My wife and I just returned from a 9 day stay on the beautiful Island of St. Martin.
It should have been 10 days but thanks to American Airlines we (and hundreds of other fellow passengers) lost a day but that adventure belongs on another forum.
We rented from National/Alamo and were not happy with them. Rent a car from the locals. There are plenty to chose from on any St Martin website and they get good reviews.
That was the bad.

Now the good, very good and great.
The Esmeralda is a beautiful resort on the north shore of Orient Beach. Lush landscaping and well maintained grounds.
Check in was very quick and Chris took us to building 45. We had next door neighbors with two young boys so we didn't use the pool at all. No problem as we loved the beach and stayed on it late every day.
The room had everything we needed , small kitchen with sink and fridge, TV, comfortable bed, good AC. Good water presure and plenty of hot water. We go on vacation for the beach not for the room. The Esmeralda was perfect for us.
We picked up deli, cheese, bread , pastry, snacks, beer and wine at The Bounty in Grand Case and Tap Five in Orient Village almost every day. So we had breakfast on our terrace by the pool and lunch on the beach.
We brought a small colapsable cooler with us and filled it with ice from the Esmeralda ice machine in the lobby. We had cold drinks and sandwiches for lunch on the beach all week. The only cash we spent on the beach was for chairs, an umbrella and mixed/frosty drinks at the beach bars.

The restaurant L'Astrolabe was very good for dinner. The owners (Thomas and Aman) were great. The food and service were very good.
We had breakfast once at Coco beach that was good but after the first day we started buying bread and pastry for breakfast at Tap Five and from Dominique (very nice lady) at The Bounty

The best restuarants we visited off th eresort were-

Fish Pot in Grand Case, very good food. Excellent service.

Rancho del Sol on the road just before the Orient Village turnoff. Very good food. Service was excellent and the Chocolate Cake desert is unbelievable.

Talk of the Town also is in Grand Case. It's an outdoor grill. My wife and I ordered two drinks an order of ribs an order of grilled fish with three side orders each for just over $20.

We would stay at the Esmeralda again. Very nice people working there and the rooms are beautiful.

My wife and I have been all over the Caribbean and the Yucatan and St. Martin is one of the most beautiful places we have visited. The people we meet from the island and fellow travelers were all a lot of fun. BUT the food on Saint Martin is the BEST in the Caribbean and the Esmeralda is one of the nicest resorts we have stayed at.

This was our first trip to St Maarten. Overall it wasn't bad - we would go back for the food but otherwise we prefer Aruba to St Maarten.

Resort
We were a bit disappointed by our Ocean Front room – wasn’t really ocean front - we were in room 458. I would call it more of an Oceanview room. It's about a 2 min walk to the beach. The rooms are very minimalistic but didn't feel stifling and small bcoz of the high ceilings. The downside is that a/c cooling power is not that strong so you have to keep the a/c running virtually all day. Make sure you talk to the reception and get them to check on the a/c and maybe add Freon or something. Housekeeping and cleaning was very prompt and they did a good job. There is no alarm clock or radio in the room. Voltage is 110V so make sure you carry adapters or the appropriate plugs for your chargers. The pool is really small – one per four villas. Don’t be too alarmed if you see cockroaches in the room – we saw 2 big ones – about 3 inches long but almost dead. When we told the receptionist about the cockroach, she said "Well, it's the caribbean you know! We do have regular monthly pest control". Also, there are small black ants in the room so don’t leave food outside. The concierge and receptionist will answer questions but don't expect them to be enthusiastic or too helpful about it. The bed is a bit hard and not too comfy. Water pressure not great in the shower. Decent closet space, safe in the bathroom, no wi-fi in the room. Safe won't fit laptop. Some other details that you might not necessarily care about - Internet at the reception is available but they have only 1 computer and you gotta pay for that too - $15 to buy a card. There is a toaster in the room but no microwave. The TV has only 4 channels so you can't even watch weather or know what the DOW did today. Esmeralda charges 7% for cashing travelers checks - you can get 4% in Marigot. Better yet, the folks on Dutch side have no problems accepting travelers checks.

