French West Indies

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This section of Travel Information -- Caribbean covers those Web sites which provide information on all or some of the islands in the French West Indies rather than on one particular one. Some sites may also provide information on French Guiana, a department of France located in South America.

French West Indies

Personal home page of frequent visitor with descriptions of beaches, restaurants, and activities. Descriptions and photos of people and beaches, but text- only pages are available with pictures linked for download if you wish. The descriptions are so good they make me think we lived it. (Wait a minute -- we did live it! That's The Civilized Explorer page.)

Français pour Voyageurs

If you do not know what that says, you need this page. Basic French words for numbers, dining, directions, and shopping.

Driving in the French West Indies

The Civilized Explorer team talks about what it is like to rent a car and drive on Martinique and Guadeloupe. Photos of road signs, photos of the roads, and suggestions.

Antilles Resto.com

A listing of restaurants in French Guayane, St. Martin, St. Barts, Martinique, and Guadeloupe. This site provides addresses, telephone numbers, and one or two-word descriptions of the listed restaurants (Brasserie, Restauration rapide). You may browse by island, then by style (Créoles, Italiennes, Mexicaines).

Agence de voyages Sunny Dream

En française seulement. Do not follow this link. Seriously. The home page for Sunny Dream is a nightmare of JavaScripted animation that will bog your computer down like molasses in Finland. And you cannot get off the page. Selection various links just gives you different versions of the slow motion nightmare. We have links to the various islands of the French West Indies in the appropriate section of this pages, so check there for the island of your choice, and avoid the Sunny Dream home page like the plague -- Sunny Dream is a nightmare. On the internal pages we link to below, the Sunny Dream link to Vols Secs takes you to the dragging, er, scrolling useless content. Other links take you to helpful pages with useful content.

Wèb an Nou

En fran&çaise seulement. This site covers Guadeloupe, St. Barthélémy, Guadeloupe, St. Martin, and Martinique, but it also has information on Guyane and Réunion. The pages have Java applet ads which makes for annoying loading times, even when you are returning to a page in your cache. Eventually, it crashed our version of Internet Explorer. The site provides links to information on each island covered: employment (if any), culture, commerce, governance, cuisine, health issues, entertainment, and much more. Many of the links are to other sites, and often links open another browser window. We also had problems with badly formed links, with "\" used in many cases, instead of "/." Although aggravating, the site offers considerable information.

Destination Archipel Guadeloupe

En française seulement. An attractive site with searchable databases for lodging (distance from airport, day care, four stars, conference room, pool, and so on), air and sea schedules for getting to and from the Archipel Guadeloupe, photographs by keyword and location, maps, and considerably more. This site covers Guadeloupe and its surrounding islets, St. Martin, and St. Barthelemy.

French Caribbean International

This is a commercial site for renting villas in the French West Indies. The site is very attractive with gorgeous photographs of the islands. Each of the islands has a map showing the location of the available villas; the descriptions of the islands are brief but accurate and without the breezy travel brochure hype. The authors give rates for the hotels and villas in U.S. dollars and offer toll- free reservations. Note: This site includes reservations on Les Saintes and Marie Galante.

French West Indies Consular Information Sheet

The US Department of State information sheet on the French West Indies (and French Guiana). A brief description of the FWI, entry requirements, medical facilities, crime and traffic safety reports, and embassy locations.

Travel Document Systems: French West Indies

A private company in the US which assists US citizens with obtaining proper travel documents, Travel Document Systems has its own information on the FWI, and also provides entry requirements, travel conditions, and links to additional resources on the FWI.

Outremer -- Le WEB des Antilles Françaises

En Français seulement. An excellent site with considerable information on Martinique, Guadeloupe, and Guadeloupe's surrounding islands. This is a commercial site providing Web access for companies doing business on the islands and for companies providing tours and excursions. In addition, the site provides information on each island, with links to lodging, culture, sights to see, history, and flora and fauna. This should be a helpful site for first- time visitors. Bring your French dictionary if you do not read French.

AbcAntilles FWI WWW

En français; in English. This is a commercial site with information about renting a villa on any of the islands of the French West Indies. It is written in French with English subtitles. There are very few photographs, and the text is about renting a place to stay. No descriptions are provided. If you have been to one of the islands and want to rent a villa, this site will be helpful.

Guadeloupe

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Guadeloupe TOC:
| General Information | Lodging | Activities

General Information

Guadeloupe

The Civilized Explorer pages on the island of Guadeloupe.

