First time to St. Maarten

We are looking at booking a Caribbean cruise soon and one of our ports of call is St. Maarten.

We have never been to St. Maarten before and I was wondering what is their to do there?, any tips/ideas??

Can you snorkel there?

Any tips/advise/ideas are very welcome :)

Do you enjoy going to a beach, do you want to go sightseeing, zip lining, horseback riding on the beach, catamaran sailings? What are your interests? What kind of excursions do you enjoy? Knowing more information will help others in providing more suggestions to your liking.

St. Maarten is noted for their beautiful beaches. IMO snorkeling is just okay. If you are also going to St. Thomas, snorkeling is very good there, especially in St. John's USVI which cruise ships will offer an excursion over to that island, which is absolutely beautiful.

We'll be in St Maarten next week and it's one of our favorite islands along with St. John's USVI. Many people enjoy going to Orient Beach and Maho Beach in which you can watch planes land and take off. Maho Beach is something to experience once in your life.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rpBmChT4KTs

Do you enjoy going to a beach, do you want to go sightseeing, zip lining, horseback riding on the beach, catamaran sailings? What are your interests? What kind of excursions do you enjoy? Knowing more information will help others in providing more suggestions to your liking.

We / I like doing all of the above :D :)

We have just booked a tour through Bernard's Tours. We booked tour 2. They get fantastic reviews here on Cruise Critic and on Tripadvisor.

Another vote for Bernard's tour. For a first timer on the island you will have a memorable day with them. Tour 2 will give you beach time and also Maho.

Have a wonderful time whatever you decide to do on the island.

http://www.bernardstours.com/

If you are interested in booking an excursion thru your ship, here are two VERY good ones that are offered by most cruise lines:

~ Golden Eagle Catamaran

~ America's Cup Sailing Regatta

LuLu

If you are interested in booking an excursion thru your ship, here are two VERY good ones that are offered by most cruise lines:

~ Golden Eagle Catamaran

~ America's Cup Sailing Regatta

 

LuLu

I agree. Americas cup was one the best excursions we have done. We have also done the Golden Eagle which was a fun time. :)

http://www.12metre.com/regatta.htm

If you like snorkeling and riding a speed boat, you might enjoy Soualiga Tours. I wrote all about my experiences of the tour on my blog: http://justinpluslauren.com/snorkeling-in-st-martin/

And I also put together a short video of our day, hope you enjoy it!

[YOUTUBE]wB0gllEX9I8[/YOUTUBE]

We're booked our Caribbean cruise, going on the Emerald Princess :D

Cant wait to check out St. Maarten :).

Any other tips or ideas on what to do here?

We always recommend friends to book Bernard's tours for their first trip to St. Maarten. His tours take you all around the island. You get a great overview of what there is. These days we just cab over to Maho beach and watch the planes.

When Bernard stops at the beaches, does his price include chairs/umbrellas?

Thanks!

When Bernard stops at the beaches, does his price include chairs/umbrellas?

Thanks!

When we took a private tour with Bernard, he supposedly offered a discount for chairs/umbrella at a spot on Orient, but I chose to use a friend who offered chairs from Pedro's instead.

Not sure what happens currently.

gary

When we took a private tour with Bernard, he supposedly offered a discount for chairs/umbrella at a spot on Orient, but I chose to use a friend who offered chairs from Pedro's instead.

 

Not sure what happens currently.

 

gary

Thank you!

Thank You everyone for the information, very helpful! :)

Cant wait to check out the St. Maarten

Another vote for Bernard's. We took his tour with kids, teens, young adults, and us old folks on our last multi-generational family cruise, and everyone still talks about it! It is a great tour!

I would take a cab to Marigot and visit the port and have lunch there and then cab back to Phillipsburg and wander the main street and buy your liquor as they have great prices and take the water taxi back to the ship. The beaches aren't anything special unless you want to go to Orient to look at naked people.