Orient Beach is very easy to find. Follow the signs to the Middle Region, then to Orleans. Orient Beach is a few minutes past Orleans. There appear to be several entries. Just take one and you will gradually wind your way down to the beach. I think we took the second entry (at the top of the hill). The road winds down around rental properties until you end up at the Bikini Beach Bar section. This is the perfect spot. Find a spot to park and enjoy.

There are plenty of nice beach chairs to rent. Just pick one and someone will be right along to collect your money. If you do not want the umbrella, the cost is $6. I'm not sure what the cost with umbrellas are.

The sand is powdery soft in this area. The waves are not too rough and the water is absolutely beautiful. There are several beach bars and restaurants to get something to eat or drink.

Since Orient Beach is on the French side, it is common to see the ladies go topless. One end of this beach is clothing optional. Occasionally, you will see someone from the clothing optional section taking a stroll along the beach in front of you. If you, like us, are not used to strangers walking around naked in front of you, it's quite startling at first. However, by the time you see a clothesless group come out of the market, you're kind of used to it. It's just part of the Orient Beach scene and you should not let it prevent you from returning to Orient Beach. The other beaches cannot hold a candle to this one. Go and enjoy.

We arrived at Orient Beach from the Northwest near the Boo Boo Jam beach bar (accessed from a dirt road). This end of the beach is more secluded with less people, although this bar does get crowded for happy hour with live "caribbean style" music. We setup our beach chairs on a quiet stretch near the Esmeralda resort, and headed towards the action.

The beach is beautiful: a long curved stretch of white sand, meeting the turquoise water. It was everything we wanted in a beach and we spent two of our vacation days here. During our second trip, we parked near the other end of the bay, which had many more restaurants, vacation resorts, and paved roads! I would recommend entering Orient Beach via this route(follow the signs) - we just didn't realize on the first day there were other access points, as we entered the area from Grand Case and didn't drive far enough to find this entry.

This was one of the calmer beaches we visited - with many water activities. There were people using floats in the water, and this was one of the few beaches where the waves were calm enough to allow this. There were two water trampolines. Vendors also offered snorkelling excursions, trips to Pinel island, parasailing, jet ski rentals, and almost everything else you can do at the beach. There were several souvenir shops and the restaurants offered chair rentals. It was $6.00 per person, and included a free drink.

There were a variety of people from all over the world on this beach. Although the restaurants are mostly French, they offer menus in English and the people spoke English. Everyone was very friendly. There were couples, singles and families populating this beach, as it has amenties for everyone. If you are looking for a long, secluded beach for a romantic, quiet stroll - this isn't the beach for you - I would recommend Long Beach.

The infamous nudist resort is located on the southeast end of the beach. The rest of the beach is topless (although there were plenty of people wearing tops) with the exception of a small area that allows nudists near the Esmaralda resort. Parents should be prepared that if you go to this beach, your children will see topless women, and most likely several nude people. While we were there we saw several nude men on leisurely strolls past the prime activity areas on the beach. If this is a problem, you should not go to this beach.

This is a fabulous beach and I highly recommend visiting here .... and if you are looking for an allover tan - this is the place to do it....

You can parasail, windsail... Snorkeling is not the best here though.

What can I say, I could spend the rest of my life here!