This is our report on our stay at L'Hoste Hotel in
St. Martin from 6/15/96 to 6/22/96. This report will be
exclusively about the hotel, as opposed to our trip report,
which appears under the heading "SXM-REPORT #1etc" (I know,
really ingenious title!!)
Last year we stayed at Green Cay Village, which is
an absolutely first rate hotel composed of private villas
with full facilities, including a private pool for each
villa, VCR, tape player, CD player, full kitchen with
microwave, ice maker, dishwasher, huge great room and deck..
Green Cay costs $1800 for a week for two people, although
Green Cay can be rented out as either a 2 or 3 bedroom
villa, if YOU find someone to share it with, for $2400 or
$3000.00.. Having stayed at Green Cay, we were very much
afraid that anyplace else would be a major let-down. (For
our full report of last year's trip to Green Cay, as well as
pictures of Green Cay, check out our home page at
http://pages.prodigy.com/hilltrvlet)
Having decided that we would travel back to SXM this
summer, we determined that we would try to save a little
money this time and, even though I would have preferred to
book again at Green Cay, we talked to Jim Ruos (ad
infinitum, I know, Jim!!) about where to book and ended up
at L'Hoste. We had narrowed our choices down to L'Hoste and
Sunrise Hotel. Having visited Sunrise to check it out once
we arrived there, we were very happy we had chosen L'Hoste
instead, as Sunrise is not in nearly as attractive an area
as L'Hoste and the view appeared non-existent.
L'Hoste is one of four similar appearing hotels in
the general area of Bikini Beach on Orient Beach and
appeared to be the one closest to the water. L'Hoste is
basically a hotel room, with the absolutely necessary
refrigerator, but it is right on the beach and (for two
people) half the cost of Green Cay. In a nutshell, L'Hoste
is an clean, attractive small hotel on the beach which
provides excellent value for the dollar.
We booked room #304, which Jim Ruos said was the
best room at the hotel, and Jim was correct, as usual! (G!!)
L'Hoste is a three story hotel, with the rooms on the 1st
floor the cheapest and 3rd floor most expensive. We paid
$150 per night for six nights, with the seventh night being
free. Rooms on the bottom floor are, I believe, $115 per
night. We felt the view from the 3rd floor was definitely
worth the extra money. The room itself, separate of the
bathroom, was about 24 by 14, and included a king sized bed,
wicker loveseat coffee table and chair and two other
straight chairs with a table between. There was a TV with
remote, with around 6 channels, including CNN, HBO, Cinemax
and ESPN. There was A/C and ceiling fan. We surmised that
the room had been vacant the week before, as the A/C was not
cool at all the first day, but improved greatly after a day
or so. The balcony was large, around 14 feet by 8
feet, with two white PVC chairs and a table, about 3 feet by
1 feet. The balcony had a waist high lattice work wall.
Our balcony provided a beautiful view of the beach, with the
water being about 50 yards away from our room. I could have
wished for at least one chaise lounge and the balcony would
have been perfect.
Storage was much more than adequate for a week at
Orient Beach, with 2 full length hanging closets, plus 2
sections of shelves, plus a desk, a 4 drawer dresser and two
small end tables next to the bed. There was a (keyed) safe
and an apartment sized refrigerator with plenty of room for
drinks and a freezer area sufficient for a couple of ice
trays, which were provided. We basically used the ice trays
to make ice, as one had to go to the Bikini Bar to get ice.
This was a couple of hundred feet walk and more work than we
normally wanted to go to for ice. The refrigerator worked
very well and the ice trays generally satisfied our needs,
although there was an ice bucket in the room. There was
also a water pitcher, which we generally kept filled with
water in the refrigerator.
The bathroom (which was apparently NOT the standard
bathroom for L'Hoste--possibly just for the top floor
rooms--was about 9 by 12, with a corner tub with a hand held
shower (but no stand-up shower stall). It was mostly marble
and very attractive, with indirect lighting and mirrored
walls, a hairdryer, and a bidet! (Ah, those crazy
French!!). Shampoo, body wash and hand lotion were provided
and were replenished as used. Somewhat strangely, we never
had any washcloths for the week--although I confess we
didn't complain about it. Beach towels were provided,
although one had to go to the front desk to request clean
ones each day, as they were not delivered to the room.
Otherwise, the maid did a wonderful job of keeping the room
clean and neat and towels, etc., replenished each day.
L'Hoste does not have any cooking facilities at all,
and I did not particularly miss them, other than a coffee
maker. Our preferred breakfast is two croissants, coffee
and orange juice, or possibly a mimosa, if the urge hits, so
we really do not feel like paying $10-!5 to go out to
breakfast every day. After an "unfortunate experience" with
a coffeemaker that we brought from home, along with a
converter that didn't really convert 220 to 110, and our
subsequent purchase of a 220 coffeemaker in Marigot, our
breakfasts on our balcony were a wonderful experience.
