How to get to Pinel Island ferry

[ellie1145]

Does anyone know how to get to the Pinel island ferry from the cruise port, please?

 

is traffic still bad getting back to the port?

 

We arrive on January 30th and are wondering how many ships will be in port.

 

[franktown]

If you go to cruisetimetables .com you can find out how many ships will be in port for each destination.  Looks like 3.  Can't help with the ferry.

[MrSchwump]

Take a taxi from the cruise terminal. Panel is about the most expensive destination listed. Ten years ago it was $40 one way. Once there you catch the ferry. It’s always running back and forth. 

There aren’t a lot of taxis standing by there so make arrangements for pickup. 

[Ugaaucruisers]

On 1/11/2019 at 2:35 PM, ellie1145 said:

Does anyone know how to get to the Pinel island ferry from the cruise port, please?

 

is traffic still bad getting back to the port?

 

We arrive on January 30th and are wondering how many ships will be in port.

 

Captain Bob has an excursion and Pinel is one of his stops.  It is a great trip  We have done it 3 times and plan on doing again in February.  Just google Captain Bob, St. Marten.

[ellie1145]

It was much easier than we expected. We picked up a taxi in the port and it was $20 return, and we shared with others. The ferry was $12. We organised the return pick up when we arrived at the ferry.

 

We had a fantastic time. 

[kasay58]

On 2/17/2019 at 5:13 PM, ellie1145 said:

It was much easier than we expected. We picked up a taxi in the port and it was $20 return, and we shared with others. The ferry was $12. We organised the return pick up when we arrived at the ferry.

 

We had a fantastic time. 

Glad you had a good time.  We are thinking of doing the same on our April cruise.  For the taxi to Pinel was it 20$ per person one way or 20$ per person for the round-trip. TIA

[ellie1145]

8 hours ago, kasay58 said:

Glad you had a good time.  We are thinking of doing the same on our April cruise.  For the taxi to Pinel was it 20$ per person one way or 20$ per person for the round-trip. TIA

 

It was $20 per person round trip. It was a good 25 minute drive. We were nervous of being stuck in traffic on the way back so the whole group agreed a pick up time of 3.00 (St Maarten time which is an hour ahead) to allow plenty of time for the to return but that would depend on the ship’s departure time. The traffic was actually not a problem.

 

Hope you have a fantastic time. The iguanas and crabs are fascinating to watch, too.

[ellie1145]

[kasay58]

Thank you for the info and great pictures. I forgot to ask, is the $20 per person one-way taxi  fare and $12 per person round-trip in US dollar or do you have to pay in Euros?

[SnorkelAway]

The ferry cost from Cul-de-Sac to Pinel is $12 (US dollars) per person round trip - if you had euros, the cost is 10 euros.  I am not sure what previous poster meant about taxi cost they experienced.

[Irule7]

We booked one through Caribbean Paddling.  We also booked a kayak instead of the ferry.  It was a fun option to kayak over to the island.  Plus we had a kayak to tool around the bay when we got tired of sunbathing 🙂.  Our driver was great!  The ferry runs once an hour on the dot.  So just make sure you factor that in so you get back to the ship on time.  And there aren't taxis waiting to take you back, so definitely make sure one is picking you up.  It looks like you can book a transfer and ferry (roundtrip) for 35 Euros, per person on their website now.

[jcathers1]

On 3/25/2019 at 1:08 PM, Irule7 said:

We booked one through Caribbean Paddling.  We also booked a kayak instead of the ferry.  It was a fun option to kayak over to the island.  Plus we had a kayak to tool around the bay when we got tired of sunbathing 🙂.  Our driver was great!  The ferry runs once an hour on the dot.  So just make sure you factor that in so you get back to the ship on time.  And there aren't taxis waiting to take you back, so definitely make sure one is picking you up.  It looks like you can book a transfer and ferry (roundtrip) for 35 Euros, per person on their website now.

 

What did you do with the kayak when you were hiking/sunbathing/eating? Were you concerned about losing track of it?

 

[jcathers1]

There are a few excursion company that have package (taxi and ferry) deals, but those time do not work for us (we are actually in San Maarten from 7:00-14:00. Is it easy to simply taxi to Pinel Island and take the ferry on your own? Does the ferry only run once per hour? That, combined with the concern about getting a taxi back to the port has us rethinking a trip to Pinel Island.

 

Any info here would be greatly appreciated.

 

[Irule7]

49 minutes ago, jcathers1 said:

There are a few excursion company that have package (taxi and ferry) deals, but those time do not work for us (we are actually in San Maarten from 7:00-14:00. Is it easy to simply taxi to Pinel Island and take the ferry on your own? Does the ferry only run once per hour? That, combined with the concern about getting a taxi back to the port has us rethinking a trip to Pinel Island.

 

Any info here would be greatly appreciated.

 

You can taxi over there yourself and do the ferry, it's mostly making sure your taxi driver will come back and get you, and on time.  The ferry only runs once an hour.  In the morning, it first goes over when it's full, at least that's what my daughter told me they said.  So that would have been around 9:30 or 10:00 when we were there.  

 

As far as the kayak goes, they told us to park it on the beach between the two restaurants.  We just left it there and no one bothered it.

 

If you are only in St. Maarten 7:00-2:00, I wouldn't make the trek over there.  You're only going to end up with a couple of hours on the beach, and you really need more time than that to spend there.  I'd wait for another cruise when you are on the island longer.  On our cruise we were there 8:00-5:00.

[ellie1145]

On 3/1/2019 at 12:08 AM, kasay58 said:

Thank you for the info and great pictures. I forgot to ask, is the $20 per person one-way taxi  fare and $12 per person round-trip in US dollar or do you have to pay in Euros?

it’s per person round trip in the taxi. We used US dollars. 
 

PLEASE MAKE SURE IF YOU DO THIS TRIP THAT YOU BOOK THE TAXI TO RETURN AT A CERTAIN TIME AND DONT PAY HIM UNTIL HE DROPS YOU OFF AT THE SHIP.

 

I’ve got everything crossed we will make it back to Pinel as soon as we are able to book another cruise. Sadly our May 23rd cruise is no more and we were so looking forward to returning to this lovely beach.

Edited March 14, 2020 by ellie1145

[SpaceCowboy9]

Bernard Tours has a drop off & pick up - $30 per person, round trip & you have to pay additional for the ferry or kayak, as one above did.  We were the only ones going, so they attached us to a tour and we got to also stop at a few sightseeing stops along the way -- plus rum punch!  Every time we've been to St Maarten, we've done something with Bernard Tours - they are great.

[Geobugs]

Using a regular taxi is $20 per person, round trip.  The ferry to Pinel island was $12 per person, round trip.