St. Maartin Beaches

[nedanurse21]

How are the beaches on St. Maartin in 2018? I am mainly thinking of Orient Beach

[CruiserBruce]

Come over to the St Maarten board, here:

 

https://boards.cruisecritic.com/forumdisplay.php?f=93

 

for lots of info and discussions.

[Herfnerd]

Orient Beach is nice but where you will most likely get dropped off is extremely crowded with bars and restaurants. The clothing optional section is further down the beach

[Bonnie J.]

Did you know Orient Beach is a nude beach? You are dropped off in an area with few or no nudes but we have seen them nude just walking the beach.

[gooch47]

Our tour guide in April told us some of the restaurants at Orient are still closed from the hurricane. I'm sorry I can't tell you about the condition of the beach itself.

[beachbum53]

Did you know Orient Beach is a nude beach? You are dropped off in an area with few or no nudes but we have seen them nude just walking the beach.

 

There is a section of the beach that is clothing optional, where you can be nude if you choose to. The entire beach is NOT a nude beach.

[beachbum53]

How are the beaches on St. Maartin in 2018? I am mainly thinking of Orient Beach

 

I'm not sure what the current condition of Orient Beach is. Pretty much everything was wiped out in the hurricane. No restaurants, no bars, no restrooms. Even some of the beach area was washed away. The last I heard, people from the cruise ships weren't being allowed to go there, but that may have changed. There are some videos posted on Youtube of what Orient Beach looked like right after Hurricane Irma. The devastation is shocking. The most recent video posted is from April / 2018. Businesses are slowly coming back, but it will take time.

[kc58ab]

I just got off a cruise at the end of April and I can tell you that the beach day excursion we took through the cruise line that normally goes to Orient Beach instead went to a different beach over near Maho. Our tour guide drove us through part of the Orient Beach area and it still had a lot of devastation. The section we saw I don’t think anyone would want to spend the day at there was literally a roof on the side of the road and tons of debris.

 

 

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[zqvol]

There is a section of the beach that is clothing optional, where you can be nude if you choose to. The entire beach is NOT a nude beach.

 

The entire beach is clothing optional, in fact all the beaches on the French side of the island are clothing optional.

[beachbum53]

The entire beach is clothing optional, in fact all the beaches on the French side of the island are clothing optional.

 

No. The entire beach is NOT clothing optional. Only the section that is part of the French side. The Dutch part of the beach does not allow full nudity. However, ladies going topless is tolerated, but not all women do.

[zqvol]

No. The entire beach is NOT clothing optional. Only the section that is part of the French side. The Dutch part of the beach does not allow full nudity. However, ladies going topless is tolerated, but not all women do.

 

As was said, the entire French side is clothing optional and 100% of Orient Beach is on the French side of the island.

[beachbum53]

As was said, the entire French side is clothing optional and 100% of Orient Beach is on the French side of the island.[/quot

 

Only that portion of the beach that is owned by Club Orient allows people to go clothing optional, NOT the entire beach. The rest of the beach only allows women to go topless. Prior to the hurricane, there was a large sign on the beach to let people know they were approaching Club Orient, and that it is a nude beach. I don't know if a new sign has been put up yet or not. If you see a bunch of yellow beach umbrellas, that's the clothing optional section.

Edited May 11, 2018 by beachbum53

[zqvol]

As was said, the entire French side is clothing optional and 100% of Orient Beach is on the French side of the island.[/quot

 

Only that portion of the beach that is owned by Club Orient allows people to go clothing optional, NOT the entire beach. The rest of the beach only allows women to go topless. Prior to the hurricane, there was a large sign on the beach to let people know they were approaching Club Orient, and that it is a nude beach. I don't know if a new sign has been put up yet or not. If you see a bunch of yellow beach umbrellas, that's the clothing optional section.

 

You may believe that but nudist frequent the whole beach. The sign may be there but that doesn't mean that they don't wander the whole beach.

[JMorris271]

The entire beach is clothing optional, in fact all the beaches on the French side of the island are clothing optional.

That was not the case when I was there.

[Herfnerd]

The entire beach is clothing optional, in fact all the beaches on the French side of the island are clothing optional.

 

The entire beach allows women going topless. There is a section for clothing optional

[navybankerteacher]

While part of the beach is topless and another part is clothing optional, there is no practical enforcement of boundaries - so occasionally you will see different approaches to beach wear on different parts of the beach.

[navybankerteacher]

I have to wonder about the thoroughness of the post-storm clean up at the beaches on St. Maarten. There must have been tremendous amounts of material: broken glass, splintered timbers, broken tiles, metal fragments, etc. littering the beach. I am not sure I would feel comfortable swimming without fairly thick soled beach shoes. Has anyone heard of the extensiveness of the clean up?

[evandbob]

While some go back and forth on what is appropriate clothing, or lack of, on Orient, (sort of like the threads on MDR clothing), I was thinking that the OP's question related to post hurricane status.

One of the last post storm reports I saw stated there was still debris on the beach that needed to be cleared. There may be further updates in the actual Sint Maarten thread in the port of call section here on CC.

 

When I was last there this past January, I limited myself to the Dutch side and did not visit Orient even though it is one of my favorite beaches. I didn't wish to see it until it gets fully restored.