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Moho Beach


BURWASHT

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Thanks Kal for the info.BTW are we talking about the same St John as in St Thomas/St John?Only because I've heard how beautiful that Island is.I've been to St Thomas and find it a tad bit to commercial.At any rate someone did say you can rent cars for about $65 and up for the day in St John.

I knew i'd have another question for you:Dhave you heard about the tour company called NoRush tours in St Maartan?I just emailed them tonight. Should hear back tomorrow.He is a bit pricey at around $6o pp for 7 hours,but you can make up your own itinerery and go at your own pace.I also thought to hire a licensed taxi for the day but they don't offer that.

 

thanks again

Liz

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Gads, I didn't know anybody was still flying those puppies. <snip>

 

The continued use of MD-11's was mentioned in the newspaper article I linked to upthread.

 

Some of the planes are still young puppies, i.e. 2001.

 

See: http://www.flightlevel350.com/McDonnell_Douglas_MD-11_aircraft_facts.html

 

<snip>

According to Boeing there was not sufficient market demand to warrant continued production of the MD-11. McDonnell Douglas originally projected that it would sell more than 300 MD-11 aircraft but only a total of 200 planes were built. The last MD-11 was delivered to Lufthansa Cargo on February 22, 2001. The MD-11 was manufactured in four versions, passenger, all freighter, convertible freighter, and combi, where passengers and freight are carried on the main deck with additional freight carried below the deck.

 

Depending on configuration, the MD-11 can carry from 285 to 410 passengers. Fully loaded the MD-11 airliner has a range of 7,630 miles (12,270 km), while carrying 285 passengers and their baggage. American Airlines and Delta Air Lines used MD-11s for intercontinental flights during the 1990s, but have since sold their fleets to FedEx.

 

Current operators include Alitalia, China Airlines, EVA Air, Finnair, Gemini Air Cargo, KLM, Lufthansa Cargo, Swiss International Air Line (which recently retired its fleet), Air Namibia(operating a newly acquired Swiss aircraft), Varig, Thai Airways International, and World Airways. Swissair Flight 111, which crashed on September 2, 1998, was an MD-11.

 

The plane has a range of 7,630 miles, and AMS-SXM is only 4,312 miles.

 

gary

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LIz - If I were going to tour St. Maarten and didn't rent a car, I would first look to Joyce Prince. She provides an excellent service that can be tailored as desired. I would be very surprised if you couldn't work a deal with a taxi for a tour.

 

Yes, I'm speaking about St. John, USVI. The beaches are nice to look at but Megan's Bay is WAY OVER HYPED. It just doesn't even come close when comparing to Orient Beach. For St. Thomas, IMHO there is absolutely no reason to go there.

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LIz - If I were going to tour St. Maarten and didn't rent a car, I would first look to Joyce Prince. She provides an excellent service that can be tailored as desired. I would be very surprised if you couldn't work a deal with a taxi for a tour.

 

Yes, I'm speaking about St. John, USVI. The beaches are nice to look at but Megan's Bay is WAY OVER HYPED. It just doesn't even come close when comparing to Orient Beach. For St. Thomas, IMHO there is absolutely no reason to go there.

I suspect that kal may be lumping all the Virgin Islands together with his comment, but I have to agree. Nothing there compares to the beaches available on St. Maarten.

 

The 'beach to visit' on St. John is Trunk Bay, and I find that over-rated. There are so many visitors that the underwater trail has almost been destroyed, and it is usually crowded, as well. If you do go to St. John, I would suggest Hawksnest as an alternative.

 

Re: Megan's Bay, I could not agree more with kal. It may be scenic, but the water is just THERE, no action, and thus no cleansing. It is regularly listed as polluted. My favorite aspect of Megan's Bay is the photo opportunities available from Mountain Top, but I will NEVER visit that beach again, and have recommended to many friends that they visit Coki, instead. My recommendation for St. Thomas would be to do Godfrey's Tour and choose Coki as your beach of choice.

 

gary

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I totally agree with Gary and Ken. It looks beautiful from the top of the mountain but is nothing when you are actually there.

 

Sitting in a beach chair, Orient totally blows away Megans.

 

Back to work

 

 

Oooh I mispelled it in the title and can't edit it.

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The continued use of MD-11's was mentioned in the newspaper article I linked to upthread.

 

Some of the planes are still young puppies, i.e. 2001.

