If I love Grand Case ...
 

Hi,

Can you suggest something similar to the feel of Grand Case in St-Martin for my next vacation. I'm open to any island in the Caribbean.

What I love about GC is the small village feeling, mix of restaurants, small stores within walking distance, not americanized, nice beach and condos right on the beach and other beaches, etc within short distance away by taxi.

I was looking at St.Lucia, Barbados and BVIs, Grenada. BVI especially is confusing on where to stay (I would be amenable to splitting my trip in two areas of one island).

Thanks!

Bump.

Anyone? Any ideas on what other islands offer a village kind of feel ?

In Barbados look at St Lawrence/Gap. St Lucia-Rodney Bay/Reduit Beach, Grenada not sure. These were British islands and don't have the same villagey feeling you get in the French Caribbean.
Guadeloupe & Martinique have lots of such villages, but lack the condos. St Pierre in Martinique especially has small French shops selling things from Provence but you get this in many such villages and small towns.

Thanks Odin, these are the areas that I have looked at. Might split my time between Bay Gardens Beach Resort (decent prices so no need for a condo) and Soufriere area (Tree House).
Or I might just end up in Grand Case yet again, life could be worse, if I do that i'll make sure to spend a few days in Anguilla next time.

Sunfish, I too love the village feel of Grand Case (even though I don't love the rest of St. Maarten the same way). What I've been doing is combining 2-3 days in Grand Case with another destination, as SXM is a convenient jumping-off point for getting to other islands. Doing this, we've split between Grand Case and Anguilla (by ferry), St. Barth (by sailboat), and most recently Nevis (by WinAir).

You can replicate this experience, to a degree, in Grenada. If you stay on Grand Anse beach, you are within walking distance to everything on that beach (small resorts, restaurants) as well as Morne Rouge beach. Town -- St. George's -- is a short distance from there. Those two Grenadian beaches are much nicer than Grand Case's beach, but you don't get the complete French village feel.

Thanks Callaloo. I agree with you totally on GC and the rest of the island. St.Barts and Anguilla are so expensive though compared to SXM but knowing that I think I could swing 3 nights. I thought of Saba as well, I know there's no beach but it looks beautiful for a couple of nights.

Grenada is on my radar as well, Grand Anse and maybe Petit Anse hotel in the North.

Half the fun is deciding!

We love Grand Case. We go to Isla Mujeres Mexico to get our beach fix when we can't take as much time or money for St Martin. Isla Mujeres is a small island off of Cancun and not at all like Cancun. It is very quiet with a couple of beautiful beaches. While the food on Isla can't compare in a gourmet sense to some of the restaurants in Grand Case there is a good selection of delicious, authentic and inexpensive mexican food.

Hi Quark,

I was looking up places to stay in Isla just yesterday! I went only once on a catamaran trip. Tell you the truth i'm not that much into French food anyways, it gets to me after 2 meals out.

Do you have any recommendation for places in Isla? I was looking at a few places that are within walking distance to the some restaurants or the town (a must since I don't drive).
There seems to be a lot of options. I would also want a nice swimming beach.

We always stay at Posada del Mar. It is nothing fancy with a price to match. Higher end accommodations are Privilege Aluxes, Ixchel condo and Nautibeach condo. Some of these places have kitchen facilities. They are on Playa Norte which is beautiful but very shallow. Aluxes is on Playa Sol or maybe it's called something else. Posada is on the same beach. The water is deeper and still beautiful. All these hotels/condos are very close to restaurants and bars. There are many other accommodations and if you go to Tripadvisor there is an active forum for Isla.