I just returned from a 4 day St Maarten vacation and had picked the Pasanggrahan Hotel from CNN travel site and also used the Trip Advisor reviews to help my hotel decision. As I've never been to St Maarten before I wanted a central location with easy access to the beach ie walking distance without the fuss of taxis or car rentals. The Pasanggrahan seemed to be in the middle of everything - shopping, restaurants and beaches.

I will certainly compliment the staff on a warm welcome, on being very helpful with just about everything and having the overall homey feel of a b&b. The hotel itself is full of character both inside and out - the lobby area has the royal portraits and the carved furniture while the veranda and bar/restaurant in the back are great to people watch. Food was a bit on the pricey side but I only ate breakfast, lunch and dinner there once.

Having received a tip from one of the jewelry stores I visited that the husband of one of the Pasanggrahan waitresses offered island tours I called Anthony to set up a time to go. For $65 we were gone for 2 1/2 hrs approx going all around the island with a 20 min stop in Marigot to explore the market. He offered island insight, knew the backroads when there was a massive traffic jam and it was overall a very good experience. I also booked him to take me to the airport since from experience I knew booking a taxi and having it show up was an iffy thing when the ships were in port.

The only downside to the hotel was the infamous #11. I didn't realize it was a two story room with pretty narrow steps going to the second floor bedroom. With a bad knee this wasn't going to work for me and I asked to be moved to a single level room. There were the same complaints about the room as other reviewers - the first floor only had one small light over the table so reading was impossible from the sofa, the bathroom was really run down and the majority of the pillows very lumpy and uncomfortable. I did move to #29 which was on the 3rd floor, again with stairs but at least if I wanted a drink in the middle of the night I didn't have narrow steps to contend with. The view was spectacular and it was fun watching the people as I relaxed on the chaise on the balcony - although the room change did come with a $25 price increase.

Although a word of advice, wander farther down the boardwalk away from the marina for clean blue water to swim in - the photos on the website are old since the boardwalk has been built and I found the beach in front of the hotel is full of kelp and not appealing to swim in.

Overall I gave this a 4 dot rating based on the friendliness of the staff, the location to shops, the boardwalk, the beach and the jewelers tip.