I can only agree with all the other excellent reviews. We only stayed two nights but wish it had been much longer. Our room had a wonderful balcony with views over Grand Case. The kitchen was excellent and the bed very comfortable. The hotel's location is lovely, very near excellent restaurants and a small beach. The staff is lovely, the pool peaceful and we would have no hesitation in recommending the hotel to our best friends. As others have pointed out a car is almost essential.
The Hotel L'Esplanade is the nicest place I have stayed at in the Caribbean.

First piece of advice and the most IMPORTANT is RENT A CAR. (small vehicles and good parallel parking skills is a plus)

Wife and I stayed 7 nights in OVERSIZED Loft and 7 nights in a SUITE.....my preference was the suite (same price). The suite has a more modern kitchen, a HUGE balcony, NICE kitchen, 2 TV's and a kick -azz bathroom. The kitchen matters because you will find coffee and bread and cheese and cured meats and other snacks you CANT get at home.

THE MAP--SUCKS---Read it carefully. after a few days and many wrong turns we were able to get to everywhere on the island. You will want to drive to phillipsburg and maragot and many beaches however the MAP may be your biggest enemy. read it every morning and you will get a feeling for the scale(distance).

BEACHES---
DAWN BEACH (shells galore--fun bar)
FRIARS BAY (75 Cent caribe -active fish if you feed them"baguette")
MULLET BAY--see the devistation of hurricane 2006 but the beach is awesone with goos snorkling.
CUPECOY--beautiful water but not much vibe
MAHO BEACH--a MUST see to duck the huge jets landing over your head.
PETITE PLAGUE--Just up the hill from Lespenade. worth a swim and cocktail.
ORIENTE BEACH--If you can find it...blah blah


ACTIVITIES---

PINEL ISLAND--A must. Ferry out of Cul De Sac(5 min from hotel)
CHARTER A PRIVATE CATAMARAN or POWER BOAT. We did both. It was the highlight of our trip. Pick you islands and they will take you---and feed you.......UNREAL Snorkling and beach adventures.

There is so much more i can say ...........

Although many have already sung the praises of this hotel in detail, we had such a wonderful stay at L'Esplanade a couple of weeks ago I have to relate our own experience. It's hard not to have high expectations going in after reading all of the glowing reviews, but I am happy to report that our expectations were met and exceeded.

The hotel's beautiful hillside setting and views of Grand Case Bay are not to be missed. We stayed in one of the oversized lofts and had stunning views of Grand Case from the bed through our second floor balcony. My only complaint about the room was that the bathroom could use an update, but I have seen pictures on this site and otherwise of much different bathrooms, so I don't know if we got a room that hasn't had a makeover or if it was the type of room that we reserved. The pool as other posters have mentioned is on the small side, but we never found it to be crowded or inadequate and actually preferred the more intimate setting. The restaurants and lolos of Grand Case are just a short walk away down a lighted footpath. Security was posted at the top and bottom of the footpath in the evenings as well as at the entrance to the main lobby of the hotel.

The service at the hotel was attentive from start to finish and shined in comparison to the staff at the CuisinArt, where we had just come from a very disappointing stay before arriving in Grand Case. Myriam is a gem and took care of us at check-in, gave us many suggestions and recommendations of things to do on the island, and made reservations for one of our excursions. The hotel also took care of our car rental and arranged for an agent from the rental car company to pick us up at the ferry in Marigot to take us to the hotel, where our car was waiting for us. The same agent picked us up at the hotel on our day of departure and took us to the airport. It was so easy and eliminated a lot of the hassle that sometimes goes along with a rental car. The main bartender, Alan, lived up to his advance billing as well. Let's face it though, if I had his office, I'd enjoy my job too. :)

Grand Case beach is also just a short walk from the hotel. We only spent one day there because we had a rental car and wanted to see as many beaches on the island as we could, but we enjoyed calm, tranquil, and translucent waters on the day we were there that actually reminded us of the water on Seven Mile Beach in Grand Cayman.

I will agree with another recent poster about the mosquitoes in the room. We also concluded that they must have been getting in when the room was serviced and the door was left open. After a couple of days, we put the privacy sign on the door and opted not to have the room cleaned to avoid the problem, but they thought it was a mistake and cleaned it anyway. If you're a "bug magnet" like I am, you might want to make a special request that the door be closed when the room is serviced.

We will definitely be back to St. Martin someday and will not consider staying anywhere other than Hotel L'Esplanade.

We loved our stay at this wonderful hotel. The staff was friendly and the room was amazing. We stayed in the suite with the wrap around veranda. The room was very clean, spacious, and best of all, romantic.
We actually ventured to La Sammana and concluded that this hotel was better.
The location was ideal, near Restaurant Row which was definitely walking distance. Since the husband and I are picky eaters, we wouldn't recommend most of the "fancy" French restaurants, instead we opted for the casual lolos and the cafes.
Make sure to have the famous pina colada from Allan at the poolside. Very yummy! ($8)
The only con was that there were mosquitoes if you are not careful. Apply some bug repellant before you retire to bed.
We will return.