TravelTalkOnline Forums Travel and Vacation Forums St. Maarten - St. Martin Help With Finding French Side Villa

We're planning a trip back in February, 2022 and bringing some first-time SXM travelers with us. We're having a devil of a time finding the right villa and wondering if anyone knows of a villa that is not on VRBO (we've been through their site multiple times) that has the following:

Location in Orient Bay area
2 bedrooms (preferably) at either end of the villa
Swimming Pool
PRIVACY (don't want folks peering down at us as we're laying by the pool)
AC in bedrooms (minimum)
View of the water
Outdoor covered area for dining
$5,000 max weekiy rate

Any help is appreciated, and if you prefer you can PM me.

Hi. You might contact Annemarieke Jongsma at Go Beach and/or look at her website. She is perhaps about the only one who is a villa rental person left, it seems. I have recently been looking with her for villas on the French side and have come up empty in my search, because my parameters are somewhat similar to yours, but for only one bedroom in October, but a lot less money.

Here are my thoughts--

You will not find anything in Orient Village with a view. And virtually all of the units in OV are townhouses, and others will be able to look down on your pool. There is ONE condo which Annemarieke could recommend to you that does have a private pool and has a view from UPSTAIRS in the condo. If that would suit you, she can point that one out to you. The bedrooms are on the 2nd floor and I wasn't interested in that.

Further up the hill, but still within the Orient Complex, there are a lot of villas that would probably meet your parameters, not really walking distance to OV, but inside the gate. Zouzou (now at Sunset Cafe at GCBC) has several villas for rent, and I think she does most of them herself. She actually had one that I would have rented, but for the fact that it did not have US TV. Apparently that is an issue with a lot of the French villa owners, they put zero value on US TV. We are wanting to go during football season and that is important to us. If you need help finding her email, let me know.

Not at Orient, but on the hill above Grand Case, is Villa Canoua. Here is a link to their CURRENT website, but it will not be active after a couple more days. Vern, who was managing reservations, is now retired and the family is taking it over themselves. Canoua is literally 5 minutes from the main drag of Grand Case, and thus less than 10 minutes drive to the beach at Orient. If you are interested in Canoua at all, we stayed there in June 2019 and I did a review of it here on TTOL. If you have any other questions about Canoua, would be happy to answer. EDIT--It looks like Canoua may be booked for February, but you can check. They have a huge repeat business.

Good luck!!

Thanks so much Carol. How would I go about contacting Zouzou? We would love to be up the hill above Orient.

I also looked at Canoua because of your recommendation. Isn't it above Happy Bay?

Yes, Canoua overlooks Happy Bay.

Will look to see if I can find the email for Zouzou and will send you a PM.

Awesome. Thanks

Although Villa Coralia is listed at VRBO but you can find this villa on other sites as well.
Certainly not in walking distance to beach but you may not want to leave. It sits high up on the hill and pretty sure it is private that no one else can see you
Check out sites as I have found that you can enter 4 guests and still have Villa to yourselves.
I have been doing much searching for next year and this has to be one of the most beautiful and reasonably priced.
The view is stunning.
We plan to to a visit this August while we are on island
Plan on hiring chef franc (formally owner / chef L'Estiminate) to cater a meal, also reasonable
We did find some on VRBO with pretty good views and directly behind beach bars.
They may be available indirectly and not just through VRBO

Best wishes on finding the right property

Another possible option is to call the St. Martin Reservation Center at (800) 480-8555. The guy there is Ted Demeritte and his wife Robbin. They have Luxury villa rentals, beachfront condos, etc. and I have used them in the past without any issues. Just a few thoughts that I might add (hope you don't mind!). Keep in mind that in the Orient Bay area any place you may stay that is 'elevated' means walking back up that elevation after spending the day at the beach. Sometimes these can be some pretty long and steep climbs. Closer to Orient Beach is better, but that's just my opinion. Also, privacy and the Orient Beach area aren't exactly synonymous. As mentioned above you may be better served with something in the Grand Case, Anse Marcel, or Happy Bay areas which can be more secluded (but are still on French St. Martin). Good luck with your search.

I think the VRBO booking fees are outrageous. They don’t let you talk with the owner directly until you pay via VRBO and they even have a fee for paying them. If you can anyway deal with a owner directly we always get a good discount for booking directly without the middle person ..same with hotels.

totally false statement...you can contact the owner of any property before booking/committing to anything

I’ve never been able to contact a owner by phone with questions until after a deposit was made. They do that to protect their fees
A owner told me. They block the contact information emailed and phone until after you pay. You can ask questions on the VRBO site back and forth but I would rather speak in person on the phone before sending money.

