My wife and I (mid-30's) recently returned from 4 nights, April 11-15, in St. Martin staying at Le Petit Hotel. Overall the stay was quite nice and the hotel met our high expectations after reading previous Trip Advisor reviews.

Instead of covering all of the typical areas that are already covered well in prior reviews, I'll give my take on the areas of which I was still unsure prior to our trip to help those with similar questions/concerns... and I'll give a few annecdotal observations at the end.

1) Q: How close is Le Petit Hotel from the main town area of Grand Case?
A: A ~10 minute walk either on the beach or the street. We alternated paths, sometimes taking the shoulder of the road (narrow - no sidewalks so you walk single file), and more often taking primarily a beach route. We gravitated by the end of the trip to taking the beach from the hotel to just past La California restaurant, where we cut up a 10 yard long path to the street and walked the rest of the way through the town. At no time did I ever feel unsafe in any way, though I could understand how some might. The area seemed to be pretty well lit - even the beach... though I probably wouldn't suggest a lone woman take that path at night (but that's true almost anywhere less populated to me anyway). There are buildings in various states of disrepair along the way and many locals in Grand Case, but again I always felt quite safe. It was nice not being in a tourist only area. On the Monday after Easter the local kids played all day on a section of the water and beach and it was really neat to watch and experience! I will try to post a picture of the walk down the beach so people can judge more for themselves on this.

2) Q: What is Grand Case like vs. Orient Beach or the larger towns...
A: Grand Case is the cuisine capital as many have written and is less touristy... There are local people around going about their routine business and having fun. As I write above, there are buildings in various states of disrepair, though less so right in the main street/beach strip. If you don't like the idea of the above for your vacation, then I'd suggest going to/staying around Orient Beach. Orient / Pinel (which we especially liked on a day trip) is geared almost exclusively toward tourists and you will not see locals much except those working. The locals on the French side almost all speak fluent English and we found everyone from the teenagers to the adults mildly frendly and certainly pleasant. Grand Case is not a Cancun-type atmosphere... Orient might be more like that, but Grand Case is much more a sit at a table/bar & drink wine while listening to an accoustic guitar type of spot.

3) Q: How is the beach in Grand Case?
A: The beach in Grand Case, while very nice, is not of the caliber of Orient Beach or Pinel Island beach. The sand just isn't as nice and there are some areas with large slabs of rock right at the break line (especially right in front of the beach). That being said we grew to really love the Grand Case beach and spent our last two days just hanging out there. You'll need to keep your room stocked with whatever beverages you want, but since our room opened right to the beach it was easy to grab another glass of fabulous white French wine, or a beer and take it back out the the beach chair.

4) Q: How is the food?
A: Wow. Terrific and unexpected in an island setting. When we arrived from the airport it was just about lunch time so we stashed our luggage with Caroline at Le Petit and walked down the beach looking for a casual lunch spot. The first place we came to that looked interesting to us was La California, overlooking the beach. We walked around and sat down expecting normal beach food; fried fish or nachos of some sort. We were in for a shock. My wife ordered a pasta dish and I had grouper I think and again we expected beach food. What came was not typical beach food. First, the presentation/plating was reminicent of a gourmet meal and before taking a bite my wife noticed that her pasta looked hand made. To cut to the chase, the food was incredible the whole time in Grand Case and basically what we came to expect regardless of style. We particularly liked La California, Il Nettuno (great pastas!), and Calmas Cafe (la bodega) for its tapas with wine literally on the beach. Calmas is a cool spot to hang at night for drinks too.

5) Q: Hotel/Room?
A: The hotel is cute. A couple of our cabs didn't even know it existed and one woman commented "you have a secret little hotel you've found". I liked that. We had room #1, which is on the left when you check in on the first floor and has a private patio with direct steps to the beach (when looking at the back of the hotel from the beach rm. #1 is the right set of stairs). We LOVED the room. It was clean and beautiful and we spent many hours reading on the chairs on the patio listening to the waves roll in (after we had gotten a little too crispy in the sun), and drinking wine. I'll attach some pics of the patio and beach. Every morning we'd grab a basket of croissants, fresh oj, and coffee and eat breakfast on the little table on the patio. We lived on that patio! After having that I would definitely spend the money next time to be on the first floor rather than on the higher rooms!

I would definitely also recommend a trip to Pinel Island. The ferry launched from just north of Orient Beach and it's a 5 minute ride to Pinel (I think $7 pp round trip, first boat was at 10:30am and was PACKED). When you arrive you have three sets of colored beach chairs/umbrellas and a magical beach with swimming pool like calm water. We ate lunch at Karibuni (the red chairs) and it was unbelievably good. I had one of the best cheeseburgers of my life and my wife had a killer fresh caribbean lobster. The only area developed is very small right by the beach when you arrive with the 3 restaurants - I believe the rest of the lsland is protected conservation land. In any case this was a great day of swimming and reading books and eating... and it's highly recommended! This place is all tourists - we're from Boston and we sat next to New York on one side and Connecticut on the other. A blessing and a curse I suppose, but this island is not to be missed if you like calm shallow water, beautiful beach and good food.

