My wife and I had a great time at St Maarten and will definitely return. We have traveled to other caribbean islands, but this was our best experience yet. St Maarten is truely the friendly island! We rented a side-by-side utv and toured the whole island and not once did we feel our safety was in question (of course we traveled in the daylight hours). The sonesta great bay resort area and beach was beautiful, but the rooms were not very nice (but who wants to stay in the room). The food was good, not great, but as part of our package we had access to the sonesta maho, which had really good food. We were only there 5 nights and were very sad to leave.

All the people with negative reviews are clearly very picky!!! You get what you pay for and this is an all inclusive report for a great price. The room was great and the air conditioning was freezing (in a good way) all week! We brought our own towels based on the other reviews, but they ended up being a waste of space in my suitcase. Towels were available all the time, and if for some reason they were out (due to rain) they had them filled up again immediately. Remember, your on island time so NO, things don't always move as fast as you'd like it, but thats what vacation is all about. Take a breath and enjoy yourself...have some patience!!! The restaurants were great and the food selection was awesome. Def check out the lunch time pizza place...Andy makes the most amazing pizza!! I have been to other all inclusives with more restaurants, so just be aware of what they offer when you book. We had no complaints! The infinity pool is awesome with the swim up bar that you can walk rite up to from the beach. The views are breathtaking and every morning when we walked in to the lobby, it literally was just so beautiful! Very cool to watch the cruise ships come in to the dock in town. If you want to walk to town to shop (which I highly recommend) do so on a day with less or no ships as you will be able to negotiate and get better deals. For Jewelry, def go to the jewelry store (or the sister store in town) at the resort. They will by far give you the best quality and deal. My boyfriend, who is not a fan of the sun and beach (only went because I paid and needed a vaca) LOVED it and enjoyed himself. The first day we got there he said "wow, we probably won't even leave the resort!!" With this coming from a man who prefers the air conditioning, I think its rite for anyone :) Again, you get what you pay for, so if your super picky, pay more money and go somewhere else! Otherwise, enjoy! We would def go again!!

My husband and I stayed at the Sonesta Great Bay (all inclusive) from Apr 6 – 12th . Upon arrival we were greeted with a welcome package of 4 bottles of lotions. Check-in and check-out only took about 5 minutes each. Use of the in-room safe was free. After we got settled into our ocean view room, we had a couple of issues with the room that were resolved within 10 minutes or less. Our room had a mini-fridge that was stocked daily with water, soda, beer, gin and rum! The front desk also gives out bottled water upon request. All the food at this resort was great, even the food in the buffets - large selection to choose from including hot soup at lunch/dinner and lots of fresh cut fruit at breakfast. Customer service was outstanding throughout the resort. For one example, we never waited more than one minute for coffee in the morning or drinks for lunch or dinner. The location of this resort is fabulous. You can watch the cruise ships come and go and walk to town (Phillisburg) in less than 10 minutes. We toured the entire island using a Jeep tour – it was awesome – we drove the Jeep ourselves! All in all we thoroughly enjoyed our stay at Great Bay. I would recommend upgrading to the oceanview room. It is true that the hotel is somewhat outdated but the staff, customer service, cleanliness and the extra personal touches more than make up for that.

We just came back from this resort.I woul dnot recomendet to go there.The Hotel is very old or not taking good care of.The handle in the shower is so rusty,my hand was smell like a metal for 2 days.The serive is OK if you have a $$ in your hand for a tip.The beach is not convinient The deep of the water is startet immidiatly (one step and you are in the water up to your neck) For the lunch or dinner you have to be early,if you are coming a little later you would not have some of the food........... We are traveling a lot,but we would not come back.