St. Maarten

[buzzntink2]

Hi all. We have some concerns about the beach in St. Maarten and the topless/nude sun worshipers. Of course everyone here on our beaches at home in our state are all wearing bathing suits. We're worried about our tweens/teens and the over exposure. I know this might not bother some, but for us, it's not common in our lives. Any family friendly beaches that anyone knows of? Or are all of the beaches topless and/or bathing suit optional? Thanks.

 

[TwinPrincessMermaids]

Hi all. We have some concerns about the beach in St. Maarten and the topless/nude sun worshipers. Of course everyone here on our beaches at home in our state are all wearing bathing suits. We're worried about our tweens/teens and the over exposure. I know this might not bother some, but for us, it's not common in our lives. Any family friendly beaches that anyone knows of? Or are all of the beaches topless and/or bathing suit optional? Thanks.

The public beach close to port (enuf to walk), we were there in the afternoon. No volleyball?! Lame! Anyway we did joke about the thong one chick was wearing but we did not see any topless there. Although it was like Newport Beach or something, over crowded etc. I wouldn't have been happy to spend my while day there but we did the coastal scenic hike first that morn and then waded thru a gorgeous natural beach called Guana. So the public beach was like the remainder of the day so anything after that was a bonus. I didn't really care to get in the water there with all the bodies (altho not dirty or trash floating or anything) so I just hung out at the restaurant across the street under an umbrella...

 

[sdjen]

I would suggest Le Galion Beach. Close to Orient but a lot more family friendly. There is a nice beach cafe and you can rent chairs and umbrellas also.

Have fun!

 

[calmpets]

If memory serves, I thought the dutch side required swimsuits and the french side was mostly topless.

 

[caribbeandreaming]

We were just there last week... we did a tour w/ Bernard's which stopped at both Orient and Maho Beach. One part of Orient is the nude beach but we didn't get dropped off nor see that part. There was no nudity at Maho - it's a small beach but it is the one right by the airport and you can watch planes takeoff and land all day. I think you will be fine at most any beach if you just make sure your taxi driver knows you don't want to encounter any nudity.

 

[owensjro]

Any beach on the French side will be "European Style" which means females can be topless. The one section of Orient Beach is also clothing optional and yes, some do like to wander down further than they are supposed to. From what I found the Dutch side is not, but I have also seen many reports indicating this is not enforced.

With the changes to the Dutch side in 2010 I am not sure how that affected any of this type of enforcement. I did some quick searches and didn't find anything to indicate topless enforcement was more or less strict than before.

When we went with our daughter we simply didn't make a big deal of it. She wasn't quite a tween at that point though.

Jim

 

[scrapycruiser]

I'd vote for Maho Beach. Pretty white sand, chairs & umbrellas, open air casual restaurant on the beach. Planes fly over, pretty low. But it's actually cool to see them. No topless at Maho.
Beware....even if you go to a section of the beach at Orient that's not topless, you'll still see topless and sometimes bottomless men and women walking the beach !!!

 

[declansdad]

We stopped at Orient Beach a couple of years ago and didn't find it to be an issue. Most of the nude sunbathers stayed far enough away from the dividing line and when they did venture over for a walk they covered themselves. We had 3 kids under 10 with us and they didn't notice a thing.

 

[ranidayz]

Hi all. We have some concerns about the beach in St. Maarten and the topless/nude sun worshipers. Of course everyone here on our beaches at home in our state are all wearing bathing suits. We're worried about our tweens/teens and the over exposure. I know this might not bother some, but for us, it's not common in our lives. Any family friendly beaches that anyone knows of? Or are all of the beaches topless and/or bathing suit optional? Thanks.

I wouldn't worry about your teens seeing anything they find attractive. The 'European' beach is all the way at the end AND it will probably traumatized them from ever visiting a beach like that again.

 

[Tami0220]

We stopped at Orient Beach a couple of years ago and didn't find it to be an issue. Most of the nude sunbathers stayed far enough away from the dividing line and when they did venture over for a walk they covered themselves. We had 3 kids under 10 with us and they didn't notice a thing.

I did a check on the bar that is on Maho beach. And while I don't think it is rampant they do have signs and pics of their policy that topless girls drink free at the bar. That is the actual bar and not the tables. So be aware that there can be nudity at Maho too

 

[declansdad]

I did a check on the bar that is on Maho beach. And while I don't think it is rampant they do have signs and pics of their policy that topless girls drink free at the bar. That is the actual bar and not the tables. So be aware that there can be nudity at Maho too

We never saw any nudity at Maho beach at all.

 

[owensjro]

We never saw any nudity at Maho beach at all.

I think the point is that you could potentially see european style at any beach on either side of the island. I'm sure some beaches are less likely than others but it is still possible.

Jim