I posted a couple of reviews this week, but I thought I would do an "official" trip report since it is a snowy, slushy Friday afternoon in NY and I keep thinking about Anguilla. So this will be LONG.

We went on a very short get-away, arriving Valentine's day and coming back on Presidents' day.

We flew American into SXM, arrived with a 25 minute delay, which is really on time for American. Decided to try the standard mode of transfer to Anguilla, so took the taxi across to St. Martin to the ferry. We were unlucky, though, and arrived when the draw bridge was up; as a result we had just missed the ferry - we got there at about 2:40 PM. We were told the next ferry would leave at around 3:30 (so not the advertisied "every 25 minutes"). In reality, our ferry did not leave until 3:50 PM, so this was a rocky start, but we had arrived and vowed to try Funtime or one of the other charters next time.

We stayed at Sirena Hotel, and were picked up at the ferry dock. The resort was nice, just what we expected; were quickly shown to our room, changed, and headed out to the beach to catch the last hour of sun. Meads Bay was very nice, though windier than expected (that was true for the whole trip). After so much anticipation, it was almost surreal to be walking the sandy beach, and taking photos of Malliouhana on the cliffs, in the sunset.

Sirena took care of the rental car for us eventually (they had not arranged that before arrival, even though we exchanged several emails) and we were ready to explore the island!

Dinner first night was at Pimms - Valentine's day, and we got a prime seat, next to the water. It rained a little bit in the middle of our dinner, but the sound of the waves lapping on the cliffs just added to the experience. While our appetizers were only passable (I had a shrimp/crab salad), the main course was excellent. I tried crayfish for the first time, and it is a new favorite!

The next day, Friday, we were off to Shoal Bay for the day (after a pleasant American breakfast at Sirena, overlooking the gardens). Raymond was very helpful, helped us find parking (it was a busy day), we rented chairs and umbrellas, had lunch at Uncle Ernie's, and spent the whole day in and out of the water, reading a good book, and just taking it all in. My boyfriend, Matt, had been a little disappointed in Meads' Bay (he kept saying how Turks & Caicos had been nicer) - well, Shoal Bay really made him change his mind about Anguilla.

In the evening, it was off to Blanchard's, to yet another very pleasant dinner. Service was perfect, and the food delicious. Had the protobello-spinach appetizer, the snapper, and the cracked coconut. The latter was divine! Bought their book (A Trip to the Beach) and just read that for the rest of the trip (The Commoner could wait!). Melinda came out at some point and made the rounds from table to table.

Saturday it was off to explore the high-end resorts for future reference. Started off with a walk around Covecastles (decide it was toooo private for our taste), then headed over to Cap Juluca for a quick swim and walk around the premises (we LOVED this resort and put it on the "must stay here" list for a special occasion), and then headed to Smokey's for lunch. As I mentioned in an earlier post, this was a very disappointing experience, and one I regret in retrospect. The idea was to have a quick lunch before settling on Rendezvous Bay for the rest of the day. We arrived at around 12:30, no one paid attention to us for 20 minutes, then after we finally ordered our food, it took well over an our for a simple order of fish kebabs and ribs. We were not the only ones disappointed - we actually sat around and got our food. Two tables left before they even got to order, while one large group gave an "ultimatum" at around 2:00 PM saying if their food din't arrive by 2:30 they would cancel the order. They still had no food at 2:15 when we left.

But I digress. The day definitely looked a lot brighter once we arrived to Rendezvous Bay. It was so beautiful, and we even got to watch the rain coming down on St. Martin while we were frolicking in the ocean. Topped it all off with an enormous pina colada served in a coconut at the CuisinArt.

Dinner was supposed to be at Straw Hat at 7pm, but after all the driving, we did not have the energy, and it was getting late, so unfortunately we had to cancel and walked over in the sand to Bananas. Only an average dining experience, but the stars above on the way back compensated.

Sunday we were off to Sandy Isle. A great day trip, JoJo picked us up for the short boat ride (we did not make any arrangements in advance, just called from Johnno's), had a delicous lunch of red snapper, and some good swimming around. In the afternoon, we headed back to our new favorite spot on Rendezvous Bay. On the way back to Sirena, we took a detour and checked out Malliouhana. Unfortunately the sunset was not at all spectacular that evening (went into a cloud long before), but we had a great time walking down the cliff, watching the crabs scurry, and walking around the beautiful gardens.

Dinner on this last night was at Mango's. Lovely setting, we kicked it off with a nice rum punch, had the tuna appetizer, and splurged on the 1.5 lb lobster - I was really craving it having watched JoJo grill several of them on Sandy Isle, while we didn't have much cash on us there. The fish was excellent at Mango's, and we would definitely go back. I would skip the chocolate cake for dessert, though.

That was it. On Monday we rushed off for a last swim at Rendezvous Bay, had a quick lunch at Sirena (yummy mahi mahi sandwich and a last pina colada, which is very good there) and came back with the American Eagle via San Juan. The San Juan flight was delayed 2.5 hours, so we got home around midnight...I almost finished my book that evening - bit the story of the 1994 hurricane had to wait until Tuesday.

Thanks everyone on this board for your suggestions. Could not have planned it without you. We will definitely be back, probably on the West End again, and we look forward to a longer snorkeling trip to one of the cays, as well as to finally trying some of the other restaurants I kept passing by and greeting as if I had known them! Definitely keeping Anguilla over Turks! Maybe will alternate with St. John, which we also love.