"Your Day" Tour

[Debbierpof]

Our family has always preferred using private drivers instead of shore excursions offered by cruise lines. Our day in St. Maarten/Sint Martin was perfect and we have our driver to thank for that. Here's the incredible part -- I'm the one who typically makes the reservations and didn't have anything lined up until the day before our arrival in St. Maarten when I emailed Coral Transportation from the ship and received a prompt response. I was a little nervous because there were no recommendations on CruiseCritic for this company (that I could find) and the cost of the tour was pretty low (questioned if this might be a scam since we paid before arriving in St. Maarten).

 

Well, I highly recommend Jacqueline Janse with Coral Transportation. We opted for the "Your Day" Tour and it was exactly what we wanted. It's not easy finding a tour for 13 people (6 adults and 7 teens/young adults) - especially one that is affordable. For $35 per person (before gratuities), we toured the island, both the Dutch and French sides for about 6 hours in a new and very roomy van. I talked with Jacquie about some of the things we were interested in doing and my draft itinerary. She listened, made recommendations (including doing my itinerary in the opposite order so that we would experience less traffic and see the big planes at Maho). Here's what we did: Met some iguanas at a roadside stop (you could feed them - my daughter even pet a big one), continued the scenic route to Orient Beach (hung out for about 2 hours at a resort -- kids got to use the water trampoline while the adults enjoyed the gorgeous views and bar), scenic route to Marigot (picked up lunch/snacks at Chez Fernand La French Bakery -- not to be missed!!!), on to Maho Beach for 2 hours (crazy fun and funny), back to the ship -- with the option to stay in downtown Philipsburg to do some shopping or go back to port (she took us to both because not everyone wanted to do the same thing). Jacquie helped with our time management (I think there were 2-3 ships in port that day) and we never felt rushed. She gave great information on the island along the way, answered questions and made it a really fun experience for everyone -- ages 11 to 72. It was the favorite port on our cruise!

[Happy Cruiser Girl]

2 hours ago, Debbierpof said:

Our family has always preferred using private drivers instead of shore excursions offered by cruise lines. Our day in St. Maarten/Sint Martin was perfect and we have our driver to thank for that. Here's the incredible part -- I'm the one who typically makes the reservations and didn't have anything lined up until the day before our arrival in St. Maarten when I emailed Coral Transportation from the ship and received a prompt response. I was a little nervous because there were no recommendations on CruiseCritic for this company (that I could find) and the cost of the tour was pretty low (questioned if this might be a scam since we paid before arriving in St. Maarten).

 

Well, I highly recommend Jacqueline Janse with Coral Transportation. We opted for the "Your Day" Tour and it was exactly what we wanted. It's not easy finding a tour for 13 people (6 adults and 7 teens/young adults) - especially one that is affordable. For $35 per person (before gratuities), we toured the island, both the Dutch and French sides for about 6 hours in a new and very roomy van. I talked with Jacquie about some of the things we were interested in doing and my draft itinerary. She listened, made recommendations (including doing my itinerary in the opposite order so that we would experience less traffic and see the big planes at Maho). Here's what we did: Met some iguanas at a roadside stop (you could feed them - my daughter even pet a big one), continued the scenic route to Orient Beach (hung out for about 2 hours at a resort -- kids got to use the water trampoline while the adults enjoyed the gorgeous views and bar), scenic route to Marigot (picked up lunch/snacks at Chez Fernand La French Bakery -- not to be missed!!!), on to Maho Beach for 2 hours (crazy fun and funny), back to the ship -- with the option to stay in downtown Philipsburg to do some shopping or go back to port (she took us to both because not everyone wanted to do the same thing). Jacquie helped with our time management (I think there were 2-3 ships in port that day) and we never felt rushed. She gave great information on the island along the way, answered questions and made it a really fun experience for everyone -- ages 11 to 72. It was the favorite port on our cruise!

That sounds perfect!

[glenn29]

I just wrote Jacqueline requesting a tour for our upcoming visit to the island.  Thank you for the recommendation, your tour seems like it would be perfect for my family (much smaller, 5) as well.

[AwesomO]

just booked our private tour as well after reading this! looking forward to it. 

[ShelBell12]

This sounds like a great day! We are stopping in St. Martin on a cruise next month. Thanks for taking the time to post this. I will be checking this out!!

[Pika8347]

On 2/3/2023 at 9:16 PM, AwesomO said:

just booked our private tour as well after reading this! looking forward to it. 

Any update on your tour? If so, how was it?

[AwesomO]

1 hour ago, Pika8347 said:

Any update on your tour? If so, how was it?

it was really good! we had Jackie for the tour. She customized it to do whatever we wanted, even if we wanted to change something once we got there. Really flexible, friendly, and informative! Great value too. I definitely recommend it!

[Pika8347]

16 hours ago, AwesomO said:

it was really good! we had Jackie for the tour. She customized it to do whatever we wanted, even if we wanted to change something once we got there. Really flexible, friendly, and informative! Great value too. I definitely recommend it!

Great! I’ll email her today!

[ncovert]

Thank you for posting.  I know this is an older post, but been searching a bunch for what to do for the day.  Will be contacting the company and hope to book the "Your Day" as well