~Reggie~ a.k.a "Regular Guy" (and others) made a series of postings about these islands to the uk.rec.naturist in June 2000.
The hotels are very chic and low-key, the nightlife minimal. The locals consist of a mix of descendants of white 17th century Norman and Breton French, descendants of Swedish merchants (from the time that the island belonged to Sweden) and recent transplants from France. I found that most of the visitors there to be couples and families - both French and American - and the singles were usually French (or French- speaking). Although I'm an Anglophone, I found that I was frequently aided by vestiges of the French that I learned in college. It wasn't necessary, as most of the people who dealt with visitors spoke English to various degrees, but knowing a little French definitely helped. A good guide book which includes St. Barts is "Eastern Caribbean" by Lonely Planet, and a good web site is at http://www.St-Barths.com.
St. Barts is only a ten minute plane ride from Juliana airport in St. Maarten or from Esperance airport in St. Martin. The short downhill airstrip on St. Barts, which begins at the base of a pass through the hills between St. Jean and Gustavia, requires what is called a "short field landing" with half tanks of fuel and sometimes not all the baggage. It requires full flaps and strict control of airspeed and angle of approach, and it's fun to watch from the seat just behind the pilot. I recommend it.
Clothing Optional Beaches
Nudity is officially illegal on all beaches on St. Barts, but it is
tolerated on some of the out-of-the-way beaches. None of these
CO beaches are dominated by nude beach goers, and the amount
of nudity seems to vary predictably with the time of day - more
nudity as the afternoons progress toward sunset.
Anse de Grande Saline
This is supposed to be THE nudist beach on St. Barts. It is
mostly textile. Nudists seem to drift toward the left (east) end of
the beach, the gays even further - to the little beach beyond, over
the rocks. Virtually all the *French* women are topless there (but
about half the beach goers are American), and more men than women
are totally nude. All the single women are French-speaking, and they
do not speak English (even if they know English) with guys trying to
strike up a conversation. I was there on three afternoons, and on the
first day until about 3 p.m., there were only 3 people there nude -
myself and a couple so far to the end that they were among the rocks.
On other days, nudes were about 20% of the people by 5 p.m.
The swimming at Grande Saline is good, the bottom is sandy, and the beach is long and wide. It faces roughly south. The large stagnant pond behind it is smelly, though, and I wouldn't want to stay at any hostelry in the vicinity.
Anse du Gouverneur
This is a beautiful beach and a little hard to get to as the way
is over very narrow and steep mountain roads. I was there on
two afternoons, and the percentage of nudes was about the same
as Grande Saline, but they were more intermixed with the textiles.
It is not as large as Grande Saline, but it's prettier, and the swimming
is as good. It faces south.
Anse de Colombier
This is a very beautiful beach and hard to get to. There are
usually some sailing yachts anchored in the bay, and there seems
to be some sort of shuttle boat service for day trippers from
Gustavia, the seaport. But most beach goers hike to get there
along one of the two trails. Most of the beach goers there are
textiles, most of the women wear tops. But no one is in a
position to object to nudity, and there is enough room for nudes to
put space between themselves and textiles. The beach faces west.
The beach has suffered from the hurricanes in this decade, and although the beach is sandy for virtually all its length, I understand from natives that it is a vestige of its old self. I still found the beach the most charming of all the beaches on the island. The swimming is excellent, the bottom is mostly sandy with rocks at both ends to make for interesting snorkeling. It is overlooked by what looks like a large corporate conference center on one of the peninsulas which bound the bay. That, until recently, belonged to David Rockefeller. (Now it is owned by a bigwig at Coca Cola, and Rocky has a new, more charming-looking place at Petit Cul-de-Sac at the opposite end of the island.)
The easier of the two trails to the beach is roughly level, and it starts at the end of the road which runs past Anse des Flamands and La Petite Anse. The hike takes about 15 minutes. Here's a tip: On the return trip, take the right (the higher) trail when you get to a fork. The harder trail starts from above at Grande Roche, near the end of the road which runs through Columbier. It is steep, rutted, and hot and exhausting on the return trip. The view from the lookout near the end of the road is worth the drive, however.
Hotel - Emeraude Plage in St. Jean
I got lucky. I chose Emeraude Plage as the hotel and St. Jean
as the area. Looking at the map of St. Barts, you'd think that
St. Jean, at the end of the airport runway, would be overbuilt and
a neon-lit strip of bars and T-shirt shops. It isn't. St. Jean is
central and near everything, yet it's on the best general-purpose
beach and it's low-key and mellow. Emeraude Plage is a small cluster
of single and duplex bungalows just off the beach with rooms that
are tastefully furnished. Each has a patio (with lounging and dining
furniture) and a fully-equipped kitchenette for its guests to "faire la
cuisine".
(see http://www.St-Barths.com/emeraude-plage/index.html)
About half the guests were French when I was there, and it was common for the women to be topless while lounging on the beach in front of the hotel and sometimes walking between their bungalows and the beach. A few of the women wore thongs. The men, both French and American, usually wore boxer type swim shorts or even baggies.
Thongs
I thought a French resort island would be rife with thongs. Wrong!
