Saint Martin, also known as “The Friendly Island” is a unique getaway with some of the most gorgeous beaches in the caribbean. There is a perfect beach for EVERYONE on this island, and I hope this guide helps you to plan your next trip to optimize your time at the beach (or beaches) that will make your getaway unforgettable.

My husband and I recently returned home from our AMAZING getaway to St. Martin & I couldn’t wait to share about the unique & beautiful beaches we found on our trip! We only stayed in St. Martin for 6 nights, so we didn’t venture to EVERY beach, but I spent time researching leading up to the trip & I hope this list saves you time by having all the top spots in one post! 

This post is dedicated to our favorite beach spots & I will follow up with another blog post on tips for traveling to St. Martin including our favorite restaurants!

#6: Mullet Bay (Dutch Side)

Mullet Bay was the first beach we visited on the island. It’s located on the Dutch side of the Island & wasn’t far from our hotel near Princess Juliana Airport. As soon as we parked our rental car in the free lot, we were greeted by a friendly local (I believe his name was Chester) who was selling beach chairs to sit on with umbrellas. This is fairly common in St. Martin so be sure to bring cash to the beaches if you don’t have a chair of your own. We arrived around 1 pm & paid $15 for 2 chairs + an umbrella located front row to the water. This was technically mid-day, so if you arrive earlier, you will likely pay a little more for the chairs/umbrella combo.

This beach has a fun vibe with a beach bar, Rosies Rib Shack (which are termed as the best ribs on the island) & beautiful views. This is a beach where group excursions make a stop, so be prepared for random influxes of 100+ people at a time jumping off a catamaran and crowding the beach. It was definitely a fun spot, & if you love a busier/robust atmosphere, this is your spot. 

One of my favorite parts of my day at this beach was getting a fresh (chilled) coconut for $5 to sip on. I also paid another $5 to add rum to make it the perfect refreshing cocktail to relax on the beach with!

#5: Maho Beach (Dutch Side)

This is the infamous beach on St. Martin that tourists frequent to watch the planes fly overhead (literally) as they land at Princess Juliana Airport. It’s definitely a “Must see” on the trip, but it wasn’t somewhere we spent more than an hour at the entire trip.

Maho is a very small beach & It gets extra crowded in the afternoon (between 11:30am – 3pm) when the biggest planes are usually flying in. I would try to avoid this beach on days where cruise ships are in port since it seems to be the spot most cruisers will visit for their day in St. Martin.

You can grab drinks at one of the beach bars on either side of the beach and enjoy lunch in the area as well. The Sunset Bar has a surf board out by the beach that lists the times of incoming flights for the day so you can be prepared for your perfect photo op! (They also make a pretty strong painkiller cocktail!)

A little tip: I checked the airport website which listed which planes were coming in & also alerted to incoming flights that were arriving earlier than scheduled.

Luckily our hotel was walking distance to Maho, so we got to spend some time there on our last day when it wasn’t so crowded getting my plane photo-op & checking that experience off the bucket list!

#4: Anse-Marcel Beach (French Side)

Anse-Marcel was a random lucky find for us. How did I find this beach? I looked on our map (since we had no wi-fi when off our resort) and picked a spot that looked like it had a beach… & so the adventure began!..

Anse-Marcel beach is surely an adventure to get to. It requires a drive over steep mountains on narrow winding roads with little to no partition between the road and the edge of it. Be sure to have a more experienced driver take the wheel for this one! There’s also a few stops you can take along the way with gorgeous scenic overlooks of the island.

When you get to the beach at the bottom of the hill, you’ll notice it’s on a resort where you can also rent beach chairs & food. We opted to sit in the center of the beach on our towels with our own beverages that we packed in our cooler & enjoy the sights since it was a little later in the day. There weren’t many people there & it was a nice break from the more crowded beaches.

This beach is technically a cove, beautifully nestled between sets of scenic mountains. The water is calm and it was a pleasant escape from the intense winds we had at Orient bay for the first part of our beach day. If you have an especially windy day on your trip, this is definitely a good option since the mountains shelter this beach from the wind gusts. 

