Our stay was on 3/23-3/30. Overall nice hotel, but if I would be paying $500+ a night for resort view, I would be very disappointed. So, if you can get a rate of $300 and under or you can use your points go for it. Upon our arrival we were gritted with nice and cool punch. Bellboy took our luggage and no line at front desk (nice). Now I am a gold starwood preferred guest and was using my points for this stay. We did not get upgrade. We had courtyard view and that was OK, because resort was fully booked. By reading all reviews I was happy not getting propane tank view (lol). Resort decoration is very much described very accurately on this site (it is Westin style and I like it). WARNING . This is the point were the star will be taking-unless you need to do not stay in connecting rooms. There is no soundproofing at all. Literally you can hear every world, even if you get quite neighbors (we were awaken twice, so finally called front desk). I am actually very surprised that no one mentioned it before.
Beach and pool area gorges Yes the beach is very windy and no shade at all any ware. I have to agree with others that at this price and level of this resort they should proved umbrellas at no charge. That is there second star is coming of. We did rent cabana for $50. You will enjoy beach if you are strong swimmer. It can be a lot of fun playing with all the waves and snorkeling but for me it was scary because of strong current (it was sucking me in the ocean).
Liquid-beach restaurant nice and reasonable priced. Try chicken curry wrap. For children only 2 choices (peanut butter and jelly or grill cheese sandwich with chips and fruit salad $4.50).We had very good service because we had cabana. We also did breakfast $25 for one and children under 5 free. It was very good.
In summary, this resort just does not have that “class” that they are shooting for. However, they have nice service, nice rooms if you get good view and it is vacation and you should enjoy it. Rent a car and enjoy the island.

My wife and I spent 8 days at the Westin from March 10-18. We enjoyed at the hotel and the island. We are avid travelers who go on 4-5 vacations a year.

After reading the reviews of previous travelers I was a bit concerned about the hotel. Once I arrived and got to my room I realized there was nothing to worry about. This is defiantly one of the nicer hotels on the island.

Cost: We used most of the hotel services (restaurants, "gift shop", spa, etc.). There is nothing unexpected in terms of cost that is any different they any other 4-5 star hotel. (Yes Fiji bottles at the pool are $8 but there also that price at any hotel I have been at-you can buy them for $3.50 just down the road from the hotel at the corner store). The pool restaurant was surprisingly reasonable having sandwiches that ranged from $6.50-$10.50. Main restaurant breakfast ranged from 10-22 (order individual items or buffet) and lunch menu was reasonable (burger $10). All expected for a hotel restaurant.

Room: We had a room that overlooked the courtyard. The room was well appointed with a flat screen TV, minibar, and huge bathroom. The first 4 days cleaned before 11 and the next 4 days by mid afternoon. No issues of bed bugs which I read about in previous posts.

Staff: The staff was great...we had an issue with the bill at checkout and rectified within minutes, staff at gift shop called us by name, pool staff friendly, restaurant staff got to know the guests and even called you by your name day to day.

Pool: There is very little shade but just move your chair during the day and you will be fine. Great pool with an unbelievable beach. We spent about 5 hours there each day and had a great time.

Location: The first drive to the hotel was tricky (even with just one main road on the island). It takes about 25-40 minutes to get to the hotel depending on the traffic. The hotel is closer to the French side and away from the action of Maho beach area. So depending on what you are looking for you should keep this in mind. I found with all there is to do on the island you will need a car to see everything so the location of the hotel should not be a hindrance.

Restaurants: There are great restaurants on the island especially on the French side especially in Grand Case. There are two restaurants that are minutes from the hotel Big Fish (very good) and Busby’s casual place for all meals. I would recommend to enjoy the food of the island.
List of dinners
March 10 - Big Fish - very good/semi casual
March 11 - Sole Luna - one of the best
March 12 - Hotel - very accomadating
March 13 - La Rosa - disappointing
March 14 - Big Fish
March 15 - La California - Great, dont let it being casual fool you
March 16 – Temptations/Rare - very nice and great good (tempation has better decor)
March 17 – La Gondola Italian Ristorante - good resuturant

