We just returned from one wonderful week in St. Maarten!

The Towers is a nice place as your home base for sure. We stayed in room 105. Yes, first floor...but the view out the back was still very nice. The staff was great!

The walk to the beach is nothing to worry about. At most, 10 minutes on a clear path and no worries about golf balls whackin' ya' in your head. Watch for big 'ol lizards. I have a wicked nice pic of one to post on our blog (steve-n-jess.com) soon.

The beach was..wow! We were told this is the off season and the beach proved it. We stayed to the right of the sand volleyball net and every day there was never more than 15 other people sharign that side of the beach.

Our schedule was VERY simple: wake, eat breakfast (Top Carrot or Zee Best), nab lunch from Top Carrot before heading back from breakfast. Hit the beach by noon and stay til around 5. Back to Towers, munch on brought lunch, and rack out. Wake for the evening and hit Maho. We did this for all seven nights and LOVED it.

We did the Rhino and had a blast with that.

We rented from Lesley at Kennys Car Rental. I read a posting here the night before we left and emailed him immediatley. By the time we arrived, he was ready and waiting to do the handoff at the airport with a sign in hand. SO EASY! The return was just as pleasant!

One caveat on Towers...a Saturday check out means you have to be out by 10AM. Our flight was at 3:30ish so we hung out at Sunset til 1:30 when we were to meet Lesley to return the car. Upon check-in, the flight was delayed an hour. By the time we reached the gate...it had been delayed til 5. Yuck.

My wife is a vegetarian and I was concerned it would be hard to find grub for her. No problem! We ate at Cheri's, Terra, Moulin Fou, Top Carrot, Zee Best and a few others and had no problems finding her meals.

I consider myself a foodie of sorts, but we never even hit the Frenach side of the island. No worries...I was having too much fun to care. Terra was fantastic, but reminded me too much of the gourmet we can get here in Austin. My biggest surprise...Moulin Fou! AWESOME staff! Wonderful meals! I consider it a must hit. Dine inside unless you want to hear the Cheri's entertainment. We ate at moulin twice...our second night there, and our last.

I'm rambling and should likely take more time to type this all out. But, I want to make this first pass at it to tell other sof our wonderful time.

I guess to summarize:

1) the Towers is fine
2) the walk from Towers to the beach is nothing to worry about
3) rent a car...use Lesley...it's so very worth it
4) have fun driving! Philipsburgh was a fun drive for sure!
5) Eat at Moulin Fou
6) Eat at Top Carrot
7) Eat at Zee Best
8) Ask if the restaurant takes cards before you order (I almost goofed that one up at a few places)
9) Partake in Guavaberry...
10) Relax and have a freakin' great time! You're gonna' LOVE it!

-Steve-n-Jess

Oh, and before I forget...say 'hello' to the cats at the Towers for us...my wife fell in love with every one of them!

So glad to hear you had a great time at the Towers! We have been owners at The Towers since 1995, and have been very pleased with the management and maintenance of the resort. My husband always says a trip to SXM is not just a trip but a real vacation. My favorite memories are sitting at the pool and looking out over the water..the vista is just exactly what one would imagine a Caribbean Island would be like.

Re the cats....We always feed them and even buy bags of cat food to leave there. Some of the security folks love the cats too and will distribute the food. Over the years the cat population will build up and when they start to get complaints, management will round them up and find homes for them (they say!). My husband thinks they probably end up at the medical school on the hill.....I HOPE NOT!!

We do love SXM and plan to go every year until we're too old. The only worrisome thing we have ever encountered is the stray dogs that are so very sad. Some of the businesses in Marigot have donation jars to assist with caring for them. We always contribute and hope it actually does some good.

Steve,

We've had weeks at The Towers since pre-construction and while we've often thought this was about the silliest purchase we ever made, we've never had one regret about having done it. We look forward to those weeks and have yet to tire of the location so glad to hear that you enjoyed yourself.

Laura,

FYI, those are perhaps some of the most well fed cats in all of the Caribbean. And in honesty, I don't think you can ever be too young or get too old for St. Maarten vacations.

pat
:-)

Ahhh...the cats...now I know why there's no lizards, mice or rats on the premises. Wish the mamas weren't so protective of the kittens. The kittens are the only curious ones and they want to be held and petted...clearly, they don't know any better. WARNING...I had one POed mama one evening as I tried to play with her little kittys...no more...highly recommend leaving them alone !!! spike.

LOL! Jess was able to only pet the mamma. The pics of them all are fantastic. We have them up on Snapfish right now, but I won't post until I get them on our site. Snapfish is great, but no need to make folks sign up to see the pics.

The one lizard I did see was crazy huge. I first saw him in the rear view mirror one afternoon while driving off. Didn't see him again until two days before leaving...and I got pics. Huge! Like should likely be in a zoo, huge. It was great though.

I should also meniton for you fellow tech geeks...wi-fi at Towers is allmost non existant. You CAN spend $20-60 for a week's access to a local providor, but one guy at the pool bar never got it hooked up properly. I DID, however, manage to jump on an open wi-fi connection now and then. It's a netgear router. I VPN in so I was safe...but it would drop connection VERY often. Save yourself a headache and drive to Sunset Beach bar and take advantage of 3 free wi-fi spots there. There is no ethernet in the rooms and no dataport to dial out on.

I'm sure I'll be back to post more soon enough.

We had internet in the rooms just fine, granted we paid for it, it was 60 for the week, and they give you a thing you plug into an outlet and then into your coputer, I think it was some sort of router or something, worked great.

RE: the cats!! We had Momma and babies hanging with us at the pool for two weeks in April, they were cute, especiallythe black one with the brown tip on the tail! Did hear that few years ago the rounded up all the cats and the St. Maarten Animal Welfare took them, supposedly between the towers and the School, it was close to 70 cats!



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 07/25/2006 01:29PM by kim.

That is exactly what happened with the cats, Kim. We were there one year and there were cats and kittens everywhere. I think 70 would be a reasonable guess. The next year we had a hard time finding any at all. We asked and were told that people began complaining about the cat population, so they had to be relocated. I wondered about the basis for the complaints and the explanation was that some guests were allergic to cats and others were fearful of them for some reason.

This past year (we always come week 41 which is in mid-October)there was one sweet fellow who liked to spend time stretched out on our patio chaise. We don't have cats at home but we do look forward to seeing them at the Towers. I think they're part of the charm.

Never saw 70 or close to that !!! but you'll always find a bunch under the bushes to the right of the front entrance...by the foot sprayer. No doubt...they are nice/cute...except for the mama or two whose kittens are not weaned and on their own yet....MOST protective...again, heads up !!

1) I am SO jealous about the Internet access you secured!

2) Jess is NOT jealous as it was our honeymoon and she was happy I was having trouble anyway.

3) I just finished thumbnailing the images and they are now up on our site:

[www.steve-n-jess.com]

Now I just need to update the blog!

ENJOY!!!

-Steve

HI GUYS...we have been going to the Towers for the past 15 years...LOVE IT. Just got back, we were there July 15- 29th. HAD THE BEST TIME.