We are traveling to St. Maarten/St. Martin for our honeymoon in a couple weeks. Does anybody have any advice/suggestions regarding what to do, where to eat, what to avoid... I have been to several Caribbean islands, just not this one. We are staying on the Dutch side. How difficult is it to cross to the French side? They say the dollar is taken almost everywhere. Is that true? How safe is it? Thanks
i went there a few years ago (8?)as a kid... really pretty and alot of fun... Dont remember much, but one thing i do remember was that we had hired a taxi for the day to take us around. My dad made him stop to get some beer for the drive and once we got back into the taxi the driver out of no where asked for a beer and drank it and a second one while driving us around the small curvy roads. It was kinda a shock, but also kind of neat and showed something about how their culture and was of doing/thinking were vastly different then ours. Also we couldn't stop laughing at the situation... heh good times
Hornvette, Spent a week in St Martin/Marteen a couple years back. Although there's no real boundary between the French and Dutch sides(just by sign on the road), the culture quite a bit different. The Dutch side is more of an active urban atmosphere w/ gambling, clubs, and fats food restaraunts. The French side is more laid back, and less crowded. The food and beaches are better on the French side..IMHO. The dollar was taken just about everywhere, although I used plastic most of the time. PM me if you want more details...
A student of my fiance's just got back. All I can tell you is that you get one dollar per one euro. Don't know how they manage it, but it is a great deal. Also, the food is supposed to be fantastic. Have a wonderful time!
how easy is it to get to st. Maarten? my fiancee and i are looking at staying there for our honeymoon in november.
Spent a week in St. Maarten a few weeks ago and liked it, a bit different from my normal Caribbean trips. Mainly because we had a condo and a car vs. a resort and a beach so we were more on the go. Can’t go wrong with the grilled chicken and ribs served everywhere on the beach. That haberno hot sauce is the tits. Here's a GREAT site for St. Maarten info. Linky We stayed on the Dutch side at the Tower's at Mullet Bay. Mullet Bay was our favorite beach. As noted above, the French side is known for its cuisine. The French side is known for its great restaurants. St. Maarten is a very popular island for the nudists because Orient Beach and at one time Cupecoy. We really liked Mullett Beach, Mullett Beach 2, Mullett Beach 2, Pinel Island is great on the French side, you have to take a ferry over to it. We had drinks at Orient Beach, known for its nude beach, but it was a bit windy. There are a lot of water sports there. Gallion Beach is pretty and shallow. Cupecoy was a nude beach on the Dutch side, it was a pretty famous beach but I believe it is basically gone due to erosion and a resort going up. If staying on the Dutch side, Sunset Beach Bar is nice, although I heard there was a change in owners. This is where you can see the planes taking off and landing from the airport, as seen in a picture above from. We did a day sail on the bluebeard to Prickley Pear for snorkeling. We had a great time, it was a large catamaran and I’d highly recommend it. We mostly ate at on the Dutch side, we really liked Turtle Pier and Bananas (although I think I read Banana's shut down). We ate at Hot Tomatoes and Peg Legs Pub, which were recommended but we didn't think were very good. You'll need a car and I recommend some places. The link above should be able to answer any and all questions st. maarten related but has a more nudist slant to it so most recommend Orient beach. I would recommend checking it out. We went after pinel because they are close and didn't see any nudist but I was I glad I checked it out. I did see an Albino Nudist on Cupecoy, he piteched a tent (literally) to shade himself from the sun then got nekkid. So strange. Lots of old man balls everywhere. let me know if you'd like some more info...I can give some recommendations for nice restaurants on the French side as well. Here are all of our pics of St. Maarten
We went about a year ago and definitely preferred the French side of the island. We took a trip one day to the Dutch side, but it was bustling with folks from the cruise ships and really catered to them. We stayed on Orient Beach on the French side, which is a great beach with a ton of stuff to do. We rented a car and would take the short trip to Grand Case each night for dinner. They have several great restaurants there, some right on the water. Getting around the island is pretty easy by car...tricky roads though and sometimes the maps aren't very good.
Thanks for all the advice. We had a great time. We stayed in Simpson Bay at Flamingo Beach Resort. We ate on the Dutch side most evenings. The seafood was fantastic. Lee's and Peg Leg's were our favorites. We did some shopping in Phillipsburg, but a cruise ship was in port so it was a bit crowded. Once the ship left it got much nicer. I loved driving there. No stop signs, and it usually came down to who had the most guts. We took a day trip to Anguilla for snorkeling. It was beautiful.
It was a bit difficult to get there. We went from Austin to Dallas to San Juan to St. Maarten. It took about 10 hours. It was the fastest way we could find because of layovers. From Dallas it is 4.5 hours to San Juan. There are direct flights from Miami. We were told it is only two hours from Miami to St. Maarten. Next time we will do it that way.
