I went to St. Martin by myself to get away from it all. I was pleasantly surprised when I walked into the studio as it was very bright and very cheery. Having a small kitchen was a plus and the small terrace was a bonus too. The staff was very pleasant and friendly. The hotel is located in a residential area and was very quiet. I felt very safe (there is a security guard at night) which is important when you are a female traveling alone. The only thing I can complain about is the low water pressure - which I quickly got used to and honestly, overall, wasn't a big deal. The boulangerie up the street was fantastic, as were the two restaurants which were both in walking distance. There is also a great creole restaurant on Grand Case called Hercules. For those of you who are interested, the clothes-optional area of Orient Beach was just a three minute drive (you could walk it but it's 1.5 miles one way). The hotel was great from a budget standpoint. All-in-all a very cute, charming and very french hotel. Which by the way - the French side of the island is the place to stay - cute, charming and has great restaurants. Though the Dutch side offers lots of shopping, it is somewhat dirty and there were many American-Style Strip Malls and high-rise hotels (you won't find those on the French Side due to building codes - they don't allow anything to be built over two or three stories).

I would highly recommend this hotel and plan on going back next year.

We stayed at Jardin de Chevrise for 5 days in March 2008. The room was large with a king size bed and a small cooking area, which included a 2 burner stove and small fridge. It wasn't fancy but we still cooked a dinner and breakfast. There was a nice balcony with table and chairs for outside dining. The bathroom was as small as some reviews indicated. There was only a hand held shower but it worked fine. Everything was very clean and it was quiet and safe. The TV is only 13" and only gets 3 stations, 2 are in French. But who goes to the islands to watch TV! We only had 1 mosquito in our room. I have found all of St Martin to be bad with mosquitoes each time we are there. I spray myself all over before going out a night. The hotel is 2 floors and there is no elevator so you have to carry your bags upstairs yourself if you are on the 2nd floor.

The staff at the sister hotel up the hill (Orient Bay Hotel) confirmed our flights for us. You can pay extra for breakfast the night before. It is served at the pool. We didn't try it so I can't comment on the food.

The web says Orient beach is 900 feet away. You can walk there but I wouldn't want to be carrying anything, it's not a simple walk. It seemed faster to just drive over there which was less than 10 minutes.

There is a wonderful bakery just up street from the hotel, which you can walk to. We had warm fresh croissants and 1 cup of espresso for $5 (tip included).

So if you want a 4 star luxury room with every amenity and fancy furnishings this isn't the place for you, however if you want a nice, clean, safe room within 10 minutes of Orient Beach, Marigot and Grand Case, it is great. This is not for a demanding or high maintenance individual, LAID BACK is the order of the day. One website said it's a "charming place with a relaxing, friendly atmosphere". We agree.

We had a 2 day window from finishing our sailing trip and wanted to stay a bit on the french side becasue we LOVED Ile Pinet. We booked online and took a cab over from Oyster Pond. When we arrived, we calld on the hotel phone located outside of the receptions area that wasn't open. A gal from the sister hotel- Orient Bay Hotel-drove over to let us in.

When she opened the door she walked over to the refrigerator and poured a premade carafe of Rum Punch and welcomed us. She pointed to maps and said feel free to call if we had any questions. We inquired about making phone calls as we had to confirm our other reservations back on the other side of the island. At that moment, I was appreciative...

Five minutes after walking in, toasting my fiance to our fresh glassof Rum Punch, putting our bags down...we noticed a HUGE family-infestation of mosquitos. At first we though, oh no!, but then we figured we would make the best of the situation and make a game of it. We both used our smal hand towels to kill them off of the ceiling, kitchen area, windows, doors, bed, bathroom, and then....each other.

We found the staff to be very unhelpful when we simply requested help when the numbers werent going through properly. Different side of the island require different pre-fixes. We ended up having to walk up to another hotel and they helped us.

