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St. Maarten Oyster Bay Beach resort vs. Simpson Bay Resort

Krteczech

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Resorts Owned
Towers at Mullet Bay, SXM
Silverado II, CO
We use Leisure Car Rental. Jimmy Fitzpatrick is a manager and communication was always easy. Reservations are done on line. I believe all car rentals are short distance from the airport, but some will bring you your rental car to the airport.
 

stmartinfan

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Resorts Owned
Divi Little Bay, St. Maarten
Most of the check in dates seem to be Saturday at the 3 resorts in this thread. Does anyone know if they also have Sunday check in? Thanks.
Divi has some Sunday check ins. We learned that the hard way. We had booked a 2 week trip and did a private rental of a studio so our daughter and boyfriend could join us for the second week. When they arrived on the Saturday to check in we were surprised to find the unit wasn't available til Sunday! We hadn't looked closely enough at the dates because we had assumed all units were Saturday checkin. Luckily they could sleep one night on the sofa in our one bedroom unit.
 

toddvb20

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Lots of people love the Simpson Bay area, but we have always preferred the quieter location of Divi. Great beach, still close for a quick drive to restaurants. Divi has a new high rise hotel area that has just opened.

Staying on the French side is fun, but I probably wouldn't do that for just a 3 night stay, because of the extra driving time. I’ve never stayed at Mary's Boon, which is an older hotel right on the beach but know it has lots of fans and would consider it if I had a need for a few hotel nights.
It looks Divi Little Bay has two codes in II, LBY & LY1. Is one better than the other?
 

normab

TUG Review Crew: Expert
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Lots of great info on this thread. We went to SXM for over 20 years. Loved it…until the hurricane destroyed it and the rebuild took and is taking too long. We went back too soon, (2018) and saw the destruction and how poorly they were financed to rebuild. They are probably in much better shape now.

We stayed at both resorts that the original poster was looking at. Simpson bay resort has older buildings that may or may not have AC. The newer building looks much nicer. The location is good, but we would still recommend a car rental from a local. We never had a good experience with the major American car companies there.

OBBR is closer to the French side, and the resort is overall much nicer in our opinion, as long as you can climb a flight or two. No elevators in most of the building for exchangers. The rooms are very well appointed but not Marriott quality. This is our favorite SXM resort. A car is a must, but the roads can be treacherous in the dark.

Someone asked about Dawn Beach. It’s next to OBBR. The Dawn beach resort has beautiful rooms but during our stay it was frequented by roaches, perhaps palmetto bugs, but too many. We could not keep them at bay with an entire can of Raid. They were immune. So nicely appointed, but very buggy. And also, way too many problems with WiFI. It only worked about half the time, and we were paying extra for it. The best thing was the beach at the Westin. So not sure if that resort is worth it right now.
 

JeffW

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I have an II getaway booked for Simpson Bay Resort for Aug 2023. Assuming the management would honor requests, are there any buildings/units that are worth trying to ask for (or ask NOT for)? Since I think it's off-peak season, I thought I might have a better chance of a request being fulfilled.

Thanks. Jeff
 
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