TravelTalkOnline Forums Travel and Vacation Forums St. Maarten - St. Martin Orient village

My wife and I are going to be staying at LaPlaya in March. I was wondering how safe it is to walk around Orient village at night to go out to dinner. Thanks for the input.

Very, you will see lots of people walking around with you as well.

Had the same concerns this past year as it was our first time staying at a "condo / villa" just past the old church in the village.
Felt very safe, only warned about wild dogs that we never saw.
It you come across them just yell them away.

Loved staying near the village!!

Spent two weeks in orient beach last fall and felt completely at ease walking around most every night.

Very safe. We go out for dinner most nights. We love staying there right near the beach and the Village is charming. Very walkable with nice sidewalks in the neighborhoods. Have never seen stray dogs in the Village when we are there but see a few friendly kitties every trip, either owned or strays, they didn't look like they missed many meals.

Since the rebuild of all the stores and restaurants. It's once again a very happening place at night!!!

We stayed in the village last June and had a balcony with a view of the village just down from where all the restaurants are along Av. des Plages. It is very safe and quite a magical place, especially at night. We walked to the restaurants and among the stores at night and always felt secure. We would sit every evening on our balcony enjoying a cocktail and did see dogs walking around, sometimes 3 or 4 at a time, almost every night down around the Alamanda resort road and parking area. However, we'd also see people out walking in the same area but never saw the dogs bothering anyone. Now more rarely, we'd see a stray donkey. One night, after two cocktails, I thought I saw something large in the shadows of the parking area around the dumpsters, wondering if I was seeing things. DONKEY! We never saw them bothering anyone but I wouldn't want to get too close to one. But that's just me. We saw packs of donkeys walking on the road along Orient beach during the day. Never saw them bothering anyone but again, we kept our distance.

We only stay in Orient Village and have for the past 15 years. I don't remember a single time that we felt unsafe.

We just got back from our first stay in Orient and I had the same curiosities. You'll be just fine. Many other people staying in Orient do so because they like the walkability, so you'll see plenty of other folks on foot as well.

we have been staying in Orient Bay since 2000 and stayed @ Le Hoste/ La Playa and later all over the village. we now stay for longer periods of time and are able to see some of the things we had never noticed before. The security people take their job very seriously, couple of times a week i will see someone walking and checking the fence behind our unit. The road gate is in operation from dark until dawn and we discovered last year that there is a gate at Kon Tiki that is locked around 10 PM not that you cant walk around it on the beach but no cars or scooters will get through. The people who live here full time along with owners who rent pay plenty to the HOA for this service. although its not perfect I feel you can enjoy all the village has to offer with a little common sense

John--that gate at Kontiki has been there for a long time. If you think about it, the gate on the other road would be of no use if one could just access the same area from the beach side, by entering from the Club O end.

walking everywhere day and evening is one of the big reasons we love staying in Orient.

Having spent 10 days there with my wife & son who was 12 at the time we never felt unsafe. My son and I would walk around at night to bring dinner back to our condo or just run down to the store for random provisions. Enjoy!