Bernard's Tours St Maarten

[castawaycayfans]

We are on the eastern on the Magic in late January and have run across Bernard's Tours as an alternative to the ship's shore excursions. I have seen several recommendations for them, but how does that work? Do we make a reservation ahead of time or can we get off the ship and do it? Do they meet you close to the ship? How long is the tour? There will be 2 of us, will we be put with others from the ship? Any info would be greatly appreciated!

 

[hgon76]

We are on the eastern on the Magic in late January and have run across Bernard's Tours as an alternative to the ship's shore excursions. I have seen several recommendations for them, but how does that work? Do we make a reservation ahead of time or can we get off the ship and do it? Do they meet you close to the ship? How long is the tour? There will be 2 of us, will we be put with others from the ship? Any info would be greatly appreciated!

Love Bernard's Tours. Have used them twice & would use them again if we go back. U make a reservation & pay ahead. (was $35, not sure if it still is). This includes beer, rum punch, juice , soda & a tour of the island. French & Dutch sides. He will meet u right @ the pier. U can reserve a private tour or be with others from your cruise. The private is obviously more $$. It takes up much of the day (about 4 hours I believe) But we did have time to wander around the port a little when he dropped us off. We also went in late January (both times). Great time to go!

 

[sara mom]

We are using Bernard's Feb 1st through our Royal cruise. We emailed (check his website...I did a google search for Bernard's St Marteen) his told him how may and on what day and he emailed us back quickly with.......


Thank you for choosing Bernard"s Tours.Your reservation is confirmed
for our standard {Group Tour } and we will be meeting you at {9:30 Am
local Island time or half hrs after your ship dock please try to be on time so we can have a great day} right in front of the yellow building at
the{ Information CENTER}next to the Claude Watey statue.Please walk up
to the { INFORMATION CENTER} and ask for{ BERNARD}.We are located
about Three minutes walk on the Pier(from the ship to the Information
CENTER).Have a great day and we are committed to making your day in Paradise the best it can be. We greatly appreciate your business and look forward to meeting you.Group tour{$ 40.00/pp pay upon arrival }We accept payment by Cash,Master Card, Visa and Discovery Credit Card.



Please confirm recipe of this mail.. Galion beach instead of orient..

Thanking you in advance..

Bernard.


We did not have to pay ahead. I requested Galion Beach instead of Orient beach as Orient Beach is the nudist beach and with 2 kids...I just don't want to go there.

 

[pkmingo]

We got a group of about 40 from the DISboards cruise meet and did a bernards tour last year. He customized it to what we wanted to do. He and his coworkers were wonderful!!! We had the best time and saw a lot! Everything was perfect. Highly recommend! Of course, we booked everything in advance and had it all coordinated with him before we left home. He was waiting at the dock for us when we arrived! Good times!
Carol

 

[GTO-Girl]

Have used Bernard twice now and will use him again in April. Reservations are all done online www.bernardstours.com. We didn't pay him until we arrived in St Martin.

With all the road construction going on near Maho Beach I would HIGHLY recommend taking a tour if you are going there....rather than risk getting caught in a HUGE traffic jam and being late getting back to the ship.

Bernard will be sure you are back in plenty of time......so "no worries mon"..

 

[castawaycayfans]

Great! I think that we are sold on Bernards Tours!

 

[DisneyOHFan]

Thank you for the recommendation. I just signed up for our June cruise.

 

[Octoberbride03]

Love Bernard's Tours. Have used them twice & would use them again if we go back. U make a reservation & pay ahead. (was $35, not sure if it still is). This includes beer, rum punch, juice , soda & a tour of the island. French & Dutch sides. He will meet u right @ the pier. U can reserve a private tour or be with others from your cruise. The private is obviously more $$. It takes up much of the day (about 4 hours I believe) But we did have time to wander around the port a little when he dropped us off. We also went in late January (both times). Great time to go!

Its $40 per person now, but we went the 2nd week in Oct. and did not have to pay ahead. You need to have a reservation, but unless you are booking a private tour for a group there is no need to pay in advance.

Make sure you book through Bernard's own website because there is a 3rd party site that claims to book tours for him.

 

[hgon76]

Its $40 per person now, but we went the 2nd week in Oct. and did not have to pay ahead. You need to have a reservation, but unless you are booking a private tour for a group there is no need to pay in advance.

Make sure you book through Bernard's own website because there is a 3rd party site that claims to book tours for him.

I know we paid after our tour the first time. But for some reason I thought that changed last time we booked & he made us pay a deposit. Something to do w/ people booking & not showing. Which is a terrible thing to do. His tours really are a perfect way to see St. Martin!

 

[Octoberbride03]

I know we paid after our tour the first time. But for some reason I thought that changed last time we booked & he made us pay a deposit. Something to do w/ people booking & not showing. Which is a terrible thing to do. His tours really are a perfect way to see St. Martin!