All in all we really enjoyed St. Martin. I think if we had been a little younger (we're mid 30's and don't like to drink until we pass out much anymore) we would have erred not staying at Orient Beach for the nightlife... but given this was our first trip sans 2-year old the food and relaxation of Grand Case and Le Petit Hotel was perfect. If I was making the decision whether to stay by Orient or Grand Case again I would just decide whether I wanted more of A) Cuisine, local exposure, more serenity; or B) Drinking, bars, activity, nightlife..... and take the taxi or drive the 10 minutes to do the other when you want a change...

This is already too long!... I hope this pays a little back from the help everyone's comments gave me while planning the trip. Have fun.

Le Petit Hotel was the best value we have had in many years. We had the only one bedroom suite that was very roomy with all of the amenities. The room was steps to the ocean. The staff were wonderful! Anyone that is looking for a reasonable place to stay that does not sacrifice comforts, Le Petit Hotel is worth serious consideration. Le Petit is proof positive that it is not necessary to spend $1,000 per night to enjoy the best of the Caribbean. The beach at the hotel was plus/minus. However, there are a number of beautiful beaches within a 10 minute drive (Orient Beach, etc....). The food at Le Petit is limited to a very nice self-serve continental breakfast. Your other meals are minutes away in the town of Grand Case. Grand Case is more or less a Restaurant Row providing mostly French Food and wonderful seafood. There are also many restaurants along the beaches that provide nice lunches while you take in the rays. In conclusion, Le Petit Hotel has much to offer at very reasonable rates with a delightful staff!

We stayed at Le Petit Hotel earlier this month and had a good time. We had been to SXM a number of times and wanted a little bit of a different experience. I chose it based on Trip Advisor which I'm used to using. Be forewarned, this is not a typical resort hotel experience with numerous amenities and grounds. It's really like a little upscale condo right on the beach. It's located along a row of buildings of different uses and in various states along Grand Case Beach; basically it's part of the town of GC. The hotel is beautiful and is kept spotless by the staff. Rooms are large (we had a regular second floor studio ) and terraces are on the small side. It's just like the pictures posted. Unfortunately the terraces are not very private.

Stefanie and Caroline are the hotel. They alternate days on/off. When you correspond with the hotel, you correspond with them. They are like your camp counselors for a week. Beautiful, charming, intelligent, and friendly. I think that covers it. There were only small wine glasses in the room. I asked about better ones and 2 minutes later Stefanie had run next door for 2 beautiful glasses for the week. Caroline noticed I liked sailing and set us up to get out in a boat in the middle of the Heineken Sailing Regatta. We rented a car through them. As noted by others, we were picked up at the airport and dropped off, with the car waiting at the hotel. We requested a Hundyai Getz, but got a Sonata for the same price because they didn't have a Getz that day. It had 24,000 mi which is low for SXM. BTW, a Getz is more than large enough to feel safe in. Driving is easy but the roads can be very crowded at times. SXM drivers are very courteous as there are few traffic lights and lots of turns. They never fail to give you the hi sign if you extend a courtesy.

The beach in front of the hotel is small and has numerous shaded areas during the day which is good for those who turn into crispy critters in the sun like my blonde wife. The water is clear and easy to swim in. Once again, while the beach is nice it's not a "drop dead" expanse like some of the more famous beaches in Anguilla, St. John, St. Barts, etc. Of course you can pay to stay on those, but at $1000 plus per night. With a car, you can easily visit different beaches, but we were happy enough in GC. You can't beat walking up to the room for a Carib and returning in less than a minute! If you want to hang out at the pool, go up to L'Esplanade. It is a very short drive or a very long walk since it's on the opposite side of the beach up from the GC Beach Club. They have comfortable lounges and a nice poolside bar with Alain and Rosa. (Let her make you fried conch!)

Breakfast is fresh croissants, coffee, and fresh orange juice. The coffee is excellent (I'm picky about coffee) and so are the pastries. For more pastries, go early to Marigot either to the cafe and patisserie by the Judicial or Sarafina's on the waterfront. We bought cheese and baguettes form US Imports grocery in GC. They have lots of wine, too. I bought wine from Sylvain at Select, a little store in the Orange Shopping center. If you are a real wine person, then go nowhere else.

The walk to town. This has been the subject of a lot of discussion. We walked early evening a couple of times along the beach and it was fine. But you're in a town where people live, not a resort. If people of different socio-economic backgrounds, including teenagers, make you nervous, then either choose somewhere else or just drive to GC to go to the restaurants. They even have a parking lot. We went to the LoLos, La C alifornia, Sol e Luna, and had great times.

Definitely in the top 5 or 10 for your stay in St. Martin.

We selected Le Petit Hotel because I wanted a little luxury and my husband wanted a small hotel. Tough combination to find. Le Petit was the perfect answer. The rooms were lovely. The staff was fabulous. The snorkeling on the beach right in front of the hotel was increible- heck no need for googles, just walk out and look down.
We love to eat and St Maarten is the place to go for food. The hotel gave us incredible suggestions. The placement of the hotel is great to just walk down the street and find wonderful restaurants there. Nice to not have to worry about which person is driving home.
We can't wait to go back. I've never had such a strong desire to return to the same place. Feels a little like home.