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Question:

         I visited St. Martin for a 5 night stay with a friend last week (April 5 – 11).  We stayed at the La Plan- tation resort (?) which is part of the Orient Beach devel- opment.  Just so you know where I’m coming from, this was my first trip to the Caribbean.  My only other trips outside of the U.S. have been an occasional foray to a Mexican resort, and a few short trips into Canada.  I was looking for a relaxing vacation on a nice beach spiced up with some exposure to new cultures.          Overall I was pleased with my choice of St. Martin. It is a friendly, picturesque, island with just enough to do to keep you busy for a week.  The northern half of the island is French, while the southern half is Dutch.  Orient Beach (where we stayed) is on the French side.  In general, the French side is more quaint, less developed, less tour- isty, and prettier.  The Dutch side is much more developed and oriented toward tourism.  The Dutch side has casinos and a large port (Philipsburg).  The impression one gets from visiting both sides of the island is that the French are trying harder to preserve the local character of the island, while the Dutch are trying to make money as fast as possible.  When you drive from the Dutch side to the French side the roads go from unlined and potholed, to well-lined, and newly paved.  We spent most of our time on the French side, but I must say that I did enjoy touring and eating in Philipsburg (Dutch).  I also enjoyed playing blackjack in the many casinos on the Dutch side.          In general, we would get up around mid-morning, have a continental breakfast at our hotel, go back to our room for a while, then head down to the beach for a couple of hours. After the beach, we came back to our room, relaxed, cleaned up, and headed out in our rental car about an hour before sunset.  St. Martin is a very picturesque island to explore by car.  You can drive around the whole island in an hour.  There are lots of small towns which are fun to explore.          It seemed like all of these towns had many French restaurants to choose from.  Most of them had indoor/ outdoor seating with nice views of beaches, harbors, or marinas.  The food was very good.  The service, however, left something to be desired.  It is not as good as the service we are accustomed to here in the U.S.  Tips are included in the prices quoted on the menus.  I guess this takes away the incentive for a waiter to try to be pleasant and helpful.  On the positive side, the prices were quite reasonable (even with tip included) and only one waiter we encountered couldn’t, or didn’t want to speak English.  American money and credit cards were accepted everywhere we went which made things very easy.          Our room at La Plantation was fairly pleasant.  It was large and cheerful.  It was actually one of the smaller rooms they have to offer.  It had a porch with a nice view of the beach, which was down a hill about a quarter of a mile away.  La Plantation is one of the more reasonably priced resorts in the area.  It suited our needs fairly well.  They serve only a continental breakfast, but there are restaurants within easy walking distance if you don’t want to drive somewhere.  However, as I mention above, get- ting in the car and driving to a new town every night was one of the highlights of the trip for me.  La Plantation is layed out as many cottages on a richly gardened hillside. It is very quiet.  You feel quite safe there.  We payed $137 a night for our room, including tax.  I only had a few, minor complaints about La Plantation.  We had mos- quitos in the room and ants in the bathroom.  During our first two days on the island a smell of sewage was quite noticeable on the grounds of La Plantation and along the walkway to the beach.  We didn’t smell it on the beach or in our room.  We noticed it at other places on the island. My impression was that they are developing things so fast on that island, that the sewage system can’t keep up with the pace.  If it had lasted for our entire stay, I would have been very disappointed.  But it disappeared the 3rd day.  Also, on checking out, a charge for a Coke myster- iously appeared on our bill.  We know that we did not buy a Coke and charge it to our room, because we did not charge anything to our room.  You are issued a card on checking in to La Plantation that can be used down at the beach at most of the concessions.  Unfortunately, this was not made clear to us, so we NEVER used it.  We always carried cash down to the beach (no big deal).  We know with absolute certainty that we never charged a coke to our room.  But we were charged for it anyway.  We didn’t make a stink about it.  Despite these minor annoyances I would still say that I was satisfied with what we got for the money at La Plantation.  However, I would not stay there again because I wasn’t thrilled with Orient Beach (discussed below).          Orient Beach surprised me in that I expected it to be more primitive than it was.  It is a gated community, consisting of several small resorts, and lots of private homes or condos.  What’s nice about it is that there are no large structures there.  To get into Orient Beach by road you have to go through a guarded entrance, where an attendant lifts a gate to let you enter.  The beach itself is a classic Caribbean beach, with nice sand, and green, clear water – perfect for swimming.  There are lots of concessions down there just itching to take your money from you.  Unless you spend alot of time in tanning booths you are probably going to have to rent beach loungers and um- brellas.  Total cost for 2 loungers and a shade umbrella is $15.  Cost for a hamburger at one of the beachside restau- rants was $8.  I felt like I was getting gouged down there. That was my only complaint.  On the positive side, no one came around aggresively soliciting me to buy things (which happens on Mexican beaches).  You are free to go topless or nude on Orient Beach, though nudity is encouraged more at the south end where there is even a nude resort called Club Orient (see www.clubo.com).  The water and sand were clean all along the beach, and we had no problem with bugs. If I ever go back to St. Martin, and I hope to, I would try visiting other beaches or even staying at other beaches on the French side.  Orient Beach was too expensive and tour- isty for my taste.          For people interested in blackjack or gambling, we found the casino situation to be a pleasant surprise.  I heard from many sources to expect the gambling conditions to be unfavorable.  It is true that we never saw single deck blackjack games.  All the games I saw utilized 8 decks. But the other rules were very good.  The dealer stood on soft 17, you could double down on any 2 cards, and you could double down after splitting.  We played table limits varying from $2 to $10.  We both ended up slightly ahead for our visit, though my buddy made most of his money play- ing video poker.  I felt quite comfortable in the casinos. They had an uncrowded, informal feel to them.  Service from the cocktail waitresses was very good – way better than in Vegas.  You never had to wait for a drink or a refill. Some examples of the ‘informal’ atmosphere were:  1) friends of employees or players were allowed to walk through or sit inside of the blackjack pit, 2) a high-stakes bingo game was conducted in one casino which took over everything – black- jack players were allowed to place multiple bingo boards on the the blackjack table (this would never be allowed in the U.S), 3) while using a urinal in a restroom, a female em- ployee came in to clean the sink area about 5 feet from where I was doing my thing – my presence didn’t phase her a bit.          St. Martin is a laid back, friendly, multi-cultural island.  There were more European tourists than American, but most people spoke some English (I speak a tiny bit of French).  There are alot of hitchhikers on the island which gives one the impression that it’s safer place than the U.S.  In fact, many of the hitchhikers were single women. I recommend St. Martin highly to people who want some con- tact with other cultures.  I look forward to going back. Feel free to email me with comments or questions.

Response:

>          I visited St. Martin for a 5 night stay with a > friend last week (April 5 – 11).  We stayed at the La Plan- > tation resort (?) which is part of the Orient Beach devel- > opment. +++  snip trip report +++

Hi Michael – Thanks for the trip report. I always enjoy reading reports, and yours was very informative. Did you see, or is anyone aware of any all-inclusive resorts on St. Martin?  Sounds like you had a good time! Regards, Susan

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I believe the La Flamboyant is all-inclusive. Sandy C

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