Guadeloupe Link Roll

Where all our updates will be from now on. You can subscribe to RSS feeds through Ma.gnolia if you wish.

5 Day Weather Forecast

Weather from USA Today for Guadeloupe, giving high and low temperatures in Fahrenheit and Celcius. Time is given in Universal Time (also called GMT); subtract 5 hours for the local time in Guadeloupe.

Actualité et info Guadeloupe

En française seulement. This is a very helpful listing of information, including local weather, the economy, real estate, tourism, and the "black connection." The tourism section lists hotels and gites, car rental agencies, and more. The section on lodging (hébergement) is even more extensive that the hotel list.

Radio and TV Stations

A listing of radio and TV stations on Guadeloupe, their formats, and links to their webcasts.

Travel from Guadeloupe to its surrounding islands

A page of links to airlines, airports, and ferries that will take you to Les Saintes, Marie Galante, and other islets surrounding Guadeloupe.

Guadeloupe Info

Available in English, French, Italian, and German. The navigation is rather aggravating, as each link opens another window in your browser, even more aggravating because the first link off the main page is to an "enter" page. Eventually, we get to pages with information on sailing, tourism, and surfing on the island. This is not our favorite site, but it provides information not available elsewhere.

Guadeloupe-Direct

Guadeloupe-Direct has a plethora of links to information on local culture, local events, transportation, dining, lodging, maps, nightlife, and what to wear. Unfortunately, some of the links (restaurants, for example) are to little more than a table of names, cities, and phone numbers. Other links provide solid information (transportation, for example) and then a link to tables of resources (rental cars, taxis, and so on). Worth the visit.

Map - La Guadeloupe

A somewhat misleading name, as this page is of a small map of the island, with links to the tourism offices in many of the island's cities and towns, giving addresses, telephone and fax numbers, and email addresses where available. There is a very annoying ad that pops up over every page, but we managed to get beyond it.

Comité du Tourisme des Iles de Guadeloupe

In French, Italian, German, English, and Spanish. The site gives links, email addresses, postal addresses, and telephone and fax numbers of the tourism offices for many of the cities of Guadeloupe. The site also offers substantial information on the several airports, entry requirements, a searchable index of accommodations, local history, culture, and foods, along with much more. Recommended.

Gwad à reves

En française. Hundreds of photographs of the island -- the markets, volcano, towns, sea, flowers, distilleries, and much, much more.

Liste des panoramas

Lots of panoramic photos from Guadeloupe. In addition to scenery, the panoramas include beaches, marinas, and hotels, so you can get an idea of some of the locations you may be considering visiting. Panos are QuickTime.

Le Guide de la Guadeloupe

This Sunny Dream site offers links to lodging, restaurants, cars, and the like. We had some trouble with navigation in our most recent visit (July 2003), with some links broken, meaning that we could not see all the listings and could not get prices.

Le Tourisme en Guadeloupe

En française seulement. The site promises information on tourism, business, sports, shopping, and creole cuisine. Download times in the U.S. are somewhat slow, but the information is well worth the wait. In addition to the usual descriptions of culture, history, cuisine, and the like, this site provides addresses and telephone numbers of museums, recipes for creole food (including a translation of the creole into French), and where to shop for local crafts. Although this site is entirely in French, it is recommended for the quality and depth of the information provided.

Media Langues Caraïbes

In English; am deutsch. This site offers "French Under the Caribbean Sun." MLC offers courses year round for all levels, with programs of 20 hours to 120 hours, with two- week to three- month periods of instruction. You may register online, and schedules and prices are given in Euros. (We add Francophone and institut to this description to aid in search results.)

Municipality of Saint-François

En française; in English. This is the official site of the Commune de St-François, and a lovely site it is. There is a page for its plans for its roads and other construction, a list of all the council members, but there are also pages on the marina, the airport, and tourist- related businesses, with links to the hotels, car rental agencies, and tour operators. There is not a great deal of tourist information on the town, but there lists of businesses in the town -- hotels, car rentals, and local tourist operators..

Bienvenue Chez Antilles Info Tourisme

En française; am deutsche; in English. This is one of the few local sites about Guadeloupe we have found. The site contains a great deal of information of the towns of Guadeloupe, lodging, restaurants, banks and money, business hours, and a nice overview of the island, La Desirade, Marie Galante, and Les Saintes and Petite Terre. Be sure to drop by the photo album. Recommended.

