What to do in St. Marteen?

[bogino]

It's coming up on my 04/06 cruise date. I'm going to visit 2 beaches in St. Thomas and Castaway Cay will also be a "beach day". I'd rather not do a 3rd day of beaches in St. Marteen. Shopping seems like it's good in St. Marteen but I can envision shopping "all" day there. So other than shopping and not wanting to do beach stuff...any other suggestions? Thx.

 

[callahanjulie10]

In St Maarten we went horseback riding on the beach and then took DD backa to the ship. She went on the bridge tour for the kids and we went back into to St Maarten (Dutch) to shop and buy some liquor. We used Bayside Riding(French) that I made myself. I had never ridden before and had a great time. You get to ride on the beach and go into the water with the horses. St Maarten is poor and not a very pretty place to sight see.

St Thomas on the other hand is beautiful. It is what you have in your head as an island paradise. Definately do an island tour. They have some of the worlds most beautiful places- Meagans Bay is voted in the top 10 in the world. Go up to Mountain Top or Hill Top (can't remember). We saw iguanas and beautiful birds as we were driving down the road! The shopping here is kinda bust unless you are looking for really nice art or something.

At CC- there is BEAACH!

Just my opinion

 

[MdmMim]

My DH and I have a different view of St Maarten--we really enjoyed it there. The colors and architecture were intriguing to us--so much so that at our home, we are going to paint our deck and outside furniture in some of the colors we saw. We shopped, strolled the little streets, and generally soaked up the atmosphere. We spent a little time talking to some of the locals, who were very friendly. We did take a cab over to the French side, but we preferred the Dutch side of the island. We would like to go to St Maarten some day for an actual vacation, not just for a day.
I do agree that St. Thomas is beautiful, but to us, St. Maarten is beautiful, too. We can't wait to return.

 

[papa]

We were there last Sept and we did the Sailboat race with the real sailboats they used in the "Americas Cup Races" We had a ball and would do it again if we weren't booked to do the Western Carib. this year.

Highly recommend the Sailboat Races. Take care and enjoy your cruise. It is so much fun!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Kathy DW Papa

 

[Muffyrides]

I am just back from March 2nd cruise. Do not do the See and Sea Island Excursion. Not good. I do recommend going to the French side of the island for some great shopping and then back to the port area for great shopping as well. Lots of fun shopping to be had in all price ranges.

 

[Tay N Evie's Mom]

We did the butterfly farm tour on St Maarten. They dropped us off to shop some first, then took us to the butterfly farm and we had the option of being dropped off by the ship for more shopping after or we could be taken back to the ship. Our twins were 3 at the time, so it was a child friendly excursion that didn't involve a lot of walking, but we got to see the island and were able to get about 3 hours of shopping in.