Best timeshare to stay at in St. Marten?

Hi All,

I wanted to know what is the best timeshare to stay at in St. Martin and what time of year should we go? Thanks

Been to St Martin four times. Great place to vacation, can't wait to get there again. Check out www.traveltalkonline.com, the St Martin link for lots and lots of info.

We've stayed at the Sapphire and Atrium plus have visited friends at other resorts. Most all seem to be pretty nice. Alot of them do hit you with some extra $ fees for electricity, etc. Atrium is conveniently located within walking distance to lots of restaurants/bars (traffic can be brutally slow on Dutch side). Oyster Bay Beach Resort is farther out and close to the French side border but traffic is not bad. Divi Little Bay is closer to Phillipsburg (great jewelry shopping) plus has a guarded entrance and it's own beach area and good parking but a but of a walk to lot. You can get a ton of good info on traveltalkonline.

doug436 wrote:

Been to St Martin four times. Great place to vacation, can't wait to get there again. Check out www.traveltalkonline.com, the St Martin link for lots and lots of info.

We've stayed at the Sapphire and Atrium plus have visited friends at other resorts. Most all seem to be pretty nice. Alot of them do hit you with some extra $ fees for electricity, etc. Atrium is conveniently located within walking distance to lots of restaurants/bars (traffic can be brutally slow on Dutch side). Oyster Bay Beach Resort is farther out and close to the French side border but traffic is not bad. Divi Little Bay is closer to Phillipsburg (great jewelry shopping) plus has a guarded entrance and it's own beach area and good parking but a but of a walk to lot. You can get a ton of good info on traveltalkonline.

mike1536 wrote:

doug436 wrote:

Been to St Martin four times. Great place to vacation, can't wait to get there again. Check out www.traveltalkonline.com, the St Martin link for lots and lots of info.

We've stayed at the Sapphire and Atrium plus have visited friends at other resorts. Most all seem to be pretty nice. Alot of them do hit you with some extra $ fees for electricity, etc. Atrium is conveniently located within walking distance to lots of restaurants/bars (traffic can be brutally slow on Dutch side). Oyster Bay Beach Resort is farther out and close to the French side border but traffic is not bad. Divi Little Bay is closer to Phillipsburg (great jewelry shopping) plus has a guarded entrance and it's own beach area and good parking but a but of a walk to lot. You can get a ton of good info on traveltalkonline.

========== We're going to St. Marteen in April. Do busses run from Divi Little Bay to Phillipsburg. How is the taxi service? Or shuld we just rent a car? I assume the Euro is the official currency on the French side, what is the currency on the Dutch side? Thanks in advance for all the info

There's lots of little bus/shuttles running around. They seem to stop most anywhere someone flags them down, mostly locals use them and I don't know if they have a/c. Lots of taxi's are available. If one were adventurous one could walk from Divi to P'burg but it's a fair jaunt. Your best bet, tho, by far is to rent a small car. Too much to see too much to do on da island not to have a car. You'll also get a real "driving lesson". There are a number of very reputable local car rental places who do great service. We always use Unity but every regular there has their favorite. Guilder is the Dutch currency, not sure on current exchange rates. Am. Ex. travelers cheques are well taken. Divi is itself essentially self contained with restaurant/bars, shops, pools, beach, great views, etc. Usually calm water for kids and beach toys. Stayed there one week and liked the location. Not too much of a jaunt to Simpson bay area or Marigot and has easy access to roads up east side of island for getting up to the French side. If you make it to Orient beach you gotta do at least one lunch at Baywatch but check things out before taking the kids.

doug436 wrote:

mike1536 wrote:

doug436 wrote:

Been to St Martin four times. Great place to vacation, can't wait to get there again. Check out www.traveltalkonline.com, the St Martin link for lots and lots of info.

