St. Martin provisioning tip

Right on the corner of Hard Beat to the East St. and Reasonably Pleasant Reach South Blvd. is the island of St. Martin. It is an island that 99.9% of cruisers heading south are sure to stop at and many will find that, by the time they reach there, most of the reasonably priced provisions that they stocked up on in Puerto Rico have long since been consumed. It is with this in mind that I share the following provisioning suggestion: visit Cost U Less.

Cost U Less is a super store akin to Costco or Sam’s Club, the difference being that no membership card is required to shop there. The store is located on the public bus route between Simpson Bay and Philipsburg and you can get there quickly and easily with a $1.50 bus ride. We have found that the prices on most things are excellent so it is well worth the trip. The best thing though, a secret that we only just leaned during our trip there yesterday, is that they will deliver your purchases back to Simpson Bay for free! That’s right, leave your dinghy at Simpson Bay Marina and take the bus to shop there. When you’re done shopping, go grab a bite to eat or whatever else you like to do to kill a bit of time, and when you get back to the marina, they’ll bring all your purchases there for you. Did I mention that they’ll do this for free?

When we visited the store yesterday, we travelled there with two other couples. While walking through the aisles, we met up with two additional couples that we knew who were doing the same type of pre-passage provisioning that we were. Cost U Less ended up delivering two full pallets of purchases for the 5 couples. In other words, a lot of stuff! We know from experience that on most of the islands south of here, things will not be so easily accessible nor as inexpensive. Take our advice… before you leave St. Martin, check out this store.

No, we did not buy these.