TravelTalkOnline Forums Travel and Vacation Forums St. Maarten - St. Martin Orient Beach Hotel

Anybody staying at this small hotel now or know anything about it?
TripAdvisor has nice reviews. Is it really just a ten minute walk to the village?
Thanks very much.

Yes we have stayed there for a few nights before our VRBO was available. The place is nice, clean and close to the beach. Florence and I believe Junior was there at the time.They are very nice and accommodating. I'm not sure if they still are there. It is probably less than a 10 minute walk to the village.

According to Google Maps its literally on the beach, so 10 mins if your very slow I guess.

It is not technically “on the beach” but adjacent…down a walk. 0ne minute. 10 minutes would be a very comfortable walk to the Square depending on the path you take. Quite convenient but not as convenient as LaPlaya which is similar, perhaps a bit more expensive depending…

Is this the hotel that used to be Cap Caribe?

Yes, I believe it was previously called Cap Caraibes, then later Caraibes Beach Hotel, and eventually Orient Beach Hotel.

It was L' Hoste before IRMA wiped it out. Beautiful renovation and awesome staff. Walk through their garden and you are right on the beach

JohnW is correct. SKJay is incorrect. The previous L’Hoste is now LaPlaya. Both the OBH and LaPlaya were completely renovated after Irma and are almost identical construction. I have stayed at both many times. My most recent experiences have been at LaPlaya which is lovely…arriving there Monday.

Yes, L'Hoste is now LaPlaya and Blue Bay Beach Hotel is now Orient Beach Hotel. Now sure how I mixed them up. We have stay at both hotels, under both ownerships. You can't beat the location at either hotel. Our first stay in the Village area was at L'Hoste and we really loved it, especially how close it is to the village restaurants and shops. After it became LaPlaya, we had an issue on our first full day there with one of their overly aggressive beach boys. Shortly after that encounter, we grabbed our drinks to walked the beach and we have been hanging out at Clun O ever since. The following year we stayed next door at Blue Bay Beach, now Orient Beach Hotel and never looked for anyplace else. Will be back again in March for two weeks. We do however still stop by LaPlaya most nights to meet up with friends for GP's Happy Hour before heading off for dinner. And by the way, we haven't seen that horn dog beach boy on Orient Beach since that year. Enjoy your trip gotaluvit !

We stayed there last year - it is lovely and the staff are very accommodating.

Now, if you have ANY mobility issues or fitness issues, you should know that only the rooms on the two upper floors have views of the ocean… and that there are no elevators to reach them. We managed it - but it did keep us from ‘running back to our room’ for things fairly often. It is also on the North side of the beach, which means a long-ish walk with your stuff if you like the more southern end.

I was not impressed with the breakfast - even when we ordered off the menu for an extra fee -

Nor was I impressed with the ‘included’ beach chairs. What they don’t tell you is that it is only certain chairs in the locations that most folks do not want - even when we went late in the afternoon our first day there, we were limited in our choices (despite being one of only a handful of folks there) - so if where you sit is important to you (it is to us), this may not be a worthwhile inclusion.

We tried to be practical about our choice - figured with beach chairs and breakfast included - and clean towels daily - also hotel has a cistern, so no danger of losing water entirely - we were relatively even with renting a villa/townhouse… turned out the inclusions really weren’t worth (to us) what we thought they’d be worth. So this year we’re staying up the hill in a villa - renting a car - packing MUCH lighter as we’ll have laundry facilities (We really missed not having washer/dryer - really missed… ). Villa has a cistern and a view - also a pool and outdoor grill - AND a cistern. It costs minimally more than hotel for duration of stay…

At the end of the day - different things are important to different folks. My non-negotiable… king sized bed - cistern - A/C - washer/dryer preferred… YMMV