Maho Beach Resort Full Review

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I spent a week at the Sonesta Maho Beach Resort in St. Maarten in February 2020 with my husband. Previously I had been to St. Maarten as a stop on a cruise itinerary, and knew that this was an island I had to return to and explore. Here’s my full review of our week at the Sonesta Maho Beach Resort.

Selecting our Accommodations

When we were originally planning our trip for February, I was torn between returning to Mexico (because we love the food, the beaches, and accommodations are usually very nice), and trying somewhere new. We’d stopped in St. Maarten on two different cruises (Princess and Royal Caribbean) and really liked it. We picked the Sonesta Maho Beach Resort for a few reasons:

• it was recently completely renovated/rebuilt after the hurricane destruction
• it was the only all-inclusive resort available on the Dutch side of the island, and
• my parents really liked the Sonesta Great Bay Beach Resort (it was sadly destroyed in the hurricane)

Airport to Maho Beach Resort

The Maho Beach Resort is literally next-door to the airport. You can search for “Maho Beach” online and see videos and pictures of the planes landing and taking off. Needless to say, the location is very convenient to the airport. It takes approximately 5 minutes to drive from the resort. This meant we got to our resort very quickly, and didn’t have to leave hours in advance. Sunwing had buses waiting and moving trucks were used to transport all of the luggage to and from the hotel. Upon arrival, our luggage was waiting in the lobby and could stay there until we checked into our room.

Overall Transportation Experience: Great experience and location getting to and from the airport

Check-In

En route to the hotel, we were told that there would be Sunwing tables set up for check-in. The tables were in alphabetical order, and multiple lines were set up to help check-in move quickly. Unfortunately after waiting in our line, we found out our envelope wasn’t there. We then had wait in line at the front desk. There was no organization here, which meant guests were crowding the desk area and cutting in front of people who had been waiting longer. After a 10 minute wait we made it to the front and were told to go back to the Sunwing tables. So we went with the front desk attendant who again, couldn’t find our information. In the end they had to make us a new package. The check-in process took us about 40 minutes from all of the waiting and explaining.

Overall Check-In Experience: Not a great experience. I don’t think what we experienced is the standard – we saw other guests check-in fairly quickly.

Room

I booked the superior island/garden view room, but was pleased to find we had been upgraded to the premier ocean view room category. Our room was #852 on the 8th floor of the hotel and had fantastic views of the ocean and pool. The resort bracelets were also our “keys” to our room which I thought was very convenient.

The room itself was quite large, but did have a lot of wasted space due to the adjoining door. Aside from that, it was new, clean, and nicely decorated. The bed was a king and very comfortable for me and my husband. We had 4 fluffy pillows (plus an extra in the closet) and I really liked how light the linens were. The bathroom was large as well, with great lighting and good counter space. The room had good seating areas and plenty of storage for all of our clothing. I also liked how many plugs and USB outlets there were – and in convenient locations! In the room we had a mini-fridge that was restocked daily with soft drinks, beer and water and we also had 3 bottles of alcohol (rum, gin and vodka).

My only complaint about the room was that the shower was poorly designed and water would be on the floor after every shower – it didn’t matter how careful we were! So we wasted a lot of towels every day mopping up the water. Check out my room tour post here.

Overall Room Experience: Great experience – we loved our room, location, views, and had a very comfortable stay.

Service

In general we had good service at the resort. There were definitely some employees that were more friendly and proactive than others. As always, when you’re on a resort things run a little slower than in North America. Service seemed to be the slowest at the buffet (regardless of it was busy or not), and at the Palms restaurant at lunch. There were a few bartenders that served drinks around the pool during the day who were great. Our room was cleaned quickly each day and restocked, though most days we weren’t given new face cloths.

Overall Service Experience: Good experience overall, though at times service was slow.

Pool

When we booked this hotel we read online that there were two pools, however the second pool was actually a water playground for children. The main pool at the resort was large, and I never found the actual pool to be too crowded. The pool chairs on the other hand were extremely difficult to come by if you didn’t get up before 9:00 am to reserve a spot. I noticed that many people reserved their chairs and barely used them all day! Around lunch time you could usually find a few seats open up, so we had seats every day (even if we didn’t reserve them early in the morning). I also liked that pool floats and toys were permitted in the pool. I brought a float and would float close to the edge by our seats – it was a great way to keep cool while enjoying the sun.

Overall Pool Experience: Great experience, and I loved that they played music all day long.

Beach

From Google Maps and the reviews online, I knew that this resort didn’t have a great beach. Next door there is an interesting experience at Maho Beach – where planes fly over at very low altitudes. This is a public beach so there are no chairs for the resort on the beach, no umbrellas, and the water was very rough so swimming conditions were poor. Overall, if you’re looking for an amazing beach experience at a resort, this probably wouldn’t be for you.

Overall Beach Experience: Poor. If you book this resort and want to go to the beach, Mullet Bay Beach is about a 7-10 minute walk, and it is a better experience. There are beach chairs, umbrellas, washrooms, a beach bar, and the water was much calmer.

Food & Drink

When it came to food and drinks, this resort had a pretty decent selection. I really enjoyed the food here and I liked the variety of restaurant options. The choices ranged from the standard buffet, to various sit-down restaurants. There were bars spread throughout the resort, but they were fairly slow in terms of service. It would have been great to have more bartenders working to serve the amount of guests onsite. Here’s a closer look at each of the restaurants and what I thought of each.

Buffet

We ate here every day for breakfast. It was never too busy if you got there before 8:30 and there was a good selection of breakfast options. The buffet was also open for lunch, but we never tried it over the lunch hour. We did eat dinner there twice, and while it was good, there wasn’t a lot of variety. We preferred eating at other restaurants for dinner.

