Visited St. Martin via cruise ship Tuesday Feb. 19th, 2019. I would guess 90% of cruise passengers target going to see the planes at Maho as their primary activity in visiting St. Martin. The cruise terminal taxi drivers are still hesitant about taking fares to Orient.

Happily upon arrival at Orient Beach at 10am the parking lot was full of autos & there were about 200 people out at the nude section of Orient Beach. By 11am 100% of the chairs & umbrellas were rented out with about 300 folks in the nude section. Rain came about noon driving some folks away. Wind picked up later in the day. But all in all it was a great day at Orient.

Good to hear. Sounds like you had a great time!

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Life's a beach!

yes, it was a great day! During previous post-hurricane visits there were very few folks there. One amusing thing is that some of the tour buses now stop at Perch Bar Lite & gawkers walk out thru the nude section to see the beach.

Oh boy! Do they look shell shocked, or the just stare straight ahead and make a beeline for the beach? LOL ..................................I'll find out in 5 weeks!

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Life's a beach!

There is a wide variety of people taking the tours. Some are genuinely interested but might be taking the tour with family. I imagine the tour guide says "for those of you who would like to get out we will stop the bus here for 10 minutes so you can see this beach".. some folks stay in the bus which is likely a good thing.!

Oh i see. They should at least come have a drink with us!

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Life's a beach!

The old adage "Don't knock it til you try it" is never more apropos.

Until last year, when we were in our 60's, my wife and I had never experienced the clothing optional beach in St. Martin but wanted to get that check mark on our bucket list. We both were very nervous about our first time since we are older and not in the same shape as we were 40 years ago when we first met. Body image is a big concern because that's what the media promotes. Unfortunately we don't realize that we are all unique and what the media is promoting is not in fact "gospel".

We avoided the Club O section of the beach on our prior cruise visits because of the way nudists/naturists are perceived in the US. Well, for our 40th anniversary in September last year, we spent a week on the island and made a trip to the C/O beach. It was not a busy day, no ships in port so the idea of stripping down to our birthday suit was a little less stressful for my wife. There were only a few other couples on the beach that morning. The other couples on the beach weren't weirdos or strange. Quite the opposite was true. We started conversations with these folks and after 15 minutes of being freed from our inhibitions we realized they were just like us and it didn't even phase us that we were all nude. We can't wait for our follow up vacation in June.

So if these cruisers would actually stop and say hello instead of putting their heads down and hustling away they might realize the same thing as we did. I hope we are able to visit in the future to participate in the activities that I think Doctorj arranges.

Another great success story! It's funny how most everyone's stories are very similar on this topic. You truly do meet some of the nicest people and everyone's always happy and ready to converse. I think a lot of the people who giggle at the idea, secretly want to try it. Like you said, don't knock it..............

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Life's a beach!

Deputy Dog,
Sorry about just catching up to your post. We will have our beach ball racing competition going on from May 19th to the 27th (wind can always make a tough track)
The bead line and all signs and beads were claimed by Irma but we will be on our third trip since Nasty Irma and our fun continues.
It’s all about natural fun on the best beach with the best people in the world!
carib cheers
doctorj

We won't arrive until June 4, miss you by a couple of weeks

Have a great trip! I will give some updates when on island.
carib cheers,
doctorj

Just returned after a week stay at Esmeralda. The walk every morning was very nice, although we miss walking out the glass doors right to the beach. The destruction was heart breaking, especially since they've done absolutely nothing to clean it up yet, but the beach was still spectacular. We had a very good time and plan on returning unless the nature of the beach changes. We did have a strange experience when we went to survey the damage and look at the resort. Went over by the Papagayo and were encountered by a native islander who wanted to follow us around, so we bolted back to the beach. Folks at Perch Lite said the area is used for men who want a local to have sex with their wives as well as being a well known (to the locals) gathering area for gay activity. So my advice is do not go past the Papagayo. My wife was quite shaken by the strangeness of the whole encounter. But if you stay away from that area, the beach people are still fantastic and the Perch Lite does a fantastic job. Cheers.

What a shame it has come to that.

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Paragraphs Are A Reader's Best Friend.

Seriously. Since the locals appear to be aware of the situation and they're able to make a living from tourists on the beach, I'm shocked nobody reports it to the authorities. Otherwise, we really did have a fantastic time.

We visited Orient Beach again mid April with similar results. It was a great day overall with pretty much a sellout of chairs & umbrellas. Great weather! & fantastic people. Things seemed to be getting cranked up on the textile side. We now bring a folding cooler with our own bottle opener, Then buy a bucket of beer without the bucket from the Perch Bar. The cooler keeps the ice & beer cold longer than the open bucket.