TravelTalkOnline Forums Travel and Vacation Forums St. Maarten - St. Martin Beaches for newbies

Traveling in 2 weeks with 3 newbies. I haven’t been to SXM for 6 years, looking for recommendations for beaches to drive to, umbrellas and chairs a must, food/facilities preferred. Mullet and orient for sure. Used to like Le galleon (I believe Erma destroyed?} any other suggestions? TY

Correct, there is nothing at Le Gallion now. For one of the BEST meals that you could have on island (but NOT cheap!) suggest Anse Marcel Beach Club. And totally different, Simpson Bay Beach, either Karakter or Mary's Boon.

Newbies? Do you mean people who have never been to SXM before or ??? for some reason I'm thinking new babies? Maybe because you mentioned Le Galeon which is also known as Baby Beach.

All beaches are great. Anse Marcel is wonderful but expensive to eat and rent chairs best to rsvp there. Baie Rouge is nice but not sure if there's a chair rental place there. You could always rent chairs & umbrella from Pack Lite and carry to your beach of choice.

Mullet has food and chairs but at times has undertow. Grand Case has a long curved beach. At the far end just after Grand Case Beach Club is Petite Plague. You can rent chairs from the beach club and get food from their waterfront restaurant. Eat overlooking water and island of Anguilla or eat at your lounge chairs.

Orient Bay has lots of places along their long beach to rent and eat. We like La Playa at the far end.

In addition to the above suggestions, a very nice beach on the French Side is Friar's Bay (just north or Marigot). It has plenty of free parking, two different beach cafes (Kali's Bar & Icl t'es Alleur) that are both pretty good, and a good number of comfortable beach chairs with umbrellas for $20 USD. Now, it's not the most exciting beach in the world but it's quite relaxing and swimming here is pretty good overall. It's a haul to drive here from the cruise port in Philipsburg, but from PJIA just hang a left onto Rue de Hollande Road and head north thru Marigot. You can even walk the trail through the woods to Happy Bay Beach which i found to be quite enjoyable (though there are no facilities at Happy Bay). If you liked La Gallion in the past odds are you'll like Friar's Bay, too.

Newbies are in their mid 60s to 70!🤣 first time to island sorry for the mis communication, my bad.

Friars is still a GO? Always loved it! TY SammyM

The all new LaPlaya beach and restaurant is AMAZING!! Easy to get to, plenty of parking on site! Don't have to carry and truck stuff from the car!! Plenty of chairs, beach service with food and cocktails . IMHO. It's the French Rivera of the island. Great for your "NEWBIE's"!!

Yes. another vote for LaPlaya. Good description Colour1--French Riviera. And speaking of Reviera, if you are in Grand Case try the restaurant NICE (neece). The owner is from Nice France and is trying to duplicate the experience of being in Nice.

I didn't mention anything on Orient, as the original poster said he already planned on going to Orient, but there are lots of great choices on Orient, for sure!

Don’t forget Pinel.

In addition to those mentioned above, Grand Case has several nice spots. Our favorite is Le Temps des Cerices, commonly known as LTC. The chairs are comfortable, the service good, and the food and drinks are excellent. Many people recommend Rainbow, but I find their chairs to be very uncomfortable. I understand that Captain Frenchy has comfortable chairs now, but we haven't been there since Irma. The three are next to each other on the beach, so it would be easy to compare.

I would second Le Temps de Cerices - though the signage is pretty confusing since the C is written so that it looks like more of a G, at least to an American. Capt Frenchies does have comfortable chairs, and I think the cost for Le Temps and Frenchies is the same, with a slight advantage to Frenchies in that they have a shower for guests as well, so if you come to the beach and intend to stay to have dinner at Grand Case, the shower would come in very handy.