L'esplanade, Grand Case, St. Martin
June 27, 2008
Trip Advisor Member - upstate NY

We just returned from our first trip to St. Martin and L'Esplanade. Our accommodations could not have been better. The hotel is set on a hill (be prepared to climb) and is absolutely beautiful. Our room was gorgeous with a view of the ocean, and the cleanest hotel room I've ever stayed in. I'm very particular about "bathrooms" - ours was sparkling clean everyday. Myriam and Philomena were wonderful to work with and really care about their guests. Myriam was a great help with renting a car, and also with our reservations for a catamaran trip to St. Bart's - a lot of fun and great people to sail with.
Grand Case is "food heaven." Every restaurant we ate in was great - Spiga, Calmos Cafe and the Sunset Cafe to name a few - also, be sure to try a least one "lolo" - the ribs are terrific. Breakfast each morning was at the "Sunset Cafe" at the Grand Case Beach Club (a short walk from L'Esplanade.) It was wonderful, especially the "fresh fruit plate" and the "coffee." But make sure to go back there for dinner. I'm not a fish eater, but my husband said the "Mahi Mahi" was unbelievable. One of the owners works the breakfast shift (her husband is the dinner chef), and she's terrific. She and her staff made the start of each day very pleasant.
The beaches were beautiful, but be prepared to "search" for some of them. It's apparent that neither side of the island spends a lot of money on road repairs or signs, but that actually adds to the island's ambience. We actually found one beach (Mullet Bay) because we saw a lot of cars in the parking lot and decided to drive in to investigate.
To sum it up, we had a wonderful time in St. Martin. The people are great, and the beaches are beautiful, and there are still many restaurants we would like to try. We are looking forward to a return trip - yes, we will stay at L'Esplanade.

We have recently returned from staying for 12 nights at the L'esplanade Hotel. Due to technical problems our flight arrived over 4 hours late.
As was advised on a previous review, we had booked a hire car through the hotel - this meant that we were picked up at the airport and taken to the hotel. The car and driver were excellent.
We were checked into the hotel by a very pleasant and efficient receptionist, who took our bags to the room. After a long day travelling from the U.K., we dined at the Spiga French restaurant on our first night and had an excellent meal.
The first impression of our room - a converted loft - was that it was clean, nicely furnished and practical. The view from the balcony was pretty, however the chairs on the balcony were probably the most uncomfortable that we had ever sat on and there was a plastic sun lounger! Why? The sun lounger was tiny and the balcony never got the sun.
The room was dark, even during the day and the internal furnishings were not comfortable.
We found after a couple of days that our room was not very practical - in that - with the loft bedrooom being open plan - their was no privacy,every sound echoed throughout the apartment and every door, cupboard and floorboard creaked! Whilst the wardrobe space was plentiful, the same could not be said for the floor space around the bed.
The pool was beautiful, bar service and food excellent and there were always sunbeds available. Why the pool was not cleaned until 10.00am remains a mystery.
Whilst we knew in advance, that breakfast was only offered as room service, we found that this meant that we very rarely met other people in the hotel.
The hotel was very pretty and the staff were excellent.
We have stayed in far better hotels on our vacations and certainly do not feel that we received value for money.
We only booked this hotel after reading many reviews on trip advisor and our view is that the hotel is vastly overrated.

I have just returned from a 5 night stay at the Hotel L'Esplanade and in reflection I have to say I quite enjoyed it. Although we were somewhat skeptical of the area upon our arrival, the Hotel L'Esplanade proved to be a great place to unwind.

First of all I have to say that the photographs displayed of the property on the hotel website are very impressive. You can quickly tell from where and what angle all of these photographs were taken. Make no mistake, this is a lovely place to stay but I must admit from what I saw on the website I built up an idea in my head of what the surroundings would be like and that is where we were a bit surprised.

We stayed in a Deluxe Loft which was very nice and very spacious. The furnishings are very nice, lots of dark wood and very comfortable. Having a kitchen is great as is the half bath on the main floor. The service at the hotel is fantastic and the grounds are kept to the nines. I have nothing bad to say about the L'Esplanade and I would definitely stay again. Loved the pool, very quiet and nice to relax by.

Grand Case is definitely not the nicest area. There are loads of restaurants but the town itself is a bit of a dump. I would highly recommend renting a car because there are much more beautiful areas to spend your days than Grand Case. Orient Bay just around the corner is spectacular as is Le Galion Bay which is just a little further down the road.

The beach is not as close as I would have thought but if you are going to go to the beach I would recommend the one at Grand Case Beach club over the main Grand Case beach.

I would not hesitate to stay again or recommend a stay at the Hotel L'Esplanade.

Bottom line, for the seasoned Caribbean traveller, this hotel is great... bar none...the island is depressed, the beaches over rated...the food GREAT. I'd forgo the great food for a great stretch of beach and non-run down town area. Too bad this hotel isn't on another island...I'd return over and over. But even compared to it's budget-priced sister islands, St maartin is a sad ghost town of a place...The E'splandade provides a nice oasis, but I'd never return to this 3rd-class island.