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ChuckG Offline OP
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Missed a few but nice job anyway! Link


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Too bad the couple didn’t walk down a little further at Coupcoy. That’s usually the spot with the most beach, people and Dany serving food and drinks. I have no idea what’s left of that beach either. It comes and goes with the wind and waves.

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Happy Bay was our favorite when we visited St. Martin. It would be nice to have a bar there, but the beach was amazing, and we really enjoyed some skinny dipping there.

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They missed a few Island beaches but the only nudist beach on the island is on orient beach. The other beaches it's tolerated & if no one says anything you are good to go.

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Originally Posted by jeepers
They missed a few Island beaches but the only nudist beach on the island is on orient beach. The other beaches it's tolerated & if no one says anything you are good to go.

Correct

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ChuckG Offline OP
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They said in reply to me that they did go and get a beer from Dany at Cupecoy so there must not have been sand to show "beach" there that day.


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Thanks for the link, Chuck. I finally made the time to watch the video. Very nice.


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So glad I popped in today to see what was new on the island. Getting closer to our first visit since 2012 with a short visit off our cruise. Watched the video and was shocked to see what Orient Beach area looks like now so many years after Irma. I have been looking for pictures for some time and now I know why there were none posted. I looked forward to bringing our friends to the place we visited for many years and loved so much. Now I have to make other plans because I couldn't possibly go there and see the devastation. Any suggestions besides shopping in Phillipsburg?

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trangermom---Club Orient is definitely still in ruins, yes. But the clothed part of Orient Beach is as good or better than before. I can understand why someone wouldn't want to see Club O, but the rest of Orient Beach is beautiful.


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That was a cute video, the couple were fun and entertaining!! The sad thing I also noticed when I walked down to Club "O", was the further I went down the beach, the smell was really bad!! I'm guessing not only did Irma rip up the resort but she must have pulled the plumbing up too!! Or could be beside scavengers looking for the copper wiring, the copper plumbing too!! Maybe some people could get together and hire someone to just bulldoze it all down!! So sad!!


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Thanks Carol for your reply. Glad to hear that part of Orient is still beautiful, but are there any facilities there and reasonable restaurants?

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80% of Orient is nice, they literally have like 10-15 different restaurants and beach bars to choose from.

What is reasonable? They all have toilets.

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trangermom--absolutely, on both counts.


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Imo it's the best beach on the island. Last year I took 3 buses and walked the long way from bus stop there and back... from Simpson Bay - 3 days in a row. That's how much I loved Orient Beach. In two weeks time I will be staying at Orient Beach and Village for a week so I'm happy.

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I would beg to differ on it being the BEST beach on island. Maybe for you but not some others.

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"Best" is relative for everyone. Chill.


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"Maybe some people could get together and hire someone to just bulldoze it all down!!

What a great idea. No-one ever thought of that. Wait.... of course, it has to be cleaned up but if it was simple, don't you think it would have already been done? The buildings are privately owned. Do you propose going to eye-sores where you live and just bulldozing them down? Of course not.

If you want to be informed, at least more than you appear to be now, read the FAQs on the Club Orient official website, www.cluborient.com. They are old now since it's been a few years since they were updated but what is there tells the story so far. It has only become more complicated as the years go by.

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trangermom--when you say "reasonable", not sure what your definition of that term is. Pedro's is no longer there. The Perch is still there, and the cost is very reasonable there, but you do have a view of the ruins of Club O, if you face away from the water. There are a few small restaurants immediately to the left (as you face the water) of where Pedro's used to be, and then also the larger restaurants all along Orient. Many people here like Le String and Orange Fever, which are pretty close to the left of where Pedro's used to be. At either of those, you can get full meals or hamburgers or pizza, etc., and the prices aren't bad at all. The big restaurants are there also, further down Orient. Just take a walk and decide which restaurant suits your taste.


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Don't you think I know all that!!! WTF!!! When I was walking the beach I saw rats and mice running around. Did I really have to point that out when I said it smelled badly!!!! Bulldozing them and clearing for sanitary reasons!!! I'm from NYC area, I've seen what happens to abandon builds. It's not pretty and neither is what is left of the once beautiful Club Orient!!!! But HEY! If you want to bath with that around you, so goes it!!!


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ChuckG Offline OP
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Time to get back to the OP! Following is their (Nick and Lins) narration about their visit, ( LINK works for Patreon members):

The Nude Beaches of Saint Martin

We went to every nude beach in Saint Martin, we think… It kinda depends on how you look at it. Saint Martin is home to Orient Beach, one of the few official nude beaches in the Caribbean. This is also the only official nude beach on the island, so technically speaking, just setting foot on Orient Beach would be sufficient to claim that we've been to every nude beach on Saint Martin.

But that would make for a very short blog post, so we took it one step further. We asked around and identified three more beaches that are known to be frequented by naked people. Time was not on our side, our visit to Saint Martin was already short, and a hurricane that was coming our way kept us inside our resort for several days. Long story short, we had one full day to visit all 4 nude beaches on our list.

When we got back to The Paradise Peak in the evening, we told the owners how we went to every nude beach on Saint Martin. Their response was: "Oh, but there are several other beaches where you can easily go naked". Our day suddenly seemed much less like an accomplishment, but we looked at it from the bright side: We now have a very good reason to return to Saint Martin one day, and until then, here are the beaches that we did visit.

