Reply to : luv2bfitt

We've been to Orient Beach seven times in the past 15 years (last trip was May 2003) and have never found this to be the case.  The only ones travelling up and down the beach were the braid ladies who did pass us by once my wife said no thanks for a brading-job.  While vistiing Orient be sure to visit Luis at the Bikini Hut just behind Baywatch.  If you don't see anything you like he will make whatever you want overnight and have it ready for you the next morning.

Reply to : luv2bfitt

We have been to Club Orient and Orient Beach twice in the last 10 months. We have never encountered any of the locals trying to sell anything on the beach other than in the shops.

Thongs and g-strings are fine the lengh of Orient Beach.  Topless are no problem as well.  The closer you get to Club Orient (at the opposite end of Orient Beach) nudity is more common.  Also don't worry about gawkers or Boat People - they only wish they had the nerve to do what you are doing when  you are wearing a thong or going nude.  Must of the beachside restaurants prefer that  you wear a thong except for Baywatch, Pedro's and Papagyos - nude  is fine with them.

Have a great trip!!

Hi

I've just changed my holiday plans away from Ibiza to two weeks in St Maarten (must be getting old ! ). We've a week in the Dutch half (Pelican Bay) and a week in the French (Nr Oyster beach).

I've heard the French side is really cool with thongs and topless on the beach and just about anywhere (pool, beach bar etc). But is the Dutch side actually anti-thongs or just a tiny bit more conservative than the French? I don't want to have larger tan lines in the first week and be playing catch-up in the next - I'd rather just be in a micro for the fortnight.

I even read that there were 'sight seeing boats' taking American tourists to gawp at the nudists. I know nudity / flesh is rare in public in the US, but surely things haven't got that bad!!

Any ideas or advice would be welcome

Thanx

Krissy

;-) 

Krissy

You will love St. Martin.  The Dutch side does tend to be a bit more conservative than the French side where topless and thongs are routine.  However that being said, the island is very small and it is easy to get around.  The most important thing is if you are staying there for two weeks (lucky you!!!) is to rent a car for the duration.  The beach you want is Orient Beach on the French side - it is over a mile long with the southern half being nude.  Follow the signs to Club Orient - it is a nude resort but it does allow public parking in it's main lot.  Just follow the crowd - in more ways than one and you'll be fine.  You'll find that a thong bottom is actually a bit over dressed on that beach.

All the best!!!

Consider skipping St. Martin altogether.  Jump on a boat or small plane for the short trip over to St. Barts.  It is beautiful, food is great, no gawkers.  St. Jean beach is very nice.  You are in France and, off season, most of the toutists are European.  At least 50% topless women, thongs are common.

Reply to : rastus

I'm hoping to make it down there around mid to late January...A friend of mine moved from Aruba to St. Maarten last month--she is Dutch...So funny when I told her about thonging, she was like--bring them all..Yes, the Dutch are conservative, but it sounds easy to get around the island...I am definitely looking forward to it!

Hello all, I am thinking of taking a last minute trip to St. Martin and would like some advice on some (very reasonable) accomodations that are on a beach where there will be mainly other thongers as I plan to stay in a thong the whole trip.  Also something where there isn't many gawkers, I am thinking of going mid october for about 6-7 days,  I don't want to spend a ton on flights or hotel if possible.  Any help would be greatly appreciated, One more thing, I also would like to stay where some night life and restaurants won't be to far away. Never been there but from this board it sounds like a good place to visit.

Thanks

I think St Martin would be more fun than South Beach. 

Off seasion, not because of wether, unless a huricane happens to go through, but because of wether else where in the world.  Its not cold enough up north for people to be taking winter vacations.   Euope has been doing summer vacations for months and now has to get back to work, and schools are back to work in the US.  It's just not vacaton time in the rest of the world.

In the US they move rental cars to South Florida during the winter and early spring for our seasion, and then up to New England for their seasion.  They have not figured out how to move hotel units.  So in the off sesion their is a glut of accomidation. 

Reply to : oceanswimmer777 

 check out www.orientbeach.com. A good discussion group on St. Martin. Also has several links to several hotels located on / near the beach.

Hi ya

Yes, I'm back from St Martin - wow what a thonger's paradise! We spent the fortnight really exploring and tried a different beach each day and could easily say they were ALL topless and thong friendly. Only maybe those right outside the American hotels would have been a problem for the guys and by the Pelican Bay beach there was sign saying 'No Topless Sunbathing'.

We certainly sunbathed, swam and walked along all of the other beaches feeling very relaxed and uninhibited - me in at the very most a WW 456 (or smaller a lot of the time ;-) and my chap in his Hom thong. My favourite places were the beaches (Long Bay, Plum Bay and Baie Rouge at the far West of the island) of Terre Basse - wonderful half-empty stretches of sand backed by millionaire's mansions! Great for walking in past in as little as possible - maybe my chap has got his revenge on me by posting some photos on the net - I'm not sure I look my best and if I should be angry or flattered!

