From: paul.graveline%travel@wugate.wustl.edu (Paul Graveline) 
Newsgroups: soc.culture.caribbean
Subject: CARIBBEAN TRAVEL ROUNDU12
Date: 1 Sep 92 13:19:00 GMT
Distribution: world
Organization: Travel Online, St. Louis, MO
Reply-To: paul.graveline%travel@wugate.wustl.edu (Paul Graveline) 

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main roads. So you will find yourself driving in a mixture of super- 
polite,  but  aggressive,  traffic.  Go with the flow. These are not  
the rules you learned at home, but you can cope.  
 
Watch  out  for  drivers  stopping  in the middle of the road to let  
passengers  out, visit with friends, or to allow a car out of a side  
road.  
 
Gasoline  is  leaded  and  not  too costly. We needed to fill up our  
rental  car  only  one  time during the week, and bought 35.6 liters  
for  $18.00.  That  is  about  $1.70  per US gallon. You have to pay  
cash,  though.  None  of the Shell gas stations would accept a Shell  
credit  card.  We assume the Texaco stations would not have accepted  
a  credit  card  either. Otherwise, credit cards are widely accepted  
throughout  the  island.  This  island  is  organized for tourism. I  
doubt  there  is  any  other  means  of  generating  income  for the  
residents.  Prices  for  everything  are  posted  in  Francs, on the  
French  side,  and  Guilders,  on the Dutch side. Frequently, the US  
dollar  price  also  is  on  the tag--especially in Philipsburg, the  
main  tourist  shopping  area.  There  is  no  need to change money,  
however.   Everyone   takes  US  dollars  and  most  cash  registers  
automatically  convert the Franc or Guilder price to dollars. We got  
an  honest  exchange  rate  in  every  instance.  We  were  a little  
concerned  over  this at first, but soon ceased to worry. Everything  
in  the  casinos  is  priced in dollars, there are no receptacles in  
the  slot  machines  for  Franc  or  Guilder  coins.  There  is more  
evidence  of  use  of  Francs  on  the  French side than there is of  
Guilders  on the Dutch side, by the citizens of course, but even the  
locals seem to use US dollars for most transactions.  
 
Prices  for  everyday  goods  are  higher than prices in the US, but  
lower  than  those  we  have  experienced on trips to Europe. A six-  
pack  of  Coke  was  $3.00  in Philipsburg; a bag of chips was about  
$2.50.  $25.00  bought  us  margarine, eggs, bread, jam, lunch meat,  
and  other  basics  for the week, at the "Food Center," the island's  
full-  sized  supermarket.  I did walk to the resort's small grocery  
every  morning for fresh-baked French bread and pastries. Two people  
can  get  a  fine  meal  at most restaurants, including one round of  
drinks, for $50 or less.  
A  meal  for  two  in  the  Pelican Grill, rated five-stars in their  
advertisements,  was just under $90 with a round of drinks. We would  
not  agree  with  the five-star rating, however. We purchased better  
meals  for  less  in  restaurants  having  no  rating.  St.  Maarten  
features  hundreds  of  wonderful  restaurants,  especially  on  the  
French  side.  We typically spent less than $50 for the two of us at  
most  nice  restaurants, and we even took out Kentucky Fried Chicken  
one  night  (under  $20 for both of us). We dined one evening aboard  
the  Lady  Mary,  which  sails  around Simpson Bay Lagoon. Excellent  
food  and  a  complementary  bar, combined with cool evening breezes  
for  a  pleasant  experience  -  $60  per  person  seemed  to  be  a  
reasonable  price.  Dinner on the Lady Mary was the "prize" we chose  
for listening to the Pelican's sales pitch.  
 
Our  suite  could  better  be described as an efficiency apartment -  
one  divisible  room that contained a living area, a bedroom area, a  
full  kitchen  and  dining  area, plus a bath and semi-patio. Due to  
the  prevalence  of  time-share  resorts  on St. Maarten, you should  
expect  to  have  similar or larger accommodations. We stayed in the  
least  expensive  of Pelican Resort's offerings. We prepared our own  
breakfasts  and  most  lunches--dining  out  mainly  for the evening  
meal.  Many,  perhaps most, of the tourist hotels are set up a time- 
share apartments.  
 
A  major  business  on the island is the sale of these time- shares.  
Construction  and  sales  are booming, and the visitor can expect to  
be  offered several prizes -such as $100 off the cost of your rental  
car,  or  a dinner cruise on the Lady Mary - just for listening to a  
sales  pitch.  We  did, and we were pleasantly surprised at the lack  
of  high-pressure.  Prices  were  a bit too steep for our needs, but  
buying  a  time-share  week  may be an excellent way to insure great  
vacations  for  some  people.  Advertised prices run from $3,000 for  
one  week every-other year to over $30,000 for a high-season week in  
a  three-bedroom  suite  at  a  top resort. Financing offered by the  
resort  seems  to  be  higher  than  is  available in the US, and we  
recommend  that  you  place  any mortgage in your own US bank. It is  
always  a  good  idea  to  sleep  on the proposal before signing any  
commitment.  
 
Detached  houses  could be purchased for $150,000 and up, and we saw  
several   fine   homes,  mostly  on  the  French  side.  One  should  
investigate taxes and upkeep costs before taking this route. 
 
The  beaches  are  superb;  we  sampled several. The average tourist  
would  be hard-pressed to visit all 37. Dawn Beach, on the East side  
of  the  island,  just South (Dutch side) of the French-Dutch border  
has  good  snorkeling.  We drove from our hotel, the Pelican Resort,  
which  is  on  the  South-West, over the mountain on some very hairy  
(steep)  roads,  to  the  Dawn  Beach Hotel. To get to the beach you  
must  request  entry  onto  the  hotel grounds, park near the tennis  
courts  and  walk to the beach. Dawn Beach Hotel chalets front right  
on  the  beach  and  we  felt as though we were playing in someone's  
back  yard.  The hotel staff were very nice and there was not a hint  
of  pressure  to  indicate  that this was other than a public beach.  
Nevertheless,  we  were  uncomfortable  setting  up our beach towels  
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