St. Martin's Orient Bch with kids

[Momof 2 boys]

CAn anyone please tell me how Bikini,Kakao and Waikiki (all bchs on Oriant Beach) are to take kids. I have heard that these are okay to take kids on to, that there is very little topless:rolleyes: and maybe an occasional nude person may walk by. Any suggestions on a fun beach with beach toys and good reataurant to go to. The feed back that I have gotten is that all the beaches are okay to go topless so can't avoid that but most nudity is kept at the Orient Beach club. Topless is not so much an issue. When in Curaceo the beaches were topless (did not realize that) and the boys paid hardley any attention and went about there buisness. Any feed back would be wonderfull....Thanks :)

[OceanLiner]

What are the ages of the kids?

[OceanLiner]

CAn anyone please tell me how Bikini,Kakao and Waikiki (all bchs on Oriant Beach) are to take kids. I have heard that these are okay to take kids on to, that there is very little topless:rolleyes: and maybe an occasional nude person may walk by. Any suggestions on a fun beach with beach toys and good reataurant to go to. The feed back that I have gotten is that all the beaches are okay to go topless so can't avoid that but most nudity is kept at the Orient Beach club. Topless is not so much an issue. When in Curaceo the beaches were topless (did not realize that) and the boys paid hardley any attention and went about there buisness. Any feed back would be wonderfull....Thanks :)

 

Well, we were there with our two boys, ages 6 and 8 at the time. They were totaly oblivious to any of the nudity, it made no difference to them at all. They wanted sand and surf. Orient Beach is wonderful, but a breeze coming in from off shore can make for a POUNDING surf. Our kids were exhausted after about 2 hours, and we took a cab back to the ship.

 

That being said, the nudity is prevelant, and don't let anyone fool you. It's not just topless. It's everything, and it's almost always those who shouldn't be nude! The thing that caught us by surprise were the groups of entire multi generational families, all nude, all swimming. It just was not something that we ever thought about.

 

Having been there done that, here is what we would recommend. We found that the best way to enjoy St Martin was the simplest. Get off the ship and walk down the dock to the water taxi. For a couple of bucks it will take you to the dock in the center of the town, right on the beach. As you are walking off the dock go to your left and head to the first bar/cafe and ask for Vincent. He will set you up for the day like you are visiting royalty. Chairs, umbrellas, food, drink...you name it! Tip him well at the begining and indicate that there will be more at the end. He will also keep all the locals from bothering you to buy stuff. The best part is that you will be sitting on the beach looking directly at the ship. The beach is very nice, not as nice as Orient but not with pounding surf and there is no nudity on this side of the island. Also, there is an amazing Belgian chocolate shop right in the center of town which should not be missed, and directly across from the shop is a wonderful patissere with sandwiches and desserts. Also, don't knock yourself out buying stuff in town. There is a very adequete gift shop at the dock that has the St Martin stuff that you would ever want. Have fun.

[RB Bonzo]

You may encounter some toplessness anywhere on Orient Beach, but if I think it is true that most of the full nudity will be at the Orient Beach Club - just bear left as you enter the beach. We did see a couple acting a little inappropriately at a beach/bar restaurant (can't remember the name), but not too out of line, and that was the only example I can think of. My son is 12 and was pretty much oblivious to it all. My daughter is 14 and was amused. Neither appear to suffer from runaway drug additicion, promiscuity, sleeplessness, or loss of appetite! :)

 

I also saw some open marijuana usage, but no one else in my family noticed.

[FloridaGram]

We spent a week on St. Maarten in July. We saw at least one topless person on every beach. I would suggest you just warn your children (if you feel you need to) that you are in a different country and this is the way they do things and it is natural and they will problaby not react at all. When you get to Orient the farther to the left you go, away from Club Orient you will see less. Everyone we say from the "other side" put some sort of coverup on when they came over. I did not see anyone acting inappropriately, I see much more at the beaches in FL

[Momof 2 boys]

You are all so funny:D !!! thanks for so much great advice!!!!By the way my boys are 10 and 12. Oceanliner...are there beach toys like jet skies at that beach and do you remember how much you tipped good ole Vincent...would hate to short change him if we go there! lol. (Hope it's not rude of me to ask that) I also liked the advice to explain to my boys that in some places they do things differently and that here this is what they do and that it is no big deal......and again they have seen topless and no problem. If we decide to go and they seem to be uncomfortable ,we can always leave right! right. But Vincent sounds like a nice fellow:) decisions... decisions. Thanks again

[OceanLiner]

If I remember correctly we gave Vincent $40.00 on arrival, and another $40 when we left. There were a great deal of water activities on that beach including some sort of floating inflatable raft thing that had slides, but I am not completly certain about jet skies. The really nice thing is that you are right in town so you can hit the beach, shop, back to the beach, etc....Orient had the skies, but the surf can be so rough that they really cannot be used.

[FloridaGram]

They do have jet skis available at the beach where you get off the ferry. The ones we saw were to the left when you get off the ferry. There are so many beautiful beaches on St Maarten but I think we are going to stay on that beach for the convenience even though we know our way around the island. I will tell you that the first beach you come to is very tame, a bay vs. the ocean. Orient Beach is on the Atlantic side and has waves that you may or may not prefer. If you would like to find out more very good information I would recommend you to go to a website called traveltalkonline.com. That is where I did all my research before our trip.

