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Bernards Tours, or not?????

Bob NC

By Bob NC,
in St. Martin/St. Maarten

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Mary Ellen1

Mary Ellen1

Posted
Posted

Hi there,

 

For those who've taken the tour, did you get to see the planes landing at Maho Beach? From Bernard's description of the tour, this is one of the first things listed, so does that mean you're at Maho Beach in the morning? My understanding is that most of the landings take place betwen 1-3pm. Please advise what your experience was with this tour stop -- did you see the airplanes?

 

Thanks cruisers!

 

Mary Ellen

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PirateGal

PirateGal

Posted
Posted

Here are my comments about Bernard's Tour from my review (Emerald Princess - Oct. 11-18):

 

We booked the island tour with Bernard (http://www.bernardstours.com/) and couldn't be more pleased. Bernard met us by the visitor's centre half an hour after the shipped docked. We had to wait about 30 minutes for some late comers which cut into our tour time.

 

Our first stop was a rocky beach to look at some sea urchins and shells. Then onto Orient Beach which I think is one of the better beaches I have ever been to...nudity aside, the beach was quiet, mature, no radios or music, and very few children. I don't have a problem with the nudity at all...next time we are in St. Maarten, I wouldn't hesitate to just take a cab straight there. A friend of ours rented a Seadoo for $50 for 30 minutes...the price also included a few chair rentals but we just sat on our towels. Bernard gave us 1.5 hrs at the beach and then we met back at the van.

 

Next on the tour was a visit to the French open market for souvenirs (30 minutes there), and then on to Maho Beach. Unfortunately, we had missed the landings of the bigger planes but we did see two smaller planes land. By the time we arrived at Maho, the sun was starting to hide behind clouds and we were tired from the day's tour.

 

Bernard charges $35/person for the island tour, which also includes drinks from his stocked cooler (Carib beer, Coke, Diet Coke, water and rum punch). I highly recommend this tour, especially for first time visitors to St. Maarten.

 

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gtaylor

gtaylor

Posted
Posted
Do you have to make reservations or could you just look for him when you get off the ship?

 

 

From Bernard's Website:

 

Q. Can you accommodate 'Walk-Up' customers, or must all reservations be made in advance?

A. Unfortunately, we can no longer accept 'Walk-Up' clients, as the Island Government requires that we show a reservation before picking up our guests at the cruise terminal.

 

gary

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PirateGal

PirateGal

Posted
Posted
From Bernard's Website:

 

Q. Can you accommodate 'Walk-Up' customers, or must all reservations be made in advance?

A. Unfortunately, we can no longer accept 'Walk-Up' clients, as the Island Government requires that we show a reservation before picking up our guests at the cruise terminal.

 

gary

 

Yes, I also saw Bernard turning away walk-up customers.

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cricketaz

cricketaz

Posted
Posted

Wow. We just got home yesterday from the Carnival Glory. We did Bernard Tours in St. Maarten. I had arranged a private tour because all 16 of us decided on the tour. The private tour was only $40 each. It was one of the highlights of our cruise. We had so much fun that day. The beach was great, the planes at Maho were great. Bernard was very nice and our tour guide, Gizmo, was wonderful. It far exceeded my expectations and I would highly recommend Bernard. He will try his best to make sure you have a great time, just tell him what you want to do. And the homemade rum punch is pretty tasty too.

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Gypsy2

Gypsy2

Posted
Posted

Has anyone who has had to take the later tour at 10:30 felt rushed to be back at the ship or felt rushed to make the 10:30 meeting when get in around 10am?

 

The package sounds wonderful I am just concerned on the time frame.

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topfitmom

topfitmom

Posted
Posted
Here are my comments about Bernard's Tour from my review (Emerald Princess - Oct. 11-18):

 

We booked the island tour with Bernard (http://www.bernardstours.com/) and couldn't be more pleased. Bernard met us by the visitor's centre half an hour after the shipped docked. We had to wait about 30 minutes for some late comers which cut into our tour time.

 

Our first stop was a rocky beach to look at some sea urchins and shells. Then onto Orient Beach which I think is one of the better beaches I have ever been to...nudity aside, the beach was quiet, mature, no radios or music, and very few children. I don't have a problem with the nudity at all...next time we are in St. Maarten, I wouldn't hesitate to just take a cab straight there. A friend of ours rented a Seadoo for $50 for 30 minutes...the price also included a few chair rentals but we just sat on our towels. Bernard gave us 1.5 hrs at the beach and then we met back at the van.

 

Next on the tour was a visit to the French open market for souvenirs (30 minutes there), and then on to Maho Beach. Unfortunately, we had missed the landings of the bigger planes but we did see two smaller planes land. By the time we arrived at Maho, the sun was starting to hide behind clouds and we were tired from the day's tour.

 

Bernard charges $35/person for the island tour, which also includes drinks from his stocked cooler (Carib beer, Coke, Diet Coke, water and rum punch). I highly recommend this tour, especially for first time visitors to St. Maarten.

