We are going on our honeymoon in April of next year. We are looking at the Westin St. Maarten Dawn Beach Resort. Any opinions on this resort and the Island in general would be great. How's the food, nightlife, etc.

Our other options are Aruba or St. Thomas.



Also, how close the the airport is the Westin? Can you hear the planes land?

Thanks.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 10/25/2007 06:12PM by IndyRob.

IndyRob Wrote:
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> We are going on our honeymoon in April of next
> year. We are looking at the Westin St. Maarten
> Dawn Beach Resort. Any opinions on this resort


It's expensive, and probably needlessly so, with regard to quality, due to a lot of other choices on the island.

Unlike Aruba, where your options are pretty much restricted to the big "chain like" hotels, St Martin/St Maarten offers mostly smaller "Caribbean like" hotels.


I'd recommend this hotel: [www.lesplanade.com] but it's certainly not the only hotel on the island that's suitable for the -price range/quality- you're looking at.

Ed



Edited 3 time(s). Last edit at 10/25/2007 06:27PM by Ed (nine510).

Aruba and St. Thomas are pretty mainstream. If you're looking to have a honeymoon like 90% of your friends, those are good options (I'd choose St. Thomas over Aruba... more lush, less desert).

However if you want to have a more unique honeymoon... different from the mainstream Caribbean destinations, St. Martin is a good bet. I agree with Ed -- the Westin is one of the newest and most expensive hotels on the island. There are plenty of others that are nearly as nice and don't cost as much. Since you'll be on the beautiful St. Martin beaches 90% of your time, not sure why anyone would want to stay at a top-dollar hotel.

Dawn Beach is about a 20- or 30-min drive from the airport (depending on traffic), so you shouldn't hear planes.

I can think of a lot of reasons for staying at the Westin. Great deals out there right now or maybe they have weston points or memebership. Or maybe they can afford to and dont think its that expensive? They love Dawn Beach?
Dawn Beach Westin might not appeal to all of you and particularly if you loved the area before the megahotel was built but its new its nice and its got a lot of things a honeymoon couple would want. Believe it or not there are those who love the full service hotel idea and would rather spend the bucks at a new name hotel rather than an older high end place like LaSammanna or L'Esplanade no matter how nice it is or a naked beach location like the better places along Orient Beach. Diffrent strokes for diffrent folks?

Thanks for the input. Yes, the main reason for the Westin would be my Starwood status and points, I can get 5 free nights at the Westin. We are lookin at other optiions possibly for the other 3 nights we would be there.

One additional question i have about STM; how is transportaton around the island? Should we rent a car? If we want to go out a couple nights to restaruant/bar, is it easy? Thansk.

yes, you should definitely rent a car. and please do go out at night and sample some of the wonderful St. maarten restaurants.

The Westin hotel is beautiful and Dawn beach also. You are pretty far from the airport (15 minutes) and should be no airport noise. You will need a car to travel around the island.

Enjoy and good lick!

Dear H-stetter...let's be close to realistic with answers here. 15 minutes...from the airport to the Westin? You must be kidding. With NO traffic at all...it would take more than 15 minutes going the speed limits. IndyRob...minimun 30 minutes and a lot more if you don't know where you're going !!! spike