We stayed at the Hotel Beach Plaza in Marigot from January 14 - 21, 2012. The hotel was clean and everything seemed to be in good repair. While it was probably a 4 - 4.5 star hotel in the past, it is definitely a solid 3 to 3.5 now. Everything was more than functional but If updated amenities and decor are extremely important to you, you won't like it here. We enjoyed the breakfast every morning as part of the European Plan, especially the pastries which were brought to the table seperately. The lobby bar (Piano was never played when we were there) served great drinks and the one dinner we ate at the hotel restaurant was good, but there are better restaurants nearby. The beds were very firm, but we had no trouble sleeping after days spent on the beautiful beaches in and lovely long dinners in the evenings. We had an ocean view room in the centre section of the hotel on the 3rd floor. There was an elevator, but we often took the stairs to help work off the pastries, baguettes, cheese and wine we ate daily. The rooms in the middle section of the hotel all have entrances facing the covered centre courtyard. There are wings to each side of the centre section. There was an ice machine at the end of the centre courtyard area on our floor and a small mini-fridge in the room. The balcony overlooking Baie Marigot with all the boats moored outside was a nice feature. We often left the patio doors open while we were in the room and had no trouble with flying insects. The breeze was very refreshing and we found we hardly had to use the air conditioning at all. We did notice a trail of ants around the outside of the room one morning to a spot where we realized we had spilled something but they were gone after the room was cleaned. There is a large sunbathing deck that extends out into the ocean from the hotel, as the small beach area at the hotel didn't get sun until later in the day. There always seemed to be lounge chairs available on the sun deck, the beach, and around the pool. We didn't see anyone swimming in the pool while we were there, but it always looked clean and was a reasonable size to do laps if you wanted to. We rented a car from the agent in the hotel lobby ($220 Euros/for the week) and he provided us with a GPS to help navigate the island. We probably could have gotten a better deal if we had gone to one of the little rental booths down the street but we didn't feel like "shopping it" - we just wanted to get out and explore. We did walk around Marigot. There was a large grocery store less than 5 minutes walk down the street with wine and liquor available. There were several excellent restaurants that face into the Marina, also a short walk (maybe 7-10mins) in the other direction. There were vendors set up on the boardwalk along the waterfront a few mornings. Most of the shops and some of the restuarants were closed on Sunday. The street celebration (Mardi-Gras) in Grand Case was fun on Tuesday night with all the restaurants packed and vendors, bbq stations and creperies set up along the main street. Orient Bay was very busy and had lots of sporting activities, shops, and restaurants available. The nude beach is at the far south end and was also very busy but without the retail venues. You do have to pay for beach chairs and umbrellas but the prices varry (anywhere from $8 - $14 for 2 loungers) depending on what area of the beach you are on. Pinel Island was another great trip, just a short boat ride out into the bay just north of Oriental. Pinel is part of a nature reserve and the snorkeling there was really good away from the main beach area. Friars Bay beach and Happy Bay beach were great too. We ran into some people who loved the beach at Maho and Cupecoy on the Dutch side but we spent most of our time on the French side. While we tried a little of our high-school french, it usually made the local people laugh and they switched to english right away. Everyone we met was very helpful. We didn't visit any of the casinos on the dutch side, but they were easy to find. There is a definite difference in the atmosphere between the Dutch side and the French side. If you want night-life, go to the Dutch side and party in the bars and casinos. If you want long, relaxing meals and a bit slower pace, go to the French side. We had a great vacation and would reccommend this hotel as a base to explore the many treasures of St Martin.