Toward the middle of the long beach is a local hangout with restaurants and live bands. Patrons can get a tan while eating local lobster or learning to dance the merengue. They can rent a jetski or snorkeling equipment, or try parasailing. At Club Orient they can book a nudie cruise. Nightlife is concentrated at the big resorts, which combine night clubs, discos, restaurants and late-night shopping.
Many hotels organize beachside barbecues, with dancing to the music of steel drum bands.
Good Caribbean music can be found at the many live-music clubs on the Dutch side, such as News Music Cafe, Greenhouse, Indiana Beach, Amnesia and Cheri's Cafe. European style, subdued and sophisticated. Then there are places like the Sea Breeze Hotel, located on the Dutch side one mile from the beach in a quaint residential neighborhood of Cay Hill. It's a three-story hotel with 31 recently refurbished rooms and a swimming pool. More than 100 food booths will be set up during Carnival along Front Street in Philipsburg, serving up such things as conch and dumplings, open-pit barbecued chicken and johnny cakes.