Anybody care to rent a 220 coffeemaker for their next trip
to SXM?? Let's see, with the price of the converter which
didn't work and the coffeepot which got fried and the new
coffeepot, I figure we spent about $35 on coffee for the
week (in addition to the $4 we spent the first morning on
coffee from the hotel restaurant!!) What I do for the love
of coffee!!!
Other than bringing a coffeemaker--which many people
would consider to be too much trouble--we brought along
coffee, sugar and creamer, as well as a couple of spoons, a
corkscrew, and a paring knife. One deficiency of the room,
I thought, was that the only glasses were the very small
water glasses provided by the hotel--no wine glasses or even
highball glasses. Tough to make a rum and coke in a 6 ounce
glass! If the pool bar had been open, one could probably
scarf some wine glasses and highball glasses from the bar.
Being a very small hotel, L'Hoste did not have some
of the amenities of a large hotel, but it was certainly more
than adequate for our needs. There is a restaurant called
Madras which is shared by the four hotels. This restaurant
was open only for breakfast during our stay, but apparentlyy
would be open for lunch and possibly dinner as of July 10.
There were only about 6 of L'Hoste's 28 rooms being occupied
when we were there, so I suppose that explained why the
restaurant was not open more. There was a pool shared by
the four hotels, which didn't seem to get much use. The
restaurant was immediately in front of the pool, which had a
swim-up bar. However, the bar was not open during our stay.
During the season, having the restaurant open for lunch and
having that bar open would, I'm sure, add to the population
of the pool. There were free chairs by the hotel pool, but
because of the lay of the land, one could not see the ocean
from the pool, even though it was relatively close.
Even though L'Hoste is right on the beach, the
Bikini Bar is not part of the hotel. Even though one had
signing privileges (to charge drinks and food to your hotel
room), one had to pay for chair rental on the beach. Two
chairs, white PVC with thick pads, plus one umbrella, were
$10 for the day. By contrast, 2 plastic strap chairs (no
pads) plus an umbrella, were $15 for the day at Orient. On
the first two days we were in SXM, we went nude on the beach
right at Bikini, along with several other people. On
Sunday, especially, the beach was pretty crowded with locals
and the crowd was mostly topless and many were nude.
Apparently, nudity is much more prevalent now at Bikini
Beach since the hurricane, although most nudists still go to
Orient. Of the six couples we saw at L'Hoste, we saw 5 on
the beach at Orient at one point or another during the week.
If one is not interested in going nude at all,
Bikini Beach is quite a wonderful beach, with some nice
breaking waves. There are no rocks, stones, etc., in the
water and there are plenty of toys to play with--jetskis,
Parasailing, sailboats, etc. We ate breakfast once and
lunch a couple of times at Bikini, as well as spent some
time at the bar. Great food and good service and good fun,
right on the beach.
One deficiency of L'Hoste for those (silly enough!!)
not to rent a car, is that there really were not any places
within easy walking distance which were open for dinner, at
least during slow season. The Bikini Bar was open for
breakfast and lunch only. Otherwise, Waikiki (in front of
Esmerelda), was the next restaurant toward Mt. Vernon. I
don't know whether it was open for dinner or not, although
of course, the restaurant for La Plantation and L'Astrobe
(SP??) were open. We didn't get down that way at night,
but I think that Kontiki was open for dinner, although that
is probably a half mile walk down the beach.
Having spent a week in both places, I think that the
only thing that we really missed from Green Cay was being
able to cook in the evenings. We are not real gourmets, and
my favorite meals here at home, frankly, are a grilled steak
and a salad, with a nice bottle of wine. At Green Cay, we
grilled out 3 nights for our evening meal, and we really
enjoyed those evenings. Since we have not been to SXM enough
times yet to have a huge list of "old favorite" restaurants
to visit, we got kind of tired by the end of the week of
hunting for a new place to have dinner each night. I
suspect, though, when we head back to SXM next year, we will
work on that list of favorite restaurants!
Because Green Cay is the only other place that we
have stayed in SXM, (even though we have visited SXM a half
dozen times on ships) we often found ourselves comparing the
two facilities, and FOR THE PRICE, L'Hoste definitely
competed with Green Cay. Although it's a hard choice,
unless we would find someone compatible to share Green Cay
with, we will probably head back to L'Hoste next year. If
you have any questions about the hotel, please give us a
shout here on $P$. We should have some pictures of the
hotel up here on our home page within a few days.

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