Beaches
Orient Bay beach is about 2 miles long end to end. The beaches in St Maarten are very narrow. Coco beach is the best beach on Orient Bay compared to what's available. The others are so crowded and loud. On Waikiki, they have so many chairs packed in together that you can't even sneeze without worrying about getting something on the guy sitting in the chair next to you. They play really loud music and have bands there too. Oh yeah and the people here smoke a lot too. So if you looking for peace and quiet in a non-smoking environment, you are out of luck. Sorry! And Yes I am sure you've read about all the nude folks on Club Orient which is one of the beaches close to Coco beach. Coco beach has decent food and service. We also liked the paninis at Kakao beach - small place run by young French guys. Have great Guavaberrys (drink) here too. There is a lot of sea weed in the water and there are some waves when the tide is running high. And don't be surprised when the vendors come and bug you every 10 mins trying to sell you stuff - massage, tattoos, beads, bags, sarongs - you name it, they got it.

Restaurants/Food
Food on the French side is slightly more expensive coz the French side accepts Euros and we all know what's happened to the Euro. 1 Euro = 1.3 dollars. Restaurants on the french side don't authorize for tip when they swipe your credit card. So either add the tip ahead of time or give cash. Not many places we went to added the 15% service charge.
For local flair you gotta visit Lolo’s or Talk of the Town Too. Tefari is a character - he is a server but very funny. Don’t expect American service here – you eat with the locals so you going to be treated like one.
Avoid Le Santal unless you want to pay over $200 for two for wine and a view. Not sure how and when this place got the 4 diamond rating. The service is horrible and the food is below average. Worst Lobster bisque we've ever had. Enough said!
Tempation is a top notch restaurant - Dutch side - can't go wrong here. Right next door is "Rare" if you prefer steaks.
Zee Best - the famous breakfast place is a bit overrated. We preferred the restaurants at Marina Royale (French side). Le Croissanterie is great for crepes.
Try at least one of the restaurants in the Village at La Playa. They are more casual and not as expensive but still have good food.
We tried Sol e Luna - family owned good restaurant - french side.
Grand Case has some great restaurants too - Spicy, Le hibiscus etc.

Must Do's
Day trip to Anguilla - you can do this yourself or take a tour. The beaches in Anguilla are gorgeous.
Sarafina bakery in Marigot - almond croissant, Ham & cheese toast and the quiche. Le Sucriere next door ain't too bad either. Martinis or any drink at Temptation. The bartender Paul - award winning bartender is simply awesome. Try the St Maartini or the New World Rum concoction.
Sunset bar - Maho bay near the airport - unique experience watching airplanes land. Awesome! First big plane lands around noon. Take your camera! Good drinks too.
Trip to Pinel Island - 5 min ferry ride from French Cul de sac - good experience - worth seeing all the locals relax.
Try the fresh sugar cane juice and/or Coconut juice in Marigot - unique experience.
Take half a day or more to just drive around the island and explore. You can't really get lost - there is one main road that takes you all around St maarten.

Island
One of the few islands that is very green and mountainous. Yes it will take you sometime to adjust to the crazy drivers. Be aggressive though and dont be too scared to pass the slow drivers. Roads are not in great shape at all. There is a lot of stray dogs on the roads and on the beaches as well. 30% of them don’t have a collar. Motorcycles have no headlights – so be careful at nights. Dutch Side is more American friendly. Please take some cash with you when you go out. You might need it for parking or street vendors.

We just finished a wonderful trip to St .Martin and the Esmeralda during the first week of August 2007. This was our first visit to St. Martin. We plan to go again and hope to stay at the Esmeralda again.

We stayed in a ocean-front room. The room was very nice, the beach was nice, and the Coco beach bar/restaurant was one of the things which made our trip great!. Or room was great! Some other guests said that their room had a moldy smell and they moved to a different room. Hopefully the Esmeralda will continue to refurbish the older rooms.

One of the things I liked most about St. Martin, was the "French" atmosphere. About 1/2 of the residents spoke French. I much prefer that to places (like Paris) where all the tourists are loud Americans. (I am a loud American myself. But I prefer to hear more pleasant French being spoken by the other tourists.) I love to try to order meals in French, etc. and most places were willing to let me try my best.

We thought the Esmeralda staff was wonderful, enthusiastic, conscientious and attentive. The office staff, the room staff, the beach staff and the Coco restaurant staff. We thought the grounds and beach were beautifully maintained. Our room was always cleaned nicely and they provided us with plenty of beach towels.

There are 7 (or so) sub-beaches along Orient Beach. Coco Beach (where you get free chaises and umbrellas) was the best because it was not nearly as crowded as the rest. We spent most of our time at Coco Beach and are glad we did. It was the most (and probably only) restful vacation we have ever had. The weather was great all week long.

