Hilton Vacation Club Flamingo Beach St. Maarten — Hotel in Saint Martin

First the pluses (and there were many!) We stayed in Building Three (room 3102B) for ten days. The view from this room was magnificent even though it is considered ‘resort view’, we had a wonderful view of the ocean. The ocean is across the street but the room is elevated (more on this later) so we had a clear view of the ocean. The room (a King Suite) was HUGE and IMMACULATE!) I am a germaphobe who brought cleaning products with me and this space was SPOTLESS – I mean SPOTLESS! So that was a HUGE plus. |The room is also HUGE! It is a full apartment size with a full kitchen including dishwasher and a washer and dryer! (TIP: Bring a couple dishwasher packets. I also brought a small bag (from the dollar store) of 10 laundry packets which lasted for the 11 days (for two of us). Bring your own coffee and regular coffee filters for the coffeemaker). The refrigerator is also full sized. I had brought some foods in my checked bag which worked out really well for us to have some food before we had a chance to get to the store (more on the store later). There are two flat screen TVs (satellite from Miami for a lot of the programming) – one in the bedroom and one in the living room. There is seating for four at the kitchen table. The balcony (even though we were elevated we were ‘first floor’ and had a small ‘yard’ outside the balcony) was also HUGE and wrapped around the living and bedroom area (sliding doors from both rooms). Rooms were secure with heavy duty metal locks at the top plus the traditional locks for the door and screen (both doors had screens). (TIP: USE THE SCREENS! Mosquitoes can be fierce and there is zeka and dengue in Sint Maarten). The furniture on the balcony was new and very comfortable!!!! (If you didn’t want to GO to the beach, you could spend the day on the deck and look out at the ocean!). |There is no daily housekeeping but we honestly didn’t need it and requested no housekeeping (we would have had 2 days of housekeeping during our stay. I washed our towels every couple days and we took care of daily ‘straightening’). The staff was very friendly and very helpful. It took us a minute to learn our way around the property, but after a while it was very familiar!|Other pluses: Simpson Bay Resort is right next door. Their beach bar (Coco Bay) is not expensive and the food is pretty decent. There is a grocery store very close (we walked there every day or every other day). The prices are probably a bit higher than the U.S. but really not bad and very convenient! (Tip: They do have recyclable grocery bags for 75cents – no plastic bags. We had brought a grocery bag which we also used. We did NOT rent a car, so we carried our bags back to our room). There is a bus stop at the bottom of the hill from Building 3 (next to Pelican Grill) where you can pick up a free shuttle to Phillipsburg for shopping. We did not do this on this trip, but the front desk can assist. The Buccaneer and Green House restaurants (both on the beach) are about 5 blocks away (down a hill up a hill down a hill). Buccaneer food was good as was the service. The more popular restaurants and larger shopping on Simpson Bay is a bit further down the hill (into a flat area) but it was a bit far for us to walk (and get back) largely because of the steep inclines (more on the hills in a minute). We did not need a car rental (taxis are readily available at the hotel entrance), but for people who want to do and see more, a rental may be useful (Tip from another visitor to the island who DID rent a car – when you type a location search for GPS, search for the PARKING locations rather than the sight itself as parking can be limited). |The beach is BEAUTIFUL! IT is not large (probably a quarter mile or so) but there was no sargassum (smelly seaweed) which was a serious problem on several other beaches during our stay. The beach is well maintained and the seas are calm (since it is a bay). The resort has umbrellas and beach chairs that are free to residents of the hotel. It also provides up to four beach towels per day (once a day). There are two locations for accessing beach towels – the pool area and the beach area. ||The challenges (not really negatives!): The lobby area is very small. For people who are looking for that ‘big first impression’ on arrival – this isn’t it. But that’s ok. We weren’t staying in the lobby – our room was the important thing and it was amazing. Also, the staff at the front desk were always very helpful and very patient!!||Pelican Beach Grill (the restaurant connected to the resort) is a great location but …. The restaurant service is very slow (even for Caribbean time) and the food is not good. |The HILLS! There are areas of the resort itself (especially rooms in buildings that are right on the beach) that do not require climbing hills (unless you need to walk somewhere else), but Building 3 was on a steep hill. We had to walk down a series of steps and then down an incline to cross the street to walk down another incline to the beach. The walk back is up one incline, up another incline across the street to the inclined driveway and staircase. We did ok, but people with mobility issues should NOT be in Building 3! People with very young children and a lot of ‘stuff’ to carry back and forth to the beach, should probably think hard about being in building 3. I did a search of images and could only find ONE that showed a bit of the incline for the walk (I wish we had taken pictures of this area). For people with cars, this is likely less of an issue, but we did get used to the walk after a while!|Without a car, if you want to do more shopping or restaurants than what is in the area, it would be best to either take a taxi or prepare for a bit of a walk (probably about a mile to the main area where the restaurants of Simpson Bay are located.)|Final thoughts: I LOVED OUR STAY! The beach was relaxing. We weren’t interested in doing a lot of ‘other stuff’ so were happy to have local meals and do shopping at the local grocery store. It was an extremely relaxing and enjoyable...

