Island options

One interesting question on Sint Maarten (among others) is going to be whether I will feel at home on a small island inhabited by an odd 70 thousand people. My home town was roughly 40 thousand and I couldn't wait to leave - although I must admit that had to do with the attraction of living on my own as well... Having lived and worked in the Dutch four biggest cities Rotterdam, the Hague, Amsterdam and Utrecht, a small tropical island will be a change.

Cities have always attracted me because of their abundant options - you can still chill on your couch reading a novel, but you know that if you would want to go out and do something, that's always an option. Cities can surprise you, making you end up in places you hadn't heard about in the first place. The anonymity is great - people just leave you alone (well, most of the time) and no offence if you don't greet Mrs. Jones. And since the pool of people is so big, you can sort of pick your people and avoid people you don't really dig.

Having said all that, I still think that 70 thousand is quite a few people. How many friends does one need?! When it comes to the options, there will obviously be less things to do. However, some of the things one can do, would be out of the question in the Netherlands: sailing in blue waters, eating outside whole year round, go to the beach every weekend (that is, without a wintercoat) and there are some really nice islands nearby: St. Croix, Antigua, Dominica, Puerto Rico, etc. And a quick urban holiday is possible as SXM has direct flights to Amsterdam, Paris and New York to name a few nice cities. But when you think about it, most tourists fly in the opposite direction...