# 3: Orient Bay Beach (French Side)

Orient Bay seemed to be at the top of every list I found for beaches in St. Martin. It’s an absoutely GORGEOUS beach & was the largest one we visited on the island. It had numerous options of beach clubs to rent chairs for the day & eat/drink at. If you want to sit at those spots, outside food/drink is not allowed, & much like Mullet bay, there are fees for renting the chairs/umbrellas.

This beach has a lot going on, so its perfect for a group that wants to stay busy & have options for their daily activities. Water sport rentals are available if you want to wind surf or you can opt to rent a jet ski, go on a banana boat and enjoy other water activities. I was content just watching the wind surfers.

FYI: If you walk to the northernmost end of the beach, you will find the nude beach. So if you want to go for a swim in your birthday suit, this is the spot! (or if you’re not a fan of this type of experience, here’s your warning to avoid that side of the beach!)

I believe our experience at Orient bay was a little skewed by the intense amount of wind on the day we were there. The sand was blowing hard at us so we decided to spend our time on Orient Bay taking a walk along the beach to take in the views before headed to another location. 

# 2: Grande Case Beach (French Side)

The Grande Case area was one of my favorite places in St. Maarten. We started our day with brunch at a beautifully decorated restaurant called Rainbow Cafe. It’s curated so aesthetically & feels like a bohemian getaway in itself. After our delicious brunch, (be sure to make advances reservations) we opted to rent lounge chairs from the restaurant & spent our day relaxing there & ordering delicious cocktails served right to our seats.

The water on this beach is the most beautiful shade of blue & the tide is very calm allowing you to enjoy the water without big waves. Another perk that made me absolutely fall in love with this beach was how much beautiful sea-glass I found! There was so much green, aqua, & clear sea-glass on our walk along this beach that I couldn’t even carry it all. We even found very rare blue & white ceramic pieces!

FYI: The Broken pottery pieces are called “Chaney”. The word derives from “China” & “Money”. One story of how this came about is: When passenger ships traveled across the ocean from Europe, passengers would dump their China that broke along the trip overboard to avoid paying taxes since these items were taxed upon arrival according to their weight.

On another night of our trip, we returned to Grand Case to watch the sunset and it was absolutely beautiful! There are also many other restaurants in the area both on the water as well as along the street which make it a perfect spot to spend an entire day.

In a future trip to St. Martin, I would most definitely stay in a hotel or Air B&B in this area since it had so much to offer & we spent a majority of our trip there. 

Number 1: Happy Bay Beach (French Side)

Happy Bay Beach was definitely my number one beach during our trip. Not only does it have beautiful views & calm waters for swimming, but it also remains fairly secluded because its a little off the beaten path. Getting to Happy Bay beach requires a 10-ish minute “hike” from the more touristy “Friar Beach”. During our day at Happy Bay Beach, there was never more than 20 people total at one time & the trip was well worth it.

• How to get there: Park your car at Friar Beach & walk to the north end of the beach where you will see a small dirt path leading up a small hill. I recommend wearing sneakers for the hike because it’s unpaved, rocky & easy to trip. This short hike is uphill but doable for anyone in average physical condition. During your walk, you also can stop to take in some beautiful views out into the ocean along the coastline.

If you plan on staying on the beach for an entire day I recommend you bring a cooler with drinks/snacks & either beach chairs (if you have them) or beach towels/blankets to sit on because there isn’t any rentals available due to the “hidden” location of this beach.

FYI: since this beach is secluded, nudity is allowed (but not required), so you might see some people topless or fully nude. Feel free to join them if you wish!  

I don’t think you can really go wrong at any beach on the amazing island of St. Martin. It was honestly pretty hard for me to rank them & the experience we had on our trip may vary with weather, tourist flow & your own personal expectations. The biggest piece of advice I could give you for your trip is to rent a car so that you can travel around the island freely & not be tied down to a single area. There is so much to see & I’ll have to make another trip to visit the beaches we missed on this trip!

I will follow up with another blog post on tips for traveling to St. Martin including our favorite restaurants!

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