Villa Paloma. Very nice. Meets all of your requirements. We've stayed there a couple of times.
https://www.st-martin-vacation.com/villas/villa-paloma.html

I consider "talking to the owner" via email to be appropriate and definitely more convenient. Not an issue with us. I can imagine what a disaster for the owner if anyone could call them anytime with any questions....lots of viewers of VRBO

As with most rental agencies there is a fee to use their service...some are built into the price and some (VRBO) charge a set fee (5%)....also some private rentals require that fees be paid by direct deposit of cash which always gets me worried...I would rather pay the CC fee (3%) to get some protection (and airline points)

As with most things in life you can choose what you feel most comfortable with

Thanks so much for all of the replies. It has given us lots to look at.

By chance has anyone ever stayed at Villa Acropole in Orient near the Hotel Plantation? Would love to hear some reviews.

Thanks again!

Never stayed at Acropole, but toured it a long time ago. The views were amazing, but otherwise, sorry, don't remember much about it. Zouzou is great to deal with, if you decide to book there. For Acropole, you could book directly with her, and she takes credit cards. I would not worry about dealing directly with her at all.

https://gobeach.com/pc/sarabande.htm

https://gobeach.com/sxmvillas/dolcevita.htm

https://gobeach.com/sv/topaze.htm

All very nice!

Use VRBO all the time for years to check out villas and always deal directly with the owner...I don't make deposits on the site. Each owner I have dealt with has been great!

We love this place:
https://www.skyluxuryrentals.com/vacation-rental-home.asp?PageDataID=72339
This is our 2nd choice:
https://www.skyluxuryrentals.com/vacation-rental-home.asp?PageDataID=72338

Have rented both of them numerous times.

This is a link to a video I took for the kids before one of our family vacations:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A0STcyH3rck&t=2s

Another video that shows the villa:
https://www.dropbox.com/h?preview=St+Martin%2C+Thanksgiving+2014.mp4

Freedomfighter: Those are beautiful villas for sure but unfortunately they are going to be a little beyond our budget for just 2 couples. We will definitely save them for future reference in case we have more parties in the group. Thanks again.

Especially this year, it might be worth contacting them to see if they might have a cheaper rate for only two bedrooms..

I have had mixed results with VRBO. Their cancellation policies are strict - I never did get my deposit back for a Covid cancelled March 15, 2020 trip. After we had to cancel, because our flights were cancelled, and the island was going into lockdown; the unit owner of the unit advised - for the first time - that he had a 30 day cancellation policy. ( I am still trying to get satisfaction through PayPal ).. If you can reserve with a credit card, the credit card company will always have your back
Having said that, I did use VRBO to book a studio in Orient Village, for a trip this coming December. The reviews of the property did note limited American TV reception, but I am not a big sports fan , so it makes no difference to us. The unit is also pretty close to the southern end of the beach. I looked into staying at the Palm Court Hotel, but, with a weak dollar, their rates are almost $300/ night. La Playa is even more expensive. Also, the studio has a washing machine - a big plus.
We really like the Orient Village location - close to shops and restaurants, as well as an easy walk to OB.
If you are looking to save money, you might try to get adjoining units at the Mount Vernon. Good luck.

Yes, we stayed at Acropole about 5 years ago. Very nice place, and I know she has remodeled since then. Great outdoor spaces too! It's big and the rooms are spread out, and the two ensuites are at either end of hte walkway. The third bedroom is not an ensuite. The bedrooms are not all equal, as there is definitely a master, and it is bigger and nicer than the others. There are a lot of steps if that is a problem for anyone in your party. Steep flight to get in, and then everything inside and out is in levels. Not a problem for us, we liked the way it broke things up, but just be prepared for steps. The view is nice, but it is more towards the hills as it direcly overlooks the Esmeralda. So you actually get pretty nice sunsets there - which is different for Orient Bay. I would not call the pool completely private, as again the outside decks are in levels and there is not a lot of planting around it. Zouzou was very easy to deal with. Dealt directly with her.

Another person I would HIGHLY recommend is Veronique Fassel. She has 4 villas in Orient bay, we've stayed at three of them. You can check out her villas (and contact her) here: https://www.sxmseaviewvilla.com/
We've stayed at Cases Del Sol, Villa Pinel, and Villa O
Villa Pinel is very nice, within Kayak distance of Pinel, smaller, and actually righ next door to her house. It does only have one en-suite though, and it is smaller.
Casa del Sol - is upon the hill in orient with a good view of St Barts - it does have two en-suites, at opposite ends of the villa, very nice, and it was pretty secluded before Irma - not sure about now.
Villa O is SPECTACULAR! This is our goto place now for sure. Four full en-suites that are more or less identical. Two on either side of the central main room/kitchen. The place is ultra modern, with a view that you can not believe!
I can not say enough good things about Veronique or her villas - she is great to deal with. ...and you will deal with her directly. She is just great!

PNPinNC- Thank you for your very detailed review. This helps a LOT. We were a little concerned about all the steps (one in our party has some mobility issues) so again, very helpful.

I will check the others out. Can't WAIT to get back