 

 

Hi,

 

Can you tell me what a seadoo is? Is this at Orient Beach? Do you know what else we can rent at Orient Beach? Did you take a private tour with Bernards? I thought the drinKs only came with private tours. Thanks for the advice.;)

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PirateGal

PirateGal

Posted
Posted
Hi,

 

Can you tell me what a seadoo is? Is this at Orient Beach? Do you know what else we can rent at Orient Beach? Did you take a private tour with Bernards? I thought the drinKs only came with private tours. Thanks for the advice.;)

 

A seadoo is a jet ski...I don't know why but I always called them seadoos as opposed to a skidoo (that runs on snow).

 

Orient Beach also had parasail rides.

 

Our tour with Bernard was not private...we were a group of six together and then there was another couple and a threesome. I think Bernard has drinks for all his tours.

 

Have fun!

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topfitmom

topfitmom

Posted
Posted
A seadoo is a jet ski...I don't know why but I always called them seadoos as opposed to a skidoo (that runs on snow).

 

Orient Beach also had parasail rides.

 

Our tour with Bernard was not private...we were a group of six together and then there was another couple and a threesome. I think Bernard has drinks for all his tours.

 

Have fun!

 

Thanks for the information!!:)

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brlrph

brlrph

Posted
Posted
Has anyone who has had to take the later tour at 10:30 felt rushed to be back at the ship or felt rushed to make the 10:30 meeting when get in around 10am?

 

The package sounds wonderful I am just concerned on the time frame.

We docked at 10am and were greeted by Bernard & John. In John' s van of 8 people who had a blast.Very informative and a good mix of sites.Back to the dock with 2 hours to spare for shopping. Maybe it was all the provided refreshments but we did not feel rushed.

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Stacey779

Stacey779

Posted
Posted
We docked at 10am and were greeted by Bernard & John. In John' s van of 8 people who had a blast.Very informative and a good mix of sites.Back to the dock with 2 hours to spare for shopping. Maybe it was all the provided refreshments but we did not feel rushed.

 

Thanks for this info. I was a little worried about the time frame as well. Were you on the Emerald Princess? We're sailing on the Emerald and I think we'd have to be back on the ship @ 5:30 pm for the 6:00 pm sailaway. I'm just wondering if you had the same schedule.

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Stacey779

Stacey779

Posted
Posted
Was on the Emerald last week,I booked Bernard online and replyed to his email.Make sure you printout email as I was not on his list at the dock,no problem after I showed email

 

That sounds like a good idea, especially since we booked a few months ago. I'll make sure to bring a printout. Thanks! :D

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shortchange1969

shortchange1969

Posted
Posted

We did Bernard's tour last week. We were on the Explorer. We had a good time and for the money, his tour is good. We got a lot of interesting info about the island. However, we did feel rushed and in my opinion, unfortantely, most of the time was spent driving in the van. I have to say, probably not Bernard's fault, Explorer docked from 12pm to 9pm. There was only us and one other couple so it was nice, and it was easier to come to a consensus as to what we wanted to do and what was more important to us. Another driver picked us up at the dock and took us to Rima's. Not worth the stop to me, unless you are looking for cheap souveniers, bathing suits, cover ups, etc. They gave us 30 minutes there and Bernard himself picked us up and took us from there. We went to Maho Beach to watch the planes land, saw one small and one large plane land, DH was able to go in the water for a bit and when we were leaving, Bernard stopped to let us watch a huge Air France plane land. Only had 30 minutes there. Drove all the way over to French side/Marigot and didn't really see anything pleasing, most of the stores were closed due to "siesta time" so we skipped that and drove all they way to Orient Beach. We had about an hour and a half there. We got 2 chairs, an umbrella and 2 free drinks at a place called Strings for $16. They had private bathrooms and showers. Bathroom was kind of eh but served it's purpose. Another thing was the water at Orient that day was horrible. Lots of seaweed and leaves and junk. Bernard said it wasn't like that the day before. Saw the nude beach. :eek: No comment..from there drove us back to Philipsburg and dropped us off, but unfortunately, by that time, most of the stores were closing. Some stayed open to about 6:30 and he dropped us off at the end of Front Street, not in the heart of town where the water taxi drops you off so we missed most of the places the ship recommended. We were only able to go into about 3 stores before it got dark and all the stores were closed so we got a taxi back to the ship. Since we didn't have to be back on the ship until 8:30pm, we shopped at some of the stores at the dock that stayed open and had great success there. Like I said, maybe if we had docked earlier in the morning, we may have enjoyed Bernard's tour a lot more. His price can't be beat and a word of advice..be VERY CAREFUL of the rum punch! LOL :rolleyes: Next time if we go on a cruise that stops here, we will probably just take the water taxi to the boardwalk/beach area and then go into town on the water taxi and do some shopping. However, I would recommend Bernard's tour if your ship docks early in the morning and you've never been to St. Maarten.

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Kikkycat

Kikkycat

Posted
Posted
We aren't beach people and I see that Bernard's tours stop for 2 hours at Orient Beach. Are there things to do there or does Bernard offer other options?

 

We are incapable of hanging on a beach for 2 solid hours too. We did relax and have a drink in some chairs. There are restaurants and bars lining the beach to choose from to while away some time. There are also water toys for rent if that's of interest to you. 2 hours was a good amount of time for us there.

 

As far as the place to change into dry clothes - I didn't see any either. I went swimming first then gave myself about 30-40 minutes to start to dry off for the rest of the day.

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