LM3682

(Note:I've reposted this under better message title)
Our family including 2 adult children just returned from a week in St. Martin. We stayed at the Alamanda Hotel which I highly recommend. Hotel is nicely furnished, staff extremely helpful and informative, good continental breakfast around the pool each morning,and right across the street from Orient Beach. Beach umbrellas and lounge chairs are furnished by the hotel. We liked the charging privileges at the beach bars so we didn't have to carry any money when going to the beach. We took a soft cooler and bought beer and water for the beach. Restaurants we enjoyed were the Cote Plage in Orient Square behind the hotel, Spiga, Sunset Cafe and Bistro Caribes, all in Grand Case.(10 minute drive). We enjoyed the shopping in Phillipsburg. Be sure to visit the Gauva Emporium if you like rum. The excursion we took was the 75 foot catamaran Scoobie Too to Prickly Pear Island. An awesome beach there, but little snorkeling. One of our favorite days. All in all, a great trip. We would return to St Martin, and to the Alamanda hotel.

travelenthusiast

I'm glad that you enjoyed the Alamanda. I just returned from there also and give them raving reviews. We were there from November 4th to the 15th. See my trip report from a few days ago.

DOCK

Hi, we leave on 25 december for a week. We are staying at L'Hoste. We have 2 kids 15 and 10. I am a bit concerned about the issue of nudity. We do not have a problem with topless, my kids are used to it from our trips to Europe.I was under the impression that C/O was only at Club Orient ,but I believe the entire beach is C/O. Was this the case. I would hate to have to drive every day to another beach as it kinda defeats the purpose of having booked beachfront to begin with.Any info appreciated.

LM3682

Dock- on the issue of nudity...the main beach does have some topless people, but most of them cover up to walk around on the beach. There was one couple who would, once a day, walk completely naked down the beach then back to Club Orient. Other than that people were respectful. Club Orient is at the FAR end of the beach, so one would have to make a concerted effort to go there, or come from there. That said, it does happen. But Orient is probably the nicest beach on the island, so it would be a shame to drive elsewhere...most people are driving to it! Have fun on your trip!

DOCK

Thanks for the info, I feel a little better now.

baker

To DOCK: We too will be at L'Hoste (it's our 4th time there); and in fact will be there from Dec 18th for 2 weeks. It's a great hotel and we love being right on Orient Beach. Yes, as previous poster said, there are a few people who walk nude the entire length of the beach from Club Orient right to Mont Vernon but generally the nudists stick to the area right in front of CO. And in fact, anyone coming down the beach should see the sign advising them that the area is clothing-optional with no cameras or radios permitted.

Around hotel pools as well as on other beaches such as Baie Rouge you will definitely see topless bathers. Usually anyone sunbathing nude will go a little further down the beach for privacy.

As to whether or not to be concerned for your kids; our son came with us from infancy to about age 18 and he never expressed any concerns about the nudity or about being uncomfortable around it. But of course you know your own kids best.

Have a great time on SXM; we always do.

nittany1

On your question about nudity. just returned from a week at Orient Beach with 3 adults and three teenage daughters. Topless was quite prevalent everywhere, both on the beach chairs and walking up and down the beach. Total nudity was mainly confined to the early morning (pre-9AM) and occasionally late evenings when walkers from Club O would come up. Towards thanksgiving day, daytime nudity became more prevalent, several people were walking the length of the beach totally nude, mainly men. On the Wednesday before Thanksgiving, while sitting waiting on food at Baywatch, in the space of five minutes, 4 topless women and a nude man and a woman came in for service. I thought the totally nude ones should have used more discreetness, who wants to sit on a seat after one of those did. For your info, most of the totally nude people were older (50+), things were quite saggy, you don't really want to look, we all felt that most should have covered up. One day we snorkeled off of the island just off Orient Beach, jet skis took us over there, while resting between excursions, a group of about 15 nude snorkelers from Club O appeared in the water and came ashore. Talked with several of them, they were actually quite nice people, ended up going out and snorkeling with them.