Top 5 Beaches for Escaping the Crowds in St Maarten-St Martin
Five quiet St Maarten–St Martin beaches — hike-in coves, Terres Basses sand and a Dutch-side natural pool — for visitors already done with Orient and Maho.
On St Maarten–St Martin the quiet beaches are the ones the road doesn't quite reach. They cluster in three pockets: the French north between Friar's Bay and Anse Marcel, where Happy Bay and Petites Cayes hide behind headland trails; the Terres Basses (Low Lands) in the west, where Plum Bay sits between Pointe du Canonnier and the Falaise aux Oiseaux; and the Dutch south-east coast, where Cay Bay and Geneve Bay stay empty simply because getting there takes effort.
The real choice is how far you're willing to walk. Plum Bay is a short drive and a scramble; Happy Bay is a ten-minute hill trail; Petites Cayes roughly thirty minutes; Geneve Bay a full hour along the coast from Guana Bay. None of these beaches has facilities worth counting on — no loungers, no bars, often no shade beyond sea grapes — so carry water, food and reef shoes.
Go in the morning: the trails are cooler, the light is better for snorkelling, and you'll want to be off the paths before the mid-afternoon heat. There is no border control between the two sides, so mixing French and Dutch coves in one day is entirely practical with a rental car.
The five below run the full circuit — two hike-in coves on the French north, one Terres Basses classic, and two Dutch-side bays that most first-time visitors never find.
1. Happy Bay
Reachable only by a ten-minute hill trail from Friar's Bay, so the crowds self-select out. What you get for the walk is a genuinely undeveloped stretch of sand many rate among the island's prettiest.
2. Petite Cayes
The thirty-minute trek on the island's far northern tip keeps Petites Cayes often completely deserted. It faces the open Atlantic near the Nature Reserve — wilder and lonelier than any of the French-side coves further south.
3. Plum Bay Beach
The drive-up option of this list: tucked in the Terres Basses between Pointe du Canonnier and the Falaise aux Oiseaux, Plum Bay trades trails for a quiet residential corner with golden sand and clear water.
4. Cay Bay
The Dutch side's answer to the hike-in coves — a small remote bay shared with walkers, pony trekkers and mountain bikers rather than sunbeds, with notably rich snorkelling just off the stony shore.
5. Geneve Bay
An hour's coastal hike from Guana Bay ends at a rock-sheltered natural swimming pool, calm despite the Atlantic beyond. The longest approach here, and the reward is usually having it entirely to yourself.
