St Maarten trip report



Day seven – Saturday
	We decided it was finally time to visit the famous Orient beach, and after grabbing a couple of coffees from the coffee shop we got on the road. But before reaching the beach we stopped in at The Butterfly Farm to see what it was all about. The butterflies are “grown” and housed in a huge screened-in enclosure surrounded by the lush vegetation they need in their natural habitats and beautifully landscaped with a little fish pond. A guide took us through the enclosure giving us a bit of an educational tour, showing us the life of a butterfly from egg to caterpillar to cocoon to beautiful butterfly. We had the opportunity to watch a couple of them take their first flight after emerging from their cocoons earlier in the day. It was such a peaceful, playful place with all of the butterflies flying free around us and chasing each other while music played softly in the background and the ocean could be heard in the distance. Kath found herself grinning from ear to ear during the entire visit. With our cravings for whimsy satisfied, we drove a short distance down the road from the farm to Orient beach.

While the beach is know to be the busiest on the island, finding a parking spot was easy. At that point it was lunchtime, so we stopped in at the Baywatch beach restaurant for a bite to eat. The Baywatch is owned and operated by a couple of Americans who were very friendly and serving the clients. Hank had a yummy pork sandwich and Kath had a grouper burger, again enjoyed with more of the local beer and topped off with a shared slice of homemade ricotta cheesecake. With our bellies happily full, we ventured out to see the beach. Orient beach is famous for the one end of beach which is nude, with the naturalist resort Club Orient located immediately beside. The other end of the beach has several restaurants and activity shops, with chairs and umbrellas available for rent. While that end of the beach isn’t considered nude, you are still on the French side of the island where topless bathing is popular and the naturalists like to wander over for something to eat or just to take a stroll. Feeling daring (and quite comfortable actually) we decided to park ourselves on the nude side. We grabbed a couple of loungers set up underneath an umbrella assuming someone would approach us for payment, but no one did (we later discovered the chairs we “marked” with coloured paper loops indicating they had been paid for by someone else already – lucky us!). We stripped down and promptly applied sunscreen to all tender areas, as the painful-looking evidence of sunburn-where-you-really-don’t-want-it was clearly in view. After cracking open a couple of cold ones, Kath opened her book to relax and read while Hank planted his sunglasses firmly on his face. It really is true that god makes ‘em in all sizes and shapes! We enjoyed the sun and the surf for the rest of the afternoon, marvelling at the freedom we felt without anyone gawking or staring (cameras and cell phones on this part of the beach are strictly forbidden). The time passed all too quickly, and sooner than we liked the sun was moving towards the horizon and it was time to go back to the resort and get ready for dinner.
The sign at the beach entrance		The beautifully long beach	And the beach goes on
Hank enjoys the view	Since it was our last evening on the island we decided to go to Temptation restaurant in Cupecoy for dinner, a stylish restaurant located in the Atlantis Casino. We were met at the casino by a valet parking service, and boy was that ironic considering the pathetic car we were driving! The restaurant décor was modern and tasteful in soft white and neutrals. The martinis were delicious and the food was simply excellent, as was the service provided by a fellow west-Ottawan. Unfortunately, Hank had a bit of nuts somewhere in his food and felt more and more ill as our dinner went on (something to note in future: make a point of mentioning Hank’s nut allergy before eating in fancy restaurants). We headed back to the resort as quickly as was reasonable so that Hank could take some antihistamines and get some relief. Did we mention the food was excellent?			Our last afternoon

Day eight – Sunday The day to depart for home. We were enjoying the island, the ocean and the beautifully warm weather, but we had begun feeling pangs of longing for home. We woke up somewhat early to get some packing done, and then headed out with our masks and fins for one last snorkel off the beach. After yet another “warm” shower we went over to Toucan’s for the breakfast buffet. We finished our packing, put our suitcases in the car (gotta love resort security), checked out and settled the bill. Then we popped into the duty-free shop in the resort’s mini mall to browse the glittering jewellery and pick up a couple of bottles of dead cheap booze ($9USD for 1 litre of Smirnoff, $7USD for 1 litre of Captain Morgan’s!)			Aw, do we have to leave?
We couldn’t leave the island without a visit to Maho beach, located just in front of the airport landing strip, and grabbed a quick (for “island time”) bite at the Sunset Beach Bar – which we realized was more of a self-serve place after waiting for almost 20 minutes to be served - all while keeping our packed rental car in view. Finally, it was time to return the car and grab the shuttle to the airport.
Flights coming in over the beach	Those who dare the blast	One last drink	Well, I suppose we're ready
	Marigot	Philipsburg	Divi in the distance
	Day Seven Pics	Day Eight pics


A few extra notes: While the Divi Little Bay is a resort with both timeshare suites and hotel rooms, we were not harassed by the resort staff with the timeshare pitch. The maid did leave advertisements in our rooms on several occasions, and there were incentives of free food, drinks or even “Divi dollars” to try to get us to hear the pitch, but we were not chased down or even propositioned more than once by the timeshare sales manager. She asked us once, we said no thank you, and that was that. GoTravel designates this resort as a 4-star – in my opinion, by Canadian standards it is more of a 3-star. It has all of the amenities, the bed was comfortable, the toilet flushed, the a/c worked, and the maids cleaned the rooms well, but it is not luxurious in any way. Like much of what we have experienced on other Caribbean vacations, the buildings seem to be in constant need of repair and everything is at least just a little bit run down. Perhaps this is because of the ocean environment, or the lack of proper infrastructure, or that much of what we take for granted has to be imported, but that is the reality. Our GoTravel agent Patrick was generally helpful, but when we tried to reach him by phone we ran into significant difficulty. His information sheets indicated a couple of “deals” on car rental and another on the day-trip to Prickly Pear cay, but we found better prices by shopping around on our own. We did mention the phone problem to Patrick when we saw him at the airport on our last day, and he said he’d look into it. One of the main reasons we visited St Maarten was for the snorkelling which had been mentioned on several travel websites. Much to our disappointment the snorkelling wasn’t as good as our last vacation to the Bahamas, as the water was usually somewhat murky and the coral appeared to be damaged in many of the areas we visited. Unfortunately, we ran out of time and didn’t make it to Dawn beach or Ilet Pinel which are noted snorkelling spots in St Maarten. Would we go back? Definitely, but probably not before visiting other islands in the Caribbean.