Planning for January and, because the planning is half the fun for me, I decided to complicate things and again throw Orient into the mix for lodging options along with GCBC (We'll probably NOT re-do L'Esplanade this trip simply because of the price comparison for our dates).
Looking for opinions from anyone who's recently visited Palm Court Residence or La Plantation Hotel in Orient. At first glance Plantation looked "snazzier", but on closer inspection (photos, reviews) I wonder if Palm Court might be more our speed - looks smaller and more boutique-y, and I like the proximity to restaurants. I seem to recall someone telling me last year when I was planning, that Plantation isn't actually as nice as it looks, but I can't find the original post on that.

Also curious how both compare to GCBC (aside from the obvious beach difference), and are open to other properties to consider in Orient. We've only ever stayed in Grand Case and are looking forward to mixing it up a bit if we choose NOT to stay at GCBC. TIA.

We have stayed at both of those hotels but not recently. While both were fine I would not call them "boutiquie-Y" I would think La Playa or Orient Beach would be more comparable to L'Esplanade. We now stay in an Airbnb in the village and it suits us.

We have stayed at both GCBC and Palm Court and have no negative comments about either property.

We definitely prefer to stay in Orient as you can walk to 8 good restaurants along with a small grocery store and a couple of places if you do not wish to make your own breakfast.

Our drive to Gran Case was less than eight minutes, and Hope Estate even closer offers a Super U, Bacchus Express for pastries and Bacchus in the rear for a great wine selection and a splurge for lunch as I know you enjoy some pampering once in a while.

Wasn't sure we would enjoy staying at a private condo but conversations can be in the pool and the walk to the beach is about 3 minutes.
We just stayed a So Chic Villas and totally enjoyed our stay but we toured Neptune (Blue Ocean Villas / Sonja is great to work with) and liked this condo better

I believe pricing may actually be less than GCBC as well as Palm Court but you have so much more space.
Even would be even better if you could find a suitable traveling couple to share in the cost as 2 bedrooms is not much more than one

I know these properties do not compare to L'Esplanade but have other positives to make up for the luxury

We sure enjoy the fun in researching to find a perfect stay

We have stayed at both palm court and la plantation and enjoyed our visit. I look at them as somewhat of budget properties. We have spent more time renting studios and villas and really like that approach. We don’t want to have all of our meals out. We have booked a villa with a private pool two minutes walk from orient village and the beach for this Nov. I think the value for this type of stay is excellent. Between Vrbo,Blue ocean villas,and Islandescapes Sxm, there are plenty of choices.

Good call on the rental possibility. There are few that fit the bill in Grand Case for us, but I didn’t even think about checking those in Orient. know they are more abundant in Orient. We will be traveling with a third person so splitting the rent on 2 bed / 2 bath might open up some good villa options.

Give this one a serious look. Beautiful property, perfect location, amazing owners. We stayed at Cote Chic a couple of times and loved it.

https://www.sochicvillas.com/cote-chic/

I've got a sweet deal for you!! Contact Bruno Lemoine, he and his wife own these lovely villa's behind CoCo beach!! We've stayed at Palm Court, very nice no doubt. But Bruno's place is so cute and perfect for that get away without the big ticket price!! One of my favorite things to do after the beach is a cocktail by the pool!! Great view!!! He and his wife Geraldine are the perfect host!!! We've stayed there MANY times! We love it!! https://www.oparadis-sxm.net/nos-bungalows

Thanks everyone for the suggestions. I’ll look into them all.

We always stay in a villa in Orient Village. Try Islandescapesxm.

Ok so is anyone familiar with the Caribbean Princess property? It’s small - 12 units. Looks to be behind Wai and Kakao. There are a couple of units that look nice in here. I’m wondering if the adjacent parking lot is a nuisance. Curious about the walk to / from the village restaurants at night as well.

I looked at Bruno’s properties and the Villa Margot looks great but really hard to glean any information from the site. I will email my questions to him on that one. (How many beds? What size? A/c throughout ?)

I don't know about the properties your looking at, but we stay in the southern most end of the village and have no issues walking to and from the restaurants at night, and have never seen any concerns with the parking lots, if that helps.

We stayed at Caribbean Princess years ago. The last time I checked, there were only two of them that were being rented out under that name. All are individually owned (I think). The others are being used by owners or rented out individually, but not under the name Caribbean Princess. We stayed in a unit on the second floor. It had a dynamite view of the ocean. At that time, and presumably still now, the units on the first floor had zero view of the ocean, because of a sand dune.

