Orient Village villa

Looking to possibly stay in the Orient Village area in June 2020. Must haves are
1) Only need 1 bedroom
2) MUST have private (not shared) pool
3) Prefer au naturel use of pool if possible
4) MUST have a bedroom on the 1st floor
5) Budget is $200/$250 per night

For that budget, may not be able to get it, but would prefer some kind of a water view. Thanks for any help.

Carol,
We just returned from a week in the village and was very satisfied with Magali at Islandescapesxm.com. She manages many properties, lives in the village, speaks English and could probably find you something. Here's a link to her website: http://islandescapesxm.com

Hi. Thanks. Sent her an email.

I would think if it is a private pool and not shared "au naturel use of pool" should not be a problem.

The problem is that many of the private pools in Orient Village, there are townhouses next door with second stories, that they can see you on your patio from their windows, which I prefer not to be the case.

Understand your concern.

Carol,

Your must haves sound perfect. Please let us know what you find out. And thanks for your recent reports--we're definitely going to Anse Marcel next time.

I'm afraid what I want doesn't exist, at least for the price I want to pay, in the Village. If you remove wanting a view, it is feasible. I found one place that looked pretty good, but there was no bedroom on the first floor. I found another place that had no view, that might have worked, but it had no US TV, all channels in French. I realize that was not on my list, but that kind of didn't occur to me, that someplace would have no TV in English. In the old days, I wouldn't have given a second thought to that, but now I would miss it.

Chk some of these out.
https://www.airbnb.com/s/Orient-Bay--Saint-Martin/homes?refinement_paths%5B%5D=%2Fhomes&place_id=ChIJu1l9Gf1vDowRY58dM6qB-jw&s_tag=HMFuIRkN

oops dont think the link worked..google airbnb st maarten orient bay

https://www.airbnb.com/rooms/77395?location=Orient%20Bay%2C%20Saint%20Martin&source_impression_id=p3_1563820326_4dB%2BLUMrFzwKo2K6&s=HMFuIRkN


In case link doesn't work its called Le Cozi. No pool but for the price looks good.

Found another one called the Beach House villa with 23 five star reviews, 3 bedrooms and looked like very private pool................

last post on this, just excited for you as I would be...here is a review. I punched in one week for example June 17th 2020 and came up with $237.00 per night........seems to have it all.

The beach house is a perfect place for a vacation at the Orient Beach. We were a family of five, with three teenagers and we all enjoyed the beautifully renovated and modern beach house. We would certainly stay here again, if we return to Orient Beach. The house was clean and it is more spacious than appears in the pictures. The pool was just wonderful and the garden area felt really nice and private. This was great after a long day at the lively beach. It was also just simply amazing to enjoy morning coffee there in the open kitchen/living area. The balcony upstairs offers nice views over the rooftops and at night time it is dark enough to enjoy the stars. The grocery store and restaurants are just a couple minutes walking distance and it is easy to find good food and also quality wines. I highly recommend the beach house, if visiting the Orient beach. It is a perfect place for relaxing vacation.

bran--I've been kind of living on those pages and got kinda stuck, not finding what I want.

Sounds as though you are becoming a French-side convert!

Not that necessarily, but want to try to be able to do two trips again next year--one at Beachside, one somewhere on the French side. When we first started going to SXM, we stayed on the French side all the time and had gotten away from it for the past several years. This most recent trip just emphasized how much we love the French side. We just don't get there very often when we stay at Beachside.

FYI- on the US TV topic, the last couple of times we have gone anywhere (including our recent stay at Orient Village apartment) we brought an Amazon Firestick, and have been able to watch anything we wanted- including our US TV (via an app on the Firestick) the only problem we ever had was that Hulu didn't work in French territories (We have since researched and think we can do it using a VPN- but it really wasn't that big of a problem) Just wanted to share!

I'm really pretty clueless with regard to that type of thing. We have Direct TV at home. If we get this Amazon Firestick, we can connect to our Direct TV at home, so long as we have a really good internet connection?

Carol you can go au natural in the pool at paradis O. Bruno has US TV, definitely in your budget and a view of ocean in the distance although limited. I am not sure if you have stayed there?. We stayed 4 times so I can highly recommend it. With just 4 bungalows it can be private if they all aren't rented out.

Louise--we've stayed there yes, but I just don't think it has the overall privacy that we want.

Carol, you can watch your DirecTV channels on your tablet or phone. I'm not sure you can do that internationally, but you could look into that.

My understanding is that you can't watch Direct TV internationally, but I can check into it.

That's correct. Last time we were on the island our villa had only French satellite. I tried to log onto my Directv account to watch TV and it wouldn't allow me to connect. I wound up messing with the Netflix account and was able to find something to watch and change the language to English.

