Family-friendly excursion in St. Martin/St. Maarten

[PGPrendy]

Hello fellow cruisers! Please share your best excursion ideas/advice/suggestions. Although our Southern Caribbean cruise is one year away, I am a planner, so I've been looking at options for our visit to St. Martin/St.Maarten! We will be traveling as a family of 5... three adults, one 6-year-old, and one 1-year-old. We will be in St. Martin/St.Maarten from 10:30am until 6pm. I think that I'd like our family to visit both Maho Beach and Orient Beach, and to spend a decent amount of time at each beach... I'm not sure if there are any other sights in between that we should aim to visit. Any pointers will be greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance!

[Karysa]

Maho for a one year old is very loud and very crowded it can have quite the drop in the water and gets deep extremely quickly. I would suggest Le Galion beach with a visit to the butterfly farm as a more age appropriate family beach day. :)

[PGPrendy]

Thank you for that! This is exactly why I posted here :-) I know that the cruiseline and a few other options have an excursion to the butterfly farm, but do you have any suggestions about getting to Galion Beach from the cruise port?

[Karysa]

Thank you for that! This is exactly why I posted here :-) I know that the cruiseline and a few other options have an excursion to the butterfly farm, but do you have any suggestions about getting to Galion Beach from the cruise port?

 

You can just take a cab to either and walk to the other. They are 5 minutes walk from each other. They are about 25 min via taxi from the port.

[PGPrendy]

You can just take a cab to either and walk to the other. They are 5 minutes walk from each other. They are about 25 min via taxi from the port.

 

This is great info! Thank you! Looking forward to our fabulous St.Martin beach day over a year away :)

[Karysa]

This is great info! Thank you! Looking forward to our fabulous St.Martin beach day over a year away :)

 

You are most welcome. Just to let you know the restaurant closes at Le Galion on Mondays in low season. I think May to October is the timeframe. Also the weekends can get busy as the islanders really love and have many gatherings at this beach.

[masim17]

We took our 6 year old granddaughter to the butterfly farm and we all loved it! Going back this June with her and a 4 y/o. It was a great treat for kids.

[Poppy42]

You do realize that Orient Beach permits topless women and Club Orient permits complete nudity - no problem for my family as were are lifelong nudists as are our kids & grandkids.

[phxbne]

When my daughter was 6 we did a cruise shop excursion that went to the Butterfly Farm - which was great - and Orient Beach - which was just a beach to us. We then wandered around town and went to McDonalds - a little comfort from home can go a long way sometimes!

She is now 10 and we went to Maho - it was fun to see the planes, but it did not seem like a beach to hang out at for long. The planes are reaaaaallllly loud - so depending on your kids, that could end in tears!

Enjoy your planning and have a great cruise

 

Michele

[PGPrendy]

When my daughter was 6 we did a cruise shop excursion that went to the Butterfly Farm - which was great - and Orient Beach - which was just a beach to us. We then wandered around town and went to McDonalds - a little comfort from home can go a long way sometimes!

She is now 10 and we went to Maho - it was fun to see the planes, but it did not seem like a beach to hang out at for long. The planes are reaaaaallllly loud - so depending on your kids, that could end in tears!

Enjoy your planning and have a great cruise

 

Michele

 

Thanks for the feedback! We're looking forward to it!

[PGPrendy]

We took our 6 year old granddaughter to the butterfly farm and we all loved it! Going back this June with her and a 4 y/o. It was a great treat for kids.

 

Thanks. Seems like the butterfly farm is a winner. Enjoy your trip this June! We have a bit of a wait. We are booked to cruise in January 2017 :-)

Edited March 4, 2016 by PGPrendy