Darren Herman: St. Maarten Trip

I've been gone for the past 10 days traveling to Saint Maarten and Anguilla so my posting has been minimal. For the first time in over 10 years, I traveled without a cellphone, Blackberry, computer, and didn't even check email thru a computer terminal on the trip. I did not think I could actually keep away from technology but I pulled it off, amazingly. My Internet addiction was strong at first, but after a few days, it wore off and I was fully able to enjoy the endless beaches and clear water.

On any beach vacation, you tend to have a lot of downtime. Whilst sitting at various beaches and our villa, I was able to ponder many different areas of business and technology including and not limited to entertainment (music, movies, games), in-game advertising, marketing and strategy. Over the next few weeks, I'll reflect about them accordingly...

Regarding our trip specifically, there are a few things that stood out. For starters, we were supposed to leave on an 8AM flight on last Friday morning out of JFK (on American Airlines). At 1:45am, American Airlines called us to tell us that our flight had been canceled. Nothing like waiting till the last minute! What if we hadn't kept out phone on over night? What if we didn't hear it ring? We would have showed up at the airport at 6am ready to go – but without a flight! There has got to be a business process here that will make this better for the customer. I'm sure many people had problems with this. Luckily for me, we were able to switch the flight and get on one at 6am... thus, leaving for the airport at 3:45am. EARLY.

I rented an “SUV” from Thrifty Car Rental over Orbitz.com a few weeks before the trip. I didn't know exactly what model of car I was going to get, but as a car snob, it actually made a difference. Here in New York, I drive a BMW Z4 3.0i and the fleet of Gotham Dream Cars but when we arrived in Saint Maarten, we were given a Hyundai Tuscon. I was extremely skeptical at first, but overall, I was very impressed. The driving conditions in Saint Maarten are anything but stellar and this smallish SUV handled them well including the steep hills and the dirt paths. Hyundai scored some points in my books.

If there is available land in Saint Maarten, chances are that a large hotel chain such as Westin is moving in and building a large hotel and casino. I visited Saint Maarten about 3 years ago and since then, there has been a lot of change. All of this building is fantastic for the economy but can the island handle the increased tourist capacity. With only 1 perimeter road around St. Maarten and bare inner roads, I'm not sure how the infrastructure of the island will take to all the additional traffic. While driving from Dawn Beach to Philipsburgh (capital) during semi-rush hour, it took 50 minutes... which should take 20 minutes. The roads are 2 lanes (1 on each side of the line)... talk about traffic.

The restaurants on the Island were surprisingly good. I'd recommend going to Spiga, La Gondola, Rare, or Tempation (in no particular order). There are tons of “street meat” vendors and I'm sure they are very good – but I wasn't allowed to taste the food for fear of getting sick....

Lastly, rain. If it rains in St. Maarten, don't fret. Chances are, it's not raining more than 500 feet away from you and it'll last for 20 minutes or less. There were many times that we were hanging out and a small front would move in, and would be gone within a few minutes.

I want to thank Sonja at Remax Luxury Real Estate for recommending the fantastic villa that we rented. The villa is located in Dawn Beach Estates overlooking the ocean and St. Barths. If you're traveling to St. Maarten, certainly give Sonja a ring!