beaker

Just booked a week long liveaboard dive boat - Turks & Caicos in February. Five dives a day. Can't wait.

Was going to do Bonaire (which is my usual vacation spot), but the place I stay has a new policy: they don't let you reserve specific rooms (which are actually chalets right on the beach).

Oh, and too solid, don't worry about the sharks. Just tickle them under the chin a bit and they fall right asleep.

too solid

If one got close enough for me to do that, I'd probably shit myself, and pass out.. in that exact order

kscarrol

Wow! Someone clearly scared by the Jaws movies...

too solid

damn right!

Richard in NC

Fortunately, the "sea kayaking" area was more like an inland bay. No chance of sharks. Here's from Google Earth. You can see the runway we crossed the end of.
EDIT: PS: The land to the right is an 800 ft mountain. Planes are in a full power steep climb to get over it. I don't know why they don't go the other way.

too solid

Wow, that looks beautiful, thanks for sharing. Cant wait to go

I wish you didn't tell me about the steep climb to get over the mountain, I'm already terrified of flying lol... now I hafta worry about smashing into a mountain on the way home ...

too solid

Getting ready to go! Flight leaves Sat. Aug 23rd at 7:15AM.

Im bringing down $1700 cash + credit cards and the gf has a G plus her credit cards. Hopefully we don't need to dip into those.. but me with my casino addiction

Just wanted to ask you guys if theres anything you would recommend I bring with me on the trip? Havn't been way south many times.. wanna be prepared!

too solid

Just thought I'd write up a report of the trip since many of you are asking about it..

We stayed at The Sonesta Maho Beach Resort! The resort was okay, on the plus side the beach was amazing. Pool was also very nice.

The first room we had was terrible, mainly because of the washroom. There was no bathtub, and just a single head shower faucet.. no door to enter, just a 2 foot gap and about a 2 foot long piece of glass.. the only thing to keep the water from getting all over the floor was a small piece of base board wood about 1/2 centimetre high. The whole floor was one big puddle after each shower. Fortunately my old host from my casino in Niagara Falls knew the head front desk attendent and I had her upgrade me to a suite for an extra $200, which originally would have been $75 extra per night. IMO I think it should have been free after my complaining.. but what can you do. The suite we had was amazing, very modern, a spacious living room, huge bedroom, nice jacuzzi and pretty nice walk out.

The service of the hotel was by far the worst I've ever had. To get room service or maid service you would literally have to call about 7-15 times before you would get an answer, and if you were lucky enough for someone to finally answer most of the time they spoke no english. I had to actually spell out one time that I wanted no lettuce on my chicken wrap. As for the maids, my room was cleaned 3 or 4 out of 7 days and we got turn down service twice. Most of the time we were without towels, they would never restock.. and when we would call for more they would bring us 2! The last 2 days we were there they restocked our towels without having to call maid service which was pretty amazing.

The "all inclusive" was a huge waste! They had 1 buffet which was not good at all, service was terrible.. a couple of times we went the whole meal without a waitress insight. They had 1 outside grill which was decent for lunch (not dinner material) and 1 "fancy" restaurant open only on Thurs. and Fri. which was not bad.

When we checked in we recieved 3 voucher's for the restaurants attached to the outside of the hotel (including the 1 in the hotel open Thurs., Fri.), which we were only able to go to once each (all inclusive my ass) which also had a set menu! Unreal IMO.. if you wanted to eat off of the set menu you had to get your whole meal off the normal menu and pay for it in full. The "all inclusive" included 1 drink each, after that you pay..

So all in all I would never recommend that resort to anyone!

St. Maarten to my surprise had a lot of poverty. We took a day trip around the island on ATV's, which included a tour of the whole island. Other then the tourist beach's the island looked dirty and poor. Marigot was a bit of an exception, with a few condo's which looked to be part of a resort or time shares or something.. but still not much to brag about. We stopped at a store to get drinks while on the ATV excursion at some very run down scummy looking neighborhood with a bunch of guys outside blasting music smoking weed trying to stare down all of us tourists. I could care less and would have knocked them all out 1 by 1.. but I could tell my gf was nervous.. which definately pissed me off. The locals feed off of the tourists and w/o us they would have nothing. IMO they should worship the tourists, not give off dirty looks like they wanna rob us. A taxi driver also warned us of certain areas and told us not to stop, and that tourists are known to get robbed in those area's. Pretty ridiculous if you ask me.. I know that's how a lot of islands in the Carribean are, but I didn't think St. Maarten would be anything like that..

One thing that I loved were the beaches. The beach off of my resort was breath taking! Orient beach was also phenomenal! A long with the boobies that came with it (nude beach) Crystal clear water and soft white sand with not a rock in sight. Many fun water sports to do also (expensive though) It cost me $60 for a half hour on a jet ski.

The shopping was terrible.. front and back street (the main tourist shopping strips) were 85% jewellery stores, all trying to rip you off. No better prices then here in Toronto.. as if I would buy a 10k watch or ring in St. Maarten when I can get it for the same price back home. The other 15% were mostly stores to buy nic naks and souvenirs for the family. They had a Lacoste, Polo, Hilfiger etc with the exact same if not higher prices then in Toronto.

The night life at my resort was pretty much zero. They had a casino across the street, which had a dance show which lasted about 5-10 minutes each night.. and a bar across the street called Breezes which wasn't very exciting. I spent most of my nights at the casino or at the bar in my hotel lobby (or in bed with the gf on rare occasion )

Overall I definately wouldn't recommend the resort I stayed at to anyone, or St. Maarten for that matter. I spent nearly $6k on this trip including accomodations, gambling for me and the gf and day time activities. We pretty much could have went anywhere in the world for that price! Plus I'm afraid of flying BIG TIME and the nearly 5 hour flight wasn't nearly worth it to me.. I would have had a much better time somewhere closer like Florida or Bahamas.. Ah well, you live you learn..

DrLev99

Who said to go to Our Lucaya, Grand Bahama?

Sorry it wasn't a better experience. I think had you seen the island for just a day and just gone to Orient beach, via a cruise, you would have had a better experience. I'd have never stayed an entire week on that island.

I had guys offer me coke and weed in Marigot...definitely shady areas there. Glad you enjoyed Orient beach though, and the hooters. But did your girl take it off, and if so....pics!

Next time, Bahamas!

seoulman

Unfortunate that the vacation was so mediocre.... I hope the next one is better for you and you gf! Think Bali!