Most women usually wore conservative bikinis, even when topless, and
I think I was the only man on the island to be wearing a thong.
Regarding French men, I was told by a French shop girl that they are conservative and seek to impress women by the style of their designer clothing, not by its brevity. Sexy swimwear, it turns out, is for French women, not for French men. As a matter of fact, she sells most of her men's thongs to American visitors who come during the high season, which starts in December, and who usually come from New York City or other city on the U.S. East Coast. And for this reason her stock of men's thong swimwear (called "string bikinis" by the French) is best in December.
But if you're a man and you have to buy a thong while on St. Barts, try L'Homme Et La Mer and The Black Swan, both in Gustavia. The former has good selection, the latter has gorgeous salesgirls.
"Bon Jour"
Learn to say "bon jour" well. Get the French "n" and "r"
right. You will be pleasantly surprised at how the French appreciate
being greeted in their own language. Numerous times, cold and
suspicious-looking French visitors were turned into smiling friendly
people by just "bon jour". True to form, though, the natives and the
southern French will be the warmest, the northern French will be
pretty cold at times. And don't forget "merci beaucoup" and
"l'addition, si vous plait" ("the check, please").
Sint Maarten is a Dutch possession and does not have the tolerance for partial and full nudity that French Saint Martin does. The only clothing-optional beach on the Dutch side of the island is Cupecoy Beach, and most nudists who vacation on the Dutch side gather there. I don't know why.
Cupecoy Beach was once a chain of pretty coves running along the sandstone cliffs on the far western end of Sint Maarten. But hurricanes in recent years have stripped Cupecoy of most of its sand, and that sand has been slow in returning. What exists now is a single cove with sandy beach running for just about 100 yards. The sand is good, not too course, not too fine, and the swimming is good with a sandy bottom. Two groups of locals rent lounge chairs and umbrellas, and there is a "bar" - no stools, no shelter, just a short 4-foot bar. No signs mark Cupecoy Beach, but it's easily spotted by the line of cars parked on a dirt road just off the highway near the border with Saint Martin.
I visited Cupecoy on four afternoons. There was always a large contingent of textiles there, their reason for being there highly suspect because there were much larger, much more beautiful beaches nearby on both the Dutch and French sides. But if the weather was good, Cupecoy Beach was always crowded, elbow to elbow, with both textiles and nudists.
The nudists' presence at Cupecoy was always puzzling to me. I couldn't figure out why they wanted to crowd together on such a small beach with textile looky-lous right next to them when all the wide open and beautiful clothing-optional beaches of French Saint Martin were just a few minutes away. One day, after visiting a woman who works on the Dutch side, I stopped in at Cupecoy and spent an hour and a half talking to the nudists there, asking them why they chose to come to Cupecoy Beach.
To my amazement, everyone I spoke to spoke English - even the ones from Germany. And they were virtually all Americans. And when I asked why they were at Cupecoy and not at one of the other much nicer CO beaches just up the road, they ALL, to a ONE, suspected me of trying to sell them a time-share! This is despite the fact that there are no time-shares on the French side. One just bluntly told me he didn't want to hear about whatever it was that I was selling!
What I told them was that the beach ten minutes away on the French side was more than 10 times longer than Cupecoy and twice as wide, with even better swimming, more natural beauty, and just as much freedom for nudity. I even showed them on a map how to get there. Well, most hadn't even HEARD of the beach ten minutes away, and most hadn't even driven by. But most expressed some curiosity after I convinced them that I wasn't trying to sell them something. I urged them to just drive over and check it out on their way home or on the next day.
The next afternoon, just to see if my efforts at Cupecoy had had any effect, I dropped in at Baie aux Prunes, the French beach that I had described to people at Cupecoy. Zip. Nada. Zilch. The beach was still just as sparse with people, and although I wore the same outfit as I had the day before, no one waved in recognition and I recognized no one from the day before. There was just the usual twenty or so people on the whole beach with the usual mix of textiles, topless and nudes. Baffled, I went over to Cupecoy. The beach was again crowded.
I am still amazed. It just makes no sense. Perhaps nudists ENJOY being inspected at close range by looky-lous. Maybe they ARE closet exhibitionists. Maybe Americans DO travel thousands of miles just to be among other Americans. Maybe Americans really ARE too parochial to drive 10 minutes into a country where there are no Burger Kings and where the currency isn't green. Maybe nudists aren't as free-thinking as I had come to believe. I feel like my faith has been shaken - but faith in what?
'SXM fan' from Atlanta made an additional comment...
I'd like to add another reason (we were there this past April)... If you are staying at the Cupecoy Beach Club (timeshare/condos), the beach is at your doorstep. Why get in a car and go anywhere?
Regular guy was partially accurate in the beach access. Cupecoy has 3 access points. I've been to all three. The northern most had the most textiles. The middle one was OK but for us the best place was at the Cupecoy Beach Club next to the Cliffside Bar. Parking was available yet crowded at the northern and middle points. To access the third place, you parked alongside the road and entered through the little gate at the northern end of the Cupecoy Beach Club. Now my little secret is out :(
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