 

They do have several places that rent jet skis on Orient. I believe it will cost $85 to $90 an hour, that is pretty much the going rate on the island. My son is 28 and a motorcycle rider and has ridden a jet ski before and he rode one in Simpson Bay and he recommended I not go because it was quite a work out. Just an FYI...

[Kim&Chris]

Well, we were there with our two boys, ages 6 and 8 at the time. They were totaly oblivious to any of the nudity, it made no difference to them at all. They wanted sand and surf. Orient Beach is wonderful, but a breeze coming in from off shore can make for a POUNDING surf. Our kids were exhausted after about 2 hours, and we took a cab back to the ship.

 

That being said, the nudity is prevelant, and don't let anyone fool you. It's not just topless. It's everything, and it's almost always those who shouldn't be nude! The thing that caught us by surprise were the groups of entire multi generational families, all nude, all swimming. It just was not something that we ever thought about.

 

Having been there done that, here is what we would recommend. We found that the best way to enjoy St Martin was the simplest. Get off the ship and walk down the dock to the water taxi. For a couple of bucks it will take you to the dock in the center of the town, right on the beach. As you are walking off the dock go to your left and head to the first bar/cafe and ask for Vincent. He will set you up for the day like you are visiting royalty. Chairs, umbrellas, food, drink...you name it! Tip him well at the begining and indicate that there will be more at the end. He will also keep all the locals from bothering you to buy stuff. The best part is that you will be sitting on the beach looking directly at the ship. The beach is very nice, not as nice as Orient but not with pounding surf and there is no nudity on this side of the island. Also, there is an amazing Belgian chocolate shop right in the center of town which should not be missed, and directly across from the shop is a wonderful patissere with sandwiches and desserts. Also, don't knock yourself out buying stuff in town. There is a very adequete gift shop at the dock that has the St Martin stuff that you would ever want. Have fun.

 

OceanLiner...that sounds great. Is there a specific name for this beach?

[FloridaGram]

OceanLiner...that sounds great. Is there a specific name for this beach?

This is Great Bay Beach. For more information try this website-http://www.sint-maarten.net/St-Maarten-Beaches/stmaarten_Beaches.html

On the right side of this page you can click on a description of each beach.

Have a wonderful time, any beach will be so much more beautiful that any I have seen in the states.

[Almagetty]

We went to Divi's Little Bay on St. Martin. It was not too far from the dock (just a short cab ride). We decided to go there based on recommendations from this board, and I can happily report that, when we were there we did not see any nudity or topless bathers.

 

They had all of the water toys available for hire, as well as organized games and contests on the beach (sand castle building, relay races) for the kids. All the kids were able to participate, whether you were staying at the resort or not.

 

We had a really great time and will go back here again when we get back to St. Martin! Great family beach!:)

[Momof 2 boys]

:) Thanks everyone for all you input....I have heard of Divi's beach and heard it was a nice beach and one of the best. Thanks for the reminder and glad that you had such a good time there and that you would go back.. You mentioned a resort....what was the name of it and is it a big beach or small beach?

[Almagetty]

I'm pretty sure the resort was called Divi's Little Bay and that the beach is Little Bay, but I might be wrong. The beach was of a nice size, not huge but definitely not too small (I know . . . it sounds like a Goldilocks description, sorry!:rolleyes: ). There was plenty of wave action, but I think that with your kids being a little older, they will probably enjoy it. We rented jet ski's for a little while and had a really great time with them.

[Rykat247]

Cool Cruiser was right on about Orient Beach - lots of topless and bottomless don't be suprised if you go there with kids. Lots of other nice beaches mostly just topless and nowhere near as much as Orient. Great Bay and Divi are better choices and there is another 1/2 dozen as well.IMHO with kids, unless you are nudists, avoid Orient.;)

Rykat

[glen tev]

This is Great Bay Beach. For more information try this website-http://www.sint-maarten.net/St-Maarten-Beaches/stmaarten_Beaches.html

On the right side of this page you can click on a description of each beach.

Have a wonderful time, any beach will be so much more beautiful that any I have seen in the states.

I was just there on a rccl cruise last week and it was great.Vince was real good to us and right next door was a pirate bar run by some retired NY firefighters that had great food.The water taxi was $5 for the whole day and the shopping is located right behind the bars on the beach.Can't wait to go back on Disney.

[Host Mick]

... right next door was a pirate bar run by some retired NY firefighters that had great food....

 

Boy, talk about living your dream! I bet that they spent a lot of time in the firehouse, around the table planning this whole thing.

I want to be like them when I retire.

[glen tev]

Boy, talk about living your dream! I bet that they spent a lot of time in the firehouse, around the table planning this whole thing.

I want to be like them when I retire.

Very nice people.They were telling us about life on St martin,no rat race,get up in the morning,start the grills waiting for the cruise ships and by 6 it's all over and just relax.Bartenders sipping a heineken all day and really seemed to be enjoying his job.Definatly a cool place to retire to.Great bay beach is nice because if you have to getback to the ship in a hurry it's right there.We had some severe lightning come up and had to grab the kids and run like heck,but we were back to the ship in under 10 minutes.Nice little spot.

[Momof 2 boys]

Thanks everyone!!!