The walk to the Village is too far for me. The units are almost next door to Esmeralda, which is basically the other end of the beach from the Village. The parking lot was not a nuisance for us, not sure what your issue is with regard to that.

We toured Villa Margot, but it was years ago. I believe there were two bedrooms down, one up. No idea on the beds. Hopefully Bruno will respond to your questions. I thought it (along with the bungalows) were available on VRBO also, but I could be incorrect. That location has a nice view, but again, to me, not really walkable to the Village. It's a fair distance, and uphill.

Best wishes.

Just stayed near the Village and absolutely no riff-raff to be concerned about walking at night.
It was a concern of ours as well

Restaurant owners who also live in Orient did mention about some dogs but said to yell them away and they do understand English
We were never bothered by any dogs on our walks to eat.

We did have a "Orient" dog Milka who would wait for us to come home and get some treats, he would sit immediately and shake hands.
Apparently many people in Orient know of him

mahokid--My comment didn't have anything to do with riff-raff, just too far a walk at night, to me, personally. Of course I am lazy, but Caribbean Princess is a decent distance from the Village.

Ok thanks for the feedback. My only concern with regard to the adjacent parking lot is that it is visible out the corner of the “backyard” of the unit we are considering - the lower level unit near the pool. My thinking is that the beachside bars and restaurants probably close down by early evening and the traffic to/fro will lessen. We are early diners and like to enjoy the outside space of our accommodations with cocktails after dinner, so just thinking about whether or not there would be a lot of car noise in the late evening.

I am an equal mix of “lazy” and “cautious” 😂. With regard to walk. After the last two visits navigating the main Blvd in Grand Case after dark, I’d like something a little less treacherous.

As you said, basically the beach bars close down at sunset or so, so I wouldn't worry about evening noise.

As I said, to ME, I wouldn't walk from Caribbean Princess to the Village at night.

So chic villa is the way to go.

stayed at caribbean princess once ---top floor ---spacious---well appointed----would definitely stay there again.

We stayed in Princess Manon, (https://abnb.me/R9lNSbco5Cb) second floor unit, and had a wonderful stay! Great views and close enough to still hear the waves. The parking lot wasn’t a nuisance at this end of the beach and clears out early before sunset cocktails. We were there in November of 2020 and I don’t think Coco was open and Kakao was only open infrequently due to Covid. I’ve included a couple of sunrise views where you can see your position as it relates to the parking lot and beach.

Walking to restaurants in the village wasn’t really practical. The building we were in is second from the end near the pool. Walking along the beach during the day is easy, walking on an unlit beach at night …..not so much. We drove to dinner each night which took all of 2 minutes.

Gilles and Daphne are lovely hosts and were the ones that first recommended Orange Fever to us 3 years ago.

We put a priority now on staying in the units around the village so that we can walk to dinner. There are a lot of options to fit most budgets. We’re skipping Orient in January and staying in Grand Case so we can go to more of their restaurants this time. It’s been awhile since we stayed downtown near La Villa and thought it was worth the splurge.

You’ll love wherever you end up!

I don’t know if you have solved your lodging yet, but
Islandescapesxm has a map of properties in their photos. Helped me choose a villa.

I see no map on their site? How did you access it?

Chuck I searched by Island escape Sxm maps. That showed a listing of maps that includes one of the villas that they rep on orient by location. I know this isn’t crystal clear, but it’s how I stumbled on it. Helped me to pick my villa. Hope this helps.

I did in fact chose a villa for January via Island Escapes, but as with Chuck I see no map on their site. I would recommend to anyone looking on Island Escapes - check the villa name on AirBnB as well. They list their villas on there, too, and this is a good way to see reviews and additional photos. Then just book via Island Escapes because AirBnB has more fees. This is what we did.

I apologize for not being clear. I guess I actually stumbled on the maps. I just recreated my search:
I did a google search for island escape sxm maps
That brings up the island escapes website followed by other listings.
Below you should see “ images for island escape sxm map.”
There is a map there with all of there orient properties.
Hope this works for you

Nice! That map is super helpful. Like I said, we're already booked, but its nice to see exactly where the villa is.

Great, thanks for the link! So odd that the Island Escape SXM Link website doesn't have it!
Did a search and now I see why the map is missing from the website- less than half of the places that came up from the search are on the map. Must be too much work to update it.

Island boi thanks for the link,obviously not my strong suit😊