Weekend Getaway

For a birthday celebration this year, we decided to have a little weekend getaway at an island hotel. I have never been a tourist on SXM but I do like to pretend to be one once in a while. And, as I have mentioned before, I love staying in hotels.

This year we chose Le Petit Hotel. It is right on the beach, and it is possible to walk to the restaurants and shops in Grand Case. The staff was totally helpful in every way, from time I was asking for availability, to helping me haul things up to our third floor room and finding me a vase for flowers I put into the room, to when we left.

I loved the view from our 3rd floor room. I was recovering from a knee injury, and found the stairs daunting when carrying luggage, but otherwise I liked our location very much.

The room was thoughtfully laid out, and they had the a/c running and little frangipani flowers left everywhere for us when I checked in (I planned this hotel stay as a surprise and checked in first. Jean-Francois and Anne-Laure, who helped me with the arrangements, offered to let me check in early, which gave me lots of time to stick champagne and cake into the fridge, etcetera.)

Wifi was included, and there were tons of channels with plenty of US programming. This is not always the case with television on the French side, and so I had come prepared with DVDs. I wondered if the DVD player would play my US region DVDs (French DVD players are different than US) but had no problems. There was also an IPod dock.

I didn't get pictures, but there are chairs on the beach in front of the hotel. At this end of the beach, there were not many people.

The kitchen was well equipped, with a 2-burner stovetop, enough pots and pans and utensils to cook with, as well as a microwave. I thought about getting Fabulous Feasts in for a fancy meal, but the kitchen was not quite what they needed and so I ended up making a meal for us on one of the nights we spent there (mushroom risotto, asparagus and filet), and had no problems with the tools provided.

The only kitchen tools I brought with me were a good knife, a pepper grinder and an ice bucket.

I did manage to trip a circuit when I turned on the microwave at the same time as every other thing in the room was turned on. I didn't want to mess with the switches because they were quite different looking than ones I am used to, and I am afraid of electricity. The front desk closes at 5PM and only security is on after that, so at first I was worried. However, I used my cell phone to call the hotel's number, which was answered right away, and our problem was solved very quickly.

The breakfast that the hotel offers is well thought out. Near the front desk, a breakfast station is set up, and there is an espresso machine, regular coffee and milk in insulated pitchers, fresh OJ, pastries and fruit. Trays for carrying the bounty are available and someone is on hand to show you the ropes if you have questions.

Looking down the beach, we could see that Love Hotel had lots of chairs and umbrellas out - there were a fair amount of people there.

We walked down to Grand Case during the day and had lunch at Ti Provencal, which was very pleasant. They changed locations last year and are in a much larger spot (it used to be La Marine).




Last year, we went to the Radisson for a weekend getaway and ended up going home early Sunday to deal with preparations for Hurricane Earl.

This year, Irene formed as we enjoyed our hotel room, and let us know about it by storming outside our nice sanctuary and blowing hard at the windows. Once again, we checked out early and took off home, fortified  by our getaway memories.




(This post is not sponsored by the hotel in any way. I said nice things about it cause it is a nice place.)