Car Rental - St. Maarten

[maryr65]

We'd like to rent a car when we're there. Does anyone know which car rental agencies are close to the dock?

 

Thanks

[Tenbyman]

You will find an office near to the dock, but be warned they drive like mad monkeys.

[maryr65]

You will find an office near to the dock, but be warned they drive like mad monkeys.

 

We certainly thought that when we were in St. Thomas. We thought SM seemed more like driving in downtown Chicago. Since DH wants to go to several beaches and drive about we thought a car would be the best way to go.

 

I didn't know if I needed to reserve ahead of time or just try getting a car when we dock.

[thewolffs]

I rented a car in Dec. from the pier in St. Maarten. I needed a mini-van and made a reservation at both Hertz and Budget, I believe. They both gave my van away by the time I got there. They had plenty of other cars, just not the van. Best Deal Car Rentals came through and brought a van over from the airport. It ended up being cheaper than the other 2 places. We are going to rent from them again in Oct. There are only the 3 agencies at the pier that I saw. If you just need a Toyota Corolla type of car, you should have no problem getting one. There were lots of people getting Jeeps and SUV's too. They had everything but a van.

 

When you walk over to where the offices are, they will all approach you trying to get you to rent from them. You can try to get the price down. It doesn't hurt to have a reservation, but seeing as it is more like a first come, first serve, I don't think you need one. Best Deal said they wouldn't have given our van away. Who know's if they really mean that.

 

We spent a week in St. Maarten for our honeymoon, so we loved driving around and giving the tour to our parents. We stayed over at Dawn Beach, which is one of my favorites. Good luck and have fun!

[USCGamecock]

We will be on Adventure of the Seas in April with a stop in Philipsburg. I asked the same question on the TTOL board and heard of two agencies at the pier. Dollar rents there, but has gotten bad reviews. Best Deal also is there and has gotten good reviews for service and the quality of the cars. Only complaint was their distinctive marking and labels on their cars. This immediately identifies you as a tourist, but everyone can probably tell anyway. You can e-mail them for a quote at info@bestdealcarrentals.net

 

Have fun!

[seagarsmoker]

If you really want to rent a car (or jeep), we have gone through Best Deals and they were very good to work with. That being said, I'd strongly recomend what has been said above - do not rent a car and just cab it for the day if possible. Almost every city is like driving bumper cars.

[Boo's Mom]

I have done the rental car thing..... in St Maarten and St Thomas.

 

I booked through a middle man . Don't do it.

 

St Maarten didn't have the car we reserved...we had to a very expensive upgrade. The staff told us... "We told that guy that we didn't have any rentals available....".

 

St Thomas....Although we had a reservation, there were no cars available when we got there.

 

Yes, my deposit was refunded, but the point is: The reservations we had...meant nothing.

 

My advice: Do the reservation thru a USA based company (ie: AVIS)....and confirm, confirm, confirm. 2 months out, 2 weeks out, 1 day prior to sailing.

 

The Island Drivers: They are crazy ! Especially in St. Thomas....they drive on the left side of the road.

[antcindee]

Just got off the Radiance of the Seas yesterday, rented a car in St Maarteen,

5 diffferent companies right there at the pier, Hertz, Avis, Budget and 2 local guys.

For a Toyota like car, seats 4 with A/C and automatic they were all around the same price, $40 after very little negotiation. I used Reynolds, local guy, cars are decent, nothing fancy but he is reliable. I personally found the driving in St Maarten very easy, one main road all the way around and traffic wasnt bad at all. St Thomas however was a totally different story, horrible driving, horrible traffic but we managed just fine. Prices are much higher in St Thomas and less cars available.

[BuyReallyLow]

Just returned off Serenade of the Seas and rented a car for the day in St. Marten.

 

We rented with Arthur - Rented a Jeep Wrangler for a bit under $100. Very good experience overall - Make sure you have the email with your confirmation and your phone number. St. Marten can get busy, and if you are tendered instead of at the main dock, you are dropped off right downtown - not near the car rentals. With one phonecall, arthur came to pick us up (5-10 minute), drive us back to the office (near main docks), complete paperwork, and then your off! Dropping the car off was also easy - just drop keys into mailbox. Very nice guy - good price.

 

Driving around was very easy - driving is on the right (or as they may say wrong) side of the road. Once out of the city, traffic really lightens up. Make SURE to visit Dawn Beach. Orient is very busy - if your into lines of umbrellas - you'll have fun - but for a quiet beach - look to Dawn.

 

Hope this helps.

[maryr65]

Thanks for all the great info. We definetly are not driving in St. Thomas, but DH wants to drive in St. Maarten.

[Kviolasr]

We made an internet reservation and rented through Best Deals last year on St. Maarten. Their booth is at the pier. Not sure exactly what we paid but it was approx. $55 for a small jeep (like a Rav 4). No problem with Best Deals except they watch that gas gauge very carefully - be sure to bring the car back with EXACTLY the same amount of gas as when you picked it up (I was approx. 1/8 of a tank off - they charged me $20), I won't make that mistake again.

 

I highly recommend renting a car on St. Maarten, you can really cover a lot of ground during your port day. You can visit a couple of beaches and then make a stop in Marigot. You can cover most of the island in a few hours. Careful of the traffic in Simpson Bay near the drawbridge.

[Seaside2358]

We too rented with Best Deal in November in St. Maarten. We had a blast driving around the countryside. They will give you a map and point you in the right direction, lol. I did the videotape as we were driving and have some great footage. It was really alot of fun. They do drive crazy but that was half the fun...

[vmarq]

We just rented last week in St. Maarten with Best Deal. We had reserved ahead of time over the internet for a price of $60.00. The reservation was for a Toyota Corolla but ended up with I believe was a Hyundai Sonata because they were out of Corolla's. We decided to rent with them because of the horror stories I had read about the well known rental companies. It seems you could do a little better on price with some of the other rental companies at the pier because I heard them yelling out 35 and 40 dollar rates as people walked by.

 

We had no problem with Best Deal but I agree that they do advertise that the car is from Best Deal on the car. They recommended that you take the counter-clockwise route around the island due to traffic jams at Simpson Bay Bridge in the afternoon.

Vicki

[thewolffs]

I heard them renting cars for $40.

[Seaside2358]

There was no advertisement on our car from Best Deal...