TravelTalkOnline Forums Travel and Vacation Forums St. Maarten - St. Martin Avoiding sargassum for the au naturel crowd

Thinking of taking a short last minute vacation to the Island for the first time since Irma. Not worried about accommodations but have never ventured away from Club O beach since I am a nudist. Are there any other nice safe nude beaches that people frequent on the Island (away from the current sargassum onslaught)?

The only other beaches on the island that get any nude use, other than Club O, are Cupecoy and Happy Bay. For Happy Bay, the access is by walking in from a bit of a distance. Basically there are no services there. The sand there is normally quite good, but you need to haul in what you want. Cupecoy beach comes and goes. Dany has a beach bar there and chairs and there is pretty good parking for Cupecoy.

We have been using the little beach at Club O beyond Papagayo’s for the past couple of weeks. No seaweed down there. Water is calmer. Easy in and out of the water.

Charlie--Years ago, I thought there used to be quite a few rocks in the water there? There used to be one of the mini suites in that area, which had a lovely view of the ocean. Just about our favorite unit there at Club O, since we never could afford a chalet.

I was on the island last week, and I visited the far south end of Orient (past Papa) daily. The water was very calm and clear of saragassum all seven days I was there.

The downside is that there are no chairs/umbrellas to rent. However, for my visit, I rented a chair, umbrella, and cooler from Packlight Vacation rentals. The downside, of course, is that I had to drag the gear from the parking area to the beach area. IMO, it was worth it, as one day, the saragassum was HORRIBLE on the main beach, with the south-end completely clear.

Bill--Glad to hear that Craig is renting stuff again, as I had thought he was kind of getting out of that business.

Happy Bay and Cupecoy. I LOVE Cupecoy... Happy Bay will likely be closed for a bit soon due to a music festival.

For those who have been using the south end of the Club O beach(past Papagayo's), how did you access that section? Did you walk down the beach or from behind through the old Club O property? Also, did you see or have to deal with any "bushwackers" or other seedy guys?

I was there a couple weeks ago. To get to that beach, I walked down and cut behind the ruins of Papagayo. Easy walk.

Second part: There were very few local pervs around. In the seven days that I was there, one day there was one idiot who was (literally) hanging out in the shadows of a wrecked chalet. Other days, the local guy who was there stayed under the shade of Papagayo, and didn't venture out. I got the vibe that this guy made a living selling goods and services to people who approached them (goods = weed... services = not my thing).

We were at Cupecoy today- the water is crystal clear…

Used Craig gladly past November trip. Happily still in business. Well liked

We have used the far south end of Orient several times in the past month. We have been parking by the old Club O entrance and walked down the road through the resort. Much easier walk versus walking in the sand.

We tried to rent umbrellas from him last oct-nov. He said he was all out, as most of them either were broken or just weather beaten and could not find a supplier to replace them. But yeah, he's still in the rental business!! Hopefully he found some umbrellas!!

We did see about a half dozen enjoying nude at Baie Rouge the first week in December. They had the entire beach to themselves.

With no facilities there it's pretty vacant most of the time.

We were at the Orient today. The nude section was full of weeds in the water. There was a small clear area of water right next to the destroyed restaurant at the far end of the beach. The rest of the ocean was full of weeds…
The non nude area of Orient wasn’t too bad, with less weeds towards Mount Vernon resort. But they had bigger waves.