I have friends who are planning on going to St. Maarten and would like to stay as close to Orient Beach as possible. Would anyone recommend a hotel that is close or even on the beach? Thank you.

Suggest you contact TTOL sponsor Caribbean Islands Travel Service. Jim sells all the hotels along Orient and can make a recommendation that best suits your needs.

There are heaps of places to stay on Orient. I am sorry to report that Orient is not in the best shape. I walked the entire length up and back today. It seems like each year there are just more and more beach chairs piled up on top of each other. The wind right now is non-stop so lots of sand in the air. The seaweed issue the last few months has left piles of rotting seaweed all over the place. The stink is not nice. Club O was the cleanest place on the beach. Sorry, I just will be visiting other beaches this year.

The Alamanda is right on Orient. We have stayed there in the past and enjoyed our visits.

You might recommend Club Orient. It is right on the beach.

But not everyone wants a nude resort... If they wanted a nude resort, I would think he would have just told them to do that.

Contact Bruno. He has four-five villas behind Orient beach with in walking distance!! Nice pool too!!!http://www.oparadis-sxm.com/gb/

Alamanda is as close as I can think to the beach and a very nice resort right in the heart of Orient Village (more or less). Palm Court is another nice one for a resort. If they are looking for an efficiency rather than full service resort as my husband indicated - Bruno's Paradise Bunaglows are wonderful. There is an onsite inground pool, each unit has a nice deck, parking onsite. It is not on the beach but a quick and I mean quick ride (5 minutes or less) to beach. You can drive one block down and get on by Waikiki beach. Some walk it.

Honestly, I think the only "hotels" on orient beach are Alamanda and Club Orient but there are many other accommodation that are very close. Both Alamanda and Club Orient are very expensive by most peoples standards...

There's also La Plantation, a very short walk from Orient Beach.

I concur with Carol on this, contact Jim great guy and can really help you find the right accommodations to match your needs. There is none more knowledgeable than Jim when it comes to Orient and his services are free.

For sure, Orient is all Jim does, so he knows the hotels there better than anyone else.

I concur with La Plantation, I have stayed there a number of times and love it. It's the right price for my wife and I, and we love the more Euro style of accommodations. It's not a Holiday Inn Express by any stretch.

This year traveling with our young adult kids, two rooms is proving kind of spendy, we are going nearby Villa instead.

35 days!