After booking my flights to St Martin I came on tripadvisor to try and find a hotel that would work for me, my wife and another couple, all in our early 30's. Our idea of a vacation is relaxation, sun, swimming, great food and a decent amount of booze. I couldnt have picked a better hotel for all these qualities.

A 30 min drive from the airport in our Jeep Wrangler, we removed the roof and side panels as soon as we picked it up. Needless to say, we were sunburned by the time we got to the hotel. I would definitely recommend renting one. We used it every day we were there (6 days). The only downside was that there is virtually no room for luggage to and from the airport so it went on our laps. That was an hour of inconvenience total for a 6 day trip. $400 for the week from hertz.

We arrived at the hotel and were thrilled with the grounds and the exterior of the hotel. Exotic plants and flowers everywhere. Really made you feel like you were in a tropical paradise as soon as you passed through the gates. We had a 2 bed 2.5 bath oceanfront duplex. I cant imagine a better room for us. 2 bed and bath upstairs, downstairs was a half bath, full kitchen, small dining table, couch and a club chair. We had a patio and terrace. We sat on the patio every night from about 6-8pm, drinking wine, eating cheese, crackers and olives and chatting. 4 of 5 nights we went to Grand Case the other we went to Maho Beach. All 4 nights in Grand Case were fantastic, the night in Maho was mediocre but a good change of pace. We ate at Spiga(italian) Talk of the town(lolo bbq), le pub(pizza and beer) and Il Nettuno. All 4 were excellent with Il Nettuno(italian) being the best and priciest. The lolos and spiga were 1 for 1 so that was nice as well.

On the first day we went to the market in Marigot (10 min drive) called Match. We loaded up on cheeses, crackers, beer (hmmm carib), wine, chocolate and some rum and scotch. With a full kitchen and refigerator it would be dumb not to stock it. Every day we brought our own cooler of carib beers and rum punch to the beach. 24 beers for about $20 at match or about $4.50 per beer at all the local beach bars. Same thing with rum punch, buy a bottle of quality rum for $10 and a half gallon of punch and you are all set. We saved a fortune on that. Especially since our group likes to drink.

The hotel beach is very nice, albeit not that large, but more than sufficent for at least a day or two at the hotel beach. We also went to Pinel Island Beach, which is an island about 500 yards off the coast of st martin. $7 ferry ride out, spent the day. Very nice and relaxing. We also went to orient beach one day, as expected, lots of people and tourists, pretty loud and not quite relaxing but a lot of activities and action going on there. We also spent a day at friars beach which is a 5 min drive from grand case. It was also nice to spend the day at, they have 2 restaurants that serve food and booze. All the beaches on st martin are very nice with white sand and not too big of waves.

The only part of our trip that was mediocre was the night to maho plaza. It was a nice enough hotel but the casino was very shady and run down. The whole area was just too loud and bright for my taste. It was nice to get back to quiet sleepy Grand Case.

The walks to and from the village are 10 minutes and while there are security guards we never felt unsafe even for a moment. The entire resort is enclosed by gates.

Sunset cafe had a nice breakfast each day which was complimentary. The staff was very nice. Good pastries and coffee. We ordered off the menu a few times including lunch and there wasn't one thing that wasn't enjoyable.

Hmm, what else can I say, Free miami herald every morning, very friendly staff, great housekeeping staff who did our dishes and washed our glasses each and every day. Free bottle of wine on check in. Nice big beach towels to use each day. Flat screen tv's which we turned on exactly once to check a college basketball score. A/C was incredible, our room was like a meat locker.

Negatives???? um, none really. I think there was a pool, we never even looked, what do i need a pool for when I have the ocean and sandy beach. I really have nothing bad to say.

Anyway, the Hotel was absolutely wonderful and I have nothing but great things to say about it.