The "No Tan Lines" Story

Club Orient Beach in St. Martin

It was an ordinary day.  Packing a lunch of sandwiches, chips, cookies, drinks and 2 Snicker's Bars to take with us to the beach for the day.  Some days we buy lunch at one of the many beach bars and restaurants that line the rim of Orient Beach in St. Martin, but other days we opt for not having to put our suits on and take our lunch.  Oops!  Did you really read that correctly.  Maybe!  In 2001 Carol and I traveled with our traveling friends, Jerry and Just Sue, to St. Martin for the first time.  Our mutual friend, Jeff, had suggested we may enjoy trips to St. Thomas and St. Martin to see the great scenery, especially the gorgeous beaches.  He had been to both while on a cruise and said we shouldn't miss either one.  So, we scheduled a ten day trip; five days in each location.  St. Thomas is one of the three United States Virgin Islands and we made our first stop at this beauty.  My favorite was Magen's Bay, since it was the first tropical beach I had ever experienced.  After years of traveling to the Jersey Shore, Magen's Bay was unbelievable.  After five days we hopped a commuter plane and landed at Princess Juliana Airport on Sint Maarten.  This island has dual counties that share the island; French on one side and Dutch on the other.  We were booked at the Mercure Simpson Resort on the French side.  We quickly realized the bathing habits and traditions of the French side were quite different than those which we were accustomed to in the US.  Topless bathing and even nude bathing was the norm for the French.  One side trip Carol and I took that first visit was by ourselves to a tiny French island off the shore of St. Martin called Pinel.  Just about all the women there were topless and after a short time, my wife decided she felt out of place with her top on, so off it came.  Subsequent visits to the island by Carol and me found that most beaches on the French side as well as a few of the beaches on the Dutch side of the island accepted topless bathing.  A few of the beaches on the French side also accepted nude bathing.  So, when in St. Martin, you have to do as the St. Martiners do; swim sans suit.  Amazing the feeling you get from swimming without a bathing suit and naturally you get no tan lines when relaxing on the beach.  Uncomfortable feeling?  Nah, actually you tend to feel more out of place with a suit on. Everyone looks at you!  And, you need to pack less in your suitcase for your vacation.  

On French Orient Beach there is an entire section of the beach reserved for nude bathers and on many days there are as many or more bathers in the nude section as there are on the prude section.   Carol and I were sitting at Club Orient today, relaxing under our yellow umbrella on our orange loungers when I looked at her and said, "We're going to need a lot more lotion."  It was another extraordinary day in the life of an ordinary guy.