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.

Coconut Bay, Vieux Fort, St. Lucia

This is a great resort. We did a site inspection of it about six months ago and quite frankly we were underwhelmed. It seemed like it was not kept in pristine condition. However, this past week, we took a couple of days and purchased a day pass to be with friends from Canada who were staying in the resort. We were pleasantly surprised with all this resort has to offer and how affordable the prices are.

Coconut Bay is an all inclusive resort. For our friends, from Toronto, a $1500 per person price gave them seven days including airfare. This family of six was able to have a great stay and enjoy all the resort had to offer.

Downside? Reservations. We too had reservations, or so we thought. We booked a few days and carefully noted the name of the person taking our reservation. When we showed up at the resort to meet our friends, we were told our reservation would not be honored as we had not confirmed. I found this confusing because they had not offered me a reservation number. While standing in the lobby trying to sort this out, I conversed with another travel agent who had the same thing happen to her. So it was not my imagination.

Also, if you are renting a car for day trips, call around. The prices offered in the lobby are elevated over the local Vieux Fort rates, making it advisable to get a vehicle from outside of the resort.

So, why am I recommending the resort? For the money, the experience is great if you have a reservation number. The entertainment is wholesome, the resort is well-maintained, and the water toys are superb.

Sofitel, Gosier, Guadeloupe

Our favorite hotel in Guadeloupe is the Sofitel. It might sound strange but I love the soap products there. Even when we first started staying at Sofitels in San Francisco 10 years ago, I fell in love with the Roget Galet soap products provided in each room. Friends from France send me their famed "oat milk" bars of soap that are more readily found in France than in the U.S.

You will love this hotel. It is situated right on the sea, overlooking the Caribbean and every room seems to have a great view. In the 'lux' rooms, you have a bathtub that is surrounded by glass windows overlooking the sea. Yes, there are blinds. The beds are excellent and use the 'heavenly bed' format, complet with duvet and extra sheets.

We love the breakfast that comes included with the price of the room. It includes the best crepes you will find and remind me of the creperies in Brittany (France). After breakfast as you stroll the grounds, you will see literally dozens of large iguanas also out for their morning strolls. They appear to be people-friendly, as they walk right up to you.

One of the best photo ops for your tour of the Caribbean must include the shot from the reception area overlooking the sea. The decor of the rooms is excellent as it uses bright oranges and blues.

Personal Room Water Feature Observation - I love the showers in the rooms at the Sofitel. It is like being in a rainforest. Although I could stand higher pressure, the concept of a shower that takes up half the room with half a glass wall, gives a great rinse (using their Roget Galet products, of course). This is unique to the standard rooms. In the lux rooms, the entry to the shower is such a tight squeeze that it could have been designed a bit better.

Bay Gardens Beach Resort, St. Lucia

Our new favorite "affordable" resort in St. Lucia is the Bay Gardens Beach Resort. We love the decor and the finishing touches. The staff is very eager to improve in any areas requiring attention.

Located on the beach at Rodney Bay, this resort offers great restaurants within walking distance, terrific service, and every modern convenience. Each room is equipped with internet service at no extra charge.

Water Feature Experience: (Personal Observation) Although the designers of this great resort have excellent taste, not all of the bugs in the rooms have been worked out. The funniest experience we have had with water took place at this resort both times we stayed there. In the combination bath tub/shower is a pole on the wall with every conceivable water feature one could desire. The problem is that there are no instructions on how to use the shower. So there you stand, without a stitch of clothing for protection, facing the pole. As you turn on the shower water shoots out at you with great force. Hardly any of the water stays in the tub but rather fires across the spacious bathroom to the door which is in line with the tub. As you finally get the "shower pole" under control, you realize the only thing you can do is take a plain old ordinary shower with a boring drizzle from a little bit higher than your shoulders. What a waste of a great feature to miss out on the show massage and its accompanying nozzles that squirt water in fascinating angles. Oh well, perhaps soon each room will come with an instruction manual for the shower.