Orient Beach - Hurrican Damage and seaweed

[MR LED]

We just got back from a great cruise on the NCL Getaway. In St Maarten we shared a van taxi to Orient Beach. $7 per person each way. About a 30 minute drive. $10 per chair rental. BUT WARNING – Orient Beach was damaged during the last hurricane. It had very little beach and tons of seaweed everywhere. I wish I knew this before going but we made the most of it. I remember Orient Beach to as being one of the best beaches, but not anymore. I would recommend saving your money and time and just take the water taxi over to Great Bay Beach its only $7 round trip and much nicer at this time. Per the one of the bars at Orient Beach they are working on a plan to pull the sand back to the beach and clean up the seaweed but they are on island time so who nows when.

[Cruzinbabe06]

Thanks for the heads up.

 

What beach bar did you guys go to?

 

I plan on going to Aloha or Kakao beach clubs.

[Wayfairers]

Thanks for then info. Sad, because that was a beautiful beach. I'm not sure the seaweed is a result of the hurricane. We live near the beach and the seaweed comes and goes at our beach depending upon time of year and which way the wind is blowing.

[jcg4550]

There is plenty of beach front from Le String to Bikini Beach club. The most damage was near Pedro's. Yes. There is a lot of seaweed. We were at Kon Tiki 2 weeks ago & had a great time. It is still a great beach. The entire beach WAS NOT destroyed by the storm.

See Cruise Port to Orient post.

 

Sent from my iPhone using Forums mobile app

Edited December 3, 2014 by jcg4550

[MR LED]

I do not remember the name of the bar. But I believe the taxi dropped us off at Kakao. We ended up walking to Waikiki. They had the burgundy chairs and umbrellas. This seemed to be the deepest part of the beach and it was less crowded. It may have just been the day we went but Kakao and Bikni had maybe 2 rows of chairs and the water was coming up past the first row of chairs making the beach look like a swamp from all the seaweed and the trapped water that did not recede back to the ocean. It was very windy that day with medium to larger waves.

[Cruzinbabe06]

I do not remember the name of the bar. But I believe the taxi dropped us off at Kakao. We ended up walking to Waikiki. They had the burgundy chairs and umbrellas. This seemed to be the deepest part of the beach and it was less crowded. It may have just been the day we went but Kakao and Bikni had maybe 2 rows of chairs and the water was coming up past the first row of chairs making the beach look like a swamp from all the seaweed and the trapped water that did not recede back to the ocean. It was very windy that day with medium to larger waves.

 

Oh wow!

 

I have my heart set on Orient Beach.

 

Probably will still go.

 

Thx again for the heads up.

Edited December 3, 2014 by Cruzinbabe06

[Cruzinbabe06]

There is plenty of beach front from Le String to Bikini Beach club. The most damage was near Pedro's. Yes. There is a lot of seaweed. We were at Kon Tiki 2 weeks ago & had a great time. It is still a great beach. The entire beach WAS NOT destroyed by the storm.

See Cruise Port to Orient post.

 

Sent from my iPhone using Forums mobile app

 

Kon Tiki looks nice.

 

Will certainly check it out.

 

Good to hear not all of the beach was destroyed.

 

Thx for the update.

[OCruisers]

Thanks for your post.

Hopefully, Orient Beach will be totally back to normal soon.

We normally go to Orient Beach ... but in January we may just go to Marigot for lunch since it has been a while since we've done that.

LuLu

[Charles4515]

would recommend saving your money and time and just take the water taxi over to Great Bay Beach its only $7 round trip and much nicer at this time. /FONT]

 

Great Bay is the beach that has pollution issues.