La Samanna, A Belmond Hotel, St Martin

Situated on perhaps the prettiest beach on St. Maarten. Great beach service and complementary water sports. Great snorkeling right off the beach (against the cliff to your left as you face the sea). The only downside of the beach is that independent boats come close to shore for snorkeling as well as dropping anchor for late afternoon parties on certain days which can take away from the chill vibe. There are two pools. The smaller of which is beautifully situated and overlooks the sea. This was our second visit and on both occasions we had big, beautiful junior suites with tremendous views. There are two restaurants. Fine dining in the main building and a more casual restaurant down below which still needs to find its footing. The island has some wonderful restaurant options and the hotel will arrange taxis for you. Typically the same driver will offer to pick you up on the return. Since our last visit, Belmont invested in a larger and more well equipped gym. Has everything you need. Lovely and well maintained property. All the hype is true.

This property was over the top and went out of their way to make our 5 days there so very special. Property/rooms are gorgeous but it’s the people and service that puts La Sammana over the top. Housekeeping did a wonderful and discrete job keeping our beautiful oceanfront room. There was never a problem finding a spot on the beach or at the pool despite the hotel being sold out due to a wedding. The food and drinks are very good. But again, it’s the people and attention to detail that make staying there so special. Special shout out to Guillaume who did a great job and we enjoyed chatting with him. Anthony, Emanuel, Sofia, Christina, JuJu, Michele, Alex were amazing. And our good friend Luca at the Italian restaurant: Grazie mile!

We have stayed here many times. La Samanna has maintained its quality over time. The accommodations are outstanding and the service is excellent. We've already reserved our room for next January!!

Belmond has a very dear place in our heart; we trusted them both with our wedding (at the Belmond Caruso) and our honeymoon (on the Orient Express). Both were perfect. Unfortunately, La Samanna lacks the attention to detail and flawless service that characterized our previous experiences at Belmond properties. La Samanna has many strengths. The location is incredible, and the beach is picture-postcard perfect. The property is well-maintained, and the front desk staff, as well as the staff at the Baie Longue Bar and L'Oursin, are very kind. The rum tasting at La Cave was the absolute highlight of the trip; Randy Kevin, the sommelier, was excellent. The issues we had were mostly with the staff at the beach and the beach bar, and with scheduling excursions and off-resort activities. We initially chose La Samanna over its sister resort in Anguilla (Cap Juluca) exactly because La Samanna advertised the availability of various excursions, including a hiking trip into the interior of St. Martin with an anthropologist, and snorkeling. The hiking trip in particular appealed to us, so two or three months before the trip I contacted the staff at La Samanna to see if we could arrange it. The snorkeling trip was easy to arrange (more on that later) but we were told the hiking trip was subject to the availability of the local expert. No problem! However, as the trip grew closer, we heard no more specific details on the hiking trip. Finally, when we arrived at La Samanna, I spoke to the concierge, and he told me that that particular excursion was actually no longer offered by the property. I wish we could have known about this sooner, particularly since hiking boots take up quite a lot of space in a suitcase and since we had begun the conversation about it months before. We did manage to book a snorkeling excursion with a private captain through La Samanna, departing from a marina nearby. We had made it on the boat and a fair way out from the dock before our captain remarked that La Samanna had forgotten to give us any towels to dry off with. He said this had happened once before this season, and called the hotel to send someone to the marina with towels. We turned around and ended up waiting at the dock for ten or fifteen minutes, which our captain generously made up to us at the end of the excursion. After that, everything went fine. On to the beach. La Samanna's beach is exquisite. Private beaches are illegal on the French side of the island, but La Samanna's beach has cliffs on one side and a long stretch of undeveloped land on the other, so it is as close to private as you can get. Our issue was this: we went to the beach every day, and every day there seemed to be a new protocol for getting a seat on the beach that we were not following correctly. I think villa guests have reserved seats, which makes sense, but for hotel guests, it seemed like we were either supposed to go up to the staff at the Baie Longue bar, who would direct us to the beach staff

Better to get a suite. One-bed rooms very small and in need of numerous repairs. Ask for a room near the main building if you don’t want a very long walk.

The most luxurious and romantic hotel in the island. We loved views, amazing staff, services.. Two years ago when we spent our winter holidays together and felt under magic of island, we decided to come back to same hotel couple weeks ago to celebrate life.