We've only ever been on the French side after dark and have never had problems. The majority of the time we spend at Club Orient which has security, but we have walked down Orient Beach at night looking for one of the few open bars and taken a cab to Grand Case for Mardis de Grand Case and stayed past dark. St. Martin felt much safer to us than Guadeloupe at night, but our only data point in Guadeloupe is the cruise ship docks in Pointe-A-Pitre.
NO ... but there have been incidents on the island while we were there. We visited SXM every year from 2001 to 2009. Never had an incident that we would consider "crime." I was duped twice by someone stating that they were a parking lot attendant and I had to pay $5 to park. The second time, I fell for the same scheme but the guy looked more "official," still ... got duped by him for another $5!
I've been in a few dicey spots and gotten us into places we probably shouldn't have been but didn't have any incidents or issues. We've been on Orient Beach late at night but it's always been with a group. When one couple goes, a couple more go with but there always seemed to be communication between those staying at Club O and visiting a restaurant or bar down the beach, after hours. We all made sure someone had some to walk back with and not just another couple but at least two couples or a few guys.
You need to be careful on most of the Caribbean islands. Even the islands with fancy resorts are mostly poor with locals looking for any way to get money. Treat everywhere you go as your being 'on the bad side of town'. St Martin, Puerto Rico, and Jamaica are notoriously bad. If you're in a resort on Haiti, you don't EVER want to leave the resort grounds.ClubOrient has good 24 hour security. I've been staying there since theearly 1990s and have never heard of a problem on the resort. Myfirst stay on French side of St Martin, Istayed at the non-nude beach hotel next to Club O.It's been closed now, off and on, for 20 years. I knew I was in for worry when the taxi brought me down the entry road with 12' barbed wire topped chain link fencing on both sides of the road. On about the fourth night, I heard a ruckus in the room next to me. Next morning I learned that two locals rowed in from the sea and broke in to thehotel room, robbing the occupants at gunpoint. No onewas hurt.Resort did not have overnight security, nor a 24-hour desk, so guests could only report robbery on the next morning. I've not heard of people being robbed on the streets. There's much of the island, Dutch and French sides, that would make me uncomfortable to visit. On a number of trips, however, I brought my bicycle and would ride the 42-mile perimeter road in the mornings, through all the main island cities and villages, and saw no problems, other than some insane driving.
On our first trip to St. Martin, we drove to the top of Pic Paradise. We parked the car and my wife and our friend walked around while I stayed by the car. After a few minutes they called me to take a photo and I walked around a corner for less than five minutes. During that time, robbers went through the car and stole our friend's money and shorts. Shame on us for even going up there.
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