Friday 10 December, flew from home and stayed at the SAS Radisson Hotel at the Manchester airport, enjoyed a very nice dinner at the restaurant, all excited, happy to be together and getting into the holiday mood. Early to bed, and an early start, 4.30 alarm call!

Saturday 11 December - Even at 5.30 very busy at reception, but thanks to express checkout, no need to wait around to settle the bill and walked straight on to the terminal. Air France check in was 5 minutes walk from the hotel reception, checked in, quick thru security, and into WHS for latest books and magazines and plane was boarding.

Waited one hour before take off, due to fog over Pairs, but just relaxed and before we knew it, in the air and on the ground at Charles De Gaulle! Transfer by bus to another section of the terminal and our gate, another security check which took 45 minutes, and again plane boarding and straight on. Air traffic control problems, another hour to wait onboard before take off, but despite the delay, landed at SXM on time at 1500 hrs. A very good and relaxing flight, excellent service, after nice 4 course lunch reclined my seat and slept until approach to St. Maarten, nice to wake up and see Anguilla thru the window..

The Gotcha crew met us outside, for a swift transfer by Gotcha Too to Blowing Point, arrived ahead of the ferry, thru immigration and into a taxi. Gave the address to taxi driver who asked us if we knew where the house was, as he did not know the road. Once there, he turned around and said “I knew I met you before, you came to my house many years ago, - and my brother owns this house, you should have told me his name”. We worked out it must have been at least 18 years ago, as he could not remember the kids. Welcome home.

Highway Rental had delivered the jeep, and a quick change into more suitable clothes and off to Sandy Ground for a quick swim before sunset.
Back to base, and later off to Roy’s Place in Crocus Bay for our traditional first meal, lobster bisque and sautéed snapper and Joan’s killer rum punch. Holiday at last! Afterwards a chat at the bar with other regular customers and Allan, and back to base, body clock was 3 am.

Sunday started with breakfast at Tasty’s, pancakes, those delicious hash brown, omelettes. Unfortunately, not very peaceful, lots of big trunks carrying material for airport thundering past, even on a Sunday morning. A race to have the runway finished by 17 December.

After breakfast, into Albert Lake’s to stock up on essentials before heading off to Shoal Bay East. Had nice lunch at Uncle Ernie, the usual fare of ribs and chicken combo and that scrumptious coleslaw.

BEACHES AND LUNCHES:

SHOAL BAY EAST was busy, lots of day trippers come over from St. Maarten, many on organised daytrips, first to Dolphin Discovery (new name, same prison) and then to Gwen or Elodias for lunch. Music at Elodias and Uncle Ernie’s on Sundays.

In addition to Uncle Ernie, the only other place we had lunch at SBE was Le Bar, nice platters, big juicy burgers and nice ribs which comes with a salad and baked potato, washed down with chilled House Rose wine and Veronique’s special flavoured rum.

One day lots of activity at Shoal Bay Hotel, a small army of groundsmen from Cap Juluca arrived and tidied up the gardens. Veronique at Le Bar is quite concerned, her lease runs out at the end of March, and she does not know what CJ plans are and if she will be able to renew the lease.

Meads Bay: L’Indigo/Cocoplums – closed. There is another restauranteur on the island in negotiation with the owner, but things are moving very slowly. All going well, it may one day soon be an Italian/French.

Rendevouz Bay: Had lunch twice at Anguilla Great House, both times terrible. Cesar salad with vinagerette dressing and a small burger suitable for playing ping-pong. Cheese toastie was nice I was told. Shame, that place has some much potential.

Cove Bay: Very busy at times, boats in from St. Maarten and during Christmas lots of families with little kids staying at Paradise Cove, could be quite chaotic and noisy in the restaurant at times.
Food at Smokey’s was great, service was good even during the very busy Christmas week. Beachchairs and umbrellas, if they are not on the beach, ask the staff, and they will show you where they are stored.

Sandy Ground: Jazz on the beach at Johnno’s, Sundays 12 – 4 pm, great fish sandwich and fresh grilled fish, a “must” and a good alternative to Scilly Cay.

