Town tours on Eastern cruise

[walt4evr]

We are mainly interested in just relaxing on the beautiful beaches, but would also like to get a feel of the island also. The only shopping we are interested in is the low priced alcohol and some minor trinkets--which can easily be accomplished on the ship.
Will we be missing out on seeing local culture if we do not tour the islands but instead spend the whole day on the beaches? Is there much to see other than shopping, Coral World, etc?
We were thinking of the 1 contry, 2 flag tour of St. Maarten but I recently read a not so great review of this tour.
We would like something for a couple hours in the AM just to see the islands but then want to spend the bulk of the day on the beach. Any suggestions?
Thanks!

 

[hydster]

When we did the Eastern on 5-1 we got off in St. Maarten and walked down the beautiful pier area to the taxi stand. We hooked a taxi to Orient Beach where there was a water tramp available, jet skis, parasailing and you could rent beach chairs and umbrellas. There was a nice restaurant there. We stayed for about 3 hours and then decided to head back. We went on to the ship, ate lunch and then took the water taxi from the pier into downtown. We walked around the streets, walked to the Guavaberry Emporium to get some Guavaberry Coladas and some liquor to bring home, we also stopped in a few stores to get some trinkets. The kids wanted to go back to the ship because they were hot and tired so we went back and left them in the room while we ran to the shops on the pier to buy more alcohol. We got great prices at the shops..like for instance Bombay Saphire the big size was 10 dollars and tanqueray was 8.50 for the big one!

In St. Thomas we walked to the Paradise Point Tram to get some pictures and there was a ton of shopping area around both in the pier and across the street by the Tramway. We did an excursion here so I can't help you but in the past we've rented a taxi to take us around for a couple of hours on our own and had great luck.

Heidi

 

[TheWog]

you can hire a cab as you get off the ship and they will give you the island tour that you are looking for. Negotiate the price up front, then have him drop you at the beach for a few hours and agree upon a time to return. Be careful in St. Thomas for traffic so allow yourself enough time to get back to the ship.