The tour was great. We paid when we checked in and left the tip for after. I know he's had no-show problems with private tours but I hadn't heard of any with the regular tours

 

[Nette]

We used Bernard Tours in Feb of 2009. It was really well done, but be sure that the date in his email is correct! They had us down for the day after we were actually in St. Martin. They did get us on a bus though, and it was very, um, interesting. The group of people on our tour were a total hoot. Lots of arguing and pushing and shoving among them. We just sat back and waited for them to exit the bus before we got off. Hehehehe.

Definitely DO NOT MISS the eclairs at the french patisserie. DO NOT MISS THEM. Seriously.

 

[IrenicMom]

I'm just now starting to think about our June trip - so this is perfect timing!

We'll be a group of 7, with three kids (aged 9, 7 and 7).

Does anyone have any suggestions (other than Galion Beach over Orient Beach)? If we do a private tour, will the driver allow us time to enjoy the beaches, or will it be a hop off, see it, hop on type of experience?

 

[1153rsmith]

Bernard is fantastic. In August, we had a group of 13 on a Royal Caribbean cruise, so we did a private tour. For $40 pp he took us all over the island and did whatever we wanted. He has several spots he takes you to that are fantastic. You have got to wade over to the small island and pick up the sea urchins and starfish.

You must reserve ahead of time. For us, at least, he got our credit card information at the time of reservation, but did not charge it ahead of time. We paid him for the entire amount once we met him at the information desk.

He is a super nice guy.

 

[1153rsmith]

I'm just now starting to think about our June trip - so this is perfect timing!

We'll be a group of 7, with three kids (aged 9, 7 and 7).

Does anyone have any suggestions (other than Galion Beach over Orient Beach)? If we do a private tour, will the driver allow us time to enjoy the beaches, or will it be a hop off, see it, hop on type of experience?

If you do a private tour, he will do whatever you want. He waited on us about 90 minutes in Marigot while we ate lunch.

 

[Beth D]

Does he also stop by the stand where you get the Guavaberry rum and coladas? If so, sounds like this is the one for me!

 

[amyren]

I just booked with them last night for our Turkey day cruise! I was booked on a Disney excursion but Bernard's is way less expensive and you get to see more of the island. So excited

 

[pkmingo]

When we coordinated our private tour, we stopped at the "Urchin" man to pet & hold a few creatures from the sea he picked out for us (kids loved that), then we had arranged beach chairs & umbrellas waiting for us at the beach and they dropped us off for I think 1.5 hrs there. He then took us to the French side where we got to do a little shopping and had lunch at a sidewalk cafe (everyone was on their own to do whatever during lunch time), we then timed it to drive over the the airport area so we could be there when the big planes came in /out - we did survive but that is crazy!!! If you never have seen it, it is quite the sight to experience!! Then dropped those of us who wanted to shop at the shopping area and others who wanted to go back to the ship, he took back to the pier. It was a GREAT time and we saw so much! If all comes from being very organized and having all your plans set out in advance. He will do whatever you want on the private tours. Just tell him what you want to see and how long you want to stay at each place and he will tell you how to plan it accordingly.
Carol

 

[DaniellefromOttawa]

We took Bernards on our last cruise and really enjoyed it. He has a great connection with everyone in the van, my kids loved him and he was equally as charming with a Grandma with the group. There was lots of time to enjoy the sights, I would not hesitate to recommend his tours!

Have fun!

Danielle

 

[snubadad]

we will be booking with bernards for our april cruise, one of the top things we want to see is maho beach in the afternoon when the larger jets land, does anyone know if we need to book a private tour or does his regular tour go to maho in the afternoon?

 

[mysteryguest]

I just posted this in another thread, but it's worth reposting. We used Bernards Tours three weeks ago and had a blast! Thomas was our guide and delivered the unlimited beer/water/soda/rum punch. He was courteous and informative throughout the day. There were seven of us in my group and I reserved a regular tour ahead of time. No deposit or anything, just a couple emails. Since there were seven in my group, we had what turned out to be a private tour more or less. Just the seven of us in our van. Thomas asked us what we wanted to do with our time as he wanted to cater the tour to our needs. The wives/grandma could care less about shopping, just like us hubbies, so it was a beach day at Orient and Maho. We did hit the iguana place and the sea urchin stop as well. The kids loved every stop. We also hit some scenic overlook places for photos. The drive from Maho Beach to the port at the end of the day was an adventure due to the stopped traffic from road construction. I'll just tell you that we got back before pretty much anyone else and laughed the entire time. It's amazing how much ground you can cover driving through parking lots, back alleys, and calling ahead to friends stopped ahead in traffic to make room for you.

You won't regret a tour with these guys. We talked about our adventure throughout the entire rest of the cruise. Cannot wait to go back and do it again!

(EDIT)-For my Virginia neighbor in the post above me, we booked a standard tour and saw many jets land at Maho. It was awesome!

Here's a pic of one of the smaller planes we saw...I only caught the big planes on video-