Archipel Guadeloupe

Searchable index of businesses on Guadeloupe and the surrounding islands. You may search by company name, personnel, or by location on the islands.

Guadeloupe

If you are doing a school report on Guadeloupe, this page will give you a nice start, with a picture of the local flag and brief summaries of the geography, politics, economy, and government.

Zebulon's Guadeloupe

This is a well- done site on Guadeloupe with considerable information on what to do, where to go, and where to eat. Be aware that some links are the same color as text, so you must roll your cursor over text to find them. There is a great deal of information and many excellent pictures.

Travel Docs

This page provides a wealth of information on Guadeloupe, although not the usual tourist hints. The material is straightforward and useful -- entry requirements, health precautions, and links to more information on the island and its people, government, and economy. Very useful for those persons who want more depth in their knowledge of Guadeloupe.

Back to Guadeloupe TOC

Lodging

Caraïbes 'Nat

En française seulement. A naturist resort outside San François, this site has lots of small pictures so it loads quickly but still gives a nice overview of the property. Prices are given in euros, and you may make reservations online. (Note that this is a naturist resort, so the photos include naked people.)

Au coeur de la mer des Caraïbes

En française. The site is full of tables and frames, and not all the pages render correctly on our browser window size. This site has more links to places to stay on Guadeloupe than any we have seen. Finding gites is a snap, provided you know where you want to go. Selecting Hebergements from a menu takes you to a clickable map, if you do not know where you want to stay. (Selecting Vehicule gives you rental of cars, boats, and motorcycles.) Generally, you pick a town, and you get a page with several links or "Consulter." Selecting a link or Consulter takes you to a page with photographs and descriptions of the gites. Quality varies from multi-unit condo style to individual bungalows to very nice villas. Each page varies, so some give you full information, including surroundings, distances to beach and other towns, and price, while some pages give a short text description and no photographs. We noticed that navigation by the map gave us different pages from when we chose links from the menu in the left frame, so explore the site from different pages to exploit it fully. Navigation in frames is a pain. Without frames, this site would be recommended because of the number of units and depth of information. Unfortunately, it is too difficult to get around and see all that is available.

Les Amandines

En française seulement. A single page with photographs of the exterior of the building, Ste. Anne's beach, and interior photographs of the units. Prices are given in euros, and reservations may be made through the site on a form with French and English instructions.

Guadeloupe Hotels & Gites

Available in French, English, and German, this site lists hotels, bungalows, and gites all over Guadeloupe. Find your lodging by clicking on a map; you then are taken to a page with a short description of the town and a very short description of each of the lodgings available there. Some of the residences have links to their own Web sites with additional information, including photographs and rates. Other places have only the name, address, telephone, and fax numbers. This is a very helpful site.

Prime-Invest-Hotels

Perhaps not the best name for a Web site, but the listings are for three hotels on Guadeloupe, two in Gosier and one in St. François. Rates are given in French euros, and reservations can be made by email.

Hotel Rotabas

En français; in English. This is a brief page of photographs and information on the Hotel Rotabas in Ste. Anne, Grande Terre. Rates may be obtained by email.

Back to Guadeloupe TOC

Activities

Guadeloupe -- Climbing the Volcano

The Civilized Explorer team climbs La Soufrière and brings back photos and their report.

Surf and Body Surf in Guadeloupe

This site lists about three dozen sites along the coasts of both islands of Guadeloupe for surfing and body surfing. Each location is listed with reef, level, roller, swell, and notes (dangerous road traffic, crowded, seaweeds, and such).

Sailing in Guadeloupe

Information in English; also in French. This site provides listings for events, races, and regattas, sailing lessons, bareboat charters, ports, brokers, and considerably more. The site also lists navigation dangers and rules, formalities for entering Guadeloupean waters, and where to get repairs and supplies. There are also lots of photos of races and regattas. For the sailor, this site is recommended.

Paradoxe Croisieres

En français; in English. Day cruises on sail boats leaving from the marinas at Bas- du- Fort and Saint- François. Schedules and prices in Euros.

Carnival on Guadeloupe

A page of photographs and descriptions of Carnival on Guadeloupe.

Three Routes Guadeloupe

Links to commercial dive operators on Guadeloupe.

Back to Guadeloupe TOC

Martinique

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Martinique

The Civilized Explorer page on Martinique, updated as of our trip in March, 2002.

Martinique Links

Additional links to sites we have found helpful.