 

See: http://www.flightlevel350.com/McDonnell_Douglas_MD-11_aircraft_facts.html

 

<snip>

According to Boeing there was not sufficient market demand to warrant continued production of the MD-11. McDonnell Douglas originally projected that it would sell more than 300 MD-11 aircraft but only a total of 200 planes were built. The last MD-11 was delivered to Lufthansa Cargo on February 22, 2001. The MD-11 was manufactured in four versions, passenger, all freighter, convertible freighter, and combi, where passengers and freight are carried on the main deck with additional freight carried below the deck.

 

Depending on configuration, the MD-11 can carry from 285 to 410 passengers. Fully loaded the MD-11 airliner has a range of 7,630 miles (12,270 km), while carrying 285 passengers and their baggage. American Airlines and Delta Air Lines used MD-11s for intercontinental flights during the 1990s, but have since sold their fleets to FedEx.

 

Current operators include Alitalia, China Airlines, EVA Air, Finnair, Gemini Air Cargo, KLM, Lufthansa Cargo, Swiss International Air Line (which recently retired its fleet), Air Namibia(operating a newly acquired Swiss aircraft), Varig, Thai Airways International, and World Airways. Swissair Flight 111, which crashed on September 2, 1998, was an MD-11.

 

The plane has a range of 7,630 miles, and AMS-SXM is only 4,312 miles.

 

gary

 

Thanks for the info. We usually fly JetBlue (at least since) 2000 and have lost touch with the others

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Kal,

I want to thank you for taking the time to patiently answer all the questions that you have! I have learned a lot from you before we travel there in mid-September.

My wife and I are staying at the Maho for a week with our adult children, ages 21 & 25.

 

My wife and I were there a few years back and I believe that to be the off-season, correct?

 

We want to take them to St. Bart's but the flight is like $800-$1000 for 4 of us! Geez! A 15 minute flight for $1000! And I keep reading about people getting sick on the ferry. Not sure what to do on this one. My wife and I flew when we were there but it was just us 2 and nowhere near $250/person.

We also may want to go to Anguilla. Would you recommend it? How is that boat ride?

I know we are doing a couple days on Orient Beach. Can't miss that!

I want to ask you also about the golf course in Mullet Bay. I read somewhere that it is like $100/person and very run down.

Any other suggestions for the week?

 

Thanks again Kal!

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There is an open air casual restaurant/bar in Maho called Cherries (sp?) that has (or had when we stayed in 2001) a fun stage show. If it is still open it is worth a visit; even though the food is just ok, the show is enjoyable and corny.

 

And we still have the clackers (don't ask).

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Are you staying at the building that over looks the runway and is in all the pics of the planes landing?

 

Yes indeed!

 

We stayed there before and it was great! I know that some people complain about the noise and such but my wife and I really enjoyed it!

You're sitting out on the beach or by the pool, everything's relatively quiet and then a plane comes in. It breaks up the quiet a bit but we really enjoyed it and it's not like it's O'hare. LOL

At it's busiest I recall a plane landing about every 20-30 minutes.

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awm - If you feel like you NEED to go to St. Barth's for the day, take lots of cash. It is a very expensive island, not for bargain hunters. I agree, flying is way too costly. The boat ride can be a bit rough, depending on the weather. The problem is you have surface wind born wave action going in one direction (against the wind outbound) and currents going in the opposite direction. Coming back is easy. My suggestion is to go into a local pharmacy in Philipsburg (i.e. Philipsburg Pharmacy) and purchase over-the-counter "patches". Those will take care of motion sickness and you don't have to have a prescription like in the US.

 

Anguilla is very boring. Beaches are nice but there's not much to see or do. The boat ride is a piece of cake.

 

Mullet Bay Golf - Not a very good course, but okay. Don't have a feel for the fees.

 

For me, I have trouble getting everything done we have planned in 3 WEEKS. Sand gravity at Orient takes control during the day. Then at night it's feeding and partying. If we're lucky we can slip out and do some "honey-doos" for a few hours in the early morning.

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For me, I have trouble getting everything done we have planned in 3 WEEKS. Sand gravity at Orient takes control during the day. Then at night it's feeding and partying. If we're lucky we can slip out and do some "honey-doos" for a few hours in the early morning.

 

Not to mention frolicking honeymooners in the waters at the beach.:D

 

We never hit all the restaurants we wanted to, either. I always hoped for a cloudy day so we could do Maho and the planes, but never.

