TravelTalkOnline Forums Travel and Vacation Forums St. Maarten - St. Martin Belair Bummer

I stated earlier in this thread that I would stick with The Belair however I was outvoted by my family. A quick call to RCI yesterday resulted in our vacation plans being changed from The Belair to a Royal Palm 2-BR unit. (No extra charges) I hope it is a good move but two things I am already concerned with: noise from neighboring bars and the quality of the beach. Two things that were never a concern at the Belair.

I will admit that the quality of the beach at RP is not great. But there is a lot of room and several shade palapas, so it is easy to spread out. Roxxy is gone, so you don't need to worry about that. I can't remember which side of the resort it is for sure, but I think the side of the resort that is closest to the bridge does not have any noise problems regardless, from other places.

Frankly, I think the problem for you is going to be that the quality of RP as a resort versus Belair, is in a whole nother universe. Regardless of fixing the a/c problems, I think your family may not want to go back to Belair after being at RP.

I would agree with what Carol stated.

JD--is that correct, the side that is closest to the bridge is the best side, as far as lack of noise?

It should be but there could still be some noise, although complaints have not been much of late. You would have Soggy Dollar Bar on the bridge side but not much more. You could also get some noise from Nowhere Special but I would still take Royal Palm over Belair. The beach is decent if you just want to lay on the beach. Kim Sha Beach is just a short walk on the beach as well.

OK, thanks. I would also say that if there are more than two people in the room, the third and fourth people will have a heck of a lot more room at RP. The two bedroom units at RP have a real second bedroom, as compared to the very small second bedroom at Belair.

With the new construction next to the bridge it might be better on the other side now that Roxy's is gone. As far as beach the sister Resort Flamingo beach is not too far.

Has that construction started next to the bridge already? I didn't know that.

Yes. Quite the project. Bottlenecked traffic yesterday morning as a very large semi was backing up to deliver some large concrete prefab to the site. Was going on last May too.

OK, I just didn't pay any attention when we went through in June.