Excursion times...& beaches

[kplatt]

Quote: [Originally posted by bkline
... My DS enjoyed the Golden eagle Catamaran in St. Marteen. It's about an 1 1/2 hour boat ride, then an hour plus of beach playing or snorkeling, then the ride back...]

I'm glad I saw this info in another thread, as I was thinking about doing the catamaran excursion. However, I'd much rather spend 3 hrs. at the beach and only an hour on transport. The write ups on the excursions don't say anything about travel times. Can anyone advise as to best beach time, time as in both hours and enjoyable activities? I've had a great time at Sapphire Beach (which has great snorkeling) on St. Thomas in the past, but have never been to St. John.

A question about St. Maarten's beaches... at which beaches are we less likely to encounter nudity/toplessness? My 9-yr old dd very modest, and my 11-yr old ds is getting the 5th grade sex education talk the day before we leave for our cruise. Talk about timing!

I don't mean for this thread to be about the suitability of nudity... just some facts, please? ; )

Karen
Wonder 11/01
Magic 3/02
Wonder 11/02

 

[Dave_from_Marietta]

Originally posted by kplatt

Are there beaches where we are less likely to encounter nudity/toplessness?

Generally, the only beach where nudity is common is Orient Beach (there are others, but not on the list of beaches you're likely to consider). Toplessness may occur on almost all other beaches, but is less common on the Dutch side than on the French side. And it's least common at Great Bay Beach, which is the closest beach to the ship.

 

[bkline]

If you really want to get in a lot of beach time, I would just take a water taxi to the downtown area or a beach. What we usually do is go on the Golden Eagel in the morning and go to downtown in the afternoon. The wife shops while DS and myself play on the beach at a restaurant called Everything's Cool. They serve burgers, chicken sanwiches and great tropical drinks. You may want to just go there or get a taxi and hit one of the other beaches.

 

[Nana Sue]

We were told that Cupacoy Beach on the Dutch side is also nude (and a gay) beach. You are likely to run into topless women on most any beach in St. Martin so I would suggest you explain to you children that in different countries different customs prevail and here it is perfectly acceptable to go topless. We were just in St. Martin for two weeks and are returning on a cruise with our grandchildren in the near future. We checked out a lot of beaches while we were there and I decided the best approach was to explain this to our grandchildren. The only place we saw full nudity was on Orient Beach.