Scoot Coupe Tour - St. Maarten

We're doing a family Christmas cruise this year and looking at excursions in St. Maarten. The Scoot Coupe looks like great fun for the family. The tour includes a stop at Orient Beach and the tour description includes the following "be aware that this is a clothing optional beach and you may encounter some topless sunbathers." Is the whole beach "clothing optional" or is there a section for families with children?

I can't recommend this, for safety reasons.

Here's a post that I made a couple years ago in the original discussion.

The link to the full article has changed, but you can now find it here.

If you decide to do it, Orient Beach is about 1.3 miles long. The 'clothing optional' portion is in front of the Club Orient Resort, and is only .3 miles of that beach. This is on the French side, so topless may (will) be observed on any of their beaches.

gary

BTW, the story made the front page of the local newspaper.

Thanks for the information, Gary. We'll check out other options in St. Maarten.

Jan

we did the Scoot Coupe on our Excurison in St Maartin back in April on our Carnival Valor Cruise. My Coupe had a broken rear view mirror and it was so under powered they had to push me twice up some slight grade hills. Also .... when we got up to speed (30 - 40 MPH) the wheels seem to be outa balance.

From what I saw ... the Scoot Coupes are in need of maintance.

Just got back from our cruise on Sunday, (7/5/15) and did the scoot coupe excursion. We had a blast! Our 2 coupes were worn, but very powerful - had no problems going up any hills. Our tour guide had us zipping along at times. We had no worries about safety what-so-ever. (and believe me - I am a nervous nelly when it comes to driving things like these!) They had a guy on an atv stopping traffic for us at intersections, and a guy guide in front in a coupe, and a woman guide at the back of the group. There were 8 coupes in our group- no one had mechanical issues. I got hung up in the sand at Orient beach, but they pushed me out - no problem. We enjoyed the stop looking atand touching sea urchins. We have cruised many times, and taken many, many excursions - but the 3 of us decided this was one of the top 3 we have taken. We would do it again!

Just got back from our cruise on Sunday, (7/5/15) and did the scoot coupe excursion. We had a blast! Our 2 coupes were worn, but very powerful - had no problems going up any hills. Our tour guide had us zipping along at times. We had no worries about safety what-so-ever. (and believe me - I am a nervous nelly when it comes to driving things like these!) They had a guy on an atv stopping traffic for us at intersections, and a guy guide in front in a coupe, and a woman guide at the back of the group. There were 8 coupes in our group- no one had mechanical issues. I got hung up in the sand at Orient beach, but they pushed me out - no problem. We enjoyed the stop looking atand touching sea urchins. We have cruised many times, and taken many, many excursions - but the 3 of us decided this was one of the top 3 we have taken. We would do it again!

Sounds like you had a great time. We're cruising with our grandchildren, 9 and 11. Would this excursion be safe for them? DH and I would each drive a scooter and one grand child as our passenger.

Sounds like you had a great time. We're cruising with our grandchildren, 9 and 11. Would this excursion be safe for them? DH and I would each drive a scooter and one grand child as our passenger.

If they are passengers, they will have a blast also. Truly, I saw no major safety issues. Guides kept us safe. They will enjoy the iguana farm and sea urchin stop, and we saw no nudity on the part of the beach we were on. (except for the 4th of July nude parade that went by!!)

Do the tours take you to Sunset beach in Maho to watch the plane landings?

About how long is the riding time compared to beach time? Also is the boat transfer considered part of the 3hrs 15 min?

About how long is the riding time compared to beach time? Also is the boat transfer considered part of the 3hrs 15 min?

About how long is the riding time compared to beach time? Also is the boat transfer considered part of the 3hrs 15 min?

I could be wrong but I think the Scoot Coupe ride is approximately 30 - 45 minutes. Hopefully someone who did the excursion can chime in.

I'll see if I can answer some of the questions:

The place we picked up the coupes was a 5 minute mini-bus ride from the port. They put the people doing the ATV tour in with us - the atv pickup was right across the street from the coupes.

We did about a 20 minute ride to the iguana farm, then another 15 to the sea urchin place on a beach, and then 15 min. to the beach. Stayed on the beach about 1 hour 15 min. Would have loved to stay longer there - it was beautiful, clean, with great waves. We went straight back (really fast!!) to the coupe drop-off place - took us around 20-25 minutes to get there. Bus was waiting to take us back to ship - again, a 5 min. ride. There was no boat transfer. We walked off the ship in a group, to the parking lot, onto the bus, and were quickly at the coupes. Took a "long" time to get going once in the coupes, as the guides went to each coupe to explain how they worked, and made sure we were comfortable with the controls before we left.