Martinique Link Roll

Our Ma.gnolia links for Martinique, where all updates will occur from now on. You can subscribe to an RSS feed, if you like.

Martinique Guide Directory

This is a rather cursory guide, but it is very broad. It lists festivals (each city has one for its patron saint, by the way), night clubs (by address and town, with telephone numbers), cuisine, day trips, and more. Nothing in depth, but the breadth of listings makes the site interesting.

Mt. Pelee, West Indies

Two pages whose main attraction is contemporary photographs of the 1902 eruption of Mont Pelee, which killed over 20,000 persons. The site has information on the type of eruption, and photos of St. Pierre after it was burned to the ground.

Martinique Photos

Photos of Martinique organized by topic (gardens, rum, yoles-rondes racing, and the like). Generally, we would classify the photos as snapshots, but you can find photos of Pitons du Carbet and other locations, so we rank the site as helpful.

Martinique-LANIC

The University of Texas Web page of links organized by topic. Many of the links are to pages in French, and the range is marvellous: hurricanes, Mt. Pelee, archaeology, literature, music, and much more. Recommended. (LANIC is the Latin American Network Information Center.)

Martinique Online

This company wants to be the local Web portal for Martiniquans, and it provides links to several sites using its services: pharmacies, Yellow Pages, restaurants, movies, local weather, and the city halls of Ducos, Lamentin, Forte de France, Ste. Marie, St. Pierre, and Ajoupa Bouillon. This page and all the sites it links to are in French.

Annulaire des sites Web de la Martinique

A directory of Martiniquan Web sites, organized by arts, institutions, business, tourism, leisure, products, education, health, and internet. Although it is entirely in French, we consider this site a terrific resource. Recommended.

Discover Martinique

Available in French and English, but some of the English links go the French pages. The site is maintained by a man who lives on Martinique and works for a local internet service. He says it is updated weekly, and he provides links to culture, rum, news, and considerably more.

Martinique Access Ile

This site is by a paraplegic who is quite active. Among other information on the island in general, he provides comprehensive lists of companies provided accessible transporation, lodging, and tours, along with information on health care. His background information on Martinique and its history is quite interesting.

Climbing Mont Pelé, Martinique

A description of the steep climb, with photographs.

Map of Martinique

A simple map showing towns along the coast, but not the roads.

Map of Martinique

A clickable map of the island. There are buttons below the map, or you may click on the map itself. It appears to have been generated by a 3D modelling program until you get to the last step, which seems to be photo of a map.

Weather in Fort-de-France

Ten- day forecast for Forte-de-France. NOTE: The temperatures in larger type are in Celcius, not Fahrenheit.

Radio and TV Stations

Listings of radio and TV stations, their formats, and links to Web casts.

Comité du Tourisme da la Martinique

En française. Official site for Martinique tourism. Even though entirely in French, this is a remarkably helpful site with maps, lists of the many museums, current events, the cities and towns, transporation, beaches, agriculture, and much more than we can list. Recommended.

Hotels in Martinique

Several pages of links with minimal information about nearly fifty hotels. Generally, you get the name of the hotel, its location on Martinique, the number of rooms, a telephone number, and perhaps a list of amenities offered.

Le guide de la Martinique

A Sunny Dream site. Some minimal information on Martinique's major towns and hotels. There are some good photographs of the beaches, some of them 360-degree panoramas.

Les sites officiels des Municipalités en Martinique

En française seulement. This is the official site of several cities on Martinique. The site claims to have an English version, but on our visit in July 2003, those links were either not active or lead to pages in French. C'est la vie. Of the score or so of cities listed, only five had working links, and the pages relating to each city seem to have been done entirely separately; there is no uniformity of appearance or information. You may find information which is of use to you -- or maybe not.

Island Trips

These people want to rent you a room for your stay in Martinique. There is quite a listing of hotels, inns, condos, villas, and cottages. There is also a helpful overview of the island and some of the larger towns. Prices are given sometimes in American dollars, sometimes in euros. You can make reservations by telephone or online. We were not always able to determine just where the units were located, and location makes a big difference on this big island. Be sure to check a map against the location (if any) given for the lodging you are considering.

Bienvenue au site de Tourist Martinique

En français; in English. This is an attractive site with interesting information. We especially enjoyed reading the history of the island. Lots of useful telephone numbers and addresses, along with very brief descriptions of the towns.

