Cupecoy Beach — Attraction in Île des Terres Basses

A very beautiful beach with how the rocks and cliffs overlook the sand and ocean. The sand color is beautiful, and the watercolor is a beautiful turquoise like color. The waves can get quite big! Viewing sunsets are beautiful here. Unfortunately, there's not as much areas of sand you can lie on like there used to be. There are a few different sections of the beach thanks to previous damage from hurricanes and from erosion (it used to be one single long beach). From what I understand from reading online articles, while looking out onto the ocean (facing west), there's a right section, middle section, then a left section of this beach. The right section is near condos and homes, the middle section is secluded with a very old (yet cool) staircase going down to the beach, then the left section is down a path/hill where more people (mostly families) hang out.

As a fair heads up...this beach (all sections) is known as a clothing optional beach. Out of all of the sections, the middle section is the biggest one to be careful of. As mentioned before, there's an old, steep staircase that has seen better days. Most of it has fallen apart from erosion. You can still go down it, but you'll be doing hops along the way down between steps since several steps are missing, and as of November 2018 (maybe even way earlier) many of the remaining steps are wobbly; not very safe to stand on. Another thing to be careful of with the middle section is that many men visit it. This isn't necessarily bad, just the fact that the middle section has become a rather well known "cruising spot" for the gay community. In other words, many guys go there to hook up with one another. We saw a few naked guys walk along the middle beach shore to the left into a cave. I think you can imagine what they were doing.

All in all, a beautiful beach. Simply be cautious and don't be too surprised by what you might see! If you are able to see the cave within the middle section of the beach, it is pretty cool. Just don't touch much of anything...

On a side note, there's a guy with his food truck near this beach (closer to the middle section). He ain't the nicest guy around...there is a parking area by his food truck. However, there's a sign saying you have to pay for parking from morning all the way to 5 pm. I'm not sure if it's him that's just trying trying to make money off of people or if it's mandated by the city. Someone on here said you can't park here after 5 pm, but we ended up visiting after 5 pm and never got in trouble; were easily able to get in and didn't pay once. It is a little tricky to find the dirt road to turn on to get to...

This is a very lovely beach! Couple things you should know, first, if you would like to explore the rock formations and caves that the water has carved out then you should go in the morning because the water is very choppy and rough towards sunset. I agree with the other reviews that sunset on the beach is very nice, but there are other spots on the island that would be calmer if you desire to spend it in the water. There are several picturesque Opportunities here. You can walk along the cliff edge safely and get down to the beach. There’s plenty of rocks on the beach, but if you look at the formation of the beach you’ll understand why the waves crash the way they do. This beach is a must visit for photos and awe. But if you are desiring a nice quiet swim, this probably isn’t the...

My family has been traveling to St. Maarten for several years now--a total of eleven trips so far. Cupecoy Beach has been one of our favorites! We have experienced it when it was a large land mass in 2014, very small strip in 2016, and now post-Hurricane Irma, large land mass again. No matter how much physical sand there is to enjoy, the spectacular sunsets will never change. It is the only "legal" clothing optional beach on the Dutch side. (Club Orient Beach is the only "legal" nude beach on the French side). The best time of day to visit is an hour or two before sunset, when there are diamonds sparkling on the water, and the sun is in your face. Cupecoy Beach remains one of the least crowded public beaches on the island, and I hope it...