Best way to see French side and Maho Beach in a few hours?

We are going on a cruise that docks in Philipsburg, St. Marteen. We would like to visit St. Martin (French side) and also Princess Julianna Int'l Airport/Maho Beach. There is a tour for $35(Amigo's Orient and Maho Beach Bum). Is that our best option? Or should we just take a taxi to both places or are there any other tours/excursions you know of that do the same?

We are going on a cruise that docks in Philipsburg, St. Marteen. We would like to visit St. Martin (French side) and also Princess Julianna Int'l Airport/Maho Beach. There is a tour for $35(Amigo's Orient and Maho Beach Bum). Is that our best option? Or should we just take a taxi to both places or are there any other tours/excursions you know of that do the same?

We wanted to do Orient and Maho in the same day, it worked but I would do it differently the next time. We went to Maho in the morning, then about 2pm tried to find a taxi to take us to Orient. First, the big planes come in the afternoon, so next time, we would reverse it and do Orient in the morning and Maho in the afternoon. When we were ready to leave Maho, we could not find a taxi that was willing to take us to Orient. They said they don't like to be on that side of the island at that time of day, I guess there is more money to be made on the port side. We finally found one to share with a couple who just wanted to ride around this island and didn't mind stopping to drop us off at Orient. Nice of them and the taxi driver made more money so he was happy.

I would suggest either doing Maho second or if you can find a tour that includes both and what you want, do that. I believe we paid 30$ pp to take a taxi from Maho to Orient, I think the taxi to Maho was around 10$pp and then we had to pay to go from Orient back to the port, we were able to share a group taxi, but I think it still must have been around 15$pp.

Thanks!!:)

Bernards tous are good. We did one a few years leeaving the Allure about 9:00 am with French side of island tour,short shopping stop, Maho beach for linch and plane viewing the back to ship. I don't know if he takes small groups of not. There were about 8-10 in our group. I don't remember the price. It included beverages of water,beer and rum punch.

Norine

We are going on a cruise that docks in Philipsburg, St. Marteen. We would like to visit St. Martin (French side) and also Princess Julianna Int'l Airport/Maho Beach. There is a tour for $35(Amigo's Orient and Maho Beach Bum). Is that our best option? Or should we just take a taxi to both places or are there any other tours/excursions you know of that do the same?

We did the Viator "Half Day Beach Tour" for $35 per person and thoroughly enjoyed every minute of it! We spent 2 hours at Orient Beach before heading to Maho Beach for 2 hours. Our tour guide, Eddie, even provided all the water, beer or rum punch we wanted for free! We booked this tour online prior to leaving home for the cruise. Check them out! You WON"T be disappointed!

Bill

We wanted to do Orient and Maho in the same day, it worked but I would do it differently the next time. We went to Maho in the morning, then about 2pm tried to find a taxi to take us to Orient. First, the big planes come in the afternoon, so next time, we would reverse it and do Orient in the morning and Maho in the afternoon. When we were ready to leave Maho, we could not find a taxi that was willing to take us to Orient. They said they don't like to be on that side of the island at that time of day, I guess there is more money to be made on the port side. We finally found one to share with a couple who just wanted to ride around this island and didn't mind stopping to drop us off at Orient. Nice of them and the taxi driver made more money so he was happy.

I would suggest either doing Maho second or if you can find a tour that includes both and what you want, do that. I believe we paid 30$ pp to take a taxi from Maho to Orient, I think the taxi to Maho was around 10$pp and then we had to pay to go from Orient back to the port, we were able to share a group taxi, but I think it still must have been around 15$pp.

Orient to the port in a shared taxi is about $8 pp not $15 pp.

In the summer I have seen the KLM jet from Amsterdam arrive at 10:45 and also a couple of times at 11:15. We always make sure that we see that one every time we vacation on St. Maarten.

We just did Tour 2 with Bernard's 2 weeks ago. For 40 or $45.00 We felt we got our money's worth! Orient Beach, Maho Beach where we saw the planes, the Iguana stop, Marigot, and of course Serafina's the best French bakery I have ever been to! Provides you with ALL kinds of beverages thru out the day....you can't go wrong!

How long does it take to go from the cruise port to Maho Beach? I think my boys would love watching the planes!

Another vote for Bernard's tours! It hits all the stops you're looking for. The tour was amazing and at $45 it's a bargain!