Self Explore Rental Car - Good Idea?

[BalancingWanderlust]

We will be visiting St Maarten as part of our February 2023 Celebrity cruise. As the island is small I am wondering if it would be better to hire a rental car for the day (docked 8 am to 5 pm) and do our own sight seeing or do a planned excursion? We have driven in many countries and are experienced backpack type travelers. Curious how much a one day car rental would be? If I should book a car in advance? And if there are car rentals within walking distance of the cruise port? 

 

Thanks for the help! Happy cruising 🙂

[PORT ROYAL]

8 hours ago, BalancingWanderlust said:

We will be visiting St Maarten as part of our February 2023 Celebrity cruise. As the island is small I am wondering if it would be better to hire a rental car for the day (docked 8 am to 5 pm) and do our own sight seeing or do a planned excursion? We have driven in many countries and are experienced backpack type travelers. Curious how much a one day car rental would be? If I should book a car in advance? And if there are car rentals within walking distance of the cruise port? 

 

Thanks for the help! Happy cruising 🙂

Best to hire locally with a major rental company having representation in St M.  Then any problems are easily solved local rather than long distance.

Collection and drop off can be arranged close to quay.

 

There is not much “wow” in sightseeing.  It’s a holiday island.

The one thing to consider is the 12meter yacht racing……

[Duanerice1]

We rented a jeep so we could go around on our own.  We hit many beaches and towns.  Had fun.  Just be [prepared for afternoon traffic coming back into town.  Forget who we used but it wasn't 'in' the port, but just outside the gates.

[ymncruise]

Was wondering which company you used for your jeep rental in SXM. Did you rent in advance or at the pier?

[dodger1964]

We rent car each time we go there. 5 or 6 times now. We are doing again in late feb or early march when visit again with celebrity. It’s been about four or five years since we’ve been there. The rental car place says they’re mostly right at the pier just to the right when you get off the ship. I’m thinking one time we might’ve had to take short shuttle ride to the car otherwise the cars are always right there. 
 

we typically just make one lap around the island stopping along the way at whatever we want to do. 

[bobzee]

We rented a car from Rodael rentals (www.rodaelcarrental.com). Very good experience, picked us up at main gate, short ride to rental car depot, great choice of cars, highly recommended 

[SpaceCowboy9]

If you do rent a car, go clockwise around the island.  Another post mentioned the traffic, it's usually not bad, but it can get bad.  If you go clockwise, you'll hit the areas that could have the worst traffic first.  We were visiting once (non-cruise) during a regatta.  The drawbridges were up for an extended time.  The traffic was at a standstill.  We turned around and did something else.  You may not have that option when trying to get back to the cruise port.

[ruru107]

There is a company in St Maarten called Blue Bubbles that has Jeep rentals. I haven't used them yet but I'm thinking about it for my cruse in April.

[ruru107]

On 1/19/2023 at 5:02 PM, bobzee said:

We rented a car from Rodael rentals (www.rodaelcarrental.com). Very good experience, picked us up at main gate, short ride to rental car depot, great choice of cars, highly recommended 

They look very affordable! Thank you for the recommendation.