Which one-Orient Bay or Great Bay??

[tbuot]

Hi all,

We are trying to decide what to do in St. Maarten. We are a family of 4--me, DH, DS3 and DS6.

We were thinking of booking the French Rivera DCL excursion to Orient Bay. But would like to have some feedback on Great Bay. I have read that we could take a water taxi ourselves to Great Bay. It sounds easy.

I have also read about how beautiful Orient Bay is so in comparison is Great Bay that much lower or is it comparable in beauty to Orient??

Thanks

 

[curlyq]

Try both. On our St. Maarten day we rented a Jeep for $50.00 and just had a great time exploring the island. We stopped at Dawn Beach, visited the butterfly farm, had a wonderful time at Orient Beach (it is beautiful), drove up to Paradise Point, and stopped downtown to do some shopping. We were able to do what we wanted and there is pretty much just the one road going around the island. Great Bay was OK for a short visit but Orient beach truly was pretty.

 

[bassoongirl]

We went to Great Bay Beach in the morning before our afternoon excursion. It is very convenient. You just have to take a water-taxi between the ship and the beach ($5 all day, kids are free). The beach was very nice - soft sand, gentle waves, water trampolines (for a fee), the shops are nearby. We had a wonderful morning there!

If you are looking for an inexpensive, convenient beach to go to, I would recommend Great Bay Beach. However, I don't think it is as picturesque as Orient Bay.

Gayl

 

[makaylee]

Orient Bay was everthing you would imagine a caribbean beach to be. It was absolutly gorgeous!

 

[mmouse37]

Here is a pic of great bay beach......you cannot see it in the pic, but if you look straight out over the water you have a view of the cruise ships docked.

http://community.webshots.com/photo/118553635/118564551QNyjGw

This is the view of Orient Beach.....just beautiful blue water and islands off in the distance.

http://community.webshots.com/photo/118553635/118564319xWLaBC

http://community.webshots.com/photo/74573094/74575552SjursN

MJ

 

[TheWog]

It depends on what you have in mind. We went to Great Bay and hung out. Did jet skis, swam and played for the morning. Went back to the ship, had lunch, showered and changed and returned (via the all day water taxi - kids ride free) and did the shopping that apparently is mandatory (if you talk to DW). So it worked out the best for us to stay at Great Bay.

If you are so inclined and want to have some fun, bargain with the beach chair guys and pick the one who will bring you drinks and sodas for a dollar each. If you try hard enough you can get the trampoline raft for the children, two chairs with umbrella and jet ski rental for $45. Beware of the never ending line of souvenier sellers constantly approaching you. Not sure, but have heard it is that way no matter what beach you go to.

Overall it was great and we had a blast.

 

[jrabbit]

We wandered down to the beach at Great Bay (we walked from the ship - it wasn't that bad instead of taking the water taxi). It was ok for walking along the water and enjoying the view.

Back to the ship for lunch, found out our afternoon snorkeling trip was cancelled so we grabed a taxi and went to Orient Beach. We had 3 kids (8-14) with us. The beach is beautiful. The waves and the water were great. We spent about 3 hours there and had a wonderful time. Since we did it on our own the cost was about 1/3 of DCL's very similar priced excursion (we spent under $50 for 3 of us vs. $50 per person from DCL).

On the beauty scale, Orient Bay is a 9+ and Great Bay is only a 4 (and that's mostly because the water is warm and in the Caribbean )

The obligatory warning about Orient Bay: It's on the French side so it is clothing optional. Where/when we were there most of the people were "properly" attired. Less than 5% of the women were topless and there were just a few people walking around nude (and it was as "exciting" as looking at some very old, very dark panneling)