Maho and ?

[mgh-pa]

I suppose I should reword the title to say ? and Maho? My wife and I will be arriving here on 6/27. My wife will DEFINITELY want to be on beach for a good portion of the time. I want to, of course, visit Maho for about an hour or so to see if I can catch some footage/shots of a plane. However, I don't think Maho is what we're looking for in terms of relaxing/calm all day beach going. So, we're thinking of hitting up a nice, calm watered, beach for the first part of the day, then making our way over to Maho (maybe around lunchtime) before heading back to the ship.

 

We thought about using Bernard's tours as he gets great reviews, but we would really only get about 2hrs on Orient beach and a quick stop at Maho.

 

Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

 

Our ship arrives at 9 and departs at 5, fwiw.

[gtaylor]

Consider Mullet Bay Beach and then Maho.

 

See this earlier discussion.

 

gary

[bonvoyagebites]

I agree that Maho is not the relaxing beach experience she may be seeking. But, it is NOT to be missed (see the video in my signature). I rented a car while on the island, and enjoyed the freedom it gave me. I seem to remember it was reasonably priced as well. We drove the entire island, and still had time to watch planes, which was VERY important to me.

[jamiehaas27]

This is exactly what I was looking for too. I want to do Maho, and find another beach to relax at...then hit some casinos. Curious to see the responses.

[mgh-pa]

Thanks, everyone. So is it best to just get a taxi ourselves, or go with a more "organized" tour, like Bernard tours?

[mgh-pa]

I agree that Maho is not the relaxing beach experience she may be seeking. But, it is NOT to be missed (see the video in my signature). I rented a car while on the island, and enjoyed the freedom it gave me. I seem to remember it was reasonably priced as well. We drove the entire island, and still had time to watch planes, which was VERY important to me.

 

 

Great video. I'm planning to take my 70D and my GoPro.

 

What did you shoot that with (both stills and the video)?

[bonvoyagebites]

Thanks for the kind words regarding the video. The video was taken with a GoPro 3, and the Stills (If I recall correctly) were a Nikon 5000 ... My wife does the stills and i did the video... it originally was just meant to be for us for fun, but then the two days ago I decided to try to edit it together and see what I could get. I was pleased with the results, so I shared (a lot)

 

For St. Maarten, I drove myself. I personally wouldn't do a organized tour, but that is just opinion. The only reason I say that is because I like to do things on my own schedule. Also for plane reasons, you can check arrivals ahead of time and know when you want to be at Maho (like for the Airbus 340 that arrives maybe once daily).

 

Again, the car rental thing is just an opinion, but that worked out for me.

[mgh-pa]

Thanks!

 

Was the GoPro mounted to anything?

[jamiehaas27]

Where did you check arrivals and how could you tell the type of aircraft? I went to the airport page and can find arrivals, just didn't see type of plane.

[bonvoyagebites]

Jamie, one place is the sunset bar arrivals board on the beach. I will look and see if there is an easy place to find online and see what I can find and post it back here.

[bonvoyagebites]

mgh... I found a thing called a gorillapod which can be found online at your favorite reseller. It is a flexible, aritculated tripod. I wrapped the legs around the fence and mounted it on the fence. Without going into an awesome sales pitch (I have no stake in this, just love it) you can do a lot of things with the gorillapod... they can also sometimes be picked up at local retailers.

 

Feel free to share that video anywhere you'd like. It was a blast.

[bonvoyagebites]

You can check arrivals using sites similar to flightaware or maybe flightradar24 ... a google search may get you more results (not intended to be a snarky comment). One of the sites I use I have a "premium" account because I host a receiver for them, so your mileage may vary.

 

Look for flights by Insel Air, as they intentionally put on a show, as you can tell by the video... they come in low and fast and get as close to the fence and hold their brakes before giving full power for takeoff (after waving out their window)

[jamiehaas27]

Awesome, thanks for the info. Looking forward to checking it out. I have been to St Martin a few times, but never went to Maho.

[mitsugirly]

I would head over to Mullet Bay, which is basically/kinda beside Maho and spend the morning relaxing on the beautiful beach (you can also see the planes coming in from there as well). Then walk over to Maho for a few hours to watch the planes come in. It's a very easy 15 minute walk or so. (There's also a casino along the way).

 

I have a complete review of our day doing just this, in my signature line, and it has tons of pictures to show you what it looks like if you are interested. :)

[Karysa]

I would head over to Mullet Bay, which is basically/kinda beside Maho and spend the morning relaxing on the beautiful beach (you can also see the planes coming in from there as well). Then walk over to Maho for a few hours to watch the planes come in. It's a very easy 15 minute walk or so. (There's also a casino along the way).

 

I have a complete review of our day doing just this, in my signature line, and it has tons of pictures to show you what it looks like if you are interested. :)

 

I agree Mullet\maho is a great combination. You can see the planes approach the airport from Mullet but only Maho allows you the vantage point to watch the take offs and landings.

[SoloSailorII]

Thanks for all the great reviews and postings, cant wait to visit St. Martin (Maarten)

[glentally]

Jamie, one place is the sunset bar arrivals board on the beach. I will look and see if there is an easy place to find online and see what I can find and post it back here.

 

they have a website that gives the times,, someone told me it updates daily we don't go until Dec 19th so I have PLENTY of time to research.

[glentally]

I would head over to Mullet Bay, which is basically/kinda beside Maho and spend the morning relaxing on the beautiful beach (you can also see the planes coming in from there as well). Then walk over to Maho for a few hours to watch the planes come in. It's a very easy 15 minute walk or so. (There's also a casino along the way).

 

I have a complete review of our day doing just this, in my signature line, and it has tons of pictures to show you what it looks like if you are interested. :)

 

I went to find it in your signature but there are 51 pages with no search options. Can you copy it in a reply back please?

[mitsugirly]

I went to find it in your signature but there are 51 pages with no search options. Can you copy it in a reply back please?

 

 

You do not have to search 51 pages to find the review. If you click on the link in my signature line that says "Mullet Bay" under the St Maarten area, it will take you right to the page that that part of the review starts on. You just have to scroll down the page to the beginning of the Mullet Bay review part. It's around post #294 :)

[gtaylor]

I just clicked on your 'Mullet Bay' link and it took me to page 15 and post 561.

 

 

I believe it depends on each individual member's settings.

 

The 'around' post #294 should help.

 

gary

Edited June 15, 2015 by gtaylor