First time at St Martin, a lot of questions.

Our cruise will arrive at St Marin at 1:30pm and leave at 9:30pm on May 24th. This is first time for us to visit St. Martin.

Our group have 3 adults and 2 kids (10 years old). Because we have only half day at St Martin, do you think we still have enough time to tour the whole island? How to arrange the itinerary? We want to see Maho beach, swimming at a pretty beach (orient beach maybe?), see both French and Dutch sides.

Should we better book a private tour in advanced? Over $300 for only 5 hours tour seems a lot to me. Or we may just walk to cruise pier and negotiate a taxi driver for the tour? I am on budget so definitely want to save some money. There is only our cruise visiting st. Martin on that day.

Yes - $300 sounds like a lot of money for a five hour tour for five people. Your port times are a little different that the normal and that may affect what you can easily find at a good price.

I would recommend that you call or email Wilfred Brooks, a taxi driver with a great reputation, and see what he could do for you or recommend. He might be as expensive for what you specifically want but I doubt it. If he is booked up or otherwise unavailable, ask him for a personal recommendation of another driver.

US Phone number is 305 712 2666 Email is guavaberry58@yahoo.com

I think that if you want to see planes landing and taking off at Maho then you should try and be the first off of the ship. Even then you will get to Maho at around 2:15. If you stay until 3:30 and taxi to Orient then you will likely get there around 4:30 as island traffic is busy at that time of day.That won't give you much day light to enjoy Orient at all. I would not recommend this plan myself. I would suggest taking a taxi to Simpson Bay after Maho and swim, watch the sunset and enjoy dinner on the beach at Karakter and then taxi back to the ship. Very easy to do and quite inexpensive as well.

If you want to see both sides of the island perhaps after Maho take a taxi to Grand Case. Go for a swim and then to the LOLO's for a local dinner and then head back to the ship via taxi.

Yes - $300 sounds like a lot of money for a five hour tour for five people. Your port times are a little different that the normal and that may affect what you can easily find at a good price.

 

I would recommend that you call or email Wilfred Brooks, a taxi driver with a great reputation, and see what he could do for you or recommend. He might be as expensive for what you specifically want but I doubt it. If he is booked up or otherwise unavailable, ask him for a personal recommendation of another driver.

 

US Phone number is 305 712 2666 Email is guavaberry58@yahoo.com

Thanks a lot!

I think that if you want to see planes landing and taking off at Maho then you should try and be the first off of the ship. Even then you will get to Maho at around 2:15. If you stay until 3:30 and taxi to Orient then you will likely get there around 4:30 as island traffic is busy at that time of day.That won't give you much day light to enjoy Orient at all. I would not recommend this plan myself. I would suggest taking a taxi to Simpson Bay after Maho and swim, watch the sunset and enjoy dinner on the beach at Karakter and then taxi back to the ship. Very easy to do and quite inexpensive as well.

 

If you want to see both sides of the island perhaps after Maho take a taxi to Grand Case. Go for a swim and then to the LOLO's for a local dinner and then head back to the ship via taxi.

Thanks for your input! The sunset time on that day will be 6:40pm. If we get off the cruise first at 1:30pm, do you still think we have no enough time to tour the whole island?

$300 total for 5 people on a five hour tour doesn't seem that expensive ... especially, if you'll be able to do most of the things you want.

Even with bad traffic it's not more than 1.5 hours around the whole island. So yes you could do it but it seems like you are trying to cram a lot into a little bit of time. Most of shops in Philipsburg will be closed up by 5pm. Not much stays open late, a few restaurants will be open but not much else in the touristy parts of the island.

Cruiseport to Maho is 30 mins.

Maho to Orient is 1 hour

Orient to cruiseport 30 min.

So do to this you eat up at least 2 hours just driving around, of course you would see the whole island that way but you are going to mostly be seeing the roads, shopping area some residential areas etc.

I'd go to Maho have a cocktail watch the big planes & leave. ( The beach kind of sucks here lots of waves)

Go to Grand Case & Lolo's for dinner great BBQ nice little beach with gentle waves & some shopping near by.

