TravelTalkOnline Forums Travel and Vacation Forums St. Maarten - St. Martin Best beaches for bringing your own chairs

Hubby and I usually rent beach chairs from Pack lite rentals and usually head to Mullet or sometimes Baie Rouge. We have done Cupecoy in the past but had a super creepy experience there and don’t know if I would ever go back. Are there any other beaches that you would recommend? Is there an area in Grand Case to set up your own chairs?

Right now I think the best place to bring your own chairs would be Orient. There are HUGE stretches of beach there now with nothing on them. Don't know about Grand Case.

Agree with Carol regarding Orient Beach, but a few other beaches might work for you. A few that I've been to where you can bring your own umbrella and chairs include Happy Bay Beach (which is just west of Grand Case), and LeGallion Beach which is near Orient Beach to the south. The former beach requires a 15 minute walk to reach the water, but it is a truly beautiful and unspoiled beach. LeGallion faces to the east like Orient Beach, but was always calmer with lighter wave action and more of a family beach. Of course, I'm not sure what it looks like today post Hurricane Irma. Grand Case Beach is very nice, but from my experience was limited regarding places to rent chairs and umbrellas. For Grand Case it is usually best to bring your own stuff.

Just a quick thought if you want to avoid always renting chairs and umbrellas on the beach. My wife and I bought our own large beach umbrella several years ago, and it folds down to just 24 inches so it easily fits into a suitcase. Takes just minutes to set up, and then we throw down two large beach towels to lay on. Many of the beaches on St. Martin have chair and umbrella rentals available, but when you travel to some other islands (i.e., St. Barthelemy) finding such rentals can be difficult if not impossible. Sometimes we do rent chairs with an umbrella, but we always carry our own umbrella and towels just in case. Just an FYI!

The only thing missing is to choose your snorkel mask and head to the water.

Here a good list to pick from : https://pineboat.com/best-full-face-snorkel-masks

Lots of places along the beach in Grand Case to set up your own spot.

I honestly don't know of any beach you can't take your stuff to. They are all public. Just don't settle in front of a hotel/restaurant as they have some rights to the beach area.

Do you have a link to the umbrella that you bought. We would be interested.

What is the best way to get into Orient beach? I know how to get there but wondered since Irma, what is the best entrance to use.

The Club O entrance was reportedly re graded recently, or the village entrance. I did also read where the road from the village was recently opened to drive all the way through to Club O. Maybe someone could confirm that.

For anyone interested the portable beach umbrella we bought a few years ago was from Portabrella. They have a pretty good website. I think we paid something like $54 USD. But, it was worth every cent. Four sections connect together to give it ample height, and it has a nice tilt feature and is vented on top to help allow stronger winds pass thru (which is good for Orient Beach which can get quite windy). The base screws into the sand and you have to make sure you get it deep enough for stability. We have used it on SXM, St. Barth's, Barcelona, Mallorca, Ibiza, etc. and it quickly pays for itself. It comes with a really nice carrying bag that zips shut and the whole thing fits into any suitcase 26-inches or larger. It is also surprising light and the bag has a shoulder strap which makes carrying it a snap.

It really comes in handy when you visit a beach with no rental chairs/umbrellas, if the chairs that are available are too expensive or look uncomfortable, or if the chairs are all sold and taken (which happened to us once on Ibiza). Please note that we don't use it every time we visit a beach. Sometimes if a place has comfortable, well-padded chairs and throws in a free cocktail we also believe is supporting the local beach bars and restaurants. But, having this as an option has really helped.

Went to Orient Beach several times last week.
Going early (9-10) assures a chair & umbrella but chain preventing access to actually entering village and parking behind Perch Life doesn't come down till after 10.
Early birds just park in taxi drop off area and hike up to CO area.

What's the "DO area"?

Be nice, Scuba. You, of all people, know how easy it is to make a typo and/or forget to proof what you’ve written prior to getting something posted. 🤭🤭

Agreed, Pat. Scuba, you should be the LAST one to complain about typos in anyone's posts.

I didn't know that the chain came down (didn't look). So, after 10 could I have driven from the village to Perch Lite w/o going out to the main road?

Thanks Tom, good info. I wasn't sure which area of Orient beach the op was trying to access, so we gave them both ways.

There is also Long Beach and Plum Bay. Plum Bay is an especially beautiful beach. Guard shack at main road. Just tell him you are going to beach and he will let you go. Bay Rouge is another choice.

Look again it's been corrected, Scuba.
Looking forward to your next flub.
Don't think it will be a long wait.
😃😊

Right on. That's my MO. Lol

Thank you for all the suggestions. It is much appreciated!

Wow, been looking for an umbrella like this for years! It looks like they now have two models, Telebrella and Portabrella. BTW, we go to the same places you go, Ibiza, Mallorca, Bracelona, Canary Islands, St Barths, etc. Maybe we'll see you there!

We bring our eight foot umbrella in a fishing rod case. We also stuff other things we will need in the case too. Of course it's an extra piece of luggage unless flying 1st class.