TravelTalkOnline Forums Travel and Vacation Forums St. Maarten - St. Martin Orient Beach looking for the Latest Info

Hello Forum Members,

I know this must be annoying question to the ones that are on St Martin all the time. So is orient beach still fairly slow? I am coming the last week of March, I am all for a very chill time with less people. All we need is a grocery store and a few restaurants. We are staying at Esmeralda and plan to walk down to club o every day.

It looks like the recent pictures of Orient Beach still have few people on the beach. Club O beach looked like it had about 20 or so people. Does anyone have a cruise ship schedule link for St Martin?

Thank you in advance.

Club O beach I would say is currently a lot busier than 20 people per day. I would guess around 50 to 100 most days, now. As far as a cruise ship schedule, it's right here. Just scroll UP and hit the button for SXM Cruise Schedule.

I was there last November, did the same - stayed at Es right when it opened and spent most days at Club O. During the first half of November, there were roughly 300 on Club O's beach, but interestingly, it cut back around T-giving. Point is, there were lots of people there. As far as I was concerned, Orient was essentially the same as always. Restaurants in the village were open, shopping was fine, parking was hard to find, etc, etc. Now, Bikini was the only beach bar open then, so yes, usually Club O had far more people than the rest of the beach, but from what I've heard from friends recently, the rest of the beach is becoming very busy quickly. Not packed like sardines as has been seen before, but nicely busy. I think you'll be very happy finding what you're looking for.

We'll be there the first week in March so I'll try to post a report regarding the entire beach when we return (say around March 12th). Haven't been here post Irma, but I knew it well before and comparing should be easy. The upper portion of the beach has three beach bars/restaurants running including Bikini Beach, Kontiki, and Kakao. Staying up at Esmeralda, the three previous beach bars/restaurants in that general area I think are gone: Coco Beach, Palm Beach and Waikiki Beach. As you know, there is no longer a Club Orient, but Perch Lite was re-established in this area and serves lunch, etc. They also rent out beach chairs and umbrellas. Restaurants (not all of them) appear to be open in the village (i.e. Le Piment), and there is a grocery store there. Best days to visit Orient Beach if you want smaller potential crowds would be Mondays and Tuesdays. Smaller cruise ships don't have much of an impact (Windstar, Silversea, etc.), but the bigger cruise lines such as Royal Caribbean can really send a lot of people up there.

Thank you everyone for the responses, Carol sorry for being rather silly not seeing the cruise ship schedule right above.

Looks like I should plan that it will be the normal crowds, which is a good thing for the area.

Tom--no problem. Looks like you're brand new here. Welcome!

Welcome! Club Orient Resort is closed but you would not know it when you go to the beach in front of the resort. The Perch lite is offering great beach food and There are chaise lounges and umbrellas filling the front row all the way down the beach. If you don't turn around you would not know the resort is closed. The bathroom is OK and the parking on property does close with a chain when the Perch Lite closes. If your car is still parked they will find you on the beach before they lock the gate. Enjoy the new Club Orient BeAch!

We never saw the lot closing. We stayed til 530+ several days after perch ceased ops and all umbrellas taken and it was still open.

IMHO it probably depends when Cedric and the Perch Lite are done for the day. It would be earlier or later depending on patrons. That day the beach was closed and they asked us to move our cars.

We are currently in St Martin and staying in the village. I can say honestly that Orient Beach has rebounded form the hurricane, maybe not to its pre-Irma state but it sure is busier than one year ago. The beach bars are busy as the cruise boat traffic is returning now that they have somewhere to go. In the evening, the restaurants are near to capacity. There are live bands preforming some evenings. Petit Casino will supply you with groceries.On Club O beach, Cedric is doing a fine job. There is probably 200+ people on the beach and more on days with multiple cruise ships. Come back to Orient Beach and enjoy yourselves.