beaches at St. Maarten [Archive] - The DIS Discussion Forums

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kdmkdm7

01-22-2002, 01:14 PM

Can anyone give us suggestions for a good swimming and snorkeling beach at St. Maarten? Thank you.

mmouse37

01-22-2002, 01:55 PM

We took the Orient Bay Beach Excursion and it was beautiful!!!!

But, beware....at one end of the beach is a "nudist" beach. Disney does warn about this at the shore excursion talk. We saw some "nudes" from the other beach and it was not any big deal. My 16 year old son walked right past and didn't even notice. When we joked that a naked lady just walked past, he turned around and almost gagged.....most of the nudes are older, not so in shape people.!!!

MJ

Señor Ferrari

01-22-2002, 03:01 PM

We took a cab to Dawn Beach, on the Dutch side of St. Maarten. Great swimming and snorkling. There's a little restaurant there with restrooms. You can rent chairs, umbrellas, floats, boogie boards, etc. from Wayne right there on the beach. The cab ride was about 15 minutes from the cruise ship pier, and cost $15 for two of us.

They may ask you if you want to tour the timeshare unit which is adjacent to the beach, but they didn't push the issue at all. We said, "No thanks" once, and were never bothered again.

Great Bay beach is also a good beach, but probably not as good for snorkeling. There's a water taxi that takes you to Philipsburg ($5/person for unlimited rides) from the pier, and the beach is right there. It's much bigger than Dawn beach, but there's a lot of water traffic in the bay, so the snorkeling isn't as good. For sunning/swimming, etc., it's great.

RellingTwin

01-22-2002, 04:28 PM

We had a wonderful time at Dawn Beach! The day we went it was a little rough for snorkeling but I am told this is NOT the norm. We brought our own bev and sandwiches from the ship, but I must say the food from the little rest smelled wonderful and the 99cent beers we great! For a family of 4 (2 adults 2 kids) we spent 22.00 each way for cab, 12.00 total for 2 chairs with umbrella. 56.00 total! We asked the cab to pick us up at 2pm and he was right on time, but I am sure the nice folks in the resturant would call one for you if need be. Have a wonderful time!