Luxury at Loterie Farm

As you may or may not know our holiday was for dads 50th birthday so of course we had to plan something special for him. Instead of buying him some random gift that he would use a couple of times and then forget about it we decided it would be much better to do something fun for the memories.

Before we headed out we did a little research and found Loterie Farm; A little paradise in the middle of nowhere; you can hike, zipline or just chill by the pool at L'eau Lounge where you can rent a bed or a cabana for the day as a base.

Thats what we did, we opted for the VIP cabana which had its own poolside deck and the bottle of champagne that was included definitely won us over. We thought it would be the perfect treat for Dad.

We headed there for it opening at 10; we wanted to make the most of it! We were shown to our Cabana and left to settle in which of course meant drop our stuff and explore by ourselves as no one else had arrived yet.

For the first half hour or so we only had the staff and a few of these guys for company!

Mike and Mum decided they wanted to go for a hike while the rest of us really just fancied a really chilled day by the pool, after all it was my first full day on holiday and I just wanted to relax.

The deck of our Cabana led out to this platform in the pool which was just perfect for lounging around without getting too hot. We read our books, went for a swim and had a chat with Rachid who was looking after us for the day.

When Mike and Mum got back from their walk Rachid brought the champagne over which was the perfect way to finish the morning...drinking at 11am is totally acceptable when you're on holiday right!

Well thats my story and I'm sticking to it!

By the time it got to the middle of the day a few more people arrived and one other cabana was rented out. I don't think there was more than 25 people there which was perfect, it was like an exclusive little resort.

July/august is not a busy time on St Maarten as rain and thunderstorms can be quite common so people tend to visit around christmas time when the weather is more consistent. We were really lucky, only had one afternoon that we had to stay inside. I highly recommend visiting in summer as it is really quiet and perfect for relaxing!

Anyway after another dip in the pool we were getting peckish so lunch and cocktails it was. The cocktail list was quite something and we couldn't decide what to order so asked Rachid to bring us over the 6 best cocktails; he did good! his suggestions were amazing!

There was a classic mojito, something with gin, a rum punch cocktail and of course I couldn't resist the Malibu option.

They were perfect to wash down what was quite possibly the best cuban sandwich I have ever had!

We had to give it a bit of time to let our food go down before we could move again; in fact I even think there were a couple of naps taken in the Cabana, but hey thats what it was for!

We spent the rest of the day reading books at the edge of the pool, jumping in and our of the jacuzzi and even made an attempt at some pretty terrible poolside yoga...well Mike was ok at it the rest of us not so much!

This was my favourite day of our trip! It was the best way to spend Dads birthday and I highly recommend it if you're looking for something different to do for the day. The staff were so friendly and accommodating, constantly checking up on you to see if they could get you anything but it wasn't too much...in fact the whole day was just perfect.
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A Plane to Paradise

I did have another post planned for today but honestly it wasn't quite right; I'll share it soon, promise! It just has to been done properly....but for today you'll be pleased to hear after my interesting but not ideal start to the holiday (see here) I finally made it to St Maarten and the rest of my family.

St Maarten is a tiny Island in the caribbean, half dutch, half french. It doesn't seem to be well known from the name but most people will recognise this airport landing.

Or you can check out the video on my Instagram!

And yes this sign does warn you against injury or DEATH! (the heat is pretty intense, I definitely wouldn't want to get too close!

I jumped off the plane to glorious sunshine and a short 10 minute taxi ride to our hotel at Simpson Bay; right on the beach front. I made the most of the afternoon sunshine before we headed out to dinner and a good Family catch up.

 Jimbo's is the place to go if you're a fan of fajitas and margaritas; they have original, strawberry, passionfruit or mango. I highly recommend the Mango, they're really good! So good that we went back for a second time later on in the holiday.

Aren't my brothers and I something special?!

So glad I finally made it; the last time we were all together was probably last christmas to having 8 days together was just what we needed.

The holiday was mostly about catching up and relaxing so I'm not going to share everything with you; only some highlights to inspire your own trip to St Maarten!

Unexpected Stop Over

Things have been a little quite over here but I'm not even sorry, I'm currently on the best family holiday ever! If you follow me on Twitter or Instagram you may have already seen some of the photos and you may also know that the trip didn't get off to the best start....

Mum, Dad, Matt, Mike and Ellie flew out on Saturday and I was supposed to join them on Sunday but thanks to a delay on my first flight I missed my connection and had to wait for the next flight out on Monday. I thought I was going to have some kind of breakdown in the middle of Charles De Gualle airport; I wanted nothing more than to get to my family. There was only one thing for it...I had to distract myself and after all I love Paris so I decided to make the most of it.

I got a taxi into town only to discover half the roads were closed for the Tour De France so that was an experience.

After eventually manoeuvring round the blockades I made the most of the sunshine and just took a long walk around the city to stretch my legs ahead of my 8 hour flight.

After tiring myself out, also pretty certain I'd managed to burn my shoulders I thought I best head for some shade and really is there any other place to do that than Ladurée?!

If you don't already know it is one of my absolute favourite places and any opportunity to visit must be taken especially since there isn't one in Edinburgh.

 Still feeling a little sorry for myself, but a good deal better than when I arrived I headed back to my hotel for the night keen to get a good start in the morning so there was no chance of missing my flight to St Maarten.