Mt. Pelee

Two pages with a photograph of Mt. Pelee (the whole island of Martinique, actually) from a satellite, with contemporary photographs of Mt. Pelee's 1902 eruption. The photograph of St. Pierre is reminiscent of World War II damage to towns in Europe. These pages present a historical and scientific view of volcanic activity on Martinique (there were later eruptions in the 1920s and 1930s); the pages are part of a larger Web site devoted to volcanoes.

Travel Document Systems -- Martinique

This site is by a company specializing in obtaining travel documents for travelers. Much of the information is technical demographics of use to business persons, but the site provides travel conditions (always civilized in Martinique) and entry and visa requirements for U.S. citizens.

La Martinique | Bienvenue

En Français. Very well done Web site with attractive pages containing a great deal of helpful information and nice photographs. The site is not yet complete, but there is sufficient information for a visit to be worthwhile. Much has been added since our last visit. There are many new graphics which make for long download times, but the information is still very worthwhile.

Martinique SCUBA Diving Directory

This page provides links to dive centers on Martinique.

Les Ballades du Delphis

This site is for day-trips on a catamaran off Martnique. It is in French, but it has lots of nice photos, so you can enjoy the Web site even if you do not speak that language. There are three ways to charter, with the prices given in euros. Trip destinations depend on the whims of the wind and waves. They give a local telephone number and an email address.

Les Saintes

Les Saintes

The Civilized Explorer page on Terre de Haut, Iles des Saintes, a small island off Basse Terre, where the tourist industry has not (yet) taken over.

Les Saintes, part deux

The introductory page to our 2000 visit to Les Saintes; this page details our flight over. We will be adding another page or two with photos that give additional information on the island of Terre de Haut.

Les Saintes, Archipel de la Guadeloupe

In French only. We are happy to find this site. It has information on both Terre de Haute and Terre de Bas, with links to other sites on these tiny islands. There is an extensive listing of hotels, with links to their Web sites, and a list of radio stations (RFO streams audio if you wish to listen in).

Iles des Saintes

En français. Panorama view of the harbor from the deck of a catamaran with links to other 360-degree panoramas of the lovely little island.

Les Site des Saintes

En française seulement. Annoying music can be turned off by clicking the pause symbol, but it comes back every time you return to the home page. The site has annoying moving graphics, but it contains the names and telephone numbers of virtually every business on the island. There are brief video clips, and there are some 360-degree panoramas. The site is aggravating, but it has the most information we have found. Recommended for content, definitely not recommended for its presentation.

Le Genois

En française; in English. This is the commercial site for Le Genois, a restaurant on Les Saintes. The site is very attractive and provides menus, nice photos of the interior and the views, and a great deal of information on the people who live on Terre de Haut (in French, but with a Java link to a translator

The formed trap, several plongeurs put themselves to the water to oversee the progression of fish benches towards the net. It is not rare, to the big dam of fishermen, what these contournent benches the net, This determining naturally the importance of holds.

). You can become a member of the Havana Club and enjoy Cuban cigars, check the local weather from the Web site, and sign their guest book.

Postcard from Bourg

A brief overview of Le Bourg from a sailor. This single page really nails it. If you want to know what Les Saintes is all about, read it here.

Les Saintes

This is a commercial site providing information on lodging on Les Saintes. The site also provides brief information on the islands, activities, and getting around.

Hotel Bois Joli

En française; in English. Hotel Bois Joli offers 24 rooms and 7 bungalows. Lots of photos, but you must email for rates.

Hotel Directory, Les Saintes

En française; in English. A text- only list of hotels and other lodging on Les Saintes. The listings give the address, telephone and fax numbers, email, number of rooms, and location (beach, view).

Auberge Les Petits Saints (French)

(in English)
This commercial site offers rooms at this auberge for from one to six persons. The site gives rates and has many photographs of the location, rooms, restaurants, and the pool. Reservations may be made by telephone, fax, or email, with the information given.

La Desirade

Photographs of Le Desirade, one of the small islands off the coast of Guadeloupe. There is an accompanying text description.

Marie Galante

Photographs of Mare Galante, one of the small islands off the coast of Guadeloupe. There is an accompanying text description.

St. Barthelemy

St. barth TOC:
| General Information | Restaurants | Lodging | Real Estate Agencies

Read about this book.

Read about St. Barth French West Indies, a book of photographs of St. Barth.

General Information

St. Barth

The Civilized Explorer pages on St. Barth, with information on lodging, dining, and sunning on the beach.

St. Barth Link Roll

Our St. Barth links will be continued on Ma.gnolia, where you may subscribe to an RSS feed if you wish.

