Coral Beach Club Villas & Marina

We booked through air bnb and found the beach club peaceful and well kept, with beach chairs easy to get. It was a beautiful place to come back to after a day out, and I wish we could return tomorrow. The beach is only about 30 seconds away. The resort next door has a market, lunch and dinner restaurants, and a bar. If you can, rent a car to explore the island and visit restaurants on day trips. My family and I had an amazing time here.

We live just around the corner and aren't hotel guests, but wanted to use the hotel's fitness room once and pay for it. This morning, the gentleman at reception was very kind and thought it should be possible. He asked us to return later because of the activities desk hours. When we came back, a very unfriendly woman told us no. I explained what her colleague had said, but she didn't even look at me and just repeated that they don't do that. Well, thanks for the friendly service.

We had a marina view, and the beach was right there. There was also a pool a few yards away, plus access to the Oyster Pond Resort pool. The club is one minute from the French border, with great French restaurants within a five-minute drive and more a little farther away at Orient Beach, which is also a great beach. The villas were even better than the pictures, which is hard to believe. Everything was new and clean, and the kitchen had all we needed. Customer service was great, and all the paperwork was done ahead of time, so check-in was just a tour of the villa. We loved our week and didn't want to leave. Can't wait to return.

The sunrise from this property is spectacular, so get up early. We stayed in a Partial Ocean View 3 bedroom Villa, hoping for an ocean view and a private pool. The villa had high-end appliances, spacious bedrooms, quality linens, en-suite bathrooms, daily maid and turndown service, and a large terrace with partial ocean views, lounge chairs, a table, and a grill. The private pool is fairly large, but it's a five-foot-deep plunge pool with a shade structure taking up swimming space. It has a ladder but no steps or place to lounge. There's direct beach access and full service on the beach, which is groomed daily and has most seaweed removed. On windy days, though, there's a lot of seaweed in the water. We preferred the calmer Caribbean blue beaches on the French side. Coral Beach Club is a beautiful luxury property, especially suited to families or multiple couples who want lots of space and plan to cook or drive across the island for restaurants. The location felt a bit sketchy and is far from high-end restaurants, or really any restaurants, so relying on the subpar food at the adjacent Oyster Bay Resort didn't work for us. We had high hopes, but it wasn't a good fit. If we return to St Maarten / Saint Martin, we'd likely stay on the French side near the restaurants and Caribbean blue beaches.