Anyone taken a tour to anguilla from St. Martin?

[newbie2468]

Has anyone taken a tour/ferry to anguilla? What is there to see/do? Or is it better to stay in St. Martin.. I am on a Southern Caribbean with Princess and new at the tours.. any good shore excursions with Princess?

 

THanks for any info

[Kviolasr]

We've made the day trip to Anguilla but not while on a cruise, we did it while on a week-long stay on St. Maarten. The attraction in Anguilla is the superb beaches. If you are a beach nut looking for wide expanses of unspoiled/uncrowded beaches, Shoal Bay on Anguilla is the premier place. By far the prettiest beach we've ever seen. There is not much else on the island. A trip to Anguilla on a cruise port day is possible but won't leave you with more than 2-3 hours on Anguilla because you need to first travel to Marigot (other side of St Maarten), then wait for the ferry, ferry over to Anguilla, taxi to the beach (then of course the same in reverse). Could take you 2+ hours from the ship pier to the beach on Anguilla. It will also cost a few bucks PP because of the taxis plus ferry round trip.

 

Hope this helps.

[StMaartenboy]

I agree that Anguilla from St. Maarten as a cruise stop is a bit much. It does take longer than you might expect to come and go. Plus, while I agree that the beaches are fantastic on Anguilla (as well as the snorkling), there are equally quiet, deserted beaches on St. Maarten if you know where to look. In fact, most beaches on the island do NOT look like Orient. That is what makes Orient so fun.

 

As for what to do on Anguilla... if you do make the trip:

 

Besides the usual beach and water stuff, there is a dolphin swim located on the north-west end of the Island. Not much in the way of shopping on the Island and no real scenery since it is essentially a giant sandbar. My favorite thing to do on the island is EAT. While not all in one location like Grand Case in SXM, there are plenty of gourmet treats on Anguilla. After reading a Conde article on the island, the wife and I went to Anguilla to eat at the Cuisinard Resort. The story is that the owner of Cuisinard fell in love with Anguilla and bought land to build a retirement home, only to find out you could not build a private dwelling that close to the beach. So he built a resort where he has a personal villa. Anyway, being a food person, he was disappointed with the quality of fresh food on the island (Big sandbar equals no soil for crops so all food is shipped in). So, he builts a futuristic hydro-agriculture complex. The resort serves veggies picked in the greenhouse that day. This helped make the resort one of the best in the world. So we took the trip to the island to see if it was that good.... IT WAS BETTER! Wow, I never knew veggies could taste that good. Plus, the resort is beautiful.. well worth the visit.

[gtaylor]

I'm not at all sure about the 'retirement home' aspect of this story, but if you want to check out the resort, google "cuisinarT resort", with a T, not a D.

 

Link here.

[m-oni]

Has anyone taken a tour/ferry to anguilla? What is there to see/do? Or is it better to stay in St. Martin.. I am on a Southern Caribbean with Princess and new at the tours.. any good shore excursions with Princess?

 

THanks for any info

 

A group of us went to Anguilla during our ships stop to St Maarten and we all agree it was WELL worth it! Most of us had already been to St Maarten. We went to Shoal Beach, which is truly heaven on earth! Princess offered a tour but it was swimming with dolphins and it was quite expensive. We paid around $45 for transportation to and from Anguilla (including departure taxes) The ferry we took was a 20 minute ride, another 15 minutes to the beach and around 25 minutes to the ship, so you should factor in 2-2.5 hours for travel time. Its totally doable.

[gtaylor]

If you are planning on a trip over to Anguilla, please be aware that there are TWO Shoal Bay Beaches, East and West.

 

The one that gets the most 'press' is Shoal Bay East, which we prefer, but there is a Shoal Bay Beach West, as well. Do your research.

 

gary