<BR>Have never been to Anguilla but it is sounding very interesting, esp with St. Maarten nearby.<BR><BR>What are the hotels that would be convenient to walking to stores and restaurants ? Or are taxis necessary to get around? Are there many attractions to go see or are the beaches about it?<BR><BR>Are there plenty of taxis available at St. Maarten if we take the ferry over there?<BR><BR>Do you think 6 or 7 days are enough time? (2 adults, no children)

Just back from our 13th trip to Anguilla. Anguilla and St Marteen/martin are like day and night. St Marteen is touristy, lots of shops and night life etc. Anguilla is just the opposite. Very laid back. Resorts are very spread out and few within walking distance of anything except those at Shoal Bay East. The luxury resorts and better resstaurants are on the west end of Anguilla. Cabs are expensive so better to get a rental car. The ferry rund to Marigot every half hour but the last ferry back to Anguilla is at 7 PM. There are cabs at Marigot Check out wwww.anguillaguide.com and www.festival.ai to get a feel for Anguilla. Feel free to e-mail me with questions. In my opinion one can never spend too much time on Anguilla but after one trip you'll probably be back again.

Hello Howard,
taking up your kind offer for offering help:
we'll be on a cruise boat and docking in St. Martin, marigot &quot;morning&quot; and leaving from there &quot;evening.&quot;
I just found some Ferry info, the Link Cat Ferry b/n the islands. Is this the one and only? Is it fine?

So, since we'd like to do this excursion for the day to Anguilla, here are a few questions for you:
1. is this the ferry service to use?
2. once arriving at Anguilla, sounds like a car rental for the day makes the most sense, economically?
3. is there one of the really nice hotel properties that we could go to for beach/hanging out/lunch casual?
4. any other recommendations you would make?
We did this sort of thing on St. Bart's during our one and only cruise some years ago and it was great fun.

Thanks, I'll hope to see a reply from you.

Hi, I've been going to Anguilla for the past eight years so let me take a stab. If you're talking about the ferry from the SXM airport, it no longer runs from there. You can take a cab to the French port of Marigot (about 20 minutes from the airport) &amp; catch a ferry to Anguilla from there. The ferry is $10/pp and there is a $2.50 departure tax that you pay at the dock. It runs every 1/2 hour during daylight hours &amp; the trip takes about 20 minutes. Once there, you can get a cab to take you to a rental car place or make arrangements with the driver to do a tour of the island or drop you somewhere &amp; come back. Daily rates for cars are in the $40 range &amp; you have to buy an Anguillian driver's license ($20) -- it's also left side of the road driving. Cap Juluca has a lovely beach &amp; very good beachfront restaurant but their chairs are for guest only. Trattoria (a restaurant also on the west end) has beautiful views, beach chairs &amp; great food. Shoal Bay East is a place where you could easily spend a day if you wanted to be dropped off somewhere. It's on the Atlantic side and there are good beach side restaurants (Gwen's has hammocks) &amp; the beach is lovely for swimming &amp; snorkeling. There are 33 beaches in Anguilla, most of which are just amazing -- the island itself is relatively flat &amp; scrubby (nothing like St. Martin and there's no shopping district so pick a beach and have a ball (it's virtually impossible to get a bad meal on the island -- Fabulous restaurants everywhere!)

Hi MaryD,
Thanks a bunch for your notes!!!
answers always bring more questions:
do you know if the other 2 &quot;luxury&quot; resorts have beach chairs for daytrippers, the Malliouhanna, or Frangipani, for example?
Also, I recall with such a smile our barefoot lunch at a fabulous outdoor restaurant some years ago at a Frenchplace on St. Barts'. Are the restaurants that you speak of that sort of very casual, on or adjacent to a beach and wonderful food?

Thanks again!!

Actually the &quot;Big 3&quot; luxury resorts are Cap Juluca, Mallihouana &amp; CuisinArt. Frangipani is lovely (&amp; where we stay) but a different level of service. All 4 are on SPECTACULAR beaches &amp; I honestly don't know the &quot;chair policy&quot; of them (Cap has signs posted about their chairs). All 4 have very good restaurants; George's which is Cap's casual restaurant is right on the beach. Trattoria that I mentioned is one of the top restaurants on the island, nice beach, gorgeous views (Cap &amp; CuisinArt look out over St. Martin; the others face the Atlantic -- beautiful but you're looking at a LOT of ocean). The food at Gwen's, Elodia's, Uncle Ernie's &amp; LeBar (Shoal Bay East --) is all good but most people are there for the beach which is just wonderful. All restaurants on the island are casual in dress, attitude, etc. It's a very laid back place. More questions -- just post. You'll find that Anguillaphiles just can't stop talking about the island.

Sorry it has taken me a while to respond. was away for part of the Holiday. Mary basically covered most of my recommendations. Re the Ferry it does leave every half hour from Marigot and Anguilla going back. As I recall it isn't on the half hour but 10 minutes after and 20 min to the hour. Sort of island time. The Link is a larger catamaran type ferry that makes two runs a day. The others are smaller but perfectly adequate. If you are going to be there on a Sunday and want to splurge go to Scilly Cay in Island Harbour ($20 cab ride). Fun place. The crayfish and lobster combo plater is excellent and we normally split one for lunch. The rum punches are lethal and you can lounge and dance the afternoon away listening to the Happy Hits. You'll probably spend about $100 Shoal Bay East is where most of the day trippers from St Martin go. $16 cab ride. You can rent beach chairs and umbrellas there. For seclusion I agree with Mary--Trattoria Tratmonto at Shoal Bay West. $20 cab fare. You can use the beach chairs/umbrellas for free if you have lunch there. A new restaurant on Meads Bay beach is L'indigo and they have tables and chairs on the sand. Another quiet place to spend the day. Cab fare is $14. If you eat lunch at Frangipani I don't think they'd mind if you used the lounges and umbrellas as long as you don't deprive the guests. You could check with Hermia in the front office or Ruth or Jane in the restaurant. L'indigo and Frangipani are within walking distance of each other.

thanks a bunch, Howard, for your post and info.

all ready to go; we leave soon and will take yours and Mary's notes along.

HNY.