nedanurse21 Posted May 9, 2018 #1 Share Posted May 9, 2018 How are the beaches on St. Maartin in 2018? I am mainly thinking of Orient Beach Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CruiserBruce Posted May 9, 2018 #2 Share Posted May 9, 2018 Come over to the St Maarten board, here: https://boards.cruisecritic.com/forumdisplay.php?f=93 for lots of info and discussions. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Herfnerd Posted May 10, 2018 #3 Share Posted May 10, 2018 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 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bonnie J. Posted May 10, 2018 #4 Share Posted May 10, 2018 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. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gooch47 Posted May 10, 2018 #5 Share Posted May 10, 2018 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. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
beachbum53 Posted May 10, 2018 #6 Share Posted May 10, 2018 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. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
beachbum53 Posted May 10, 2018 #7 Share Posted May 10, 2018 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. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kc58ab Posted May 10, 2018 #8 Share Posted May 10, 2018 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. Sent from my iPhone using Forums Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
zqvol Posted May 11, 2018 #9 Share Posted May 11, 2018 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. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
beachbum53 Posted May 11, 2018 #10 Share Posted May 11, 2018 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. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
zqvol Posted May 11, 2018 #11 Share Posted May 11, 2018 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. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
beachbum53 Posted May 11, 2018 #12 Share Posted May 11, 2018 (edited) 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 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
zqvol Posted May 12, 2018 #13 Share Posted May 12, 2018 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. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JMorris271 Posted May 14, 2018 #14 Share Posted May 14, 2018 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. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Herfnerd Posted May 15, 2018 #15 Share Posted May 15, 2018 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 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
navybankerteacher Posted May 15, 2018 #16 Share Posted May 15, 2018 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. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
navybankerteacher Posted May 15, 2018 #17 Share Posted May 15, 2018 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? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
evandbob Posted May 16, 2018 #18 Share Posted May 16, 2018 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. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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