Oyster Bay Beach Resort, St. Maarten

September 2012

St. Maarten Girls Trip

How do you go about selecting a beach resort on a Caribbean island famous for being somewhat over endowed with shimmering white beaches, and more than one or two or maybe even hundreds of lovely resorts nestled into lush green volcanic mountains? My mother, sister and I were faced with this terrible dilemma on our recent girls’ getaway to St. Maarten.

How do you choose? Fortunately for us, we were able to narrow the beach selection based on a previous short visit to the island three years ago, while on a Princess Cruise holiday. During the trip we had one quick shore excursion to Dawn Beach in St. Maarten and immediately fell in love with the island, the beach, and Mr. Busby’s beachfront café. We vowed to return at some point to spend more than one day on this island paradise and I’m almost positive this decision had NOTHING to do with the $1 beers we enjoyed at the café!

Our next decision on where to stay on Dawn Beach also turned out to be a no brainer. We wanted to be right on the beach, we wanted two bedrooms, a kitchen, and we wanted ocean views. We were happy to find Oyster Bay Beach Resort fit all of our ‘want it, gotta have it’ requirements for a fun beach girls’ getaway.

St. Maarten Oyster Bay Beach Resort PoolOyster Bay Beach Resort is a mid-range, oceanfront property with a lovely laid-back vibe. The tasteful and newly renovated rooms, warm family-like atmosphere, and a fun pool-side social scene, makes it evident the resort staff works hard to keep guests happy and entertained. I especially enjoyed the recent addition of complimentary frozen lemonade samplers served every afternoon on the pool deck!

The one downside to Oyster Bay is the limited restaurant choices within the resort but we happily discovered that one of St. Maarten’s best restaurants, the Big Fish, was within short walking distance to the hotel.

Big Fish RestaurantBig Fish surprised us, it totally is NOT anything like your typical surf and turf, but instead, a perfect girly girl restaurant with over the top gorgeous white on white décor, and seriously yummy food… Be sure to try the Chicken Bombay and the Mahi Mahi with seemingly unlimited choices of sauces. The piece de resistance was the complimentary hula hoop shooters at the end of the meal. We spent one very fun evening there with another group of women from Oyster Bay, and I have to admit I had more than one or two hula hoop shooters!

Most of our week in St. Maarten was spent on Dawn Beach; where we caught up on all of our gossip and bonded over many glasses of wine and champs on our lovely private balcony overlooking the ocean. What more can you want from a girls’ getaway?

A Few of Our Favorite Things at Oyster Bay Resort:

Girls Getaway St. Maarten1. Our ocean-view suite. Don’t compromise on the ocean view ladies. Watching the sunrise on Dawn Beach was priceless… and yes, it is called Dawn Beach for a reason. Be sure to get up early at least once or twice during your visit, stay in your jammies, make yourself some coffee, go out onto your private balcony, and watch the golden glow of the sun slowly rise over the simmering blue sea. Heavenly.

2. Oyster Bay’s full service Indulgence By the Sea Spa and in particular massages at the spa. They served up massages just the way I like it, not to hard, not too soft.

Swim Coverups Dawn Beach3. Beach-side shopping. Normally I don’t buy from beach vendors but I couldn’t resist on this visit. On my first day on St. Maarten I noticed a couple of women wearing beautiful, colorful swim cover-ups they’d bought from a local woman on Dawn Beach. The next morning there I was, bum on beach chair, ready to buy; my mom and I both bought one and I noticed a few other women snapping them up throughout the day.

4. Beach-side foot massages. Yes, a foot massage while lying on the beach! It was ever so lovely and totally over the top decadent. I had a great chat with the masseuse and found out her daughter was in her third year of university in Canada. We talked about the differences in weather between the two countries and we both agreed we much preferred the winter climate in St. Maarten.

5. Wifi on the Beach! O.K. I know this makes me a total tech nerd, but I loved being able to tweet, update facebook, send photos via instagram and post stories to my blog all while sitting on the beach sipping my $1 beers!

One thought on “Oyster Bay Beach Resort, St. Maarten

  1. My self and my boyfriend went to Oyster bay resorts September 8-15th had the best time. the place is awesome,great staff you never have to leave the resort there is everything you need right there,wonderful food,$1.00 beers, and the activities ladie who made my tee shirt is GREAT.
    we will be back next year LOVE the place

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