Greetings,
I am planning a trip to St. Barth's and have looked a many beautiful hotels (via the web sites). I think we have decided that we'd like to stay right in St. Jean -- really want to be able to be in walking distance of shops, restaurants, etc. Eden Rock looks a little stuffy. Villages St. Jean and Le Tom Beach both look inviting. I would love to get feedback from people who have stayed at either one (or new suggestions).

I have stayed at Village St Jean 3 times & love its size, location & intimacy. It's an amazingly steep walk to the beach but the views from the rooms are glorious. We walked to everything but you do have to be agile -- there are lots of nice shops & restaurants at the bottom of the hill. You may want to surf thru sbhonline.com with your specific questions -- very active board.

Stay at Village St Jean you will really enjoy it, we have been there six times and have had nothing but excellent experiences, we just were not fond of their restaurant, but you have many to choose from that are very close. The cottages are fantastic we always staed in unit 22 up on top of the hill, their pool is also very nice with a great view and almost always empty.The family that runs the resort are also wonderful people.

Pick up Novembers Travel & Leisure magazine, there is a huge article on St. Barths Hotels which may be very helpful to you.

You can't go wrong at Tom Beach, or their fine restaurant LaPlage. Hotel is nicely decorated, romantic, cute pool & very good staff. We stayed at Village St. J would not return. Like the previous poster bag their restaurant(expensive & substandard)--and the road up can be noisy--plus they're the ONLY hotel(we've stayed at 7 OR 8 on SB)with an annoying 10% service fee that can be a surprise at the end. Another sleeper: Villas Outer Mer right on St. Jean beach. Spartan but roomy, nice and very inexpensive. I think they're through SB Properties?

Sorry. On St. Jean Beach--it's Otre Mer, a little complex of 6 or 7 Villas by French Caribbean International.