Carimar Beach Club 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. <br><br>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. <br><br>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. <br>

... and outlet plugs for baby proofing the room. St. Maarten/St. Martin labels itself as the &#8220;Friendly Island&#8221;, and our experience with the staff at the hotel lives up to its name. Unfortunately, I can&#8217;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. <br><br>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 ...

... some self portraits that didn't come out too badly considering the state I was in. Last week was all about the first phase of the National Hurricane Exercise, involving all the utility companies on the island. The scenario was that a car had set off during the eye of a storm, got caught up when the storm came back and a electricity pole fell on to it. 2 persons trapped inside and one person walked off to get help (yours truly!). Well that was the plan ...

... more mellow day, just took delivery of my 'new' scooter, which the boss has bought and is renting back to me. Its a pile of ****, chinese made and doesnt work!! But we are working in getting it going again, well i say we, i mean Chelsi! Yesterday I went out on a site visit to two of the major developments on the island, to check how their preparations for the hurricane season were going. We have our first hurricane of the season, Bertha, which reached Cat 3. today ...

... go. Got met at the airport by the admin assistant of the disaster management dept. She delivered me to the hotel, and what an awesome place it is! Great location, great room, great restaurant....first thing i did was to have a beer of course! Woke up uber early this morning...around 4am...as is the norm with this damn jet lag! No problems being ready in time to get ...

... which was the Arawak. Like many of the hotels, the Arawak had a driver to pick me up at the airport. The warm ocean air was intoxic ating, the conversation with other guests was entertaining, and the collection of the stuff no one was using anymore as we approched the Arawak was rather shocking . The buildings were pink and aqua, just like the website, but with more missing paint and an overall run ...

... to get on that flight. The kind lady at the desk tells me I am being re-booked for a flight tomorrow. WHAT? Does she have any idea how much an empty bed in Anguilla costs? Oh no, try again, what are my options? If I want, I can try a later flight to San Juan with a 30 minute layover before the flight to Anguilla. I haven't flown through San Juan before and don't know that is impossible, but I'd rather be stuck there than here, so I ...