Port Review: July 6- Marigot and Orient Beach

[OasisFamily2011]

I received tons of great information from the kind posters on this board to plan our day on St. Martin last week. I wanted to write up a quick review for future users.

 

Original Plan for our one day stop in St. Martin on July 6, 2011. DH, DD, DS, and I get off the ship at 8a, rent a car, climb Ft. St. Louis, have a pastry at Sarafina's, shop in Marigot, then hit Orient Beach for lunch and an afternoon of beach time. Somehow things never seem to work out quite how you plan them!

 

Revised Plan:

 

A group of 8 of us got off the ship around 10a and took a cab to Marigot for shopping. This was market day, so first we shopped at the market then we walked over to Marina La Royale and poked around the boutiques and had lunch. I was not impressed with the market. For the most part it is the mass-marketed "crafts". There are some local crafters, artists, etc. If we were there for a land-based vacation I would have happily poked around the market all morning. With 2 young children, DH, and 2 BILs in tow, it just wasn't worth staying very long. It was also extremely hot, which limited the amount of time anybody wanted to look around.

 

Shopping in the cluster of boutiques around Marina La Royale was more enjoyable, though I still had issues with unenthusiastic shopping partners :). Most of the clothing and shoes had too much bling for me. If you are a bikini addict this is the place for you. There were a few boutiques that had a really nice selection of high end swim wear and coverups. I bought some unique jewelry pieces as well. If I had been alone, I could have really done some damage, but with everyone in tow....

 

We ate at the lovely Cafe Paris that overlooks the Marina. There are many picturesque restaurants overlooking the marina. Menus are similar, we randomly chose Cafe Paris and were very happy with our meals. The pizza was good, my kids had two of the best burgers I've tried in a while, and the salads were delicious. I had a bowl of lobster bisque that was delicious as well. I have to say, we all had burger envy after divvying up the half of hamburger my son couldn't finish. The portions at this restaurant were huge. You could easily share entrees.

 

Our wonderful waiter Matthew called us a cab, and in about 20 minutes we were off to Orient Beach. The cab driver dropped us off at Waikiki on Orient Beach promising to return in 2 hours.

 

Since we only had 2 hours at the beach we did not walk up and down checking out prices for umbrellas. If we were there for the day, I definitely would have checked out a few before settling in one place. We rented 4 chairs with umbrellas for our group for $40.00 total. The adults settled in with beers, and we rented two boogie boards at $10.00 each. The surf was great for boogie boarding, and we all lounged and played in the water. It was a really nice afternoon. Our cab driver picked us up at the appointed time, and we were back to the ship with time to spare.

 

Thoughts: I loved St. Martin and really enjoyed getting to see some of the island. Traffic is terrible, so definitely include plenty of transit time in your plans. I will save my shopping for a land-based trip there (or for a time when I don't have to drag my kids along). If I did it again, I would get up early to beat some of the heat, and head to Orient Beach for the day. Between boogie boarding, water trampolines, the restaurants/bars etc. there is plenty to do.

 

It was very easy to find cabs to accomodate our large group. We paid $6.00 per person to get from the ship to Marigot, then $7.00 per person from Marigot to Orient Beach, and then $7.00 per person from Orient Beach to the ship.

[Rob & Beckys mom]

Thanks for the review! We are taking a land trip there in August & staying on Orient beach for a week. We have always been there by cruise ship, so we are looking forward to seeing more of the island this time.

 

Jan

[lrn2cruise]

I am a shopper, but not with my boys-DH and DS. We will be doing beach/water activities and a fun lunch somewhere, maybe Pinel