Best way to Orient Bay? Taxi for 7?

[goofydadeo]

During our past two visits to St. Maarten we have rented a car/jeep and driven from the port to our favorite spot on Orient Bay (Kakao Beach Club) for the day. Now we find ourselves with a party of 7 and a van is the only rental vehicle that will hold all of us! Of course they're expensive too ($135/day + taxes, fuel, ins., etc.)! Since we are only going to Oriental Bay and back would any recommend a taxi? How much should we expect to pay each way? Also, is is easy to get a taxi in Orient Bay at 6pm to take us back to the ship by 7pm. Is a taxi workable with a party of 7 (4 adults/3 children)? Any info would be appreciated!

 

[savs]

Bumping this up.....I would liek to know the answer to the taxi ? too.

Also What is your opinion on that beach for little kids? We were looking for something to do with our ds (5 & 3) but I think I read somewhere that there is a lot of nudity there???????? Is that true, what is your opinion of that beach?

Thanks,

 

[cklave]

We just returned from the Magic and went to Orient Bay with 4 adults and 3 children. We took a taxi which was actually a van. It was $5 per person regardless of age but we did talk them down to only charging us for one child on the return trip. I have no idea if this was the best way or not. And there were plenty of taxis/vans for the return trip. We left around 3 pm because the kids were tired by then and we were told that traffic can be pretty bad during rush hour.

 

[goofydadeo]

savs - we have been to Orient Bay 2 times now with our kids (dd4 and ds8 at the time). We saw an occasional topless female sunbather (1 in 10 or less) and only one male without clothing (walking down the beach). We didn't make a big deal about it to our kids and I really doubt they even noticed. We plan to return again next week.

cklave - thank you for your info. That's what I wanted to know!

 

[savs]

Thanks for the information about the nudity question. I'm not really that worried...I guess there are worse things out there that they could see.

How are the waves at the beach....would little ones have any problems playing in the water? Is there showers you can use? Do they charge for beach chairs & is there a place to get food?

Thanks,

 

[goofydadeo]

savs - the waves were typically 2-4 feet (much like the Atlantic ocean on the southeastern US coast). My kids loved it! Both are pretty good swimmers though so we were comfortable.

There are plenty of places to eat right on the beach. They also rent chairs and umbrellas (best I can recall it was $15-20 for two lounges and an umbrella for the day). You can also rent small watercraft (jet skis, sunfish, etc.). There is even a floating platform you can swim to about 30-40' out with a slide ($5/pp/day to use).

Our favorite beach spot on Orient Bay was called Kakao Beach. The food is great - it is somewhat upscale (not burgers and fries) with great entrees. Our kids has pizza, we had a nice salad, grilled seafood and a bottle (or two) of Sancere! I would highly recommend it although it is not the cheapest place to go!

Here is a link to it:

http://www.sxm-restaurants.com/orient/kakao/

Have a great time on your cruise!

 

[lotsofboys]

At the recommendation of our server Deepak, we too went to Orient Bay with 4 adults and 3 children, we just walked up to the car rentals at the end of the pier and rented a van for $59.40 total. We had never been and ended up at Bikini Beach, loungers and umbrellas were $15 for the day as mentioned above. Now, we were there beginning of July so I don't know if that made a difference or if we were just at the wrong beach but nudity was abundant! At first it was just two fully nude males quite a ways away from us so I don't think DS's 9,9 & 5 even noticed them, but as the day went on we were surrounded by topless females and people strolling down the beach nude. Mostly the males were nude and females topless. One of the 9 year olds came running over to my lounge chair to see if I saw what he did, I said yes, so what and he said "but they are NAKED?" and I just explained that's the way they do it here and he went back to play in the ocean with his brothers. Now DH on the other hand......I thought his head would swivel off his shoulders!! I was concerned about the nudity before we got there, but it really ended up not being a big deal for us. We are going again next February, this time with nephews also who will be 17 & 13 and I will have to rethink going back there.

Hope that helps, have a great trip!