK, but Cordell Stuart at the bar took great care of us. I think we split a seafood plate with shrimp, lobster and fries. Some Cuban dance group came out around 9 or 9:30pm and performed in the middle of the street. I’m not sure if they are connected with Carnival, which ended today.
Back at the room now, need to figure out what to do tomorrow. This is why my mother-in-law has dubbed me ‘The Fun Nazi.’ I think this is an insult in most of the civilized world, but from her it was the highest of compliments. It has stuck, I think I kind of like it now.
End of Day One and SQ has already lost one of our room keys…