A word about distances on Saint Martin
One of the questions we had before visiting Saint Martin, was what would be a good base to easily get to the beaches. We had read somewhere that all nude beaches are on the French side of the island, so this eliminated the south. The Paradise Peak resort seemed like our perfect headquarters because it's right in the center of the French side on almost equal distance to each nude beach.

Little did we know that this would not matter much. You see, Saint Martin is about the size of any major city in Europe or the USA and has fewer traffic jams. One rainy day we decided to drive around the whole island. By noon we were back. Baie Longue beach was probably the furthest away from our resort and yet the drive was just 45 minutes. It could have been 30 if we had the instructions that we're going to give you below. So no need to wake up early. Remember, we visited 4 nude beaches in one day, made video about them, took notes, had a couple of beers, and still made it back to the resort for sunset drinks.

Orient Beach
This is the only official nude beach on the island and is quite famous in naturist circles. Largely because it was the home of Club Orient Resort, considered one of the world's top nude resorts, until September 2017 when Hurricane Irma completely destroyed it. What's left of the resort is just ruins, but the beach is as beautiful as it probably has been forever.

No matter when you visit Orient Beach, you'll always find a naked crowd. Most times, they are on or around the sunbeds with the yellow umbrellas. Except when it rains, then you'll find them in the bar. A clothing-optional bar, by the way, and as far as we know the only one on the island. If you know about other clothing-optional bars on Saint Martin, do let us know for next time! Considering this, the prices are very reasonable and the food is pretty good.

Orient Beach is also the easiest to get to. Just follow your GPS and you'll end up at something that looks like a large parking lot. If you keep following your GPS, you'll find a smaller parking inside what used to be the gates of the resort, right next to the bar. That's where you want to park, because this whole zone is clothing-optional so you can just leave all your stuff in the car.

Happy Bay
At the end of the day, when we tried to decide which beach we liked the most, we couldn't choose between Orient and Happy Bay, although they are very different beaches. Eventually, we concluded that it's all about how we feel at a certain day. If we're looking for a busy vibe, if we want to meet people and drink beers in a bar where we don't need to wear clothes, Orient it is. If we rather want to chill, read a book and soak up nature, we would definitely go to Happy Bay.

The advantage for us, and a disadvantage for many others, is that there's no parking right next to Happy Bay. The walk is short, but it's a walk nonetheless, and this is why Happy Bay manages to maintain a quiet vibe. It's said that the nude sections are at the sides of the beach, but when we got there, there was a naked guy right in the middle. Really, it was as if he had measured it. So we joined him, but on busy days, you may need to move more towards the edges.

There are two ways to get to Happy Bay, one is to drive to Friar's Bay, park there and walk up the trail that starts in the north of the parking lot. The other one is to take Rue Happy Bay road, drive as far as you can and park where you find a spot. The latter option is easier, the first is more scenic.

Baie Longe
This was the first nude beach we visited on the island, but it was a bit of a strange experience. First of all, because it's inside a gated community. We drove around looking for an entrance but couldn't find any without a barrier. When we eventually asked a security guy, he just lifted the barrier and let us in. So that's the way to get to the beach.

Secondly, this is not your everyday neighbourhood. Most houses look as if they're owned by the Bezos family and the most impressive ones are seafront. It's hard to imagine that these people would enjoy the sight of our nude butts passing by the window when they're at the breakfast table.

Lastly, the beach was completely deserted when we got there. No naked people, no bathing suits, if Wally had been there, we'd spotted him right away. Later, someone would tell us that the nude sections are at the ends of the beach, but we didn't have a clue. So we just stripped down wherever we entered, went for a swim, and moved on.

Cupecoy beach
This is where we went terribly wrong, but we didn't know that at the time. If you're anything like us, you'll probably follow your GPS to Cupecoy, you'll probably park your car somewhere after you passed by the roundabout. You'll probably end up at a resort that has a big sign saying that nudity is prohibited on the beach and you'll probably spend some time staring at the distance, wondering what just happened.

But you won't give up so easily, you'll wander along the coast and not much more than 2 minutes later, you'll find some old stairs. You'll wander down, think that it's a rather small and quite rocky nude beach, wonder what all the fuss is about and move on.

If you are actually us, many days later, you'll regret that you didn't listen to your friend Gerardo, who had drawn you a map to get to the beach but you chose to ignore it because you're world travellers who figure things out on their own.

Basically, we can't tell you much about Cupecoy because apparently, we weren't at the right beach. Except that from the resort, just keep walking up the dirt road, DO NOT go down the first stairs but continue your walk and you should end up at a much nicer nude beach than where we have been. We hear that you can also drive up the dirt road and park nearby. The one thing we did do right was stop at Dany's bar for a beer… At least we're good at something!


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You are lucky you didn’t end up with the gendarmes after you on bay Longue. Topless fine - nudity not so much. And security on ATV’s has been known to stop people and cause a scene. There is a parking area on Longue and on Plum. Sure people may try to get away from it and I have seen it all. We spend a lot of time there as it’s usually quiet. But “in season” you were very lucky a homeowner didn’t send security out. As for Cupecoy. It’s hit or miss - the sand that is! Best bet is if you want to be nude - go to the Orient - the Club Orient end.


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