beach in St Maarteen

What is the best family beach to hit up in St Maarteen?

We enjoyed Orient Beach very much, but be aware there are 2 sections. One is "clothing optional" the other is simply topless. We were right at the line separating the two. Our DD (11YO at the time) was a bit shocked, but not at all traumatized. Actually she thought it was pretty funny, as did we all.

It's a beautiful no-hassle kind of beach, the water is awesome!

We enjoyed Orient Beach very much, but be aware there are 2 sections. One is "clothing optional" the other is simply topless. We were right at the line separating the two. Our DD (11YO at the time) was a bit shocked, but not at all traumatized. Actually she thought it was pretty funny, as did we all.

 

It's a beautiful no-hassle kind of beach, the water is awesome!

We went to Orient beach 10 years ago, and didn't realize it was a 'topless' beach (where the cab dropped us off.) Our DD was 7 at the time, and we ended up laughing at her laughing.:p (Our families sound a lot alike!):)

It WAS a beautiful beach!

Absolutely love Orient Beach. After taking kids of various ages (4-17 years) we have come to the conclusion that the parents are much more traumatized by the perception than the kids.

If you've been there then you already know that there is a big "clothing optional" resort right there where the nude section of the beach starts. We wound up at the bar right there on the line between the two sections.

Two very funny things happened.

First, on the road into the resort, close to the beach there is a sign for the resort. All day there was this guy standing there with his leg on the fence striking a pose. We called him the "Naked Captain Morgan", you get the idea. He just stood there, every hour or so he'd go to the water to cool off, and then right back to his spot. The bartender said he's there all the time.

Second, my DW found that her camera batteries had gone dry and she didn't have any extras with her. The bartender told her she had 2 options, about 3/4 of a mile down the beach there was a shop that had them, or she could go over to the gift shop at the nude resort and get some. She sucked it up and chose the latter. Having no idea how to get there, she would up asking for directions from......you guessed it, Naked Captain Morgan. As she walked on, a security officer in a golf cart stopped and drove her to the gift shop. I get such a kick of imagining my DW wandering around a gift shop full of named people looking for batteries!! But she's an RN so it didn't bother her much, just the wierdness of it. We still laugh about that.

My FIL was really looking forward to the nude beach. Having been to them before, I offered him this advice....for every naled person on the beach that you really want to see, there are dozens that you really DON'T want to see!! :D

We enjoyed Orient Beach very much, but be aware there are 2 sections. One is "clothing optional" the other is simply topless. We were right at the line separating the two. Our DD (11YO at the time) was a bit shocked, but not at all traumatized. Actually she thought it was pretty funny, as did we all.

 

It's a beautiful no-hassle kind of beach, the water is awesome!

You further need to be aware that those rules are not hard and fast and you are likely to see totally nude sunbathers at any place on the beach especially early in the morning and later in the afternoon.

You can encounter nudity at all of the beaches on the French side of the island.

Agree that Orient Beach on French side is great! We rented two wave runners and DS was on one and DH and DD on the other. What a great time! At the time my kids were 19 and 16. The nude beach was not a problem for us.

What is the name of the beach in St Marten, where it is so close to the airport, you can almost reach up and touch the landing planes? I would so love to visit that one, as I love watching aircraft take off and land.:)

Just did a search on yahoo and I believe it is Maho Beach in St Maartin on Dutch side. I have never been there but it does look interesting. I don't know if I would like all the noise, though.

Just did a search on yahoo and I believe it is Maho Beach in St Maartin on Dutch side. I have never been there but it does look interesting. I don't know if I would like all the noise, though.

Yes that sounds like it! Ive been there, but just not been to the beach. The noise wouldnt bother me, ( I think ), am used to it, as I used to work at an airport, and have lived my entire life within a 5 mile radius of an airport. I can watch them, and "listen to them" come and go all day.:)

I would never take my kids to the orient beach. Maho beach is really small and loud. We went just to see the airplanes. That part was pretty cool. I wouldn't last there more than an hour though. I'm hoping someone has been to a beach without so much nudity for families that they can suggest.

