First, I should say how I arrived at staying at the Golfe Hotel, and my thinking behind booking there. My husband and I were returning from Saba, and weren't getting back to St. Maarten till around 5:30 pm. I had wanted to stay on the French side in Marigot to tour that side of the island the next day, and get up early to go to Anguillla the day after that.. My point is I thought the location would be convenient, and I didn't want to spend a fortune on a hotel room as we would only be sleeping in the room, and not there to enjoy any amenities with such late arrivals and early departures. I spoke with the St. Martin Tourism authority, and a lady suggested the Golfe Hotel. I was concerned as there were no TripAdvisor Reviews. They had a web site that looked good, and the manager, Christophe, was wonderful about corresponding with me and arranging a jeep for us for our tour of the island. I decided to give it a try, and probably be the first to write a Tripadvisor review. We arrived back to Pelican Marina in St. Maartin after a "heavenly experience" in Saba, and found a ride over to the Golfe Hotel in Marigot.. Since I had never been to St. Martin, I didn't realize how important the word "Bellvue" was in the address. I guess I thought it was the street name, and the hotel was in Marigot. It is apparently an area prior to getting into Marigot. Whatever the case, all of my previous happiness faded quickly and a nervous, strange feeling came over me as we made our way to the hotel. Objectively speaking, it was perfectly, nice, clean, even charming in the lobby and pool area...and again, the manager and the delightful French lady working the front desk were both so kind to us during our brief stay. The hotel surroundings were sad however, and the bars on all of the doors and windows around the hotel quite frankly didn't put me at ease. We settled into a perfectly nice room that was clean and fine for the money, with a view of the harbor. We could see the Marina Royale where we wanted to have dinner. If you could just block off the lower half of the balcony door window you could actually feel sort of good. Unfortuantly, there was a junkyard below, with local kids playing soccer and goats hanging around (I love goats and kids, but in this environment, it seemed dingy ) I don't want to sound snobby because I know this was probably considered a better room with the water view and all. We reminded ourselves why we were there, and laughed it off to experience. We decided to walk to the Marina Royale for dinner, and it was downright scary for us, mostly because we felt so out of place and we didn't know if we should be scared or not. There was open sewage running in a ditch along the way and I knew I was experiencing the way of life in St. Martin you don't see in the travel brochures. I have traveled and even lived in Third World countries far worse off than St. Martin, so I am not sure why I was so nervous. I think it just wasn't what I expected from the tourism hype. Anyway, we found our way to the Marina Royale, and that was very nice once you got off the streets in front of the area. I was just so shocked at how "seedy" Marigot felt. I have been to the South of France (I've seen that comparison in some marketing), and trust me, it is nothing like that! We got a cab back to the Golfe Hotel after dinner and the cab driver asked us what we were doing in this area, as if he was suprised. It made me wonder. We got back to the room and there was not one English TV channel (I know, it's my fault that I don't speak French!) excpet ESPN, so that was a drag. We just tried to sleep and get through the night. The next morning, we made other lodging arrangements, but still took the jeep and had a great day once we got out of Marigot. The jeep Christophe arranged was awesome and he was so kind to understand our not staying the night again. (We didn't voice our feelings to him as it had nothing to do with the hotel) Again, no real complaints with the hotel, we just didn't feel that comfortable in the area. The breakfast was great, the pool area was darling, the people were all nice and accomodating, and it was very clean. There was unfortuantly no internet access, which was important to my husband, and I had been under the impression from the website that they did have internet access. All in all, I wouldn't ever return to Marigot in general (except to get a boat to Anguilla), but that is not the fault of the Golfe Hotel. As I said above, it is a fine place if you are on a tight budget and perhaps more familiar and "at home" with the surroundings.