Arawak Beach Inn The Valley

St. Barthelemy (or St Barths), a magical little island about 2 hours by boat from St. Maarten. Small houses, narrow streets, beautiful surrounding, baguettes, crystal clear water and great food... although it is quite pricey. As it is a French island, people speak French and it has a French touch. Many people go skinny dipping and most women are topless on the beaches.

The island had a bit ...

... up to Pic Paradis (the highest point on the island) and instead, whiled away an unproductive and unpleasant afternoon at the Hidden Forest Café. Long gone are the days of fearless gallivanting. I guess you can say this vacation was truly a different experience, as it should be when traveling with an infant.

Suffice to say, we had an amazing time, despite all the bumps in the road to ...

... about. The Tidal Wave Beach Bar is a relaxed place to have something to eat. I had some fresh mahi mahi and salmon tartare for lunch. The food is a bit pricey, but convenient. Le Galion is great for adults too. If you would like to windsurf, do some paddle boating, or even kayak, just rent from Tropical Wave.

... and outlet plugs for baby proofing the room. St. Maarten/St. Martin labels itself as the “Friendly Island”, and our experience with the staff at the hotel lives up to its name. Unfortunately, I can’t say that for the rest of the island. Julian, our bellman, became a friendly, warm familiar face each time we came back from an outing and was especially kind to our little guy. Jessica one of the servers at Ocean ...

... the docks where the racing regattas were moored. He took about 15 minutes to give us some background about the history of the sport and told us that one of the boats being used would be the famous Stars and Stripes that won The Americas Cup with Dennis Connor in 1987.

Our group was divided into 3 crews for 3 different boats and my wife and myself were incredibly lucky to be part of the crew for the Stars and Stripes. How cool was this going to be!! We got to participate as ...

... by boat or by climbing down a cliff on a rope. Needless to say I took the rope option...wasn't as bad as it looked im happy to say. The snorkeling was great, nice to finally get into the ocean and see some wildlife. Also that weekend I spent an afternoon at this little beach bar called Smokeys, had my first rum punch...jeez! They make them damn strong here, took me an hour to drink then had to take a long walk to clear my head...got a bit pished. Managed to ...

... weekend!! On saturday I was invited to a beach party with my boss and her bloke, Chelsi. It was a guy who Chelsi used to work with birthday, it was meant to start at 11am, we got there at 4 and were some of the first to arrive...island time again!! Huge amounts of beer were drunk and I got my first taste of goat, in goat water and a goat curry. Was rather yummy and was pleased that it tasted very much like lamb...couldnt really taste the goat at all!! Sunday was ...

There are not one, or ten, or even twenty beaches on the tiny island of Anguila. I believe there are something like 33 beaches scattered throughout the island. Its probably a good thing there are so many beaches to check out, because there isn't a whole lot else going on for tourism on the island, although there is a new golf course being built. I had great plans to check out different parts of the island and visit a ...