BEACHES
Saint MartinJanuary 2001by Rick Mollica |
BEACHESThe beaches that we like were in great shape this year - except for Cupecoy, which was still in disastrous condition.
My four favorite beaches this year were
Prune Bay ... still spectacular, in my opinion.
There are no facilities and no concessions. It is a gorgeous beach with great swimming conditions. An excellent place for the family. Tops Optional.
I'll repeat the driving directions for you here:
Stop someplace to get food and drink before you go to Prune Bay - there are no facilities there. You might consider also bringing your own umbrella, because there isn't much shade.
Baie Rouge is back in great shape after having suffered some erosion last year. Gus's Place and Raymond's (two lo-los) still serve great lunches and $2 beers. My favorite day at Baie Rouge is Sunday, which is when the local Marigot population comes out to relax.
My only caution this year would be to keep an eye on the guy selling beach chairs and umbrellas - if you give him a large denomination bill, he says he will bring you change when he gets it. Yeah, right. I recommend that instead of forking over a large bill, either give him the correct change ($5 each for chair and umbrella) or tell him you'll pay him when he gets change for your $20 bill (or whatever).
This is a nice family beach. Tops Optional.
Orient Beach was outstanding this year. Although there has been quite a bit of beach erosion in front of Pedro's, the rest of the beach looked fine.
Unfortunately, the bars and restaurants set up far too many beach chairs to be appealing. They jam as many chairs side-by-side as possible, not realizing that being jammed together is what most vacationers are trying to escape. I'd think by now the restaurants and bars would figure out that their sardine-can-designed beach chair layout is why people don't want to use their beach chairs. This overcrowding probably also explains why the Orient Beach Club section of the beach is getting so many more people - plenty of room to stretch out!
Tatyana, the lovely waitress who brought food and drinks to the beach chairs last year on the Orient Beach Club section, was not to be found this year. An unexpected attraction, however, was a lithe young woman who decided to conduct yoga exercises about five feet in front of my chair. She was tall with long black hair gathered up with a clip in the back. Physically fit, pale skin, sunglasses - kind of Italian looking, She removed her bathing suit and started a 30-minute routine of arching and stretching ... front view ... rear view ... in her own world ... uninhibited ... all very nice ... and then she was gone. I figured she must have been from one of the cruise ships ... but I saw her collecting seashells the next day at the Pelican Resort's beach.
And I never expected to find a fashion faux pas on Orient Beach, but sure enough, we're walking along the beach and we look up to see a short, fat guy power-walking completely naked except for a fanny pack! The visual was just too much.
Check out this web site about Orient Beach.
The Cranberry Cafe is gone, so now there are only two beach restaurants at Friars Bay: Kali's Beach Bar and Friar's Bay Beach Cafe. I still recommend - strongly - that you head for the area in front of Friars Bay Beach Cafe (FBBC).
The lounge chairs and umbrellas in front of the FBBC are free if you eat at the FBBC...and the food is excellent. They have a great menu, reasonable prices, and the beach itself is picture-perfect.
You're going to love the ambiance of Friar's Bay - added to the regular mix of French, Italians, Latin Americans, and North Americans this year was a group of Russians.
Tops Optional ... lots.
Those of you who read my travelogues each year know that I think this is a great beach - it doesn't have the class of Prune Bay, the excitement of Orient, or the seclusion of Happy Bay - but it has free lounge chairs and umbrellas, a very nice beach protected by rock jetties on both sides, and two beach bars - the thatched one serves up the best barbecued burgers I've had on the island. And of course you have all the other amenities of the Pelican Resort right there.
The beach at the Grand Case Beach Club was in great condition. This is a very nice tops optional beach, and the Grand Case Beach Club has lounges on the beach near their Sunset Cafe. The chairs have flag hoists so that you can signal to the bar when you want drinks.
You can access the beach by parking on the road and using the access path next to the Grand Case Beach Club, or just park in The GCBC's parking lot and use their facilities.
The Cupecoy beach furthest from the Sapphire resort was still a disaster in January 2001. As I told you last year, damage from the 1999 hurricanes made a mess of Cupecoy. Sand erosion left boulders at the water's edge and what what little beach is left is mostly ugly; the treeline suffered severe damage from erosion; the concession was destroyed (but the locals still set up a small lo-lo on the beach).