Ascot Pub

The pub is located outside the resort on the second story of the Maho complex. It’s not open every night, so check with the reception desk or one of the electronic kiosks to see what’s open each night. We were lucky enough to arrive on our first night just in time for karaoke and late night snacks. We also ate dinner here twice and tried a few different options on the menu. I definitely recommend the braised beef short ribs and the chile con carne. The atmosphere here makes you feel like you’re in an authentic pub and we really enjoyed the dining experience.

Palms Grill

This restaurant was open each day for lunch and also some nights for dinner. We only ate here at lunch because we could never time it right to get reservations. We really liked the lunch menu, and they would make some modifications to the menu items if you asked. For dinner they have the lava rock experience where you cook your own meal using their lava rocks. I will say, this looks really neat but it is extremely smoky and smelly in the area when people are cooking their meat.

Jing’s

This restaurant is also located outside of the resort. Saying we ate dinner here would be a lie. We tried to eat dinner here, but the food was awful. The buffet bar with appetizers had ok variety, but the food was all lukewarm. Our appetizers from the kitchen weren’t even hot when they arrived (spring rolls) and our meals were barely warm and tasted like instant noodles. If I ever go back, I would definitely skip this restaurant. We ended up not finishing our meals (which we hate to do) and went to the buffet to get something else to eat.

The Point

This is the Italian restaurant and our favourite restaurant on the resort. We ate here twice, and I wish we ate here sooner so we could have gone back more often. The atmosphere is very nice because you are located right beside the ocean. Depending on your dining time, you can enjoy sunset over the water and a romantic candle lit dinner. The inside dining area opens to the outdoors with large rolling doors. So even if you don’t get a great sea-side table, you can still hear the ocean.

The food here was my favourite on the entire resort. We tried a few different options, but the best dish I tried was the lasagna. I’d highly recommend this restaurant if you’re staying on the resort, and make sure to book your reservations when you arrive, as the restaurants all fill up quickly.

Cafe

One thing I liked about the resort was the convenience of the cafe. Located in the main lobby and open from early morning to late evening, this is where you could pick up coffee, baked goods, and sandwiches. This is usually a self-serve spot for coffee, but there were employees making all of the coffee and serving the food from behind the counter. It was great to be able to run down to the cafe for early morning coffee before heading to breakfast.

Food and Drink Overall Experience: Great experience. Though to be fair, we didn’t have any dietary restrictions or allergies so we were always able to find something good to eat.

Entertainment & Activities

The resort had an activities board in the main lobby area that outlined entertainment and activities for the week. Each day there were activities by the pool including aqua fit, bingo, trivia and music. There was also yoga in the gazebo overlooking the ocean. The evenings however were a different story. We didn’t find there to be great entertainment in the evenings. One night we caught the karaoke at the Ascot Pub which was great. There was also occasionally music by the beach in the evenings, but it was usually over by 9 or 10 pm. Outside the resort there were some musical performances outside of the casino, but these were random and over fairly quick. If you’re into gambling, there was an onside casino with slot machines and across the street there was a full casino.

Overall Entertainment & Activities: Fair. I would say that there were good day time activities, but the entertainment in the evening was lacking.

Gym & Spa

The gym was located on the fourth floor of the hotel and had a variety of equipment. If you’re looking to work out on vacation, then I’d say this gym would have you covered. I’m not usually a person who exercises on holiday, but the gym here did look rather inviting! The spa was also located in the Maho Beach resort and could be use by both Maho and Ocean Point guests. They offered a variety of treatments including manicures, pedicures, a sauna, steam room, facials, body treatments and massages. Prices were consistent with spas back home, so if you’re looking for a little extra pampering on vacation you should check this spa out.

Overall Spa Experience: I can’t provide an actual rating, as I didn’t receive any treatments. But I did get a tour and it looked like it would be a relaxing spa experience.

Accessibility at Maho Beach Resort

For anyone travelling with accessibility issues (using mobility devices such as canes, wheelchairs, or scooters) you may be interested in what the resort offers to accommodate you. Throughout the resort there were ramps for those who couldn’t do stairs. There were also paved walkways, though they were quite narrow even for walking. Within the main hotel there were elevators, but they were quite small so it would be difficult to get a wheelchair or scooter in and out. Some areas of the resort weren’t the greatest when it came to accessibility. The beach was pretty much inaccessible if you were in a wheelchair or scooter. Additionally, if you had issues walking, it was difficult to get down there for fully able bodied people. The casino in the main lobby was inaccessible to wheelchairs or scooters, and the cafe was quite narrow so very difficult to navigate in there.

When it comes to the restaurants outside of the resort, I’m not even sure if there were elevators to take you up. We had to walk up a flight of stairs to get to escalators to go up to Jing’s and the Ascot Pub. I didn’t see elevators, but they may have had them in the parking garage area. Either way, it wasn’t a convenient experience for people who couldn’t or shouldn’t do stairs.

Overall Accessibility Experience: Fair. My husband was traveling with a cane as he has limited mobility due to a knee injury. He was able to make it around just fine, but others in wheelchairs and scooters looked to be having a harder time.

Overall Experience at Maho Beach Resort

The Sonesta Maho Beach Resort was a lovely resort. I loved the greenery and landscaping, the location was exceptionally convenient to the airport and off-resort activities, and I enjoyed watching the planes over Maho Beach. Our room was fantastic, we had decent service, employees were generally friendly, and despite the resort being at full capacity we never felt like it was too busy.

Overall Resort Experience: If I had to give this a rating out of 5 stars, I’d give it 4/5. The only things lacking for me were the entertainment and the beach area. Everything else was a good experience for us. I would definitely go back, however next time I’d stay at the Ocean Point to try out the “adults only” amenities.