St. Maarten - Cab Ride to Orient Beach

[HueyDeweyLouie]

First time in St. Maarten. I'm considering not doing an excursion. I hear its a 20-30 minute ride to Orient Beach from the Pier. How much should I anticipate the cab fare to be going round trip?

Reading up on DCL's website, it says the price for "Afternoon Beach Bash Tour" is Adult $41, Child $22 with time at beach approx 2 hrs. Am I understanding this correct? That would come out to $145 for my family of 4. Umbrellas/water sports/massage/etc aren't even included in the price. So this excursion is basically ground transfers with complimentary beverages. If so, call me a cab- I can't imagine the fare costing that much.

 

[reimero]

Taxi fares in St. Maarten are handled using a "zone" system, and all taxis charge accordingly (the advantage being, you go in knowing exactly what you're going to pay, you won't have drivers trying to take advantage of you.)
Here's the relevant web page: http://www.taxistmaarten.com/en/taxi-zones-rates.html

According to that site, you're looking at $28 each way (i.e. $7 per person.)

 

[Dogsambam]

We just did trip. It was pretty quick. I think it was 7 a passenger. We had a great day. We rented chairs, had a fantastic lunch and rented a wave runner. Our 3 year old and 7 year old had a blast. We left around 1 or so to head to shop a little. We have been to St marten a bunch of times so we knew the ins and out. Any questions please ask!

 

[2prettygirl]

First time in St. Maarten. I'm considering not doing an excursion. I hear its a 20-30 minute ride to Orient Beach from the Pier. How much should I anticipate the cab fare to be going round trip?

Reading up on DCL's website, it says the price for "Afternoon Beach Bash Tour" is Adult $41, Child $22 with time at beach approx 2 hrs. Am I understanding this correct? That would come out to $145 for my family of 4. Umbrellas/water sports/massage/etc aren't even included in the price. So this excursion is basically ground transfers with complimentary beverages. If so, call me a cab- I can't imagine the fare costing that much.

Check out Bernards Travel Tours. We just returned from a cruise in January and gave them a try. They are an outside company but after doing much research and reading reviews from so many people, we did this tour. It was AWESOME! They were very reasonable in cost and there are a few added stops on the tour. We went to Orient Beach, Maho Beach, an Iguana farm (kids loved this) and we stopped at a lookout point where we met a local picking sea urchins from the water and displaying for everyone...Bernards tours told us about this so I am ssuming he does this often. Once again, we really enjoyed this tour....VERY imformative and got to see a lot of the island.

 

[llnolte]

We just did trip. It was pretty quick. I think it was 7 a passenger. We had a great day. We rented chairs, had a fantastic lunch and rented a wave runner. Our 3 year old and 7 year old had a blast. We left around 1 or so to head to shop a little. We have been to St marten a bunch of times so we knew the ins and out. Any questions please ask!

Hi Degsambam-I just sent you a PM with some questions. We want to do exactly what you did on our cruise in June. Thanks so much!

 

[HueyDeweyLouie]

Check out Bernards Travel Tours. We just returned from a cruise in January and gave them a try. They are an outside company but after doing much research and reading reviews from so many people, we did this tour. It was AWESOME! They were very reasonable in cost and there are a few added stops on the tour. We went to Orient Beach, Maho Beach, an Iguana farm (kids loved this) and we stopped at a lookout point where we met a local picking sea urchins from the water and displaying for everyone...Bernards tours told us about this so I am ssuming he does this often. Once again, we really enjoyed this tour....VERY imformative and got to see a lot of the island.

2prettygirl,

Thanks I've already looked into Bernards and although I hear really good things about them, here were my issues:

1. Not interested in being on a schedule with their Island Tour. Also, I hear alot of it is driving around. Will you get enough beach time?
2. Mostly interested in beach... then shopping afterwards.
3. Rather than doing Bernard's Beach Tour (or DCL's), wouldn't it be cheaper to just cab it myself to the beach at a cheaper price?