For families I would suggest Dawn Beach Dutch side.

This is a photo my husband took of my kids and me while on a cruise in 2008. You can see it won a National Geographic Photo award. It was a blast, and a great story to boot! No, this was NOT photoshopped.

http://nationalgeographicdaily.tumblr.com/post/1063987488/maho-beach-st-maarten-photo-kent-miller

That is a great photo. Thanks for posting it!

Wow, what an awesome photo!

We took the ferry to Pinel Island on our last visit. We found a cab driver when we got off the ship and she agreed to meet us back at an appointed time. We had a great day! Very quiet and we loved it! We had done Orient our two previous stops and our 13 year old son (at the time) saw his first topless women. Unfortunately for him they were in the 50's and older....LOL! He was probably traumatized for life!

I took this picture walking back from the other side of Pinel Island. The orange umbrellas are in the area where we set up for the day. Tops were optional there too, but very few people so it was a much quieter day for us.

We went to a local beach called Le Galion. It was the favorite beach for all four of our kids (ages 13, 17, 18, and 21 at the time).

It IS on the french side, so top optional, and there were some topless women. However, we were there on a Saturday, and it was all local families, having barbeques. The water breaks way out, and you could swim out to the platform (you could actually walk almost all the way), and then beyond the platform you could stand again:

You can see the diving platform behind the kids here, and the beach behind that. Kids found all kinds of cool sea life out there.

There is a great restaurant on the beach. I have more details in my Victory review (link in signature).

The reasons we enjoyed it so much:

- only local people there (there was one other set of Carnival towels on the beach besides ours)

- the water was super calm, due to the break way out

- kids and I went out to the diving platform and had an awesome time trying to talk to a bunch of kids who only spoke French. They had a diving game going on where they taught each other different dives.

- we had lunch at the restaurant... delicious fresh fish!

- music playing all day

I think it's all about what kind of experience you are looking for...

We just took the water taxi over to Great Bay which was very close and

had a nice beach area and all the shops were right there too.

My kids went on the banana boat ride

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pics of the beach area

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Mullet Bay is a lovely beach. So is Dawn Beach. :)

We just took the water taxi over to Great Bay which was very close and

had a nice beach area and all the shops were right there too.

 

 

pics of the beach area

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Be very cautious with this beach there are numerous reports of extreme water pollution in the sea in this area because of the proximity to town and the drainage from the streets.

We went to Little Divi Beach (very close to the port) and loved it. Smaller beach, quieter, with chairs and a resort attached. I will go back there everytime!

What is the name of the beach in St Marten, where it is so close to the airport, you can almost reach up and touch the landing planes? I would so love to visit that one, as I love watching aircraft take off and land.:)

it is a nice beach for 20-30 minutes and to watch (and smell the jet fuel).been there done that,but will still go and do it again.....just dont plan to spend the day there,it is not really a nice beach or even a beach at all.

What is the name of the beach in St Marten, where it is so close to the airport, you can almost reach up and touch the landing planes? I would so love to visit that one, as I love watching aircraft take off and land.:)

Maho Beach. We love to visit here to see the planes landing & taking off. Unbelievable how close they pass overhead! :eek:

This is a photo my husband took of my kids and me while on a cruise in 2008. You can see it won a National Geographic Photo award. It was a blast, and a great story to boot! No, this was NOT photoshopped.

 

http://nationalgeographicdaily.tumblr.com/post/1063987488/maho-beach-st-maarten-photo-kent-miller

LOVE this picture as well as all of your expressions! :p

We have been to Maho and Orient.

Maho is exciting to watch the planes come in. There is beach bar with food and a schedule of the plane landings. The big ones start coming in during the afternoon. We thought it was great fun.

There is the nude part of Orient beach but it's very long beach and if you stay way over to the other side your kids won't even know there is a nude side. I don't think I would return to Orient, not because of nudity but because of the crowds. It is very large and very crowded IMO. I would rather deal with a plane landing or taking off every so often than all those loungers packed like sardines.

I don't think of the beach area by town a beach. It is a great spot though to take a photo with the ship in the background.