Then head back to Philipsburg stroll the boardwalk before heading back to the ship.

Even with bad traffic it's not more than 1.5 hours around the whole island. So yes you could do it but it seems like you are trying to cram a lot into a little bit of time. Most of shops in Philipsburg will be closed up by 5pm. Not much stays open late, a few restaurants will be open but not much else in the touristy parts of the island.

Cruiseport to Maho is 30 mins.

Maho to Orient is 1 hour

Orient to cruiseport 30 min.

So do to this you eat up at least 2 hours just driving around, of course you would see the whole island that way but you are going to mostly be seeing the roads, shopping area some residential areas etc.

I'd go to Maho have a cocktail watch the big planes & leave. ( The beach kind of sucks here lots of waves)

Go to Grand Case & Lolo's for dinner great BBQ nice little beach with gentle waves & some shopping near by.

Then head back to Philipsburg stroll the boardwalk before heading back to the ship.

If you circumnavigate the island, it would take exactly the same amount of time if you stop in Grand Case or visit Orient. Not sure about Grand Case, but Orient really starts closing down by 4:30.

Love the Lolo's, though :)

If you don't HAVE to see both sides, I'd recommend either Mullet or Simpson Bay after Maho, then back to Philipsburg.

gary

Even with bad traffic it's not more than 1.5 hours around the whole island. So yes you could do it but it seems like you are trying to cram a lot into a little bit of time. Most of shops in Philipsburg will be closed up by 5pm. Not much stays open late, a few restaurants will be open but not much else in the touristy parts of the island.

Cruiseport to Maho is 30 mins.

Maho to Orient is 1 hour

Orient to cruiseport 30 min.

So do to this you eat up at least 2 hours just driving around, of course you would see the whole island that way but you are going to mostly be seeing the roads, shopping area some residential areas etc.

I'd go to Maho have a cocktail watch the big planes & leave. ( The beach kind of sucks here lots of waves)

Go to Grand Case & Lolo's for dinner great BBQ nice little beach with gentle waves & some shopping near by.

Then head back to Philipsburg stroll the boardwalk before heading back to the ship.

I already booked 5 hour private tour several weeks ago. The tour guide/driver said he will pick us up at 2:30pm while our cruise will arrive at 1:30pm. So for 5 hour private tour, we will be back at 7:30pm. But as you said, the most shops in Phillipsburg will close by 5pm. The sunset time will be 6:40pm. It seems 5 hour tour is too long. Should I change to 4 hours tour? We definitely want to tour the whole island since it may be the first/last time for my parents visit this island.

Even with bad traffic it's not more than 1.5 hours around the whole island. So yes you could do it but it seems like you are trying to cram a lot into a little bit of time. Most of shops in Philipsburg will be closed up by 5pm. Not much stays open late, a few restaurants will be open but not much else in the touristy parts of the island.

Cruiseport to Maho is 30 mins.

Maho to Orient is 1 hour

Orient to cruiseport 30 min.

So do to this you eat up at least 2 hours just driving around, of course you would see the whole island that way but you are going to mostly be seeing the roads, shopping area some residential areas etc.

I'd go to Maho have a cocktail watch the big planes & leave. ( The beach kind of sucks here lots of waves)

Go to Grand Case & Lolo's for dinner great BBQ nice little beach with gentle waves & some shopping near by.

Then head back to Philipsburg stroll the boardwalk before heading back to the ship.

"Even with bad traffic it's not more than 1.5 hours around the whole island." Maybe at 3 a.m. this would hold true but not during normal hours when cruisers are driving the island. I have spent 30 minutes and longer going no where in Simpson Bay, Phillipsburg and Marigot.

Also, I don't think that the main issue at Maho is " lot's of waves ." To me it's lot's of rocks and not enough sand that is way more of an issue at Maho at times than the waves. At least this has been my experience over the last number of years.

Karysa has it right - I'd only add that you probably could circle the island in an hour and a half as late as 5:00 AM -- but certainly not when several cruise ships are in port.

Maho Beach is funny - sometimes it's there - narrow but sandy, with sudden drop off - and sometimes it is mainly a lot of boulders.