TravelTalkOnline Forums Travel and Vacation Forums St. Maarten - St. Martin Helpful Advice Please

Good Morning,
Janis and I are retired now and would like to take 2-3 weeks vacation in the Caribbean. For a number of reasons I keep coming back to St. Martin as the island that meets most of our desires. I have it narrowed down to 2 hotels both on the French side, and I hope someone might be able to offer an opinion on one or both of them. We love the beach, and fine dining. I would love to be able to swim naked and Janis likes to lay out topless so Orient is definitely on the radar. The two places we have narrowed it down to are Bleu Emeraude due to it's proximity to the great restaurants in Grand Case, the fact that it looks like a nice place to stay, and it appears to have a nice beach that would be great for walking. The second place is La Playa on Orient Beach. It would seem to be very close to the nude beach section which is good, walking distance to some nice restaurants, and a great beach to walk on.
The prices for both are in our range. I would like to know if anyone might be able to give some advice that might help us break the tie. I like a calm surf which makes Grand Case seem nice, but I think La Playa has a pool so that would be ok too.
Thanks for any opinions.
Cheers,
Markis

Why don’t you split the stay and do both?

Instead of breaking your tie I would confuse it more by adding Grand Case Beach Club. Check web site for all their info.

I don't know how it compares to the other places price wise but the place is on a peninsular overlooking Anguilla. So it has access to Grand Case Beach which goes into town plus a smaller beach on the other side. Sunset Cafe separates the two. They have free water sports and transportation into town if you can't make the short walk.

If you decide not to stay there you can go to the cafe for happy hour and fantastic sunset view.

Not sure if you would consider renting a villa / condo and have an entire place to yourselves.
You can rent a very nice unit for less than either of the mentioned hotels

Our rental for our first week next year is in orient almost on the beach and very reasonable considering it's size
Feel free to check out Neptune at Blue Ocean Villas

Less than a 5 minute walk to some very good restaurants in the village and 10 minutes to Gran Case

It does look nice. I checked VRBO and really didn't see anything that appealed. Is that pool shared?

Grand Case Beach Club also has a beautiful pool.

I rate access to a pool very highly, especially if inclement weather or return of dreaded seaweed. Private is always nicer (vrbo or airbnb) but a hotel with a pool would be a big plus.

Sometimes Orient beach can be quite windy as well, makes it less enjoyable lounging on the beach.

Shared pool for Neptune condo but most staying prefer the beach
When we travel in late August / September it is not usual to be the only ones using the pool

New pool at Grand Case Beach Club with more shade

Les Temps de Cerises in Grand case on Grand Case Beach and main blvd near restaurants has beautiful accomodations with glass fronts giving excellent water view, steps to the beach

Try AirBandB. They have several studios available to rent in Orient Village. Their prices tend to be lower than VRBO.

It can pretty very noisy there (Cerises) from the adjacent bars especially at weekends. Have stayed at Bleu Emeraude before a few times and it is everything the reviews say.
Dave.
PS, "reply" to a post doesn't seem to be working or am I doing something wrong?

CYOWDave, thank you for the info about noise. Is it until midnight? We were considering staying there. May look elsewhere.

Reply worked properly on your post; even though it says quick reply when you're writing your comment. My reply here shows it's directed to your comments. I wish more people would use that feature!

Rosemary, we were also looking at LTC for a couple of days before our La Vista Beach weeks. We ended up booking at La Playa because of the noise.

GaKaye the online photos look so tempting with all that glass front overlooking the beach.

I think when we're in GC we will just stop in for a meal and notice how much noise there might be.

We have stayed near LTC in different airbnbs for several years, but the noise from Rainbow two years ago was so annoying ( it would start fairly loud at 8 or 9 in the morning, and go till 11 or 12 most nights ) that we are going to a different place further down the beach this year. The Grand Case Beach Club gets great reviews and is pretty far from the noise. Another option, which gets great reviews for a quiet stay at the other end of the beach is Le Petite Hotel though it does not have a pool and directly in front of the hotel the water has some rocks, so you would have to walk down the beach a little bit to find better swimming , You can see that from the photos here https://www.lepetithotel.com/gallery . Likewise, the Blue Esmerald has a few rocky sections in front of the hotel, photos number 2 and 11 on this page show the rocky sections https://www.bleuemeraude.com/language/en/gallery-bleu-emeraude-sint-maarten/ but not as bad as Le Petite. We have not stayed at La Playa, but go to Orient for the day and Orient is usually pretty windy and much busier than the Grand Case beach. If stepping out of your hotel , taking a few steps and sittilng in a lounger by the ocean for a mostly quiet day, either end of Grand Case is hard to beat. If you want more action on the beach , Orient is better, though most places are set back much further from the beach so you don't get the awesome views that you do from places on Grand Case. Topless is not uncommon on Grand Case, though not the norm.

We stayed at Petit Hotel November 2023 and yes, the noise comes principally from Rainbow, they have speakers the size of fridge blasting out. It is audible even at Petit Hotel. IIRC was worst at weekends. The rocks in front of Petit Hotel aren't a big deal, get more unpleasant to the west from there. BTW if you stay at Petit Hotel you have access to the pool at L'Esplanade at the other end of Grand Case.
Dave.

Le Petit is a good looking property. We are open to that as well. Thanks for all the helpful advice.
Thanks,

Le Petit (and their sister hotel, Esplanade) are exceptional properties, with great management. Hard to beat them.