TravelTalkOnline Forums Travel and Vacation Forums St. Maarten - St. Martin Current Recovery Status by Area?

Hi all,

Long time visitors and will be on island Nov 15 for a bit, and could use some updated input regarding status of various areas. We are booked at La Plantation in Orient Village. One reason is due to association to Bikini Beach which seems to be at the forefront of the newly reopened.

For context, in most recent years we'd usually stay in Anse Marcel at Cottage de Lonvilliers timeshare, and our favorite day spots were Anse Marcel Beach Club, Orient (CoCo), Grand Case Beach Club (Petit Plage), Friars Bay Beach Club, and Baie Rouge (sometimes venturing as far as Cupecoy). Then dinners anywhere from Grand Case to Orient Village (i.e. short drives).

So, from those in the current know, is staying at La Plantation a wise idea at this point? I have an option to move over to Porto Cupecoy if that seemed a safer bet in terms of recovery status, then we'd have access to their restaurants and visit Cupecoy and B Rouge during days. (Not positive if Dany back, or Raymond and/or Gus bars open again) I don't need everything to look perfect, I swam around a sunken excursion sailboat when visiting after Gonzalo, but we still don't want to feel unsafe, need a pretty beach, and some semblance of the same type of facilities we are used to to make it a vacation. Also aware seaweed may be piling up on some beaches more regularly than others, usually more of an Orient side issue, but not sure which side now.

Thanks for any news or advice! If anyone has a decent link to an online reference list of what's open and not, that'd help! I found this one ( https://www.st-martin-vacation.com/restaurants.html ) but it's hard to tell what sites are reliable and up to date.

Thanks again

Anse Marcel was wiped out. I've heard the Beach Club is to be reopened in December but don't know if that's happening. I'll be on island in two weeks and will check that out.

No bars or services at Baie Rouge; government removed Chez Raymond.

Dany is at Cupecoy.

We faced the same concerns as you and booked at the Rainbow in Cupecoy rather than the Orient area. Since we made our decision in August a new Petit Casino grocery store along with some restaurants have reopened in the village and a few beach establishments as well. We picked Cupecoy for the close proximity to grocery stores, restaurants and beaches. Another plus are the sunsets especially this time of year. BTW, Dany is still providing good service at Cupecoy.

We stayed in Orient Village in February and July and what a difference. All the restaurants in the village were open, Bikini Beach and Perch Lite actually on the beach, Le Douze for breakfast, in the plaza next to BO Pizza, Coda Bar in the next plaza, our daughter lives in Cupecoy, but we prefer to stay at Orient and drive over to see her for the occasional dinner.

Is the petit casino market open it was convenient to get a few things as well as fresh baguettes and croissants in the morning

It is now

We stayed in Grand Case, in a studio Oct 8-22. Only few restaurants open then, but so many more are open now. We never felt unsafe. We ate at La Villa, Le Cottage, Piazza Pascal, all twice. We ate twice at Cote Plages in Orient Vilage, once at Sol E Luna, and once at Le Taitu. All wonderful meals. Bikini is absolutely beautiful & has a great restaurant. By the round about is another great restaurant- Al Dente. We had lunch there, but it it the same menu for dinner.Several other great restaurants in Orient Village, and in Grand Case, I hear open now: Bistrot Caraibes, L'Auberge, Spiga, Rainbow. Soon to open is the old Il Nettuno, has a new name I think begins with a B. The Lolo's are open and a few other restaurants on that end of town that are new to me. If you are on Facebook, there was a whole list of places open on ARCHA Loves Grand Case. I wouldn't hesitate to stay on this side of the island at all!

Getting excited hearing all the places reopening will be there the first week of December staying in orient village the last vacation was canceled secondary to Irma. Making making reservations at L'Auberge, for my birthday

Just finished exchanging emails with Thomas (we are headed down on Nov 11th) and L'Astrolabe will reopen on November 7th!!!

eric, there is a video posted by Caribbean Magic on Facebook touring the inside of Petit Casino. If you are on Facebook check it out.

It seemed that L'Astrolabe's restaurant was open 2 weeks ago when we were there 2 weeks ago.

Thanks for all the input everyone! Love the insight I get from the members here and the excitement it generates for our visit every time. So back to Orient it is!