St. Barth web cam

A view from a villa overlooking Baie de St-Jean.

Map of St. Barts

This link is to a map of St. Barth, but this site has several pages with information on the island. At the time of our visit to the Web site in mid- 1999, the site seemed to be just starting out on St. Barth, and there were few listings and little information. The map is quite nice, though, and shows the locations of hotels, restaurants, and beaches.

Planning Your Trip

The Civilized Explorer's do it yourself guide to planning your trip to St. Barth -- lodging, meals, and shopping.

St. Barts Talk

Although this holds itself out as a forum for discussion, there are many informational posts for rental villas, festivals, along with a directory of villas and businesses. The contributors to this forum are long- time visitors with a wealth of information. Recommended.

St-Barth Info

En française seulement. A wealth of links to information about the island. There is a phone directory which you may access by business (resto, garagiste, for example), customer name, address, or telephone number (reverse lookup). There is a list of radio and television available on the island, with lists of programming, a list of Web sites concerning the island, web cams, news of St. Barth and the Caribbean, listings for businesses, banks, public services, and much more than we can list here. Recommended.

Funny Face Books

A bookstore in Gustavia with books in English, French, German, and Italian, along with tea, coffee, pastries, and periodicals from Great Britain and America. There's a nice balcony overlooking the street for your snacking and reading pleasure, along with stationery, cards, gifts.

Micmag

En française; an irregularly updated online magazine for all the culture of St. Barth. Includes links to and listings of artists, photographers, writers, weather, tourism, music and musicians (and DJs), and much more. Lots of frames, lots of photos.

Alacase.com

En française; another Website about St. Barth. Lots of photos, links to local weather, services, activities, and the like. This looks like a good site to keep up with the goings on during your time away from the little island. There are links to a couple of Web cams, which are updated every half minute or so.

Ti Gourmet

The online home of that little magazine you always get on St. Barth. It is just a colorful and hard to sort out online. It is apparently only in French, but it provides a wealth of information on restaurants, entertainment, sports, artists, and the inevitable much, much more.

Premium IV

A special service site. The team will provide any services you need: meet you at our incoming flight or ferry on St. Maarten and/or St. Barth, take you to your villa, provide food and wine daily, arrange for your rental car and activities during your stay, and deliver your baggage and you to your point of departure when you must leave. They will also do planning for any events you wish to host and provide you with a cell phone and local dial up service if necessary. Premium IV also has the most extensive information we have found on weddings on St. Barth.

St. Barth Services

A service to expedite your arrival and delay your departure. They will meet you at St. Martin to make sure your luggage and you make the next available flight, and you may have them take your luggage from your villa on St. Barth to the airport and check it and you in before you leave the beach. Their VIP service costs 260 euros for two persons, at least in April of 2005. They offer additional services, as well, including charter services, confirmation of flights, delivery of your rental car to you, and parties in your villa with food, servers, and entertainment.

M'Bolo

Your Civilized Explorer team generally shops here at least once before we leave the island, and we are glad to see an online presence, available in French and English. The Website has a rather confusing navigation system, but all the products are there. The site is searchable, and there is no obvious way to order any of the goods. We assume we must email a query based on the results of a search.

Sabina Zest

A Web site for clothes made on St. Barth by Sabina, a longtime resident from Sweden. The site requires Flash, and presents a never ending series of images fading from one to another. Her clothing is soft and intimate and brings back fond memories of our visits there. Prices are in euros, and garments may be shipped by post or by DHL. The site requires a particular size browser window which we not not use, so we have missed some details on garments, purchasing, and such as some words were chopped off. C'est la vie.

Les Creolines

This site is available in French and English, and it has too many photos and an not enough text. We had to click through five pages to find out what Les Creolines is. They rent cottages, although we do not know how many are on the property. The photos show some lovely details without providing any overview of the property at all, and there is no text description, just rates and inclusions.

Chez Andy The Hideaway

Andy runs The Hideaway, a restaurant in St. Jean. He has a sly sense of humor which runs amok on his Web site. This is a very well done site, with photos and contact information.

Le guide de Saint Barthélémy

An excellent resource for St. Barth travellers, with links to lodging and gorgeous photographs of the beaches. However, the Virtual Visit was fully stocked with excellent photographs of the island, along with several 360- degree panoramas (frequent visitors will spot Le Select and Goldfinger in the Gustavia panorama).

