Peetyrd

Looking to plan a 5 night Carribbean trip next summer and am looking at free night/points redemption at either the Radisson resort and casino or the Radisson Blu St. Martin. Does anyone have any experiences with either.

Looking for good beaches, pools, activities and the ability to venture off the resort to experience the island and dining, although I would also eat at the resort restaurants a couple nights. It looks like the St. Martin property offers free breakfast, is this also true on a reward redemption?

skibum7732

We stayed at the Radisson Aruba in May and were upgraded to an ocean view suite, which was a nice room. The resort is right on Palm Beach, has very nice pools, and walking distance to many restaurants, bars, shopping, etc. We never ate at the resort, as there were to many other options nearby that were more reasonable and good.
St. Martin Radisson is on the French side, but I do not think there is much to do in the area if my memory from research is correct. We plan on going to St. Martin sometime next year, and will likely use our 2 free nights here and then move to Dutch side.
ps. Make sure you take advantage of the B1G1 from Radisson that ends Oct. 31. Get a free night for each person in your party and save some $ for sure.

filelover

Stayed at the Radisson Aruba last Spring Break and we just got back from St martin this week for Spring Break.

These were the major differences in our experience

1. Overall the St Martin property seems a little "nicer"

2. From an eating perspective the Aruba location is great - a lot of locations to eat just by crossing the street from the hotel. On the other hand St Martin location is isolated - there is one restaurant on property and another couple just next to it.

3. Aruba was just too windy (a little too windy when we were there) - the beach at St Martin was nicer too, much more calmer etc.

4. St Martin had a great pool - it was huge but pretty basic. Aruba had a better pool - plus they had things like Parrots etc which made it more kid friendly

5. We were upgraded at St Martin to a suite which was just fabolous

Only downside is the location of the St Martin location - with a vegetarian in a family dining options is critical to us. We had a car so it didn't matter otherwise St Martin would have been a tough choice

jaybert

i actually had a vacation planned for st martin in January at the radisson blu, but ended up canceling and rebooking at the radisson aruba because of the mosquito issue that hit Aruba in December/Jan (we brought our 5 month old, otherwise we wouldnt have cared about the virus that was going around in St. Martin).

I really enjoyed the Radisson Aruba, both the hotel itself and Aruba. We really enjoyed the property, especially the pool. We would get up early and "reserve" (i.e. put down towels) some chairs by the pool which had the giant umbrellas for shade and spend most of the morning + early afternoon there. At night, we would walk by the beach with the stroller. The Radisson also has a large number of the palapas on the beach, and has one of the better reservation systems. You can reserve them for free the previous day @ 4pm and guarantee its availability the next day (or you can pay like $15/day, and get the same one reserved your entire stay). At some of the other hotels in Aruba, not only do they have much fewer palapas, but its first come first serve, resulting in needing to get up at like 5am to hold it.

The food was mediocre in Aruba (Palm Beach at least, we didnt venture because of the infant). TBC, there were alot of restaurants to eat at and none we ate as was bad, but there wasnt anything that could be considered local/authentic to the Carribean. I ordered lobster one night, and I'm pretty sure it wasn't fresh and was actually frozen. You have your standard italian/pizza/etc restaurants. I haven't been to St Martin, but my understanding is that the restaurants are of a higher calibre there. They have some high quality restaurants on the French side in Grand Case and I'm guessing they would have been much better than where we ate in Aruba.

That said, Aruba was perfect for us since we had an infant. Everything was within walking distance, felt safe, and there were paved roads on both the beach side, as well as the restaurant side. The pool was never crowded/rowdy and was a wonderful place to just hang out by the pool with the infant and relax.

I'd like to go St Martin at some point, but its probably a place to wait until the baby gets a bit older. Having to drive everywhere to eat/etc, feels a bit too ambitious for us after we were able to be pretty stress free in Aruba.

AveApostle

It's always great when the questions people ask help other people too. Thanks to all as we plan a vacation with a toddler--to probably Aruba, not St. Martin!

SkiBum, you said there's a B1G1 promotion--might you direct me to what you're referring to? I haven't come across it yet, either on this forum or their website. Would it work if he were already using points to redeem free nights, even?

Everyone who got upgrades: what elite level might you be?

Thanks much from a CC newbie.

jaybert

I was gold (via CC credit card) and got upgraded to a partial ocean view in the main tower where the checkin is (Aruba tower maybe? Forget the names)