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Looking to possibly stay in the Orient Village area in June 2020. Must haves are 1) Only need 1 bedroom 2) MUST have private (not shared) pool 3) Prefer au naturel use of pool if possible 4) MUST have a bedroom on the 1st floor 5) Budget is $200/$250 per night
For that budget, may not be able to get it, but would prefer some kind of a water view. Thanks for any help.
Carol Hill
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Carol, We just returned from a week in the village and was very satisfied with Magali at Islandescapesxm.com. She manages many properties, lives in the village, speaks English and could probably find you something. Here's a link to her website: http://islandescapesxm.com
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Hi. Thanks. Sent her an email.
Carol Hill
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I would think if it is a private pool and not shared "au naturel use of pool" should not be a problem.
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The problem is that many of the private pools in Orient Village, there are townhouses next door with second stories, that they can see you on your patio from their windows, which I prefer not to be the case.
Carol Hill
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Carol,
Your must haves sound perfect. Please let us know what you find out. And thanks for your recent reports--we're definitely going to Anse Marcel next time.
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I'm afraid what I want doesn't exist, at least for the price I want to pay, in the Village. If you remove wanting a view, it is feasible. I found one place that looked pretty good, but there was no bedroom on the first floor. I found another place that had no view, that might have worked, but it had no US TV, all channels in French. I realize that was not on my list, but that kind of didn't occur to me, that someplace would have no TV in English. In the old days, I wouldn't have given a second thought to that, but now I would miss it.
Carol Hill
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Chk some of these out. https://www.airbnb.com/s/Orient-Bay--Saint-Martin/homes?refinement_paths%5B%5D=%2Fhomes&place_id=ChIJu1l9Gf1vDowRY58dM6qB-jw&s_tag=HMFuIRkN
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oops dont think the link worked..google airbnb st maarten orient bay
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https://www.airbnb.com/rooms/77395?location=Orient%20Bay%2C%20Saint%20Martin&source_impression_id=p3_1563820326_4dB%2BLUMrFzwKo2K6&s=HMFuIRkN
In case link doesn't work its called Le Cozi. No pool but for the price looks good.
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Found another one called the Beach House villa with 23 five star reviews, 3 bedrooms and looked like very private pool................
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last post on this, just excited for you as I would be...here is a review. I punched in one week for example June 17th 2020 and came up with $237.00 per night........seems to have it all.
The beach house is a perfect place for a vacation at the Orient Beach. We were a family of five, with three teenagers and we all enjoyed the beautifully renovated and modern beach house. We would certainly stay here again, if we return to Orient Beach. The house was clean and it is more spacious than appears in the pictures. The pool was just wonderful and the garden area felt really nice and private. This was great after a long day at the lively beach. It was also just simply amazing to enjoy morning coffee there in the open kitchen/living area. The balcony upstairs offers nice views over the rooftops and at night time it is dark enough to enjoy the stars. The grocery store and restaurants are just a couple minutes walking distance and it is easy to find good food and also quality wines. I highly recommend the beach house, if visiting the Orient beach. It is a perfect place for relaxing vacation.
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bran--I've been kind of living on those pages and got kinda stuck, not finding what I want.
Carol Hill
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Sounds as though you are becoming a French-side convert!
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Not that necessarily, but want to try to be able to do two trips again next year--one at Beachside, one somewhere on the French side. When we first started going to SXM, we stayed on the French side all the time and had gotten away from it for the past several years. This most recent trip just emphasized how much we love the French side. We just don't get there very often when we stay at Beachside.
Carol Hill
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FYI- on the US TV topic, the last couple of times we have gone anywhere (including our recent stay at Orient Village apartment) we brought an Amazon Firestick, and have been able to watch anything we wanted- including our US TV (via an app on the Firestick) the only problem we ever had was that Hulu didn't work in French territories (We have since researched and think we can do it using a VPN- but it really wasn't that big of a problem) Just wanted to share!
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I'm really pretty clueless with regard to that type of thing. We have Direct TV at home. If we get this Amazon Firestick, we can connect to our Direct TV at home, so long as we have a really good internet connection?