Island Harbour: Great lunch at Smitty’s, food came straight from the boat and onto the grill, wonderful grilled whole snapper, succulent crayfish, very “rustic” atmosphere. Beach here is not the greatest, kids found a pedalo which kept them busy and happy for a few hours while the parents sipped Carib’s and chatted to Smitty.

Shoal Bay West: Trattoria Tramonto, gorgeous spot, great Bellinis, great food, good company, pure bliss. Got very busy one day, word got out about Denzel’s party the previous day/night, and 7 mega yachts was anchored up in the bay. Some celebs turned up on the beach and TT at some stage, some looking slightly worse for wear from the night before…

Some days champagne picnics, food to go from Fat Cat, and cheeses from Alberts.

Dinners:

Ferryboat Inn: Great French Onion Soup and Blackbean Soup, great steaks, lovely setting by the water at Blowing Point. One of the best tee-punches on the island.

Ripples: before we went down, read various mixed reports sonot sure what to expect. Went twice, both times very good service and very good food, even on the very busy Christmas Eve.

Cedar Grove: Very very good, recommend the marinated tuna and the coconut shrimp. Had a giggle with the waitress, she asked if it was our first trip, we said no, we have been coming for 23 years. Her answer: that was before I was born! Good service.

Straw Hat: Very disappointed with my Lobster and crayfish spring roll, contained very little crayfish, and the little there was, very dried up. The Special of the day, wahoo, very bland and disappointing. All other meals were good/very good. Waitress very nice and jovial, but communications with the bar could have been better, long wait for our tee-punches and the wine ordered for the starter never came (we reminded them) in time.

A bit of an atmosphere occurred when the owner started shouting at a customer who turned up 2 hours late, restaurant was not full, so we don’t know what the “problem” was. Did not dare to mentioned the spring rolls after that….

Bistro Phils: Nice bar, lovely setting, great food, especially recommend tuna tartare, crab salad, heard the pizza is very good, lamb shank and the crème brulee. One evening it was quite windy and I was feeling cold, Phillipe went upstairs and came back with a sweater for me, he is such a gentleman!

Hibernia: I had the Marinated Duck and Crayfish out of the shell, both very very good. Can’t remember what my husband and friends had, but all very happy with their choices. Well worth the drive.

Zara’s: Someone made a mistake and I ended up with lobster instead of the Seafood crepe, a bit disappointing as that was the only thing I wanted. Did not want to sit waiting for them to prepare anything else, whilst the rest was eating, so had the lobster which was very good. Everyone else was raving about their food, wish we had gone there earlier.

Johnno’s: Wednesday night live music, with, Limbo dancing 21.30 hrs. Again, great meal, I had the Conch Stew, very tender, perfect. Friday night, tables on the beach and music by Mussington’s. Went here New Years Eve, after dinner at –

Roy’s Bayside Grill . I have written about this in another post, so in short – a great new place in Sandy Ground, Roy and Mandy has transformed the old Irad/Riviera, to a stunning looking and romantic beach restaurant. Nice bar, great food, a “must-try”.
You can’t get their famous Lobster Soup here, for that it is still -

Roy’s Place (Crocus Bay) : Just can’t go without the lobster soup, also recommend the steamed or the sautéed snapper. Nice bar and internet access, although the monitor broke and could not be replaced over Christmas, gave me a great excuse not to check in with the office! Happy Hour Friday night, 3 specials for $ 12.

Pimms: The boys’ special request, and it is a tradition for us. As usual Wilma greeted us with big hugs and kisses, and to the boys big amusement (“how you’ve grown!!). South American band playing, nice atmosphere.
Had a very nice table, restaurant was full but we never had the feeling of being rushed, food was very very good and the crème brulee was voted the best on the island, great service. Nice wine list, my husband gave the sommelier something to think about when he enquired about a certain vintage. Got the spiel about “difficult to get hold off, auctions etc..”, My husband told him he should go to Roy’s Bayside, they have it on the list! (had a good giggle over that one).

