St Martin beaches

[minniedew]

My family and I will be traveling on the Eastern Carribean DCL in February. I would like suggestions on beaches to travel to via taxi for the day. I am looking for a beach with bathroom/changing facilities, food and possibly chair rentals. My children are 7 & 10 - I would prefer a beach which is pretty calm. Thanks for any suggestion you can give.

 

[Señor Ferrari]

Welcome to the boards minniedew-

My favorite beach on St. Maarten is Dawn Beach. It's about a 10-15 minute cab ride from the pier. There is a restaurant (really kind of a food shack) there with restrooms, and you can rent chairs, floats, etc. right on the beach. The only thing is that the surf can sometimes be a little rough. It's on the Atlantic side of the island, so if there's a storm out in the Atlantic, it can be a bit choppy. Most of the times I've been there, however, it's been pretty calm and good for snorkeling.

Another good choice is Little Bay beach. This is just on the other side of Great Bay from the cruise ship pier, about a 5-10 minute ride. It's a smaller beach, but on the south (Caribbean) side of the island, and usually pretty calm. There are generally more locals on the beach than cruise ship passengers. There's also a Divi resort near there.

The most convenient is Great Bay beach, which you can see from the ship. You can take the water taxi from the pier to the beach. It's got everything you want, but it tends to be more crowded, as it is the closest to the pier. Also, there's a lot of traffic on in the harbor, so the water tends to be a bit more cloudy, which would really only matter if you were snorkeling.

 

[prymsu]

I have also been to Dawn's Beach. Very clean and easy to get to. You might want to check out Dave's site for more info on various beaches www.dcltribute.com

 

[pigelet]

There is aslo a nice beach by the Pelican Resort. There is one side that is rough and another that is like a lake.
Close to Dawn Beach is one called LeGallion which is very low and calm.
Maho Beach is a nice family beach. This is close to the Sunset Beach Bar which is located acroos the street from where the planes touch down. It is fun to go there for a drink and let the kids run on the beach while the planes land over your head. DD6 and DD4 love it there. They do dive when a plane lands. Its fun and really different. They have a website called SunsetBeachBar.com
All have food/drink stands. Can rent chairs/umbrellas from all of them.
It may be cheaper to rent a car. Taxis are expensive in St. Martin.
Will probably cost you at least $20 - 30 each way to a beach.
We've been to St. Martin a few times and know our way around so it may be easy for me to say rent a car. It is an easy island to get around. Hard to get lost.

 

[logan1_2000]

DW and DS and I are going on eastern 1/11/03 and also will be finding the St. Maarten beaches. We have been to St. Maarten twice, once for a week at the Divi on Little Bay and once as cruise ship visitors for the day on Royal Caribbean. By the way, for those who criticize Disney and rave about RCL--what ship were you on, because the Nordic Empress was a dump compared to DCL. But I digress...

Great Bay Beach, right there at Front street by the Water Taxi pier is by far the most convenient, and as the other poster said, while the water will get stirred up a little from the sea traffic, the water is calm and wonderful, but the scene is crowded and you will be politely, but frequently, solicited by the locals. But not in an intimidating way AT ALL. Dawn beach can have an active surf, though we loved the food shack (great ribs!). An easy cab ride. Up by Maho Beach we never did any swimming, and yes, you are at the end of the runway. Not much of a snorkeling island overall for serious snorkelers. But lovely, and despite everything you read about St. Thomas, forget it, because ST. Maarten is THE BEST shopping in the caribbean if that is what you are into before hitting the beach.

The itinerary shows a long day in St. Maarten, so plenty of time to grab a cab to one of the beaches and experience some variety without missing the Magic.

 

[my3kids]

If you don't want rough water, I'd avoid Dawn Beach. It is supposed to be the best snorkeling on the island, but the water was so rough I couldn't even get past the surf to get to the reef....no way I'd let the children try. It was so rough I made them wear life jackets to play at the edge. I wish we had gone to Pinel Island or taken the ferry to Anquilla for the day. But yes, Dawn Beach did have bathrooms and food. There were also many many many women selling their wares to the tourists.. Literally, about every 2 minutes someone would approach me to buy items or have my daughter's hair braided. All I had to say was no thanks and they left without a problem. I expected some of that, but wasn't prepared for just how much.

 

[nanc]

We took our family (4 ages 5-12) to Orient Beach in January and we all loved it there and we rate it as one of our favorite beaches. My daughters also got their hair braided there. If you go to the family beach area you will not see much nudity. It brings tears thinking about what a beautiful time my family had there. We leave Saturday for the Wonder and I'm sad we won't get to visit Orient Beach again.

 

[goofysgirl]

We also chose Orient Bay. Absolutely stunning beach and water. Chair rental and restaurants are right on the beach. Our kids all girls 8,12,14 did not find the nudity alarming because we warned them that other cultures do different things. We even took a walk down to the nude side with our suits no complants from anyone. We found the beach to be relaxing and not very crowded. Local merchants dealt deals in towels and local jewelery. We are going back in November and can't wait to visit Orient Bay again!

 

[nanc]

Oh, I'm so jealous of you. I'd love to visit Orient Beach again. I think if we ever go to an island to stay that I'd love to go there just to be at that beach for 3-4 days. That "hut" bar was fun too. The dressing/bathrooms were just a little under par but that was okay because the beach sure made up for anything!!!

When we were there last January there was this little tan dog (puppy) like a small Shih Tzu or something like that. My son was building a sandcastle and this little dog kept coming up and laying in the middle of the castle it was the most cutest thing you ever saw. I wish I would've camcorded it but I did take pictures. My son would shew him away and he kept coming back. I wanted to bring him home soooo bad because he was sooo cute but he had a much better life on a beach than in cold Iowa. I'm sure he lived there with a business owner. Did you see the dog by chance????

Oh, how I loved that day at Orient Beach!!!!!

nanc

p.s. memories are PRICELESS!!!!!!

 

[Hopelessly Hooked]

We had the most fun renting a car (which is very easy) and visiting a couple of beaches. Been to St. M. twice. We liked Mullet Bay. Orient Beach is great but the nudity is disconcerting. My brother loved Pinel Island but I thought it was simply OK. By the way, the food was incredible on the French side. We are trying the Western cruise this year but have the fondest memories of the beaches on the "friendly island".

 

[jlawall]

I recommend the Pinel Island Snorkel Tour. I wish we could have stayed there longer!

 

[nanc]

Just received my Caribbean magazine in the mail and saw that Orient Beach was rated #3 out of the top 10 beaches.

yes, there is some nudity but if you go to the family side of the beach you see little of it and my four kids didn't blink twice (but we warned them ahead of time) because they were just having so much fun.


FYI--
We just returned Sunday from our 4/3 day back to back on the Wonder and we survived with no sickness. They are taking extra precautions. We were told that Disney spent 6 mil on the Magic when it was docked that week when they replaced mattresses/pillows and did the heavy cleaning.

nanc