My husband and I frequently do "Spur Of The Moment" getaways.
Our original plans were to stay at a resort adjacent to Alegria but the resort was experiencing intestinal health issues so we quickly changed our location.
Alegria was very spacious with large rooms to include a washer and dryer. Balcony offered a view of the famous Maho beach, Julian airport airplane landing. Close enough to view but far enough away from the noise of overhead landing.
The location was in a quiet area and within walking distance to Maho beach and restaurants. Sunset beach was sufficient for breakfast and lunch.
Rental cars are a must for us to get around as taxi's can add up and we love to drive around and spend as much time as we like in an area or at any of the beaches.
We like to go over to the French side, St Martin to eat and its a much relaxed side as Dutch side St Maarten is very touristy with the cruise crowd. Beaches are always crowded and lunches/dinners can get "backed up" with increased tourist. Most tourist on day trips or cruises do not venture to the French side due to time constraints hence the congestion of restaurants on the Dutch side St Maarten.
Two of our favorite places to eat on St Martin are, Lolo's of Grand Case, fresh food and catch of the day down town near the pier. Le Cottage was another one of our favorites.
Alegria is going through renovations. It will be exciting to see the new and improved and plan our next quick get-a-way.

We choose this location due to it's proximity to Maho beach. You can see the airport/runway from the top floor of the hotel and it is a very short walk to the beach and Sunset Bar/Refuge restaurant. Upon checking in, we were informed that the air conditioning was not working. They claimed it would be working later that evening. After dinner when we returned the air conditioning was still not working, with no estimate on when it would be back up. We asked the manager to relocate us free of charge. She graciously found us a similar quality resort over in the Simpson Bay area, the Flamingo Resort. She also paid the taxi fee to transfer us there. After a few days at the other location, the manager of Alegria called us to inform that the air conditioning had been fixed and offered for us to return. We took her up on that offer and spent our last few days at Alegria. The rooms had full kitchens, laundry machines, and separate bedroom and living areas. The rooms were clean and descent quality. There are two pools, but no hot tub. The outside area is in need of cosmetic improvements. There are some nearby buildings that are run down or no longer occupied, which makes the location less appealing. This hotel is in an excellent location and I hope they will continue to invest and improve the area. Overall, I would recommend this hotel, even though we had this issue with the broken air conditioning. The management handled the situation very well and it ended up giving us additional opportunities that we wouldn't have otherwise had.