Eastern 7 Day Excursion Advice Sought

[amcnj]

Hi. Any advice on worthwhile excursions in St Marten or St Thomas? Is it better to just do your own thing? Is it easy to do it yourself? Thanks for any help!

 

[TheWog]

I think it really depends on what you want to do and get out of it and the make up of your group. In St. Maarten, we just took the water taxi to Great Bay beach and hung out for the morning, swimming, jet skis, etc. Then returned to the ship to shower, change, eat and then went back to town for some shopping. To us that was a great day. We just wanted a relaxing beach day and that's what we got. There are however great sailing excursions on St. Maarten that will allow you to be part of the crew of an America's Cup yacht, snorkeling, rhino riders, island tours that take you to the French Side. There is a beach (Maho) that 747s land almost what feels like directly on your head. Orient Beach is another favorite place for people to go. So if you provide a little more details we can help suggest things for you.

St. Thomas, same thing, you can go anything from Speedboat/snorkeling to sailing/snorkeling, to shopping tours, to some of the most beautiful beaches in the world. You can take a ferry to St. John and enjoy the peacefulness of that island as well. We did the Atlantis submarine ride. If you are bringing kids you may enjoy this. They can then say they have been in a submarine and been 15 feet from a 5-6 foot shark or barracuda, etc. My son and I saw the Screamin' Eagle jet boat tour that looked like a lot of fun and he said he wished he could have gone on too.

It's all in what you want to do or think you would like. On either island everything is easy to do on your own as you will have taxis available at each place to take you where you want to go.

 

[PoohJen]

It depends on who (ages) you are travelling with.

My family had an impromptu trip to Great Bay Beach on St Maarten when our Catamaran/Snorkeling excursion was cancelled due to rough seas. Thank god for everything I had read on these boards! We didn't miss a beat - we packed a beach bag, head for the water taxi, already knew what the vendors would be hawking and what we could ultimately get ($40 - 2 lounges, umbrella, jet ski for 30 minutes and water trampoline for the kids).

We had a GREAT time!

My DH and twin sons (age 7) also did the Atlantis sub in St. Thomas (gee, Wog, guess we took a page out of your travel guide!) and enjoyed it - a "fun to do once" kind of trip.

Go with what looks fun for you - Have a wonderful trip!

 

[jrabbit]

If you want a "beach day" at any port I recommend doing it on your own because it is MUCH cheeper than doing a DCL beach excursion. You can't say the same thing about most of the snorkeling excursions. You can save a few bucks per person but not the 50 to 75% that you save by doing the beach on your own.

We went to Orient Beach (St. Maarten) on our own - It's a beautiful beach with water sports and food/beverage services. Search for Orient to find numerous threads about it here on the DIS.

On St. Thomas we've done the barefoot catamaran snorkel trip over to St. John's. It was a very good excursion. We're going to Trunk Bay next time on the 5 star snorkel trip.

 

[rocketralph]

When we went it was just DW and I. In St. Marten, we went on the Rhino Rider snorkel adventure and that was a blast. I want to go back and do it again. Then we went shopping. In St. Thomas we went on the Atlantis submarine and that was great too. We also went on the Paridise point tramway and did some shopping downtown.
Before the trip everyone we talked to said to do most of your shopping in St.Marten because St. Thomas was more expensive. To tell you the truth I really thought I got better deals in St. Thomas. Plus, to me, St. Thomas was more enjoyable to shop.
Be for warned, The Pirates of Caribbean party is on Tuesday night and when you dock in St. Thomas on Wednesday you have to get up early for Customs and Immigration (6am).

 

[TheWog]

It depends on who (ages) you are travelling with.

My family had an impromptu trip to Great Bay Beach on St Maarten when our Catamaran/Snorkeling excursion was cancelled due to rough seas. Thank god for everything I had read on these boards! We didn't miss a beat - we packed a beach bag, head for the water taxi, already knew what the vendors would be hawking and what we could ultimately get ($40 - 2 lounges, umbrella, jet ski for 30 minutes and water trampoline for the kids).

We had a GREAT time!

My DH and twin sons (age 7) also did the Atlantis sub in St. Thomas (gee, Wog, guess we took a page out of your travel guide!) and enjoyed it - a "fun to do once" kind of trip.

Go with what looks fun for you - Have a wonderful trip!

Sounds like you did. I thought it was a great way to spend both days. We got the same package in St. Maarten as you, but paid $45.00 for it. Oh well, we did a couple drinks on the house. I think it was worth the time and we had a blast. That's our recommendation.