TravelTalkOnline Forums Travel and Vacation Forums St. Maarten - St. Martin First Trip Back Since Irma

Leave Saturday for our first trip to stay on Island since Irma. How are the crowd sizes on Orient these days with no cruise ships? Any new restaurants that are now your favorites? We are staying in Orient Village. So, expect to spend most of our time on the French side.

Be sure to spend a day at Coco Beach. EXCELLENT food and a really nice layout. Good service.

Please let us know how Orient Beach looks when you get there. Also if you wander up to the nude end, how is the vibe there. We are regulars on the island and are headed back in December with 'first time' friends and are hoping there are lots of people and a good friendly vibe.

Enjoy your trip (we are staying at La Playa).

It seemed that most of the people on Orient when we were there, were at the Club O section. Other than the weekends, not many people at the other places. We only ate at Le String and Orange Fever. Le String has much more of a French feel and when we were there, most of the patrons were French. I enjoyed my food there, more than Orange Fever. Orange Fever seemed more of an American crowd. We had a LOVELY lunch there, but it was mostly because of the company! The food was decent though. We spent one day at Club O beach. There was a pretty big, nice crowd. We tried another day, and the weather chased us off in short order. Enjoy!

Thanks everyone.

Please where is coco beach?

Coco Beach is located at Esmeralda Resort.

Hmmm. Not sure that's quite correct. You turn down the street BEFORE Esmeralda/Astrolabe and go to the end of the street. Coco Beach is on the left at the end of the street.

Or maybe it's the first turn AFTER Esmeralda/Astrolabe. I can't remember, but it's one or the other!

I'm going to give a big shout out to Kontiki beach and restaurant on Orient beach!!!! When we were there in April, they were the only one's with a tractor to clean the seagrass. The chairs are all brand-new, deep cushions, (bright red) big umbrella's with beach table. $20.00 US. We had great beach service, (Brice) started the day a few times with a Mimosa ouiahh very nice!! Took a break from the sun to have lunch on there deck. Service and the food was AMAZING!! They where still on the search for a Sushi chef so that wasn't offered at that point. We didn't get to enjoy there new tiki bar, but it looked nice. They said they were going to bring back the bar swings! I give this experience an "A" plus!!!

Just back from a week on island. A few comments about our trip:
LaPlaya was wonderful. Outstanding service. Exceeded our expectations.
Discount Car Rental was spot on. Met us when we stepped out of the airport and the car was in the parking lot. Returning we just pulled in front of the airport and they were waiting. Awesome!
Orient Beach was not very crowded and had lots of saragassum. Several tractors were clearing, but only for those beach bars that paid.
Club O section was mainly full every day. Front row taken by 10 am.
Great trip. Considering going back in late September.

Sounds good! If you go back, are you staying on the French side again? I wonder whether restaurants will be open in September/October this year? Did you ask them what they were going to be doing this year? Traditionally, many French restaurants close for hurricane season. We are going back in October and plan to go to the French side at least once for dinner, if restaurants will be open.