Nude Beaches On St. Martin

[Zandy595]

I would like to avoid the nude beaches on St. Martin. Does this mean I should not go to any of the beaches there?

 

[CarolAnnC]

It is a very European influenced culture there. The French side of the island does allow total nudity on the beach, and the Dutch side does allow topless. You may or may not see it, but most families report that it is not made into any big deal by the younger children. Personally, I avoided the beaches with my teen DD's as I knew there would be some snickering and "looks" passing between them, lol.

 

[Nick@ VB+OKW]

......................

I would think it would be more of an attraction.

 

[TheWog]

As far as I have heard, Orient is the only one where it is really seen. There was none at Great Bay when we were there in January. You would be safe there.

 

[CM_Mom]

Can't speak from experience but the Shore Excursion Information for St. Maarten, St. Thomas and St. John (Eastern Cruise) has an asterisk on several of the excursions for St. Maarten with the explanation that "nudity or topless sunbathing may be encountered"

The excursion to Orient Bay is listed as the "French Riviera Beach Rendezvous" and has an asterisk to that makes sense. The other excursions with asterisks are the Pinel Island Snorkel Tour and the Golden Eagle Catamaran.

 

[jeanie]

The beach that we went to on the Rhino riders is very secluded and their were a few nude sun bathers on the other end of the beach and there was also a photographer taking pictures of a nude model on the beach.... However, until our guide told us there were other people on the beach we didn't even notice them...

 

[jrabbit]

The nudity we saw on Orient Beach on St. Maarten was minimal and with the kids ages 8-14 was not a problem. Even when they are older it shouldn't be a problem. Playboy it's NOT!!! It's about as exciting as looking at very old, very dark panneling!!

 

[CAMICKEY]

jrabbit - Actually some of the wood paneling I have seen looks much better than some of the, shall I say "art work" at the nude beaches. LOL - Mike

 

[CRSNDSNY]

I'm almost afraid to ask this, but am I the only one here that enjoys the nude beaches?

In fact (since I've already opened myself up to this why stop at the above statement???), on our first cruise while we were in St. Maarten we asked the taxi driver to TAKE US to the nude beach!

BTW -- no, I don't have children. And our 7-day cruise was our honeymoon.

Ok yes...now I'm really embarrassed!!!

 

[ThreeCircles]

CRSNDSNY--

You're not the only one! Travis and I went to Orient Bay on our last Eastern cruise in May of 2003 and loved it. Although we didn't specifically go there because it was a clothing optional beach.

The beach itself is beautiful and I like the fact that people can go nude if they so choose. The U.S. is soooooo closed-minded on some things!

 

[CRSNDSNY]

PHEW!

Yes...I could never go to the Jersey shore and go topless so why NOT on my honeymoon!

 

[CAMICKEY]

CRSNDSNY - My wife and I enjoyed them when we were younger overseas and would do so again at the proper place. We just found too many gawkers here in the states. When we went on Carnival cruise lines, they have a place to lay out topless on the top deck. As my wife and several other ladies were laying there, I look at the entrance and there is a man with a video camera taping all of the women. I hollered at him (as there is a BIG sign prohibiting cameras in the area) but he just ignored me. I guess he did not feel the same way when they confiscated his video camera, erased all of his tapes (Not just the ones from the top deck) and then gave him his tapes and video camera back. He certainly gave me a dirty look. Oh well - his problem not mine. We often still go sunbathing when we go to Hawaii and also have a pool in the back yard. I don't know why Americans have such a big hangup about nudity. Hey - Wer'e born this way. - Mike

 

[Nick@ VB+OKW]

This thread is starting to get GOOD now........

 

[CRSNDSNY]

Originally posted by Nick@ VB+OKW
This thread is starting to get GOOD now........

 

[NYGiantsRule!]

We tend to think that the world revolves around our culture. On our cruise last summer at the beach in Tulum there were several topless bathers. A couple on our tour asked my DH to join them in complaining to Guest Services when we returned to the ship. I reminded them that we were not in the US and that other countries had different attitudes about nudity (or partial nudity) than we do. IMHO, if the "missing" clothing is a problem for people, stay on the ship or go to a beach in the US.

 

[prymsu]

we did see some topless women at Dawn's Beach, but it really wasn't a big deal at all.

 

[tvguy]

I saw the warnings in the Disney brochure, but never saw any nudity in St. Martin.
My first cruise, way back when I was 23, was a different story. It was on the Mermoz, run the the French cruise line Paquet. 98% of the passengers were from France, and there were topless sunbathers by the pools ON THE SHIP.
Out of the 450 or so passengers on board, only about 25 were not French, and there were only about 4 kids on board.

 

[djjmitt]

Did you take the shore excursion to Orient Beach? where do they put you compared to the nude beach? Can you get there on your own?

 

[hydster]

We went to Orient Beach just last week on our 5-1 Magic trip and we have kids 10, 9 and 5. We saw a few topless women, 1 naked couple and about 10-12 overweight, hairy, fat men, 3 very very very overweight women who were topless and 1 of them was topless and in her what I can only assume was thin underwear (but they were further down the beach and the camera lens didn't go quite that far) and that was it! Our kids never noticed it or if they did they didn't say anything like EWWWW GROSS or something embarrasing! For us it was just a regular beach and a beautiful one at that. We didn't take a shore excursion we just hopped in a Taxi at the Taxi stand toward the end of the pier, payed $30.00 for the 5 of us and we were off. The beach is free but if you want a beach chair they were $20.00 for 2 chairs on the front row nearest the water with an umbrella and $16.00 for 2 chairs and umbrella on the back row. We didn't think that was worth it so we just parked our butts on the beach for free! It was awesome and I hope to get back there some day! I never felt out of place but I did learn my lesson about "joining in on the fun of being in a thong" from our trip to cancun where I set about pretending to be one of the 18 year old girls in a thong and topless and thought I'd never see anyone again..turns out that most of the people who saw me were also with us at the airport and on our flight!

Heidi

 

[Zandy595]

OK, why would anyone want to pay money to sit on a chair that some naked, sweaty person sat on first? Now that's gross.