St. Barts Music Festival

This is an annual event on St. Barth, taking place the end of January and beginning of February; check this site for the exact dates. The site offers tickets and lithographs, as well as invitations to benefit dinners at locations other than the island.

St. Barths Online - Home

Available en française and in English. This site is by a transplanted American who has lived on St. Barth for 20 years, so he has a long term view of the island, its residents, and its tourists. Be sure to read the page entitled "Visitors" -- It is dead- on. Since the authors are a transplanted American and his French wife, you get wonderful tips on where to stay, where to eat, where to shop, and what is going on on the island. Recommended.

Radio Transat

The St. Barth/St. Martin radio station's Web site.

Radio St. Barth

The Web site for St. Barth's radio station. (The image labelled "Nous ecouter en ligne" is their Web cast.)

St. Barths Online St-Barth Weekly

Your weekly fix for online news from the friendly little island.

Back to St. Barth TOC

Restaurants

Le Gaïac

This is part of the site for Le Toiny, and there is only a short description of the restaurant and a menu. This is one of our favorite restaurants on St. Barth, and we always eat there at least once.

Nikki Beach

This is a fun restaurant, and it is reflected in the Web site. The initial page for for the Miami Beach version, and you need to look for the link to St. Barth just below the image. The music can be turned off, the picture of the week changes every five seconds or so. Lots of photos, 360-degree panoramas, clothes, music. It's almost like being there.

Le Ti St-Barth

This is a very good restaurant in Pointe Milou. The page gives their weekly program, and we recommend a visit any time.

Back to St. Barth TOC

Lodging

Eden Rock Hotel

This was the first hotel on the island. As of January 2005, the hotel has been remodeled, and the photography on the site is excellent (although the slide shows are rather slow to load). Full contact information and rates are available online. Inquiries by email, telephone, and fax.

Isle de France

Lots of nice photos in pages that load quickly (after a Flash spash screen). Prices are given in euros; be sure to scroll down the page all the way -- there are specials and packages. An 800 number is given for reservations, as well as email and Web page. The virtual tour is a clickable map of the site, a nice touch although it did not work for us.

Le Toiny

Lots of photos, but not much information on this very good hotel and restaurant. Rates are given in euros, and you have telephone, fax, and email for reservations.

Back to St. Barth TOC

Real Estate Agencies

Roc Flamands Blue Villa

This appears to be a private villa offered by its owner. It is a surprisingly attractive site with subtle rollovers, lots of photographs, a description of the area, and prices (in US dollars). The site provides a booking inquiry form for you to make reservations.

St. Barts Villas of Distinction

This commercial site has a photograph of a featured unit, then a text list of villas from one bedroom to five. Prices are given for a week's stay, but be prepared for surcharges for Christmas and for service.

St. Barts Real Estate - CMI

Claudine Mora offers properties for rent or sale. This link is to the English page; there is a section in French. Rental units are given a page each with two photographs and rates, along with a glowing description. Units for sale get three photographs; some list a price, some do not. Contact for additional information may be by email, telephone, and fax.

Ici & La Saint-Barthelemy

English and French. This site offers rentals, and offers from one- bedroom to five and more. Each unit has a couple of photographs and tons of information, including location, rental price, nearest beach, distances to restaurants (though no names are given), Gustavia, and the airport, and a glowing description. If you have not been to St. Barth, the information on this site may be most helpful in determining if a rental unit meets your desires.

Marla Immobilier

Marla offers units for rent and for sale. The page with rentals has way too many thumbnails, and it takes too long to display them all. And then they are thumbnails; you cannot make any decisions based on the small image of a pool or deck, so you must dive deeper into the site. Each unit has a brief description, a location, three or four photographs, and rates. Units for sale are not listed.

NEW Agency

Sales and rentals. The pages for rentals offer a few photographs, a very basic description, and rates. Sale units had photographs and descriptions, but no prices.

Newland Real Estate

This company is based in the U.S. Virgin Islands, and it offers property there and in St. Barths. There were only two units listed on the date of our visit, with lots of photographs, a glowing description, rates, location, and a sale price if you want to buy (in U.S. dollars).

St-Barth Realty

This is a spiffy site with a Java applet to rotate photographs of offerings. Our browser had problems with the page layout, superimposing some text over other text and not showing the entire page to the right of the browser window. The site appears to have been done in Front Page, which explains the problems. The company appears to offer property for sale, with a sentence fragment or two describing each property and a photograph. The site gives considerable detail on the formalities of buying realty on St. Barth. Although the prices appear to us to be in dollars ("$110,000" for a clothing store, for example), the site says prices are in French francs (110,000 French francs for a business? We don't think so.).

