Royal Palm Beach Resort (Sunterra) 08/29/2006
Reviewers Rating: Excellent
OK, this was our first trip to St. Maarten and we had a blast. My wife and daughter were with me and my friend, his wife and 2 kids joined us for the first week. We stayed an extra week, so two weeks total.
The Royal Palm Beach is a Sunterra time-share condo hotel. I booked it as a hotel on-line and got a good deal for a 2 bedroom suite -- both bedrooms had king size beds and there were 2 bathrooms with HUGE walk-in showers (no tubs). Open living area / dining room and a full kitchen with a bar/counter. The room itself was clean and simple with a balcony overlooking Simpson Bay -- all the rooms are facing the ocean. Overall a nice room, except a bit older (like from 10-15 years ago, but not in a bad way). In fact they were in the process of re-modeling the 2 floors above us so there was a lot of construction noise -- from 10AM to 5PM we could hear jackhammering. Unfortunately it was almost directly above us -- I talked to the mgmt. and received a good discount because of this (we were out of the room most of the day anyway).
The staff were friendly and helpful, nothing extraordinary, but quite good. There is a jewelry shop in the lobby - the manager was really helpful and referred us to a shop in Phillipsburg to get a ring resized (we would have never found it otherwise, upstairs in an office building) and it cost like $8. I ended up buying my wife a new wedding ring/band - the service was first rate & prices low.
Nice beach, small but private (there was a public section at the end but I only saw a few locals pop in here & there) with 2 sections. A small boat ferried us across the bay to rent jet skis - a nice service, it made it a simple process.
The pool is small, but adequate with a swim-up bar. You could get fresh pool towels down there - almost always they had plenty. The restaurant is awesome - great dinner specials, an wonderful all-you-can eat buffet was $19 and included peel-eat-shrimp, ribs, chicken and a tasty mahi-mahi type fish. The live lobster was about $5 less per pound than every other restaurant. I treated my wife to a 3lb. monster and it was beautifully cooked & served. Also, you can order from your room and then pick-up and take the food to go. Nice to be able to relax in your room with a burger & beer watching TV.
The other good thing is that a row of shops is attached to the hotel in the parking lot - one is a convenience store with milk, eggs, bacon, drinks, beer & liquor too - really a fantastic selection for a small place. We could just walk down there, pick up some items & take them back to our kitchen. Great for snacks and making your own drinks (blender in the kitchen). I think that is what I liked the most -- having a kitchen made it more like home and just gave us so much flexiblilty.
Since the Royal is less than 5 min. from the airport, it is convenient - a taxi was only $10 for 3 of us($20 for 7 people in a van). The hotel sits right on the main road and there are about 10 restaurants in walking distance - there are about 5 right across the street. Even a McDonalds like 50 yards away. The hotel is right at the drawbridge, so we were able to see boats going back & forth from the lagoon to the ocean.
We rented a car - there is a Hertz counter in the lobby so it was great. That was the key to be able to see the whole island. We drove to Orient beach (very windy both times we stopped by), Phillipsburg a few times (ate some great sushi), Marigot for dinner once (a must if you like French food), plus the Zoo park, the butterfly farm and the 'zip-line' jungle hike place (great little restaurant). We also were able to just cruise around at our own pace.
All in all it was a really amazing vacation with a few hiccups but overall a great experience.

M. Kupchyk

click here to leave a new review!

BOOK YOUR HOTEL NOW AND SAVE Island Destination: Check-In date: Check-out date: Pull down to pick...Anguilla Antigua Aruba Bahamas-Freeport Bahamas-Nassau Barbados Belize Bermuda British Virgin Islands Cancun Cayman Islands Cozumel Curacao Dominican Republic Grenada Jamaica-Kingston Jamaica-Montego Bay Jamaica-Negril Jamaica-Ocho Rios Nevis Playa del Carmen Puerto Rico St. Croix St. Kitts St. Lucia St. Maarten (Dutch) St. Martin (French) St. Thomas/St. John St. Vincent/Grenadines Tobago Trinidad Turks and Caicos (MM/DD/YY) (MM/DD/YY) Show more hotel options. CLICK HERE FOR DAILY SPECIALS Adults: 1234 Kids: 01234

Read more Caribbean Travel reviews at TripAdvisor

These reviews are provided by Caribbean-On-Line for entertainment purposes only, and we can not be held liable for any results from the use of this information. All user reviews become the property of Caribbean-On-Line LLC upon submission.

Caribbean-On-Line does not assume and does hereby disclaim any party for loss or damages caused by errors, omissions, misleading information or any potential travel problem caused by information contained in this Web site, even if such errors or omissions are a result of neglience, accident, or any other cause.

Please see our legal page for more details.

About Us | Advertising | FAQ | Feedback | What's New? | Privacy Policy | © 1995-2008 Caribbean-On-Line INC