CaribbeanBlue.

If someone were to ask me what the best parts of St. Martin were, I’d say the views, the food, and the people.

Whenever I hear Enya’s “Caribbean Blue,” I immediately think of the beaches I saw on St. Martin. The water was a seemingly endless mix of turquoise and blue, the waves were calm, at least occasionally, and we could see little fish swimming around our feet.

I remember lying on Orient Bay, listening to the waves without a care in the world and thinking, There’s nowhere else in the world I’d rather be right now.

While much of North America was cold, gray, and covered in snow in January, here I was with warm sand beneath me, a light breeze in the air, and a sea of blue stretching out in front of me. Those were the moments when St. Martin felt like absolute paradise.

And then there was the food!

We didn’t regret a single one of our food choices. Everything tasted so fresh and delicious that I would genuinely return to the island just for the food. One of the joys of staying on the French side was having access to wonderful French and Caribbean food everywhere we went, whether we wanted a proper sit-down dinner or something inexpensive to take with us to the beach.

Some of our favorite places included Gutside Café, French Bakery, Lulu’s Corner, and L’Astrolabe Restaurant. French Bakery became especially useful for beach days, with inexpensive and delicious sandwiches that were easy to grab on the go.

But what I remember just as much as what we ate were the people. The people we encountered in restaurants and shops were warm, friendly, and hospitable. There was an ease to those interactions that made us feel welcome wherever we went.

For all the logistical frustrations we experienced during the trip, there were moments when St. Martin was exactly what I had imagined a Caribbean escape would be: impossibly blue water, warm sand, wonderful food, and nowhere else I needed to be.