TravelTalkOnline Forums Travel and Vacation Forums St. Maarten - St. Martin Trip report, pics

Headed home today after a great (too quick) week on island. First time at Beachside Villas and we couldn’t have asked for more! Made it to our favorite pizza place (Mama) more than once as that’s our son’s favorite food. Enjoyed Parrotville, seeing the ruins of the old La Belle Creole, and Orient Beach (our favorite). Thank you for previous recommendations on Jules Bakery, might be our new favorite! Anyone looking for Indian food we really enjoyed Bombay Bites in Simpson Bay. Already looking forward to next time!

Nice pics.

All you folks and BSV. Thinking we so gotta stay there in the near future. What a gorgeous setting. Oh and Parrotville. That is on my list as I love parrots. Is that an Indian Ringneck? Thank you for sharing your pics!

Glad you enjoyed your stay at Beachside. When is your next trip?

I have to confess that I’m not very good with the different parrot types… They seemed very knowledgeable there though and definitely told us, I just can’t remember!

Carol, we don’t have an official return trip scheduled, but we are thinking possibly sometime over the summer. I’ve never been there at that time of year. We are actually purchasing a small villa over on the eastern side of the island and will probably make a trip there to get that set up as a vacation rental. That will mean no more trips to Beachside, but we were definitely glad we got to try that out!

OK, would be interested to hear your experience with purchasing on island.

Yes, I would like to hear your experience also!
Cheers
irina

Carol and Irina-
So far, we are early in the process. We connected with Cherise and Island Real Estate (IRE) Team. She has been very responsive, helpful and honest! They can also manage the property for us since we won’t be on island to do that ourselves. We are purchasing on the Dutch side due to the more favorable terms from the government. Time will tell if it’s a good investment, but we know that our family is really going to love it!

Shaun--I definitely get where you're coming from there!! Eric's brother is talking about buying a place, probably in St. Croix, and we will be happy to go down and check it out for him!!

Hi Shaun,
Congratulations on your upcoming purchase!

I've always been intrigued with the ruins at La Belle Creole but too afraid to walk in from the road. How did you get there and if you accessed the property from the main road, was it a difficult hike to get to the ruins?

It was amazingly easy to access…You can drive to it. There is still a paved and passable road right to it, and the sign is still in tact at the turn off from the main road. It’s the first turn to the left about 1/4 mile past the access to baie rouge if you are heading toward sandy ground from terre basses area. There is a small beach and fishing area at the end of the road so there were a couple other folks around there fishing (which made it feel safer). Once you are on the entrance road take the first right and that takes you up to the old entrance area of the hotel. We were too nervous to park there the first time, so drove to end of the road to the small beach/parking area, and then walked along the beach a bit to access the property from the back side. After seeing things there, I think next time we would just pull up to the building. We didn’t see anyone shady around but I would not go alone…it feels isolated while on the property, but there is a lot to see! I was amazed at how intact it actually was.

Nice. That was one of those Google maps/ YouTube finds for us. Had no clue it was there until I saw that rather empty looking (but yet not empty) spaces on Google Maps and then investigated. Some nice drone footage on YouTube. I have a rather creepy fascination with abandoned places. Looks like it must have been really amazing way back.