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Not to mention frolicking honeymooners in the waters at the beach.:D

 

We never hit all the restaurants we wanted to, either. I always hoped for a cloudy day so we could do Maho and the planes, but never.

 

It's not limited to honeymooners ;)

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My wife & I went to Maho last week and had a great time. The beach is nothing but we went for the planes. We saw many in the 2.5 hours we were there. My sugestion is to walk into town and take the bus. It cost 1.50 one way. It was as fast as a taxi and reliable and easy to catch plus it saves alot.

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Cruising Lion where do you catch the bus from the port? My husband is an Air Traffic Controller and another ATC will be with us when we go to St. Martin in Aug. so this beach is a must for them to see. Thanks to everyone for the good info on this thread.

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The bus does not go to the pier. You have to get to downtown Philipsburg to get the bus to Maho (s.b. labelled Mullet). That is a 20 minute walk for fit people. If you don't walk you have to take a cab or water taxi to downtown which negates the entire cost savings. The bus does not go to Orient Beach but does stop at Maho.

 

The bus is $1.50 pp, a cab is $6.00 pp, a savings of $4.50 pp.

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I am so glad I found this thread. My DH saw the pictures of the planes coming into Maho and definitely wants to go there but we really want to go to Orient Beach. We have been to St. Martin twice before but have never enjoyed the beaches. We will arrive on Thursday Aug 9th and will be there from 8:00am to 6:00pm. If we take a taxi to Maho first and then to Orient after what do you think the total cost would be? Thanks!

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We are a group or eight people looking to go to Moho Beach to see the planes. Does any one now where we can get times when the planes land and how much a cab will cost us. Thank-you

 

 

We went to Maho on our 6/17 Freedom cruise. It was awesome and my kids loved it. We took the public bus, per this message board and it was the best way to get there. It costs $1.50 per person and anytime they stopped to pick people up it was very quick and efficient. We got to Maho in no time. He dropped us off at Maho and we went down to the beach, it was about noon, and planes started coming in right away.

 

We will go a little later next time though. We will shop till at least noon and then catch the bus (really a van) around noon to get to Maho a little later, because by the time the huge planes came in (around 2) we were leaving. It is a real rush for sure.

 

One word of caution. When you see a plane taking off, be sure someone is LAYING over your things, because I have the most hilarious video of a plane taking off and us getting jet blasted and our things going into the water. My husband lost his Blackberry to that. It will blow EVERYTHING away, and this was a smaller plane.

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One or two colorful words in here, but this might be of interest to people who like planespotting in St. Maarten.

 

http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=440_1179192181

 

 

O my gosh, that would have scared me to death. I am not too keen on planes, but loved watching them in Maho, but this was way to close.

 

Thanks for the video

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There is an open air casual restaurant/bar in Maho called Cherries (sp?) that has (or had when we stayed in 2001) a fun stage show. If it is still open it is worth a visit; even though the food is just ok, the show is enjoyable and corny.

 

And we still have the clackers (don't ask).

 

Oh those wonderful clackers - I was ready to throw them off our balcony before our week at the Maho was over!

 

Our balcony faced the runway and my kids loved getting up every morning and watching the planes come in and take off.

 

There is no other experience than taking off the runway in St. Maarten! Your plane sits there and does what my kids call a brake torque and then all of a sudden they let the brakes off and you are up in the air in no time! And I mean straight up in the air with a hard turn to the right to avoid the mountain!

 

My girls were 5, 8, 10, & 12 at the time and they tried there hardest to stand on the beach while the planes took off but they always ended up sitting down before being thrown into the water! They did enjoy watching everyones unattended belongings fly into the water though!

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Our ship the Miracle docks at 8am - we would like to see the planes this time to St. Marrtin - we are there on Dec 27th it is a Tuesday - what would be the best time to see the most action?

 

Also it sounds like it is not a great beach - is there a beach nearby that is nice that we could visit before or after?

 

Thanks!!

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  • 5 months later...
Here is a link to KAL's jet schedule, showing activity at Maho beach.....

 

http://www.bywindkal.com/SXMJets.html

 

If you haven't yet, click on Kal's Information Center link at the bottom of this page.

 

This is one of the best St. Martin sites I've seen. Lots (and I mean lots) of pictures.

http://www.bywindkal.com/index.htm

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