Also Friar's Bay and Happy Bay in the North of the island were fine for minimalist wear - with a nice beach bar and no need to get covered up when going for a drink. The Buccaneer bar at Simpson Bay said they were giving free drinks to any girl drinking topless at the bar...which was nice!

OK catch you soon

This was our first time in the Caribbean, but as the Island was half French the food was excellent as expected - although we didn't find any 'real' Caribbean / Creole restaurants.

Love St. Maarten!!! I have gone twice a year for the last 5 years. It if definately the favorite vacation spot for my wife and me. Mexico is less expensive, but hard to beat that relaxed atmosphere and all the wonderful food.

We go to Orient Beach. Thongs on guys and ladies are common, even with all of the nude people.

I think I would create a holy stink!  You have been swiched to a hotel in a diffrent town, that's technicly in a diffrent country.  It's in the Duch side of St, Martin and not the French.  This is like getting switched from Fort Lauderdale to Newark.  Not quite the same place, not even the same state. 

I think you have been hit by bait and switch.

If this is a holiday you purchased, paid money for, or even one where you paid part of the cost, like air fair, tell them that you will file a complaint with your states atturney general,  their states AG.  If they sent you confermation by fax or did business over the internet threaten FBI compliant for wire fraud.

This situation looks like it made the boat crew look like the native beach goers and the clothed tourists the "tourists", so it they got an eyefull of nude beachgoers then they don't have a right to be offended. (but I think that Americans believe they have a right to be offended over anything , anywhere)

The same thing happens to cruising sail boaters all the time.  If a boat enters the harbor with a nude crew and anchors then they are usually  left alone by those who wouldn't want to participate, but if other boaters were thinking about stripping nude,they quickly lose their inhibitions.

Oh yeah Orient!!

http://www.flickr.com/photos/76741348@N00/341103582/in/set-72157594452129726/

SlidingG

You made it to Orient, good for you!!  No matter what anyone tells you about Orient Beach you really have to experience it for yourself.  We are headed down to Orient Beach this May for 10 days at Club Orient.  The most we will be wearing for the entire time will be a thong bottom or g-string!  Tanned, rested and ready for the summer at East Beach.

Here is a link from Orientbeach.com about the current situation: http://www.orientbeach.com/sxmforum2006/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=1142

I am going down there in May so we'll see what is happening then.

RE:  "Does ownership perhaps extend down to high water mark? "

In about 1982, I had a conversation with the Harbor Master of Philipsburg,  the main harbor on the Island.  (He had given me a ride to where I was going).  In the car, while crossing the island, we discussed the beaches and access. We talked about the rich new arrivals who were trying to carve out private estates on the shore line. He told me that  there was an old law, that comes from Europe, that goes a bit like this:

The fish in the sea are public, so are the shells in the sand in the shallow waters.   Anyone can eat them.  To provide access to the fish in the sea and the shells in the sand, the public is granted a right of way along the high water mark, extending inland for enough distance to take a wagon.  In this case being encoded into law, and here I am not sure of the exact distance, but I believe it  is 3 meters, or 10 foot. 

He told me that, on paper at least, you could walk right around the island.  From a practical point of view some of the cliffs are a bit difficult.  I decided to try this.  I set of one day to walked around the island.  I struck inland when I could not scramble or climb along the shore line. 

In places there were some walls built on the edge of the cliff or some deliberate plantings of large cactus hedges, and a few other obstacles that prevented me from sticking to the cost line.  

In two places people had built swimming pools right on the edge of the shoreline, on the edge of the cliff.  I assumed my 'right of way' included them so I took a dip along the way.  At the time I had long hair and a beard, and probably was walking in a swimsuit, sneakers and a bag like a currier bag slung round my neck.  Must have looked like that Nick Nolty move. 

It was a long day of walking and scrambling, with a bit of back tracking to head inland when I found obstacles I could not get around.

I was walking clockwise.  I made it around the West side of the island, past the lowlands, and half way up to the north end of the island, about half way round.  Then, getting exhausted toward the end of the day I headed to a bar for a cool one, something good to eat and a well deserved ride back to the boat.

When I was on my long walk, I did walk down a few beaches nude, but there was a LOT less development then.  These were beaches on the west end of the island.

You asked "I'm guessing public accessibility means I can use anyone's privately owned beach."   I understand that the answer to that is yes, if you can get access to it.   But how much of it you can use, how far inland, I am not sure.  

Some islands have public beach access laws, that make everything up to the line of vegetation public.  I am not sure if St M, has enacted such a law.

 With regard to control of behavior.  That depends on which half of the island you are on.  It is not so much the owner of the land behind the beach who can control you, it's more the local controlling law,  the national, local, town and other laws that all overlay each other.  Remember one half is Dutch and the other French.