We went to Pinel Island one day. We had asked the gentleman in the office about it. He said "Pinel Island is a whole different place than Orient Beach" This is correct. (But perhaps intentionally ambiguous). The Pinel beach faces west instead of east, so it has no waves and very shallow water. We won't bother to go over there next year.

I was very concerned about the Internet service because I need to get online every day. It worked OK in our room, but I understand that some people still have problems. I hope they get it improved for our next visit. The only negative was that they have only two prices: $72.00 for a week, and $42.00 for 5 hours. I was going to be there 9 days. I think they should add either an option for 3 days, or 2 weeks or something.

We had a bad experience in the L'Astrolab for breakfast one morning. We arrived about 10:20 AM and our waiter was very flustered and disappeared for about 30 minutes. They took our order late, delivered it late, delivered it wrong, and made us very sorry that we had gone there that morning rather then the Coco beach restaurant which was wonderful all the time. (We were just sorry that the Coco beach restaurant wasn't open for dinner during the "Off season")

We didn't mind the topless beach atmosphere, but we were very put off by one of the residents of our villa who wanted to bathe nude in the pool. I hope people who want to do this stay at the Orient Club next time.

We ate lunch at the Boo Boo Jam (next door) one day. We probably would not go there again, because the service was so slow, and because the Coco Beach restaurant is so good. We walked down the other direction to look for other lunch choices, but didn't see anything which would make it worth leaving Coco Beach.

We really enjoyed going to Grand Case for dinner most nights. But if you visit St. Martin for the great food, be prepared to pay for it. The Euro has risen 30% the past 4 years and most restaurants don't have a 1$ = ! Euro policy. We returned to two of them for a second visit (Bistrot Caraïbes and L'Hibiscus) because they were so good.

This review is a little behind - we stayed at esmeralda during easter break (april 21-28) 2007. This was our first "stay" on the island. We visited OB last year on a cruise and fell in love. My husband chose Esmeralda based on location to beach and reviews on TA. We were not disappointed! The room (superior) was adequate for us. We did not plan on spending alot of time there. The only thing we would of liked to see (I think included in deluxe room is sofa bed or couch in room) There is table and chairs (for eating in room I guess) but who would want to eat inside when you can go out to beach and enjoy view! The bathroom was very good size and nice.
The only negative things that happened at Esmeralda was the lack of internet service in the rooms and our next door neighbors were broken into and their passports and credit cards stolen (they left them out of safe - dumb, but it happens) We paid an extra 72.00 or so to have internet in room but it would never connect (no service). When we went to desk to complain they said that once we turned it on there was no refunding. We should of come back within a couple hours to tell them. My husband kept trying to connect (sometimes it would) so we thought that was an unfair policy. Don't pay for it. If you have a laptop go down to Bikini Beach and use it there. The other issue that happened is our neighbors room (there are 4 rooms in each building) was broken into and they had not put their passports and some credit cards in the safe. So of course they were stolen. But it still made us nervous. We tried to not focus on the crime issues we heard about before we left, and the staff assured us this was just random, but I was a little more on guard after that. I have never had to "worry" on a vacation before, but truthfully this was our first out of the US vacation. There are certainly more risks involved when you are in a foreign country. This said, I would return to SXM anytime!

I am a beach bum so my 7 days were spent mostly on my lounge chair at coco beach (in front of the hotel.) The "cabana boy" was awsome - he handled the whole restaurant beach area and was really attentive. I will say that we enjoyed Bikini Beach Bar better for atmosphere and the girls there were really friendly! My husband sat there every morning with his laptop (they have WIFI) and conducted business at his "beach office" He was usually there before they opened up; but when they did he got his coffee and breakfast and enjoyed sending everyone back home the pictures of the girls and his "beach office". Of course Baywatch was a blast. We didn't get to the other tiki bars (next year!) but the whole beach thing is so much fun! It is nice to stay at a hotel along the strip because you don't have to bring cash or credit cards to beach. You have a card from Esmeralda that you show at the restaurants/bars and they will charge it to your room account. I did not think the cruiseship days were horrible - it just made the eastern end of beach more crowded. It id not effect Coco Beach area at all. As for the topless and total nudity? We are not into clothing optional, but knew that OB was both and truthfully it was no big deal. After a day or two it becomes second nature. I will also say that the "nude walkers" on the beach in the early am and an occasional midday sighting were (and I am sorry if I offend anyone) not the type of body most would appreciate to see nude. Seriously, aren't they just a little bit of an exhibitionist to stroll midday with body parts sagging and not expect people to say Oh my god. Not to the nakedness but to the structure of the body? I wonder......