Magic-East-Beaches on your own

[chasbos]

St. Maarten has great beaches and you are right, the taxis are incredibly cheap - as long as you ask. Now renting your own vehicle is also fun - My family of 6 (myself, DH and DD's 12, 10, 8 & 5) rented a jeep and it was my kids highlight of the trip, driving the yellow convertable around the entire island. It only takes about 1.5 hour to cirlce the whole island and you get to see what an interesting island it really is. We stayed at the Maho and the beach was very clean and calm, we went over to Mullett Bay the one day and the waves were very large when we had none at Maho. Also, at the Maho beach the airport is right behind the beach and the planes landing and taking off were also a big hit with the kids.

Great Bay is also a great beach, right at the pier and very close to the boat and you are only a few blocks from very clean, air conditioned restaurants (KFC, McDonalds etc). My kids were happy to have McD's for one day!

Hope this helps.

 

[spamama]

Maybe it was because we had been to beautiful Dawn beach with no crowds and beautiful sand and water and surf, the day before, but we were disappointed in Coki. We ended up being too tired to check out Coral World, (that early immigration did us in!) so maybe that would have made it better. The kids did enjoy trying out the snorkeling, but it was crowded with loud families, ( the two on either side of us were yelling at each other the whole time!) had a semi rocky beach, and no surf. Also many "vendors". Now, we havent been to any other beaches on St thomas to compare with, but I think next time we might try Magens or Sapphire. Also, in St Maarten, we were the only ship in port, and the Mariner was with us in St Thomas, so that might have made a big difference in the crowd level. We just felt that Coki was way too crowded for our tastes, and not near as pretty.

 

[DonnaDavid]

We also had the same dilemma when we did the 7 day cruise in 3/02. Our additional concern was that my daughter was only 11 mos old and I wanted her in a car seat. Therefore, we rented cars and drove to our own beaches. I highly recommend www.cruisecritic.com to research your destinations. There are lots of factors to take into account including the ages and desires of your travelling party as well asl weather and seasonal crowds.

I do have to warn you that I researched this carefully and was told that driving around the islands was no problem. We didn't find it to be that easy. Also, be sure to make a reservation for your rental car and be there on time. In St. Marteen, we showed up an hour later than our reservation time and they had given our mini-van to someone else. (I can't remember the rental car company, but you'll find tons of posts on the discussion area of cruisecritic about car rental companies. ) We ended up with two less-than-wonderful cars in which to get lost on the island. We did save a lot of money and I felt better about my kids being safely belted in their own carseats vs. a taxi or a tourbus. I would probably do it that way again next time.

Good luck researching!
Donna

 

[chasbos]

Wow, I thought St. Maarten was a very easy island to navigate! We were staying at the Maho for the week and were given a very simple map and we had no trouble at all. We only had our jeep for 2 days and took taxi's the rest of the week - they are really good at dropping you off and picking you up when you say and for the most are good, cautious drivers. That said we still enjoyed the jeep and could stop at any interesting place we saw and being the safe island that St. Maarten is we were not at all hesitant to tour on our own.

 

[musicgirl]

chasbro,

You are alot braver than me! LOL!

Our taxi driver was great and very informative. When we were there in June, they were in the process of putting all the utilities under ground. So needless to say, the already narrow streets were even more so! For the most part, the drivers are very polite but they are risk takers. There were a few times that we just squeezed by.

The ride was beautiful though. You have to look past the older buildings.

Lorie

 

[chasbos]

Yes, the roads are very narrow and alot of the time congested. We were in St. MAarten in December and were driving around when school was letting out - wow what a sight that was! The yellow school bus just pulls across ALL lanes of traffic, both coming and going and lets the kids out. My kids thought it was very amusing. As we have travelled all over we found the roads to be quite similar to Europe and in fact a bit wider than those in Holland. And after all we are on holidays and you have to experience the country you are visiting!