Beaches on St Maarten

[KEH]

Has anyone any recommendations for which beaches to visit independently on St Maarten? Are there cabs at the port and then at the beach for the return trip?

 

[ThreeCircles]

We have visited Orient Bay on our own. We actually rented a car at the port for a day and kind of did a "self-guided" tour of the whole island. It was quite fun!

Orient Bay was very nice. Not too crowded, easy parking, beautiful beach, many bars around in case you wanted a drink, and, all in all, a great experience.

As far as cabs, I don't think you would have any difficulty in finding a cab to take you anywhere you wanted to go on the island.

 

[KEH]

Which car hire place is it, can you remember? Doing this worked well for us on Cozumel so this may be another option especially as there are 5 of us and a cab may be a bit pricy.

 

[ThreeCircles]

Well, the only "bad" part of our self-guided tour came from the car rental place.

We used a new credit card to rent the car and about two months later received a statement that reflected over $1000.00 worth of merchandise purchased in New York. We remembered that when we rented the car the individual at the rental agency took our card out of sight for quite a while. (We should have been more vigilant and never have let this happen but we were excited about being on vacation that I guess it just didn't register.) Anyway, as I mentioned it was a brand new Disney Visa and had only been used one other time, to pay off the cruise with DCL.

Bank One was great about removing the charges but it was still a disturbing experience.

Hopefully this was just one individual with bad intentions and not something that is reflective of the whole agency. The name of the agency was Best Deal.

 

[prymsu]

we did dawn's beach on our own. It was very easy to get to. I think it was 18 bucks one way for the three of us. They had a place to eat, chairs and umbrellas to rent, and it was very nice. The water was a little choppy though the day we were there, so the snorkeling was not the best.

 

[Viking]

We did Oriental Bay on our own: Taxi-fare for four adults was $20 each way & tip. It was a brand-new Chevy-van with a very friendly cabbie, who picked us up for the return perfectly on time. At the beach we rented two lounges, an umrella and a small table for each couple for $10, beer was $3 or 4 per bottle, sodas were cheaper. The beach and the water were wonderful. Driving time was about 20 minutes each way.

 

[TheWog]

Great Bay beach wasn't too bad. It was right at Philipsburg, so it was very convenient.

 

[CRB#33]

The Wog, could you tell me exactly how to get to this beach, please? I'm thinking of going there in the afternoon and maybe renting some jet skis and then shopping. I think the kids would love the jet skis!

Thanks!

 

[TheWog]

Great Bay beach with jet skis is just to the left when you get off the water taxi, don't even go through the gates to the main street (you will see what I mean when you get there). Water taxi is $5 all day pp, kids free. Go a little further down the beach and you can rent an umbrella, two chairs for $10, water trampoline and the place will give you $1.00 drinks for the day. They also rent jet skis $40.00 per 1/2 hour. We got the jet skis and chairs with trampoline (for DS6 only) for $45. Beware of hawkers kind of bugging you to buy stuff for most of the day. A polite no usually sends them away, but there are lots of them.

My DS6 loved the jet skis and if you go way out in the harbor to the right there is a boat wrecked on the rocks that we checked out. It was a whole lot of fun. We loved it. We then went back to the ship to eat, shower and then did some shopping. Very convenient.

 

[KEH]

Sorry to be thick but where is the water taxi? Near where you dock?

 

[PiperG]

Yes, the water taxi is right near the boat. You just exit off the pier, and the water taxi station is to your right, across from some shops.

You can't miss it.

We are also planning to do Great Bay Beach. That allows us to have a little time in the water and sand, but easily return to the ship, which is the highlight of our vacation.

 

[PiperG]

the water taxi station is on your left, not the right, as you exit the pier area. Sorry!