St. Maarten- shore excursions

[Ocjay]

Good evening everyone,

 

I wanted to know if anyone has any recommendations for shore excursions for St. Maarten? We are cruising the Adventure of the Seas Jan 2 2016 with stops at St. Croix, St. Kitts, St. Maarten, Dominica, and Barbados. Any help will be greatly appreciated.

 

 

Thank you

[headhunterke]

Is this your first time to the island? If so, I can highly recommend a tour around the Island. Most ships offer a pretty extensive tour which covers both the Dutch & French side. If you want to have more freedom, you can always rent a taxi or book a tour through an independant supplier.

If you have been here before, you can easily get to St. Bart's (if you have enough time ashore that is) and discover this as well.

St. Maarten is home to the famous airport where jumbo's fly feet above the beach and a cab there is fairly inexpensive.

St. Maarten is great for shopping (specially on Front & Back Street) souvenirs and they've got some great spices & hot sauces. Near Marigot (the capital of the French part), you'll find a flea market and there's a little mall across the street as well.

You can also opt to make your way up to the castle (Fort St. Louis) where you got a great view.

 

Plenty of things to do, so I think you'll need to specify what kind of people (beach, culture, shopping, adventure,...) you are in order to get some better info on this.

[CruiserBruce]

As we don't know you, your interests, your limitations, and your budget, it is very difficult to give recommendations.

 

Take a look at what RCI is offering. What interests you? Look at the Ports boards, here:

 

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/forumdisplay.php?f=587

 

You might be able to take private tours, or even do stuff on your own, walking, using public transit or taxis. Join your roll call, here:

 

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=2121076

 

to find out what others on your cruise are doing, and what info they have.

[Crew News]

Our favorite attraction is the low-priced Dutch Gouda cheese ($5/pound) in a 6.6-pound wheel. Approximately 100 feet from the pier is a tourist information booth. If you walk around the booth, there is a very small grocery store with wheels of Gouda cheese in their refrigerator.

 

With current Gouda cheese prices in the USA around $16/pound, we buy four wheels (around 27 pounds) to tide us over until we can return to St Maartens.

 

Holland America Line will keep the cheese in cold storage for us until the night before we disembark in Fort Lauderdale. Since the wheels are encased in was, their is no customs or TSA issues.

 

Cheese makes a wonderful gift to family and friends.

[janetz]

http://www.12metre.com/regatta.htm

 

Booked only thru the ship. :)

[Loving My Life]

http://www.12metre.com/regatta.htm

 

Booked only thru the ship. :)

 

Our first time in St. M we did this. It was awesome!! Our second time we did some shopping on the Dutch side, then spent a good chunk of the day at Maho beach watching the planes take off and land - also great fun! Whenever we get there again, we're heading to the French side since we haven't made it there yet.

Edited April 13, 2015 by Loving My Life

[LOVINCRUIZIN]

We just go to cut loose and have fun. In December we did a tour in the scoot coupe cars which was an absolute blast. we would definitely do that again

[LA_CA_GAL]

Consider grabbing a cab, go to Orient Beach, and relax.

 

Great beach, lots of restaurants/bars, nice beach chairs, umbrellas.

 

Very easy to do.

[FTLcruisers]

Check out Bernard's Tours - his tours include stops on both sides of the island including a stop at the famous beach where jets fly in over your heads!

 

Marianne

[JTBCruiser]

We used this tour (Shore Trips) last Feb and really enjoyed it, $70 per person.

https://www.shoretrips.com/excursion/region-car-sxm-056510/caribbean-central-america/st-martin-st-maarten/sail-snorkel-on-our-friendliest-catamaran

[Hlitner]

Perhaps you might want to take a cue from the many folks who live (often in condos) and spend vacations on St Maarten (we have done this ourselves). What do you think the "natives" do? St Maarten is a popular vacation island because of its usually good weather (although it can often be windy), nice beaches, great quality and variety of food, and pretty decent shopping with virtually no taxes. When we live on the island our days are spent at the beach and our evenings (once the cruisers are gone) in town and at some of the good restaurants (many are in the town of Grand Case).

 

If a cruiser simply wants to do some shopping in Phillipsburg and go to a decent beach then an excursion is a good way to needlessly throw away your money. However, if you want to drive all the way around the island then there is something to say for a tour...although you can easily rent a car at the port and just drive yourself.

 

Hank

[ozarkmama]

Why don't you post on the port of call forum for St Maarten?

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/forumdisplay.php?f=93

[nickw]

If you have enough people to spread the cost, book a private tour of the island. You'll want to spend some time at Orient Beach and also Maho Beach. I used Noel Tours with 7 people. It was more expensive than the regular tour, but totally worth it. You can even request what type of drinks you want to have in the car prior to arriving.

 

I HIGHLY recommend Noel Tours and I am in no way affiliated.

[mpace58]

We catch a cab and head to the Subset Bar at Maho beach and watch the airplanes land. :D