Club O
Club Orient, St. Martin FWI
July into August 2002
We spent a week in paradise in studio room #22, 75 yards from the water. The sand was white and very fine. It extends about 50 yards into the water without grass or rocks for most of Club Orients beach. Orient Beach is the best of the 37 beaches is St. Martin with Club Orient having the best of the best. The constant on-shore breeze keeps the bugs away and the air warm. The sea was one foot swells with six inch waves at worst. Beach chairs and umbrellas are provided for the guests and rented by visitors. The only complaint about the weather was one man wanted it to rain so he could go shopping.
For information about Club Orient go to http://www.cluborient.com or check the back issues of N magazine.
The food at Papagayos was very good and in Grand Case it was excellent. There are several lunch shacks down the beach for variety. We ate at the Naked Egg one afternoon. I had some very good fried calimare .
Radios are not allowed on the beach making it the perfect place to read a book while catching some rays.
Beach towels are exchanged each day at the office. L Orientique is next to the office and has sundries, food, wine, clothing, booze and good Cuban coffee. Cuban cigars were better at Philipsburg.
I registered my credit cards at the boutique and the restaurant so there was no need to carry cash or plastic. At the restaurant they did not have the means to charge for tips. I left the tips in a drop box in the office when we checked out. Some places let us put the tips on credit some did not.
Another surprise was that St. Martin has a $20 per person departure tax. We were low on cash at that point but an ATM was street-side at the airport.
We rented a car one day from the Hertz agent who was in the office in the mornings. We shopped in Marigot and Phillipsburg . We had dinner at Alabama in Grand Case. Grand Case is the gourmet capitol of the Caribbean .
Tourism was down 40 to 45% causing the rest of the beach to be deserted at night. When we tried booking a studio in November for February there were no rooms until April. Wednesdays Wine and Cheese Party is a must and there was entertainment, local music to dance to on a couple of nights. It is a wonder how just reading and wading on a beach can make you so tired.
We found it the best beach to read and relax a very wholesome place.
Great sun, sand, water, people and food will draw us back to Club Orient.
Club Orient is not the place for those who have to be entertained or constantly active. It is now the place for us to escape to. I enjoyed staying so close to the water, and the freedom to choose no clothes all day. Ellen likes the gambling on the Dutch side even when the black jack tables were not friendly.