I didn't realize that would be an issue in that area with several of the places of no TV in English, never really thought about it, I guess. In the old days, we never worried about TV on island! Amazing how ones' needs change!

Never watch TV on vacation. It’s bad enough at home. Listen to the radio if need be, many from overseas and it’s amazing what good music you can find. But Peace, quiet, relaxation and getting away hopefully from the daily problems of the world and hearing no news is bliss.

News?? No, never!! Entertainment, yes, news no!!!!

I have to get my morning news fix. Vacation of no vacation. Need to know whats going on in the world. Fake or not.

I understand this topic expanded some, but I'll indulge in that minor hi-jack for a moment. I take my Firestick and Roku with me when I travel. I find the Roku to be the one I use the most. In Orient, though, neither works well. I have an Amazon Fire tablet that I use for downloading a bunch of movies from my local library and Netflix which works great for the plane and while you're in internet restricted areas like Orient. That tablet works great for me - downloaded books, videos, and music and its all easy to use - no hassles; works the same way every time regardless of where I am. Most flat screen TV's now allow Bluetooth connections to the tablet, so that's even better.

Well, that might work, to connect to the TV. I have no interest in huddling over a laptop to watch a show.

Or you can connect your laptop to the TV via a cable connection.

OK

I get the "don't watch tv on vacation" thing. It irritates the heck out of me to keep seeing the news and where we generally stay it's always out of NYC. I could do without I think.

It's nice to have though...I'm always there during World Series, and as we don't go out much at night any longer I NEED to watch the games.

I've also been in SXM when Sandy was hitting the U.S. (strange feeling). Needed news to keep track of home.

We're usually firmly planted in the no tv crowd.

However, one of our favorite things to do is watch It's a Wonderful Life on Christmas Eve. It's usually on when we are there and it's always fun for us--last time we enjoyed an awesome Buche Noel too, which we never buy! I guess we're pretty fluid when it comes down to it.

Our traditional Xmas movies to watch every year are White Christmas and Christmas Vacation.

Don't like Christmas Story? "Shoot your eye out!" classic.

Louse-Do they have a website? Would love to know more about this place.

Didn't say I didn't like it. Not sure why you implied that. Only posted our go to traditional movies.

Bruno DID have a website for O Paradis, but it was hacked. He was in the process of setting up another one, but I'm not sure it's done. I think you can actually find it on like Expedia or whatever, if you do a google search.

Thanks, Carol. Do you happen to have an email address for Bruno? Would really appreciate some feedback from ttol members that have stayed here. Assuming O Paradis s located inside Orient Bay? Sea View? C/O pool?

Here
is a link on Hotels.com

Never thought of taking one of our ROKU boxes with us when traveling abroad. Great idea!!!!

..except that apparently it doesn't work there, according to the other poster..

We have stayed in this villa 12 times https://rentalo.com/1634/lavilla.html. it's called Villa Creole and it's 4 doors down from the guard gate at the entrance. Has a private pool for all of the Club Orient fans like we are. Nice breezes through the villa and ac in all bedrooms. Very comfortable and we love it there.

I don't see any pricing there??

Here is another link with a little better pricing (still could be displayed better)

https://www.tripadvisor.com/Vacatio...y_Saint_Martin_St_Martin_St_Maarten.html

I know in the past it's been negotiable a little bit if all bedrooms are not used. The current status of that may have changed as this is a new management company.

OK, thanks. $400 a night for a place that doesn't have a/c in the main room seems a little high to me..

For 400 a night the room should have a person with a palm branch fanning you with a drink in your hand. Lol

Ya, thats double what I remember. Something isn't right with the site. The pictures don't reflect the place very well either. It's set back and more private than it appears.

Carol, In June is low season, did you ask Bruno? His units are fully air-conditioned and the last time we were there before Irma we had the pool to our self's everyday! BTW his web-site is down. If you don't have his email, let me know. He could use the business!!

David--we've stayed there a couple of times, so are familiar with it, but it's not what we're looking for.

We just rented Villa Joie de Vie from Magali for three weeks in May of 2020. The villa has a wall around the private pool. No one can see you in the pool area. As of now, it is the only villa that she has that has US TV. We stayed in the place two years ago and found it convenient to just about everyplace in Orient Village. It is down the road across from La Plantation. Doesn't have an Ocean View. Actually, since it has a wall around the pool area, it has no view but the pool area. The villa is all on one level, no stairs. Check it out on her website.

I am aware of Joie de Vie. I am somewhat surprised that is the only villa she handles that has US TV. I guess that is a very common issue in that area. For right now, I have decided to put that search on the back burner for a while and re-evaluate priorities.