We used our bath towels to cover the lounge chairs at the pool as they werent clean. Wet and starting to mold! Not to mention the units by the pool seem to be from local renting as apartments so you get the kids screaming out of frustration and the parent who was in the unit yelling at the child and not parenting. No talking to calm down- just ignoring all the while- we left due to frustration. ( We have three children so it's not like we dont have patience!)
Can't read by the pool!

The best part of the trip was the bakery that was within walkng distance. The owner was soooo nice and we met nice people on our walk there. We went there on three occasions. Fabulous pastriesin the morning with espresso. Yum!

The food within walking distance was very accomodating as well.

Keep in mind, we are pretty rustic when it comes to traveling. During our 3 week trip to St. Martin/St, Maarten/Anguilla/St. Barths by Sailboat and land....this was the one that I decided to spend a moment to write a review about!

The place to stay if you are to visit the French St-Martin. We used this Hotel has our home base, rented a car thru St-martin hotel guide http://www.sxmhotelguide.com/cars.php and voîla!

The room comes equipped with a cuisinette & small fridge, so when we got tired of bread and jam in the morning, we cooked ourselves upped bacon & eggs! We only had the breakfast plan, but that is all you need in St-Martin, because you have to explore the island! It's safe and even the tap water is good to drink! The washroom only has a hand held shower, but we didn't care, has long as we can wash. They make up the rooms twice a week, it's less intrusive. The bed is made up of two singles; so what. The floor is tiled... noise during those romantic moments...but we had 2nd floor (top floor) so we didn't care much. Balcony view was on the lagoon, we e-mailed beforehand to request such and got it! The place was very clean. Bring a current converter & adapter if you need to plug in something, the French side has 220v. People at the hotel are very nice!

Jardin de Chevrise is very quiet and low key: GREAT! When we got there at night...no services...so we called a pizza!!
No restaurants on the premises but there are two just down the hill. We dined at the Taïtu and enjoyed it! The bakery, also down the hill (2 min walk), has great bread and croissants!

My advise:

Bring American money (do not get it on the island, bad exchange rate there). Forget the Euro, USD is accepted everywhere and in some places: 1 euro=1$ !!!

When renting the car, ask them to have it delivered to you at your hotel and picked upped at no charge. This way you can get the car one day after your arrival and the have picked up a day before departure. You save two days rental fee! Buy insurance before you leave, it's cheaper (7$ a day for 10,000 collision). Driving in St-Martin is an experience, the roads are narrow and use your horn! Do not leave anything in your car, it may attract theives.

Bring a small cooler, it's very useful!! Every day we went to US-Import (it's a grocery store, there is one in Grand Case but the better one is in Marigot...Bordeaux wine for 2 euro or 3$...not a typo...3$!!!). We got, ice, water, baguette, sausages, cheese and of course wine for our daily pick-nick on the beach!!! Very French!!

Restaurants: go to http://www.sxmhotelguide.com/cars.php and get the list of all restaurants to suite your needs. In Grand Case we enjoyed Lolos, good food for cheap and a bottle of wine for 10 euros or 15$!

Beaches: the one we preferred... (have a look here http://www.st-maarten-info.com/St-Maarten-Beaches/stmaarten_Beaches.html and if you can read French, go here: http://www.sxmsaintmartin.com/index.php

Happy Bay: best beach on the French side, 10 min walk east of Friar's bay, clothing optional, some services; drinks and food.

Cupecoy: the only beach we tried on the Dutch side, very nice, next to no services. Again, clothing optional.

Petites cailles: 25 min walk (get sneakers) along the shoreline with great view going there. On this very secluded beach we were alone all day...what a drag!!!

île Pinel: need to get a boat ride for 7$ (5 min from Jardin de Chevrise). When you get there, find a path going north from dock side, that will take you to a secluded beach (there are two secluded beaches, but the best one is to the north), but you can always stay on the main beach where the restaurants are. Great view of St-Martin from here!!

We didn't care much for Orient beach, too commercial for us but we tried it on our first day.

The official site to Jardin de Chevrise is:
http://www.orientbayhotel.com/fr/intro.html

e-mail me if you have any questions: ptoleme@mail.com