Pinel Island-can't rave enough!

[LC2626]

We cannot wait to go back to Pinel Island! We took a taxi and shared with 4 others from another ship who were also headed out.  I last minute booked a tandem paddle board through Caribbean Paddling, best decision ever! They were super to work with and communication with them was great.  Paddled over and saw tons of sea turtles. You can also take a ferry over to Pinel.  We got chairs and umbrella on the Karibuni side of the island, we hiked to the back side, incredible.  We had lunch at Karibuni, outstanding!! The best grilled shrimp of my life!  Dying to go back already. Highly recommend checking out this island. My only regret is not booking earlier with Caribbean Paddling and setting up a driver with them. I had planned out all our other port stops well but not this one.  The taxi driver we asked to show back up to get all 6 of us, was a no show. Thankfully, a shuttle bus/taxi ended up pulling in and we hopped on. We also allotted ourselves plenty of time to get back on ship. It ended up being no problem getting back but we would have enjoyed more time on Pinel if we had a driver and times all set.  Cheers!

[kasay58]

8 hours ago, LC2626 said:

We cannot wait to go back to Pinel Island! We took a taxi and shared with 4 others from another ship who were also headed out.  I last minute booked a tandem paddle board through Caribbean Paddling, best decision ever! They were super to work with and communication with them was great.  Paddled over and saw tons of sea turtles. You can also take a ferry over to Pinel.  We got chairs and umbrella on the Karibuni side of the island, we hiked to the back side, incredible.  We had lunch at Karibuni, outstanding!! The best grilled shrimp of my life!  Dying to go back already. Highly recommend checking out this island. My only regret is not booking earlier with Caribbean Paddling and setting up a driver with them. I had planned out all our other port stops well but not this one.  The taxi driver we asked to show back up to get all 6 of us, was a no show. Thankfully, a shuttle bus/taxi ended up pulling in and we hopped on. We also allotted ourselves plenty of time to get back on ship. It ended up being no problem getting back but we would have enjoyed more time on Pinel if we had a driver and times all set.  Cheers!

What was the cost per person for the taxi to Pinel Island?

 

TIA

[LC2626]

13 hours ago, kasay58 said:

What was the cost per person for the taxi to Pinel Island?

 

TIA

On the way over it was $12/person.  On the way back we ended up in a larger shuttle van and it was $10/person. 

[satbeachbill]

On 4/10/2019 at 10:30 AM, LC2626 said:

Thankfully, a shuttle bus/taxi ended up pulling in and we hopped on. 

 Quite fortunate there!

[CajunGirl2]

On 4/10/2019 at 10:30 AM, LC2626 said:

We cannot wait to go back to Pinel Island! We took a taxi and shared with 4 others from another ship who were also headed out.  I last minute booked a tandem paddle board through Caribbean Paddling, best decision ever! They were super to work with and communication with them was great.  Paddled over and saw tons of sea turtles. You can also take a ferry over to Pinel.  We got chairs and umbrella on the Karibuni side of the island, we hiked to the back side, incredible.  We had lunch at Karibuni, outstanding!! The best grilled shrimp of my life!  Dying to go back already. Highly recommend checking out this island. My only regret is not booking earlier with Caribbean Paddling and setting up a driver with them. I had planned out all our other port stops well but not this one.  The taxi driver we asked to show back up to get all 6 of us, was a no show. Thankfully, a shuttle bus/taxi ended up pulling in and we hopped on. We also allotted ourselves plenty of time to get back on ship. It ended up being no problem getting back but we would have enjoyed more time on Pinel if we had a driver and times all set.  Cheers!

We are a family of 4 and are thinking of booking with Caribbean Paddling.  Do you think the cost of paying them to get your to/from ship & rental is worth it?  I was trying to figure out which way was more cost effective.  TIA!

[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.

[LC2626]

On 4/17/2019 at 4:18 PM, CajunGirl2 said:

We are a family of 4 and are thinking of booking with Caribbean Paddling.  Do you think the cost of paying them to get your to/from ship & rental is worth it?  I was trying to figure out which way was more cost effective.  TIA!

Sorry for the late reply! Im not sure their exact pricing with Caribbean Paddling but likely worth it and we would likely do it in the future.  We got stuck at port with the taxis trying to getting to Pinel because they kept sending others going elsewhere in a taxi because we weren’t a large group, just me and my husband and eventually 2 couples from another Royal ship showed up to go to Pinel too.  So, we were there awhile waiting to get put in a taxi. We asked the driver to come back at a set time to pick us up but she was a no show.  The other couples took the ferry to Pinel with no issue. Luckily a shuttle bus taxi was there when we got back to caribbean paddling and we took that which was a few bucks cheaper anyways.  We def built in time to head back early. Would love to have more time at Pinel and have a driver set up in advance.  

[LC2626]

On 4/23/2019 at 10:15 AM, 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 may have gotten your answers by now.  That is not a long time in port. We did have longer when we went, I believe 8-4p.  The drive across the island, taxi or otherwise takes a bit of time. And you’d need to check what the earliest time the ferry runs as well.  It is a beautiful place though! 

[jcathers1]

2 hours ago, LC2626 said:

You may have gotten your answers by now.  That is not a long time in port. We did have longer when we went, I believe 8-4p.  The drive across the island, taxi or otherwise takes a bit of time. And you’d need to check what the earliest time the ferry runs as well.  It is a beautiful place though! 

 

I actually did not get any answers. We decided to book with Caribbean Paddling (the 2-person kayak excursion). They agreed to modify the times for us to accommodate the shortened port times. We are being picked up from the pier at 8:00a and will head back from the ferry at 12:30p. We should get 3.5 hours on the island.

[LC2626]

49 minutes ago, jcathers1 said:

 

I actually did not get any answers. We decided to book with Caribbean Paddling (the 2-person kayak excursion). They agreed to modify the times for us to accommodate the shortened port times. We are being picked up from the pier at 8:00a and will head back from the ferry at 12:30p. We should get 3.5 hours on the island.

Plenty of time to see it all! We ate/sat at the Karibuni side and the food was amazing.   We hiked back to the other side very easily. Great views. Enjoy!