Carol Hill
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Carol you can go au natural in the pool at paradis O. Bruno has US TV, definitely in your budget and a view of ocean in the distance although limited. I am not sure if you have stayed there?. We stayed 4 times so I can highly recommend it. With just 4 bungalows it can be private if they all aren't rented out.
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Louise--we've stayed there yes, but I just don't think it has the overall privacy that we want.
Carol Hill
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Carol, you can watch your DirecTV channels on your tablet or phone. I'm not sure you can do that internationally, but you could look into that.
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My understanding is that you can't watch Direct TV internationally, but I can check into it.
Carol Hill
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That's correct. Last time we were on the island our villa had only French satellite. I tried to log onto my Directv account to watch TV and it wouldn't allow me to connect. I wound up messing with the Netflix account and was able to find something to watch and change the language to English.
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I didn't realize that would be an issue in that area with several of the places of no TV in English, never really thought about it, I guess. In the old days, we never worried about TV on island! Amazing how ones' needs change! 
Carol Hill
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Never watch TV on vacation. It’s bad enough at home. Listen to the radio if need be, many from overseas and it’s amazing what good music you can find. But Peace, quiet, relaxation and getting away hopefully from the daily problems of the world and hearing no news is bliss.
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News??  No, never!! Entertainment, yes, news no!!!!
Carol Hill
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I have to get my morning news fix. Vacation of no vacation. Need to know whats going on in the world. Fake or not.
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I understand this topic expanded some, but I'll indulge in that minor hi-jack for a moment. I take my Firestick and Roku with me when I travel. I find the Roku to be the one I use the most. In Orient, though, neither works well. I have an Amazon Fire tablet that I use for downloading a bunch of movies from my local library and Netflix which works great for the plane and while you're in internet restricted areas like Orient. That tablet works great for me - downloaded books, videos, and music and its all easy to use - no hassles; works the same way every time regardless of where I am. Most flat screen TV's now allow Bluetooth connections to the tablet, so that's even better.
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Well, that might work, to connect to the TV. I have no interest in huddling over a laptop to watch a show.
Carol Hill
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Or you can connect your laptop to the TV via a cable connection.
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Carol Hill
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I get the "don't watch tv on vacation" thing. It irritates the heck out of me to keep seeing the news and where we generally stay it's always out of NYC. I could do without I think.
It's nice to have though...I'm always there during World Series, and as we don't go out much at night any longer I NEED to watch the games.
I've also been in SXM when Sandy was hitting the U.S. (strange feeling). Needed news to keep track of home.
"It is good to do nothing all day, and then to rest"
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We're usually firmly planted in the no tv crowd.
However, one of our favorite things to do is watch It's a Wonderful Life on Christmas Eve. It's usually on when we are there and it's always fun for us--last time we enjoyed an awesome Buche Noel too, which we never buy! I guess we're pretty fluid when it comes down to it.
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Our traditional Xmas movies to watch every year are White Christmas and Christmas Vacation.
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Don't like Christmas Story? "Shoot your eye out!" classic.
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Carol you can go au natural in the pool at paradis O. Bruno has US TV, definitely in your budget and a view of ocean in the distance although limited. I am not sure if you have stayed there?. We stayed 4 times so I can highly recommend it. With just 4 bungalows it can be private if they all aren't rented out. Louse-Do they have a website? Would love to know more about this place.
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Don't like Christmas Story? "Shoot your eye out!" classic. Didn't say I didn't like it. Not sure why you implied that. Only posted our go to traditional movies.
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Bruno DID have a website for O Paradis, but it was hacked. He was in the process of setting up another one, but I'm not sure it's done. I think you can actually find it on like Expedia or whatever, if you do a google search.
Carol Hill
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Thanks, Carol. Do you happen to have an email address for Bruno? Would really appreciate some feedback from ttol members that have stayed here. Assuming O Paradis s located inside Orient Bay? Sea View? C/O pool?
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Hereis a link on Hotels.com
Carol Hill
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