Our favorite beach Le Galion wasn’t open for tourists yet. We had to find another beach with calm shallow water. I read reviews on different beaches in Saint Martin on TripAdvisor and according to the reviews Divi Little Bay beach fit our criteria pretty well.

First impressions were favorable. The water looked calm and the chairs were spaced nicely without overcrowding. The resort has three sections with beach chairs and umbrellas. The section in the middle has waiter service for drinks and lunch.

The beach at the Belair hotel next door is not as wide. Their loungers are crammed together in a smaller area.

We rented chairs from Divi resort and spent a wonderful day there.

There is a little pier on the beach where we could see a bunch of tropical fish near the rocks.

The water is clear enough to see them.

The pier was a good place to take photos of Little Bay. The water was very clean and calm.

Towards the west end of the beach there was a small area with colorful rocks.

The rocks provide a cool backdrop for photos.

After swimming and walking it was time to eat. We saw that there were two beachside options for lunch at Divi - Gizmo’s bar and grill and the Shack.

First we tried Gizmo’s bar and grill. My shrimp skewers with sweet potato fries were presented nicely but the dish wasn’t special in any way. Brian’s cheesesteak sandwich was good, not great. However, we were ready to endure the average food at Gizmo’s every day for the sake of the excellent beach. Lucky for us, the next day we tried the Shack.

The Shack focuses on local barbecue food. The simple menu gives you an option of a main protein like jerk chicken, shrimp or ribs with two sides of your choosing.

Brian mostly ordered jerk chicken or ribs. They were tasty as was the coconut rice and peas and fried plantains. The fired plantains/maduros were especially good, not too sweet, just right.

I got addicted to the Shack’s jerk shrimp. Here is the shrimp with mac & cheese and fried plantains. After a bit of experimenting with sides we both preferred the coconut rice and the plantains.

The shrimp was prepared with a wonderful jerk sauce that I craved every single day. On our last beach day I asked Wendy who worked there about the sauce the shrimp came with. She was so nice to show me the bucket of the Carib Jerk seasoning that they use for the sauce. We later drove around going into a dozen supermarkets from the large ones like Carrefour in Cole Bay to many small ones and nobody had it. We had to settle on Grace Foods Jerk seasoning instead.

Here is the Shack grill and Wendy on the right. She was so sweet and cheerful, made us smile every day with her welcoming demeanor.

The new updated post on The Shack restaurant is here:

We liked coming to Little Bay beach. We found it to be a good substitute for Le Galion beach in terms of swimming conditions. The vibe was completely different though. Sometimes we felt like we were in Aruba’s Palm beach, sort of cocooned in the all-inclusive resort environment without the diversity of what Saint Martin offers. Other than that it was great.

I liked Divi LIttle Bay so much that I was inspired to paint it:

The prints of the Divi Little Bay painting are here.

Not far from the parking lot of Divi Little Bay Beach Resort there is a panoramic view of Great Bay and Philipsburg in the distance.

From there we could see how many cruise ships were docked in the port that day.

The drive from Little Bay home to Cupecoy area was fairly short, around 25 minutes and provides some beautiful views of the Dutch side.

Sapphire Beach Club Resort where we stayed is in Cupecoy beach area.

The section of the beach accessible directly from Sapphire varies in size every time we are there. This time it was pretty decent in size.

Brian is a good swimmer and doesn’t mind the waves like I do. He went for a short swim one day. I, on the other hand, would never even think of going into the water there. It looks beautiful though.

It is especially striking around sunset time.

We walked around a little bit further from Sapphire. Cupecoy beach is surrounded by limestone cliffs and is pretty secluded. There is a clothing-optional area as well.

There were only a few people there. It’s never crowded.

Cupecoy beach is great for watching sunsets. Every day we tried to make it back to Sapphire resort just in time to take showers and gather on the balcony for the stunning sunset views and a glass of wine before dinner.

We watched sunset catamaran tours pass by and we waved to each other.

There were also sailboats and later cruise ships lit up against the dark sky leaving Saint Martin. Gorgeous sunsets on the balcony is another thing among many others that we look forward to during the rest of the year.

Here are some of my sunset paintings inspired by Saint Martin:

The prints of the paintings are here.

The paintings are on my website. Thank you!