Today, I did not feel like a tourist on this island I now call home. I felt like a local, for probably one of the first times since being here. Some of the spouses got together this morning and walked the road to La Belle Creole Hotel. It sounds like a tourist destination, and it was at one point, but it no longer is. In fact mostly locals only know about it.
This was back when it was thriving (thanks google images).
It no longer looks that clear and clean as far as the plant vegetation goes.
La Belle Creole Hotel was a 5 star hotel until 1995 when Hurricane Luis hit. It was built on a secluded Peninsula. From the beach you can see Anguilla Island, St. Barts Island, and Marigot which is on Saint Martin and is the capitol of the French side of the island. The hotel has been closed since. The property is closed off to visitors now so you have to park your car on the side of the road and walk down the long stretch of road that once led straight to the hotel. There is an abandoned guard shack as you walk down. The trees and vegetation has completely overgrown in this area.
People say that every home in St. Martin have a piece of La Belle Creole because it was ransacked after they closed it down from the hurricane. I wish people hadn't come in and vandalized it with their grafitti and other things. It would have made seeing the ruins even more exciting because it would have looked as if it did (at least some what) just after the hurricane.
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| Addison and I |
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| Kate, Phoenix, and Addison |
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| Kate and Addison |
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| This was once a nice restaurant. |
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| Graffiti in the pool |
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| The road to get there. |
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| Stephanie and Kate looking out at the beach |
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| The hotel built a walk way to the island, that has since been wiped away. |
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| Better view of the walk way. |
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| Addison on the beach. |
The island hotel has a secluded beach. Its super calm water because of a natural "bridge or walk way" that the waves crash at so it creates a little pool of water that is calm. It was great for the kids except there was a lot of seaweed and shells. Because it was private it was nice to not have to worry about a lot of people. The sand was a little rougher because it was covered in shells but we enjoyed it never the less.
It was an awesome place to visit, and see. I can not wait to take Aaron back and hopefully even any visitors that want to see it, after all its free ;)
If you want to read more about La Belle Creole Hotel I found a few links that are pretty interesting.
This first one is where you actually went to get hotel information and maybe register? It gives prices and everything, plus has pictures of what it looked like over 20 years ago. This was my favorite link I found.
This one is basically the history behind La Belle Creole, the development, who developed it, and how long it took to develop. Its an interesting read as well.
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