St_Martin travel tips and stories. Vacations ideas, cruises spa and resorts

St. Martin is a tropical island in the northeast Caribbean, approximately 240 km east of Puerto Rico. The 98 km² island is divided roughly in half between France and the Netherlands. It is one of the smallest inhabited landmasses in the world that is divided between two nations. The southern Dutch half is called Sint Maarten and is part of the Netherlands Antilles. The northern French half is called Saint-Martin and is part of the French overseas region and department of Guadeloupe. The main towns are Marigot (French side) and Philipsburg (Dutch side). The French part of the island has a land area of 53.20 km². Sint Maarten, the Dutch part of the island, has a land area of 34 km².
One of the most wonderful things about St. Martin is its cuisine. This is one of the few places in the Caribbean where you can get a “taste of France” at highly reasonable prices, and the availability of fresh fish and shellfish makes delicious seafood a prime menu item.
Being French, dining is taken very seriously: multi-course meals can typically last all evening, although there’s no law stating you can’t eat and run. The best places to grab a fast, delicious bite are the “Lo-Lo“s clinging to the seashore. These small shacks may not look like much, but their openess lures you in with aromas of tasty jerk chicken and grilled fish; real Caribbean cooking at a price of under ten dollars.
In traditional island-cooking, the ingredients are all thrown together in the same pot. Creole foodblends local ingredients with French style, and is the most widely available fare on the island.
Other West Indian stock dishes are based around cooking with salt-cod, okra, callaloo, coconut and Caribbean alcohol (rums or guavaberry).
If you have a sweet tooth there is a cure for that as well just sample some of the local specialties like sugar cakes, scones, potato-pudding, guava berry tarts, and coconut pies.
Guavaberry is the legendary folk liqueur of St. Maarten. It was first made here hundreds of years ago in private homes. People made as much as they needed to serve family and friends. Guavaberry became and still is an integral part of the local island culture. The word itself conjures up memories of the olden days, folk songs and stories.

The Guavaberry itself is a wild local berry, which is found in the warm hills at the center of the island. Guavaberry fruits are rare and seasonal, making the liqueur even more unique.