Last day in St. Marten / St. Maarten

Our last day in St. Martin / St. Maarten was a bit sad simply because we weren't ready to leave. We started our day like any other day at the resort, then had a group meeting where we discussed what time we needed to check-out which was 10 am. So my sister, our friend, the pastor, his wife and I decided to go into town to do some last minute shopping.

Whilst in town, we saw a lot of things that we wanted to buy that wasn't seen before. It's rather funny how when you're in a rush you see almost everything you want. But whilst shopping, hunger struck and the decision was made to stop by the best jerk chicken place in Phillipsburg which was "The Original Jerk & Roti House" located on Back Street. After eating, the shopping continued without us noticing the time and upon realizing the time, the pastor and his wife decided that they wanted to do more shopping and asked us to give them five minutes again.

Seven minutes passed and the pastor and his wife weren't anywhere in sight, so my sister, our friend and I decided to leave because time was running out. We frantically looked for maxi to carry us back to the resort, and whilst on the way, the drawbridge was opening up again to allow boats coming in for the Heineken Regatta, so we were stuck in traffic for a while which didn't help our situation. Upon reaching the resort we were told our keycards were unregistered because we missed the check-out by two hours.

The shuttle driver had to escort us to our rooms for us to gather our stuff and once we got into our room we changed our clothes and proceeded to check-out. When we got to the airport, there was a problem being that the flight was overbooked so some individuals had to stay back. Earlier on in the day my sister and I checked in online so we didn't have that problem.

Once our luggage was taken, we ventured around the airport and took pictures, bought food and looked back at our adventure on this beautiful Caribbean island. All in all, it was a vacation well spent and if given the opportunity to go back to St. Martin / St. Maarten, I'd be back there in a heartbeat. The next place I'll be visiting will most likely be Costa Rica.

                                                               THANK YOU
For all the support and encouragement which allowed me to bring THIS CHAPTER of the blog to completion.

Pool time at the Resort

From the previous post about Night Life in Simpson Bay, mentioning the Italian restaurant "Sale&Pepe", my sister and I decided to go to the restaurant and buy some food. On this day, there wasn't any planned activities and was a free day. We planned to buy Italian food and then go swimming in the main pool, upon entering the Italian restaurant, we were greeted with friendliness and warm smiles which was rather nice. Whilst talking to the attendant, she noticed our "accent" and asked where we came from and said Trinidad and she smiled and said she knew a few Trinidadian people. When finished ordering, the total came up to US $36 and she charged us only US $30.



After eating, gathered all our stuff and made our way down to the pool. The atmosphere at the pool was wonderful, everyone was friendly and there won't any problems at all. We swam from one end of the pool to the other multiple times enjoying every minute of it. Taking pictures and underwater videos made our free day so much better. Individuals at the pool even came over and talked to us for a while because they heard our "accent" and wanted to know where we were from. Telling them we both were from Trinidad and yet again the infamous question popped up, "Why are you here, isn't Carnival going on right now in your country". Informing them that not everyone in Trinidad celebrates Carnival, which to them was a strange thing to hear.

As we begun to get tired we got out of the pool, washed off, ate,drank and watched the sunset at the harbor counting our remaining days at the resort, which we tried not to count because to be honest, we honestly didn't want to come back home...at least not right away. But time flies and we knew we'd have to get that into the routine of setting up late at night to do assignments for our Masters.

The Room

The room that we were given at the resort was spacious and well prepared for us upon our arrival. The person that did housekeeping was absolutely kind, generous and pleasant and seemed to be an all round nice person. The room can only be accessed by the use of a key card that we were given at the Concierge's desk. The video below shows the walk around I did when we first arrived at our room and the first impression that I had was the room was simple but yet effective in my book.

As seen from the video posted the room was well cleaned, well prepared and ready and waiting for us. We had no complaints when it came to our room and the best part about where we were placed was away from all the busy parts of the resort.

Simpson Bay Resort & Marina

Our stay at this resort is one that will never forgotten, because as soon as we stepped out of the Maxi, we were greeted with smiles till we left. We initially thought that it was their job to be nice to all the guest upon arrival, but after a while realizing that it was natural for them as they were very helpful and pleasant.

I thought it was weird that they were SO nice, and figured they wanted money for being so helpful but discovered that they are naturally nice to people. The Concierge was extremely helpful and pleasant despite us not knowing anything and not once did they show anger and frustration at our lack of information about the Resort as well as the country on a whole. The video below shows the lobby of the resort.

So after sorting out all our room arrangements and packed the shuttle to deliver our bags to the  rooms, we were given a mini tour of the resort along the way to our room. The video shows where our room was located and we couldn't have asked for a better room, the video was taken from outside to view the surroundings.

At this point in time, the excitement was building up so much, I just wanted to unpack and head out immediately and explore the resort. While it still was day light, other guests we met were also friendly and instantly figured out that we were Trinidadian based on how we spoke. One question that we were about to be asked was a question that we would get for the duration of our stay which was  "Why are you in St. Maarten when carnival is coming up in Trinidad, you should be there getting ready to jump up"

Simpson Bay Resort & Marina

This resort offers 336 spacious and fully equipped suites and 83 two-bedroom villas accommodating up to six people. Being your home away from home, a Caribbean island ideally positioned on the beach, midway between the island's most popular night spots, shopping along with fine restaurants, and activity center.

The villas at Bay resort are surrounded by five-star comforts and front row seat at sunset for unfettered views of the Caribbean. This Resort has also received a TripAdvisor Certificate of Excellence award.

To visit the website please visit: simpsonbayresort.com