I would go back to the hotel again and would recommend it to friends and family

After months of researching this board and others, we are back from an overall nice experience at the Westin Dawn Beach. As other posters have said, this resort does have the overall Caribbean ambiance as say, the Westin St. John. However, the hotel is beautiful, new, and with all the modern conveniences. We were fortunate to be in a direct oceanfront room for our first 4 nights and then moved to a one bedroom suite (the parlor suite) for our last 5 nights. The suite was gorgeous with a bar, dining/living areas, large master bedroom and huge bath. The only complaint of the suite is that it is claimed to be oceanfront and it is not. It resides in the very corner of the "U" which frames the pool and does not offer the views of the direct ocean front rooms in the even numbered rooms of the 1110,2100 and 3100 wing. The view in our first room (3176) was to die for and I hate to sound like a snob with such a beautiful suite, but I did miss the views. I got over it quickly. We loved the beach as our children are 12 and 10 and they LOVED the constant wave action, as we did. The pool is very nice as well. Now, as for the service, I think it is important that most everywhere in the Caribbean you will find people on "island time". They simply move at a slower pace than what we do here in the States, and isn't that why we love it? We found the staff to be warm and accommodating. I am a firm believer that "bees come to honey more than vinegar" and if you are willing to extend a sincere hello, it will come back to you twofold. Our only major issue was a housekeeper walking in on my 12 year old son in the bathrub when we changed rooms, without a sincere apology. This was a BAD situation, and rightly for so for a preteen. Other things were minor, such as a key not being delivered in a timely manner, that kind of stuff happened several times. Not a big deal to us. It is important to remember that this is NOT a 5-star resort and for those expecting that level of service they may want to look elsewhere.

We have travelled the Caribbean extensively and St. Maarten is not our favorite island. Although we LOVED the French influence, the traffic is absolutely awful and we did have several moments on both French and Dutch sides of worrying about our safety. There is slum after slum going into any of the towns, with gang graffit scribbled everywhere and garbage dumped everywhere you looked. Stray dogs travel in packs............we are dog people and it broke our hearts. The food, however, was wonderful everywhere we ate (Big Fish and La California in Grand Case among the best) but to go into Philipsburg at night is not good, it shuts down after the cruise ships leave and you are left walking at night in dark streets to get back to your car. The road coming back to the Westin from the French side is dark and deserted and we chose not to do it again after the first two times, as much as we wanted to go back to Grand Case. We just got a bad vibe and chose not to ignore it. We took a day trip to Anguilla and as everyone has said, absolutely loved it. Shoal Bay is basically a Corona commercial and we partook in many, great time. We also enjoyed the zipline experience at Loterie Farm, but be prepared to wait. They are seriously on island time at that place, and we waited for quite some time with no direction from any of the employees.

The best part of travelling is making new friends..............hello to Gigi, Jay and Jordan, we'll see you soon.

We recently returned from a four night stay at the Westin. Check in was a breeze. Our room was lovely on the inside, well appointed with a nice bed, flat screen tv, minibar, and balcony; the bathroom was fantastic, large with seperate tub and shower with dual shower heads. We did not have a view at all "resort view"; however we knew this would be the case from reading other reviews. The pool was georgeous as was the beach. It's true there is no shade at the pool and pool cabanas are very expensive to rent by the day. Less expensive to rent are beach cabanas which gets you two lounge chairs on the beach with a cabana topping over them for $20/day. We never had a problem getting chairs at either the beach or the pool. The casino in the lobby was not a problem in my opinion; it was always empty so smoke wasn't a problem either. The lobby bar and lounge area was nice for relaxing. We ate at Aura one night on the patio and had a fantastic meal. We also had sandwiches by the pool at lunch which was conveniently delivered to our chairs and pretty much what you would expect for the cost and quality (quality decent, resort cost = more than you'd like to pay for a sandwich). Never had a problem with room service at all and the conceirge made us dinner reservations 2 nights with no problem.

We ate at Big Fish just up the road which I would recommend. We also ate at Le Pressoir in Grand Case which was an excellent, excellent meal but we did experience a little sticker shock with the Euro on that. We also ate at Sol et Luna which was well worth the trip and slightly closer than Grand Case.

We rented a car at the airport (Thrifty) which made it easier to get around, but be warned the roads are not very good and there is very little to no light at night travelling to and from dinner. It is maybe 15 minutes by car to Grand Case and 30 minutes to Marigot in no traffic from the Westin. Leave plenty of time to get from place to place though because there does tend to be traffic in Marigot, Phillipsburg and especially by the airport.