Price List Caribbean Villas of St.Barts

This site is a table with a lengthy list of villas, bed/bath numbers, prices, descriptions, and locations. Most of the listings have individual Web pages, too, so you can see photos.

St. Barth's Villas

This page has a very extensive listing of villas, with location, size, and prices given. Many of the villas have separate pages with several photographs, descriptions, prices, and distance from the beach. There is also a map which gives you a basic idea of the area where each villa is located.

St. Barth's Rentals and Real Estate

This site has listings of several villas available for rental from one bedroom to four. You can search by location and number bedrooms/ baths or just follow the links to villas listed by size. Each villa has two photos -- a view of the villa and a view of a room, but we could not really tell anything from the photos that distinguished one place from another. We could not find any prices, an ominous sign. They have a listing of some of the restaurants with brief descriptions. And if you want to buy a villa, the average listing at the time of our visit was US$1.25 million

St. Martin - Sint Maarten

Read about this book.

5 Day Weather Forecast

Although the request is for St. Martin, this page says, "St. Martin Island, Guadeloupe," so we are confused. Current conditions are as of 3:00 pm local time, and forecasts go out four days.

Météo du Monde

Current conditions in St. Martin and St. Barthelemy as reported by La Chaîne Météo; temperatures are in Celcius.

Princess Juliana International Airport

The Web site for the airport. The site has useful information for travelers to St. Martin and for those going on to other destinations (such as Saba and St. Bart). It includes entry requirements for Americans, Canadians, and Europeans, security information, how to deal with the departure tax, what currencies are accepted, what carriers land there, and more.

The Daily Herald

St. Maarten's daily newspaper covers both sides of the island.

Radio and TV stations

Radio and TV stations, their formats, and Web casts. (NOTE: lists other islands; you may need to scroll down to St. Martin.)

Le guide de Saint Martin

En française seulement. This is a Sunny Dream site; see our previous discussion. This page gives you access to both sides of the island, with links to lodging, restaurants, auto rentals, and the wonderful virtual visit with excellent photographs and 360-degree QuickTime views. The map on the page this link goes to is clickable -- the French side gives you French links, and the Dutch side -- well, you know. As long as you do not stray to the base pages, this site is highly recommended.

St. Martin on a Budget

This site promises inexpensive lodging and restaurants on St. Martin. The resources were rather slim at the time of our visit, but more is promised. There are two hotels listed, with rates, photographs, and information about the location of the hotel. The descriptions are good, and the hotels seem to be reasonable accommodations for from under US$100 per night to under US$200 per night for two persons. The restaurants are given a couple of sentences with prices given in one case as under US$10 per meal. The site gives telephone numbers and addresses for the hotels; it appears that reservations must be made by telephone or mail, not online.

The St. Maarten/St. Martin Paradise

This is a commercial site that presumes a much wider monitor than we have, at least in the frame version. This is an attractive site with lots of beautiful photographs (and we have the download times to prove it). One of the frames may have a series of photographs loading into it, but on our 14.4k modem, we never got anything but sky and the tops of some things before it cleared and the next sky and tops of some things began loading in. We agreed with the author's description of the beaches and find the descriptions of the resorts as we remember. There is a wealth of links to related island sites as well. Recommended.

Official Guide to St. Martin

This site has a brief introductory page with phone numbers and addresses around the world for more information. It also has links to points of interest, activities, travel, accommodations, food, events, and so on. The pages are attractive with small photographs. Since this is an official tourist site, all is wonderful, even if all the pages are not yet available for downloading. The information is helpful but without depth -- a very nice travel brochure.

St.Martin/St.Maarten Island Information

This is a commercial site offering villas, hotels, and condos. In addition, it provides a great deal of helpful tidbits about the island -- beaches, restaurants, and other information, all nicely illustrated with photographs. Rentals are listed in both table- format and text. The descriptions are very well done, rates are given, and the pictures are gorgeous -- You'll want to rent every one you see.

Mary's Boon Beach Plantation

This is a small hotel near the airport with an excellent Web site. The site not only describes the hotel and provides many photographs, it also links to the menu (with prices in US dollars), room rates, and to a reservation request form to email to the owners. Navigation is very easy with direct links or "previous" and "next" links. The site explains its policies concerning reservations, rates, and cancellations.