St. Maarten Private Eye

I also tend to disagree with the editorial. A vacation, by its very meaning should mean hassle free. Tourists save their money and accrue their time off and each and every day they look forward to coming to the island to indulge in beach life, fun, relaxation, good food, friendly people and laid back activities.
Instead they find themselves in bumper to bumper traffic, incredible frustration in going from point A to point B. They find hostile locals who are so very frustrated with the traffic problems they tend to blame the tourists for the back-ups. It seems that vacationers should be able to walk back and forth to lunch or dinner and maybe even a bit of souvenir shopping………….but find walking incredibly dangerous with no sidewalks, but instead they find large pot holes, mud, broken pavement and the ever present high traffic.
Simpson Bay area should be a vacationer’s paradise with plentiful resorts, restaurants, shopping, entertainment, movies and a nice community flavor. But it is impossible to really enjoy by automobile or by walking. We all understand that new roads are expensive and difficult to create but sidewalks in Simpson Bay should be an absolute necessity and lo and behold will probably cut down traffic problems. Our priorities must be to strengthen the positive tourism product and to lessen the hassles for our visitors.