The Grand Case Table

The French side treated as what it is — the eating capital of this part of the Caribbean. A week of tables along Grand Case, a market morning in Marigot, and a chef who cooks in the villa on the night nobody wants to go out. A private, tailored journey of 6 Days · 5 Nights in St Martin, The Caribbean, designed end to end by a Forest Travel advisor — with Virtuoso privileges at the finest luxury hotels, from US$8,500 per traveler.

Few places pair such effortless turquoise beauty with the depth of privacy and service the islands quietly reserve for their most discerning guests.

When to go

December through April brings dry, sun-warmed days and calm seas, the ideal window before the summer humidity and hurricane months arrive. Your advisor times it to the light, the crowds and your own calendar.

The experiences

A sense of what this journey can hold — each one arranged privately and shaped to you:

• A privately arranged progression of Grand Case's landmark restaurants — from a barefoot lolos lunch on the beach to a white-tablecloth tasting menu at one of the boulevard's most celebrated addresses — paced so no two consecutive evenings feel the same.
• A market morning in Marigot with a local chef as guide, moving through the Wednesday or Saturday vendors to select Creole spices, fresh fish and tropical produce before sitting down at a harbour-side café for a rum punch and a debrief.
• An in-villa chef dinner on the quieter mid-week evening, built around whatever the market yielded, with a menu conversation the afternoon before so the meal reflects exactly what you want rather than a set repertoire.
• A focused visit to the French-side bakeries and fromageries of Marigot and Quartier d'Orléans, arranged with a specialist who can explain why Saint-Martin's dual-island status means a genuine Île de France cheese counter exists twenty minutes from a Caribbean reef.

A sense of the rhythm

Mornings on Saint-Martin belong to the market, the bakery and the espresso. Lunches are unhurried — a terrace, a rosé, a view of Simpson Bay or the Marigot lagoon — and afternoons are left deliberately open, because the serious work begins at sundown on the Grand Case boulevard. The pace is French in the best sense: structured around the table, generous with time between courses.

Whether to concentrate all dinners on Grand Case or to range across both sides of the island

Grand Case is the reason this journey exists, and attempting to cover both sides equally dilutes the culinary depth that makes Saint-Martin's French quarter genuinely rare in the Caribbean. Our counsel is to base the dinner calendar firmly on Grand Case — eight to ten restaurants worth returning to, and a week is barely enough — while allowing one deliberate crossing to Marigot for the market and a harbourside lunch. That single excursion to the Dutch side for a Maho sunset cocktail is a natural closer, not a detour; it does not require restructuring the entire itinerary around Philipsburg dining.

How to do it well

The counsel our advisors give travelers planning this journey:

• Reserve the most sought-after Grand Case tables — particularly the tasting-menu houses on the boulevard — at least sixty days ahead for winter travel, and ninety days for the Christmas-to-Carnival window running December through February.
• The Wednesday and Saturday markets in Marigot are the right ones to anchor a chef-guide morning; Wednesday is calmer and better for an unhurried conversation with vendors, while Saturday draws a larger selection of producers from the interior.
• An in-villa chef dinner requires confirming the villa's kitchen equipment list before arrival — open-flame cooking and professional-grade kit are not universal, and we vet this in advance so the menu is calibrated to what the space can actually deliver.
• Saint-Martin's high culinary season runs mid-November through April; visiting in late April or early May captures the same restaurants with meaningfully shorter waits, softer nightly rates and the first of the mango season at the market.

What only your advisor can open

The difference between a good trip and an unrepeatable one is access — and access is a relationship, not a booking. Every guide, room and moment is chosen and sequenced for you.

Who it's for

Travelers who value privacy, time and doing it once — beautifully — and who would rather have one trusted advisor orchestrate every detail than assemble it themselves.

Estimated investment

From US$8,500 per traveler, based on double occupancy — scaled to your dates, party size and level of privacy. A starting point, not a final quote; confirmed once your advisor tailors the itinerary.

Designed entirely around you

Nothing here is a package. A Forest Travel advisor shapes the whole journey and stays one message away before and throughout your trip.

Your Virtuoso privileges

As a Virtuoso member, Forest Travel includes benefits reserved for Virtuoso guests at the finest luxury hotels, at no added cost: a room upgrade on arrival when available, daily breakfast for two, a property credit toward dining or spa, and early check-in with late check-out when the hotel allows.

Continue exploring St Martin

Part of our St Martin travel guide. Related private journeys:

• A Villa on the French Side
• St Martin, Anguilla and the Cays
• A Long Weekend, Both Sides

Begin the conversation

Tell a Forest Travel advisor how you like to travel and they will design The Grand Case Table around you — privately, every Virtuoso privilege included. Request your private consultation →