After knowing Irma destroyed St Maarten last year, I was hesitant to vacation there because I didn’t know what shape the island was in. After visiting, I’m so glad I took the leap of faith!
Luckily my boss let me use his timeshare (#blessed), and I chose St Maarten because how cheap the flights were AND the fact that Divi Little Bay is not an inclusive-only hotel. A lot of the timeshare trades are in fact, all-inclusive which i prefer not to do, because of how much the food and drink packages cost. While I love lounging at the resort, I like to spend most of my days doing activities, so I feel like I’m not at the resort enough get my money’s worth.
The devastation on the island was crazy, and still is. Resorts like Sonesta were (and still are) completely flattened out and have to be rebuilt. However, Divi is doing really well. Only a small portion of the resort is under construction still- and they are in the process of adding two pools (one being the infinity pool), two new restaurants, and a bunch of other fun stuff.
What I liked:
- The food and drinks. The hotel had 2 restaurants/bars and a cafe. I ate chicken and pork quesadillas (yummy and good portion sizes) at Gizmos, and spent a lot of my time drinking rum punches at Sea Breeze (shoutout to Leroy) which had two pools overlooking the beach. The day that we were leaving we tried sandwiches at the cafe, and were surprised by how fresh & tasty they were!
The rooms. I mean the view from our balcony was to die for! The AC also worked well, which was a huge plus because of how hot the island was (and how hot we were after being outside all day!)
The beach. The resort is directly on Little Bay beach which is super nice. It has a cool dock that you can jump off, and a tent where you can rent out water sports. We did jet skiing (so fun- read more on it here).
- The staff. Whether it was the restaurant, bars, or the taxi drivers, the staff were really nice. Right before we left, we accidentally got charged a fee for drinks and after explaining to them the situation, they immediately took it right off. We even came back to the room one day and found all our dishes cleaned in the sink!
outfit details: bathing suit
- Grocery store. Having a grocery store on premise is super convenient, and we took full advantage. We stocked up on the essentials – like eggs for breakfast, toothpaste and rum (obvi).
What I wasn’t so crazy about:
- Restaurant hours. While we loved the restaurants and the food, we weren’t in love with the restaurant hours. Before our flight back home, we tried to grab lunch at SeaBreeze, but were told they weren’t open until 12pm. We half-heartedly grabbed sandwiches at the Amsterdam Cafe, and luckily were pleasantly surprised!
- Timeshare fees (okay, this is probably to be expected). I don’t honestly think they were as high as they could be, but they’re still another fee. (When we went to St Thomas last year they were way higher).
- People at the resort. Its not what you think! We made a lot of friends, but also were by far the youngest people at the resort.
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