Getting desperate for a tour guide

[chiherder]

My husband and I will be in St. Maarten on 11/10 and were trying to find someone to give us a tour of the island. We do not want to visit beaches so the tour would not have to be 6 or 7 hours like some I have seen in this board. We have been on a tour in the past of the Dutch side and would like to see more of it plus the French side as well.

 

We have been able to find openings in the group tours but the only 2 person we could find was going to cost $350!

 

Any suggestions at this point would be appreciated.

 

BTW, we have already contacted Joyce and she is booked that day. I have also contacted Bernard (booked) and one other (too expensive).

[gtaylor]

Not to worry, how does $50 for a personal tour for two sound?

 

The SXM Taxi Association lists their City to City Tour as 3 1/2 hours for two people (private tour) at $50; see the first column on the rate chart. No reservations necessary.

 

Who quoted you $350 for a tour?

 

gary

[chiherder]

I would rather not say who quoted the $350. It was one of the tour giudes that we found on this board.

 

Thanks for the information on the taxis!

[huskerdude]

I would e-mail them back and verify that $350.00:eek: .

Maybe it was a typo?

If not I would keep on looking.

[Arizona Laura]

I have seen prices that highly quoted on this site for private tours for the day. They were longer than 2-3 hr tours though.

If a tour guide has a van let's say sits 9 people if he only takes 2 passengers for a day tour and charges $50.00 pp that's $100.00 total where if he had filled that van up at $50.00 each that would have been $450.00. How could he survive financially giving private tours only at those low prices?

I have been quoted private tours on the islands this past week for a rate up to $600.00 but you could have 2-21 people same price...your choice.

There is alot to take into consideration. We went on a tour of St Johns by a "taxi service" which was just awful no enthusiasm, you could tell the driver could care less about his work, and drove crazy heading back to make it for the next group waiting.

Alot to take into consideration. Laura

[Arizona Laura]

I e-mailed that referred site and here is their reply for pricing: City to City Tour..

 

good day,

 

we have taxi's just for 2 or more and the cost per a hour is only $40,-

all

we will need to know is the date you all get in and the time for any

more

info just let us know thank you

 

 

Laura

[royaloakie]

http://norushtours.com/rates.html

 

Have you tried Beau at No Rush Tours--he appears to be $120 for the day for 2 people, we have him booked for January for four people and have found him very prompt and professional in our email communication. His tours are private for the day. He seems to have good reviews on the boards.

[woodman6703]

My husband and I will be in St. Maarten on 11/10 and were trying to find someone to give us a tour of the island. We do not want to visit beaches so the tour would not have to be 6 or 7 hours like some I have seen in this board. We have been on a tour in the past of the Dutch side and would like to see more of it plus the French side as well.

 

We have been able to find openings in the group tours but the only 2 person we could find was going to cost $350!

 

Any suggestions at this point would be appreciated.

 

BTW, we have already contacted Joyce and she is booked that day. I have also contacted Bernard (booked) and one other (too expensive).

We took a taxis to the French side, the driver was a retired U.S. military so felt safe. As far as a tour he did not give one. So once we were on the French side we walked around looking at everything and came up on a taxi stand told the guy running it that we would like a tour over to the Dutch side, so he started looking, till he got the right person. The only thing she would not tell me how much, she said pay me what you think its worth. What I liked was she took us to where the locals are and it wasn’t so touristy. She did not hurry us took her time telling us about her island. When she dropped us off she wasn’t expecting the 100.00 that I paid her, but for her and the van for about 5 hours and four of us I did not think that was bad.

 

Woodman