Karibea Valmeniere Hotel, Fort de France, Martinique

We stay most frequently at the Valmeniere Hotel when we visit the island of Martinique. In fact, this was our home base, when the two missionaries were lost on Mont Pelee. You will find that renting a car from the front desk is very reasonable and convenient. Also there is a little grocery store on the corner across the street from the hotel.

You will get internet in the room and breakfast is included with the price of the room. It is a very nice breakfast. At night, the restaurant is a bit pricey, but the food is excellent.

Hidden away from the world on top of the hotel is a hot tub. It is up the stairs from the pool which is situated just outside the restaurant. We have also stayed at the Sofitel in Martinique but find the Valmeniere very convenient to Fort de France.

Sunset Shores Hotel, St. Vincent

This reasonably priced hotel is our favorite in St. Vincent. It now has wireless internet in the rooms, the air conditioning is good, the food is excellent and the staff is friendly. It is about 10 minutes from the airport.

The only concern might be the hardest of the beds. They are solid, but not heavenly beds if you are like the "princess and the pea."

Arawak, Gosier, Guadeloupe

What a great discovery the Arawak was for us this past week. We stayed three nights in Gosier and unfortunately could not find a place at the Sofitel or the Creole Beach Resort because they were fully booked.

We spent the first two nights at the Canella Beach in Gosier at the Pointe de la Verdure. The layout of the hotel was quite nice and the breakfast was good, however the rooms were terrible. During our first night we were in a room where the springs in the bed were broken. Upon request of a room change, we were given a room with faulty airconditioning that smelled musty.

The Arawak Hotel was a welcome relief to our two horrible nights. The feel of the hotel is quite American. It is spacious, airy, and the furnishings were relatively new.

None of the French hotels seem to be overly generous on bath towels or soaps in the bedrooms, except for the Sofitel. If you have trouble breathing or are overly concerned about the quality of the bed, I would not recommend the Canella Beach or even the Maison Creole down the road. We toured that facility and found the same musty smell at the Maison Creole.

Maho, St. Maarten

For us, a great find in St. Maarten on the Dutch-side is the Maho. This hotel is very close to the airport ($7 taxi) and is located across the street from some very nice restaurants of varying price ranges.

The rooms are very comfortable and the air-conditioning is as fine as you would find in the United States. Finding food at the hotel itself is very inconvenient and a breakfast is not included in the room package price.

The beach next to the hotel is very short. It takes three minutes to walk from one end to the other. The water is as blue and spectacular as you would find in Barbados, but the beach is very crowded. A jewel we discovered this trip is Mullet Bay. This beach is found in the opposite direction of the airport and beach next to the hotel. It is located next to the golf course just before you get to American University (the medical school). If you go to this beach before 9h30 a.m. you will find that you get the entire beach to yourself. It takes only about 10 minutes to walk to this beach from the hotel and is truly one of the finest beaches we have found in the Caribbean.

Now with this all said, our preferred stop in St. Maarten/St. Martin is still the French side in Grand Case, but if you do not have a rental car and want to be near the airport, the Maho Hotel is a great choice.