It was arguably the most high-profile resort on the Dutch side of St Maarten: the Westin Dawn Beach resort, set on one of the most beautiful shorelines on the island and the area’s most famous branded hotel. 

Then that unwelcome guest named Irma showed up and for nearly seven years the resort sat in varying stages of disrepair, with only former timeshare owners able to access it. 

This week, though, the property made its triumphant return, officially reopening as the newest JW Marriott resort in the Caribbean. 

As Caribbean Journal first reported, the 200-room resort has been reborn as the new JW Marriott St Maarten Beach Resort and Spa.

It’s just the second JW Marriott on a Caribbean island (and the first one on a beach) joining the longtime, business-focused JW Marriott in Santo Domingo. 

So what’s on offer?

The hotel has a signature JW Bar, joined by a quick-grab JW Market. There’s a Mediterranean eatery called Liguria, along with an all-day, “flip-flop dining” eatery called Carambola. 

There’s also a full-service fitness center, a spa called Hbiscus and, perhaps most notably for the island, nearly 30,000 square feet of indoor and outdoor meeting and event space. 

It’s part of something of a hotel renaissance for St Maarten, which in the last few years welcomed a new, modern resort called The Morgan, a new-build hotel called the Adonis in Cupecoy; and has a major new five-star resort project under way called Vie L’Ven in Indigo Bay. 

That’s along with some new hotel energy on the French side, from the debut of the M Hotel in Cul de Sac to a soon-to-debut resort in the heart of Marigot.

And yes, you can book the resort using Marriott Bonvoy points. A three-night stay in the heart of March is going for about 273,000 points per stay, according to the Bonvoy app. 

For more, visit the JW Marriott St Maarten.