I took a chance on this hotel for our family, considering there are wildly divergent reviews. One of the big draws for us was the tennis courts, because our family includes several avid players. We were able to play in the mornings when we wanted to, without a problem. We were there in May, which is considered off-season, and perhaps for this reason, we saw literally no other activity on the courts. The main court was well-maintained. I think we had access to the second court too, and it looked good, but we didn't actually need it, so we didn't see it up close. All in all, this place turned out very well for our family -- but we also kind of lucked out on our main room (read on). We were not with a time share, but some of the guests were; I was only asked to attend the time-share lecture twice, and my husband wasn't approached, so there was no hard sell. We were on the top floor (5th) of the main building, with a beautiful balcony/view of the beach and the water; the room was clean and smelled fine. However, our adult daughters had a room in building 3, and there was an unbearable mold smell there. If this had been my only room, I would have been very upset. As it was, they stayed with us for half the trip (on the couch). In our room in the main building, we had a spotless kitchenette, and a large seating area, while the other room in building 3 had a washing machine and dryer (although I didn't use them). The way that the various buildings are clustered together on the hill is attractive, and they all look well-painted and well-maintained on the outside. There was room service once in the middle of the week (which I find sort of standard now, post-pandemic, and which I don't mind); we could get clean towels whenever we wanted them. In general, the location was great -- near Simpson Bay restaurants, but quiet at night, only about 20 minutes from both Marigot and Philipsburg, where the ports are (to Anguilla and St. Barth's, respectively). The Hilton's little beach was clean and nice, and we enjoyed swimming in the little bay, where we saw fish from time to time, although most days we took day trips. In the distance, we could see the airport, but there is no airport noise. The pool was also clean and large enough for laps. We found the staff to be friendly and helpful, and the few things we ate at the hotel restaurant were good -- nothing fancy, but no complaints. There were also 2 other establishments for breakfast (Juliette's Bistro, Isola Italian) and a grocery store, all across the street (as well as an amazing "Dutch Market" grocery store up/down a hill nearby, which we walked to several times), so there were various breakfast/lunch options. We agreed would stay here again, but only in the...

Update: I spoke with the front desk manager at checkout and she was amazing. We found out why there had been a lack of communication with management. The front desk manager, housekeeping manager and maintenance manager I'll sit down with me for a meeting to understand what had happened and how to prevent it again. In the end the management really took care of me. I am upgrading my review from a 2 star to a 3 star.

First I want to compliment them; the staff was super friendly and amazing! The location was wonderful! Unfortunately, by the end of our stay it was too much. It really would have been a good stay had we not had so much trouble with rooms.

Challenges from my experience.

First room (7340) the shower had a lot (5 long black strands of) hair in it that was not cleaned out. (I understand, it happens. I called and let the front desk know and they made a note).

screen door was broken. (Not a big deal because we weren't using it. Did not report it until I found the cockroach.)

room divider door was broken. (This we were using so we called maintenance. They came up and fixed it.)

find a giant cockroach in our shower. (I call request to speak to a manager and a room change. Manager never speaks to me but changes my room. Fair enough.) See photos

Second room (7210) last night at the resort and we moved into this rooom a couple hours ago. I go to shut the divider door to go to bed and it is completely broken. It is 10 pm and now we are having to wait for maintenance to fix it. We called maintenance. They came up immediately and tried to fix for 30 mins but we're not able to and said it was a multi-person job and he would need to come back tomorrow. See photos

The maintenance men were phenomenal and super friendly. The timeshare sales reps and the front desk staff BEYOND great! I never spoke with management although I made several attempts. They may have tried to call when I did not have service but I did come to the front desk multiple times in person and they were not available to speak with me.

To be fair, from talking to other guests it sounds like our experience was...