Private Tour with Noel Tours

Our group of 6 have booked a private tour with Noel Tours. http://noeltours.com/

Can anyone suggest the best time to be at Maho Beach? We do not want to miss the big planes.

I think I have seen a recommendation to check the flight schedules a week in advance for the same day of the week that you're going to be there.

Our group of 6 have booked a private tour with Noel Tours. http://noeltours.com/

 

Can anyone suggest the best time to be at Maho Beach? We do not want to miss the big planes.

The best times can range from 12-3 pm on most days. It's best to check the flight schedule below when it get's closer to your sail date.

The flight schedule below is only for a 24 hour period. When it get closer to your sail date, a week before, check the schedule below on the *day* you will arrive. So if you arrive on a Wednesday, check the Wednesday prior to arrival and you'll see all the arrivals and departures times for each airline.

http://sunsetsxm.com/index.php/about-us/flight-schedules

Noel is great. You will enjoy your time with him. My wife and I have toured with him twice. He will know when to get Maho to see the planes.

Syr101, so do you think they adjust the tour to make sure that there are planes coming in? My honey is a private pilot and that is the single thing he is insistent on doing in St. Martin... seeing the planes come in. If I book a tour and miss it, it will ruin his trip. I've been digging around a few days now trying to find a tour that will make sure we see the planes. We found a tour from another operator that looked great, but the single review stated they weren't at Maho long enough to see any. I am starting to think we're going to have to plan on Maho all day and forgo any other sightseeing.

I think I have seen a recommendation to check the flight schedules a week in advance for the same day of the week that you're going to be there.

The best times can range from 12-3 pm on most days. It's best to check the flight schedule below when it get's closer to your sail date.

 

 

The flight schedule below is only for a 24 hour period. When it get closer to your sail date, a week before, check the schedule below on the *day* you will arrive. So if you arrive on a Wednesday, check the Wednesday prior to arrival and you'll see all the arrivals and departures times for each airline.

 

http://sunsetsxm.com/index.php/about-us/flight-schedules

Thanks guys, we will check the flight schedule again closer to our tour date.

Make sure you tell Noel that you need to be there to see the planes, and he will get you there.

Thank you for the reply Syr. I sent an e-mail off to them tonight. :)

I'm sorry to report that Noel Tours cannot guarantee that you're at the beach to see the big planes land on the public tour, only on a private tour. Since it's just the two of us, a private tour is too expensive. I got an email from the owner this morning stating this.

Back to the drawing board!

Jacks gal,

Please keep us posted if you find a tour, this is on my "bucket List" too.

Jacks gal,

Please keep us posted if you find a tour, this is on my "bucket List" too.

Fishman

We will spending a lot time at Maho beach just for the big planes, and will post our experience with Noel Tours when we return.

Did you try Bernard's Tours? He had us at Maho Beach around 1:30 and we saw planes.

WE have also done Bernard's and it is a standard part of tour

We did a tour with Noel last week...it was just our family of 5, so while he has an itinerary made up, he was open to however we wanted to adjust it. Planes land at Maho Beach all day. We got there about 1:30; within 45 minutes we saw landings of two flights from the US, an international jetliner from Paris and several small craft. As long as you have that much time to an hour to spend there, I think you will be safe seeing planes. Also note that the beach is very narrow, there are hundreds of people there and plenty of traffic on the street...you will be ready to move on after seeing a couple planes land. There is a chalkboard at the beach (it's on the outside patio at the restaurant near the parking lot...don't remember the name of the restaurant, but you'll know it when you see it)...it lists all the flights for the day, airline, origination and ETA.

Noel was awesome, by the way...friendly and knowledgeable. His van has free wifi as well.

We are back from our cruise and I just wanted to give you an update on Noel Tours.

Since being at Maho to see the big planes was a "must" for us in St. Maarten, we splurged on a private tour with Noel Tours for the two of us.

We are SO glad we did. Our driver's name was Michael and he took us all over the island. We got to go wherever we wanted and stay as long as we wanted. We even had him take us to the Yoda Guy store which isn't on the regular tour and met the owner, the man who created Yoda for Star Wars. There was a cooler with water and soda on ice in the van for us to drink. Michael was a great tour guide. We met with Noel shortly before we left on our tour so we know we were with the right operator.

It was $300 for the two of us, but we are very happy we did it and consider it totally worth the money.

We are back from our cruise and I just wanted to give you an update on Noel Tours.

 

Since being at Maho to see the big planes was a "must" for us in St. Maarten, we splurged on a private tour with Noel Tours for the two of us.

 

We are SO glad we did. Our driver's name was Michael and he took us all over the island. We got to go wherever we wanted and stay as long as we wanted. We even had him take us to the Yoda Guy store which isn't on the regular tour and met the owner, the man who created Yoda for Star Wars. There was a cooler with water and soda on ice in the van for us to drink. Michael was a great tour guide. We met with Noel shortly before we left on our tour so we know we were with the right operator.

 

It was $300 for the two of us, but we are very happy we did it and consider it totally worth the money.

We had a fantastic day with Noel on our private tour. The planes at Maho Beach was our highlight of the day. Noel also had a cooler of drinks for us, including rum punch. I highly recommend him

We had a fantastic day with Noel on our private tour. The planes at Maho Beach was our highlight of the day. Noel also had a cooler of drinks for us, including rum punch. I highly recommend him

We used Noel Tours twice and enjoyed both of the times with him.

Does anyone know the best and least expensive ferry or private trip from St. Maarten to St. Barths and back? My sis really wants to see St. Barths; Thanks for your help!

So, more than a month before our cruise, we went to the Noel Tours website and put down the $50 deposit through Paypal and reserved our tour for 2 for $300. We arrived in port on 1/20/15, NCL Getaway, were off the ship by about 8:15 to begin our day with Noel. Walked back and forth looking for Noel, asking everybody where Noel was, no one knew. Finally, after about an hour and a half, we meet another Tour Operator who kindly called Noel for us to ask where he was. Noel said that his website had crashed and that he had no records of tours that he had set up. He had us walk out beyond the Guard Shack and onto the main road where 2 guys in a white van picked us up to take us to Noel who was in Marigot. So, we did eventually meet up with Noel. We did have a pleasant day. His van is spotless, he knows everybody in town, really! Went to lunch in Marigot and paid $25 for each of us and treated Noel also (tasty garlic and coconut shrimp at Sandy's). Saw the Iguana's, the Sea Urchin Man, Orient beach and all of the beauty of St. Maarten. At a couple of the stops he bought each of us a Caribe beer, very good. I suggest that you contact him directly to book, then re-confirm and really nail down your meeting spot as there is a lot of chaos in the information/Tour Guide areas. We wasted 1-1/2 hours of our only day in port, it would have been nice if we had been offered a small discount or a lunch as a token of apology. Nope. Had things gone as planned, we could have offered up a 5 star review, but I agree, being 1-1/2 hours late is unprofessional.

How many people cn Noel tours accomodate

I've read several things about Mr. Noel on Cruise critic so I decided to book a private tour with him. He was very prompt in responding to our inquiry. we have paid our $50 deposit for a private tour with him in St. Maarten in June for a family of four. We will let you know how it goes. So far so good.

Hello, The van we were in could probably hold 8 people comfortably. I do remember hearing Noel say that he did have access to other vehicles also.