We've stayed at the Sapphire and Atrium plus have visited friends at other resorts. Most all seem to be pretty nice. Alot of them do hit you with some extra $ fees for electricity, etc. Atrium is conveniently located within walking distance to lots of restaurants/bars (traffic can be brutally slow on Dutch side). Oyster Bay Beach Resort is farther out and close to the French side border but traffic is not bad. Divi Little Bay is closer to Phillipsburg (great jewelry shopping) plus has a guarded entrance and it's own beach area and good parking but a but of a walk to lot. You can get a ton of good info on traveltalkonline.

========== We're going to St. Marteen in April. Do busses run from Divi Little Bay to Phillipsburg. How is the taxi service? Or shuld we just rent a car? I assume the Euro is the official currency on the French side, what is the currency on the Dutch side? Thanks in advance for all the info

There's lots of little bus/shuttles running around. They seem to stop most anywhere someone flags them down, mostly locals use them and I don't know if they have a/c. Lots of taxi's are available. If one were adventurous one could walk from Divi to P'burg but it's a fair jaunt. Your best bet, tho, by far is to rent a small car. Too much to see too much to do on da island not to have a car. You'll also get a real "driving lesson". There are a number of very reputable local car rental places who do great service. We always use Unity but every regular there has their favorite. Guilder is the Dutch currency, not sure on current exchange rates. Am. Ex. travelers cheques are well taken. Divi is itself essentially self contained with restaurant/bars, shops, pools, beach, great views, etc. Usually calm water for kids and beach toys. Stayed there one week and liked the location. Not too much of a jaunt to Simpson bay area or Marigot and has easy access to roads up east side of island for getting up to the French side. If you make it to Orient beach you gotta do at least one lunch at Baywatch but check things out before taking the kids.

You'll have a ball. Just be advised, you'll be on island time. Which means, everything runs slow, cept the time between when you arrive and when you leave, which somehow becomes geometrically compressed. Also, be very careful of the orient beach sand gravity, gets lots of unsuspecting folks. Great happy hours at The Perch (just south of Pedro's and Baywatch) from 1 - 2 pm if I recall.

Thanks, doug, for this very useful information. When do you suggest going? I like to miss the high season and try for an in-between season. Want to avoid summer and spring break vacationers. Would also appreciate your thoughts on what beach would offer the best snorkeling. Thanks.

doug436 wrote:

You'll have a ball. Just be advised, you'll be on island time. Which means, everything runs slow, cept the time between when you arrive and when you leave, which somehow becomes geometrically compressed. Also, be very careful of the orient beach sand gravity, gets lots of unsuspecting folks. Great happy hours at The Perch (just south of Pedro's and Baywatch) from 1 - 2 pm if I recall.

Mid-Dec thru Feb/March is considered the high season. Rest of time is low season tho you wouldn't think so during traffic jamb times around Simpson Bay area. We've always gone in late Oct but there still is risk of hurricanes and/or tropical storms - can rain really hard there. Spring after early March would probably be good. Snorkeling is not known to be that good on St Martin. Some of the better locations are out along the peninsula from the Divi Little Bay beach. Also, Baie Rouge to the right. Orient beach area is also ok, especially out toward Green Cay Is. If you snorkel out to Green Cay, start out close to Papagayo's but approach Green Cay from center to north as the water is shallow and heavier wave action to south end. Those rocks with the spiny black things are kind of scary as the wave action drops you down. Off of Cupecoy Beach a bit out and to the north is ok. There may be others that I'm not familiar with. Keep an eye out for jelly-fish. Most times none, sometimes to many to snorkel.

I love Divi Little Bay. Great resort, great local car rental (Dollar/Thrifty I believe), great shopping, great scuba diving and snorkeling and water sports. Bit of a walking distance to Philipsburg, but definitely a nice trek. Give Divi a shot.

I used to enjoy owning at SImpson Bay but turned over our timeshares due to the ever increasing fees. Maint went from 450 to 900. Then they added a special assessment of 450, then they wanted the owners to pay for redoing all of the condos another 1200. With 2 weeks that was just way too much money. If you buy there, beware. They will keep raising your maint fees.