That’s it, and in between all those restaurants, we had leftovers at home, well 3 nights I think.

All good things comes to an end, and suddenly it was time to start packing and go home. We all had a great and relaxing time, 2004 had been a very busy and eventful year and we all needed a good recharge of the batteries.
This year we met up with Denise and Chris and it was lovely to meet them and put a face to a name behind post on forums and emails. And not to forget Ricky and Mambo. Hope to meet up next Christmas and have some more drinks together!

Return journey, followed same route, Gotcha met us at Blowing Point with his new boat Summertime, letting us leave in style as he put it. Checked in and went for lunch in the airport restaurant, had a very nice very fresh fish sandwich (did the chef ever work at Johnno’s??). Departure tax had already been paid to Air France, so straight thru security, lucky no line. SXM departure lounge is a zoo, rang my friends who were lounging at Malli, had problems hearing them thru the noise!

Expected Air France to go to Dominica first, so big and pleasant surprise that it was direct to Paris, however flight was one hour delayed. 7 hour flight, had a very nice dinner and then tried to get some sleep for a few hours. Arrived Paris, took ages to disembark, then bus to our section and gate, by that time we knew we had missed the 0815 connection. In line for 1 hr 15 min to change tickets, which took another 30 minutes. Then again thru security, took another 40 minutes. Well we were not in a rush.. our flight was 1315 hrs. Good flight, again very nice lunch, good service. Got to Manchester, all bags as well, changed terminals and another wait for our plane home.

Arrived home to our island, 3 hrs late, not bad, just in time to secure the hatches for a couple of very bad winter storms.

Nearly 4 weeks to get a decent tan, amazing how it fades so quickly, isn’t it?

(the end)

As always Olaug you have a wonderful time and give us a great report.
Just picked up US weekly ( a People type mag) and they have great photos of
the big break up Brad-Jen, but more important they mention our favorite dining beach bar Trattoria Tramonto!
And that they plan to come back to Anguilla!!

Lots of coverage in the gossip magazines here in the UK too, I picked up Reveal(similar to People) and nice pictures from Shoal Bay West and very nice review of Trattoria, Alan mentioned by name, and even the photoes he has and how much Brad and Jen "the kids" loves him. Fantastic advertising for him.

What a great report!! On a very cold dreary day here, it reminds me of the tastes, sights and sounds of Anguilla....
One question OT? Does there seem to be plans for CJ to take over SBBH(would be a fantastic thing)? The fabulous beach, and the pool and Le Bar are great but as I have stated before, forget the rooms. Would love to hear any news.

Do not know if CJ has bought SBBH, but they have taken over the management, new manager is from Carimar, and as we know Carimar has always had a very high standard.

One of our Anguilla forum friends stayed at SBBH for one week, and they said it was surprisingly good, a bit worn, but very clean and no bugs.

Under the right management it will do very well, all it need is a good tidy up inside and out. We have always wondered why a place with so much potential is nearly empty even at the busy Christmas period. As usual it had lots of the younger Stern family generation (overspill from the Thai house) and we also noticed a number of people in uniforms, guess crew from the numerous private jets parked at the airport.

LeBar is a separate business, only leasing the premises from SBBH, so not even Veronique knew what will happen when her lease runs out end of March. She was very doubtful CJ would renew the lease, as they like to have control over what happens on their turf.

CJ has also taken over Flavours, extended it and turned it into an American/Caribbean steak house. Heard a couple of quite negative reports.

Glad you enjoyed the report, it is cold and miserable here too, got caught in a heavy hailstorm when out walking the dog, cold and piercing into my face... urgghh... tried to think of the nice blue sea and the beach walking only 10 days ago!

Thanks OT for your reply. It has been several years ago that we stayed there and felt it was a perfect location but really did need a facelift. We were disappointed for what we had paid and what condition the room was in. The manager at the time could have cared less. She was indeed the only negative experience we have had when we traveled to my fav island!! Anyways, this is very good news to me!! I look forward to our next trip to Anguilla probably in 06, will check out the changes at SBBH. Thank you!