First Time to St. Martin

I am going on the Liberty of the Seas in July 2008. One of my ports is St. Martin and since I have NEVER been there I plan on being the perfect tourist - the one that wants to see it all! I think we dock at 9 am and leave at 5 pm.

I would like to see the Dutch side, French side, the countryside, eat lunch in Maigot, hit a beach for a little while & hit a couple of stores.

My question for the experienced St. Martin"er" is: what is the best why to accomplish this? Take a tour through the ship, get a taxi driver?

Has anyone taken the St. Martin Downtown tour offered by Royal Caribbean? Is it any good?

I appreciate any information/help you can give me. I will be upset if I don't make the right decisions at this port.

Thanks from New York

I am going on the Liberty of the Seas in July 2008. One of my ports is St. Martin and since I have NEVER been there I plan on being the perfect tourist - the one that wants to see it all! I think we dock at 9 am and leave at 5 pm.

 

I would like to see the Dutch side, French side, the countryside, eat lunch in Maigot, hit a beach for a little while & hit a couple of stores.

 

My question for the experienced St. Martin"er" is: what is the best why to accomplish this? Take a tour through the ship, get a taxi driver?

 

Has anyone taken the St. Martin Downtown tour offered by Royal Caribbean? Is it any good?

 

I appreciate any information/help you can give me. I will be upset if I don't make the right decisions at this port.

 

Thanks from New York

You've described almost exactly what you will get if you book with Bernard's Tours.

http://www.bernardstours.com/

Have a great time.

Yes, Bernards gets very good reviews. I'm booked with him next month.

We have done our tour through Joyce Prince (www.joyceprince.com). You can make up your own tour and she will offer suggestions as well. She's very sweet and has a great tour with a clean, well maintained vehicle. We have her booked for our next cruise in December. Bernard's has had great reviews on this site as well - I just haven't booked through him before.

Have fun! I highly recommend checking out the planes landing at Maho Beach. :eek:

I have only been to St. Martin once and faced the same dilemma as you. We choose to rent a jeep and go at our own pace. Even though we had car problems (called the rental company and they brought us another one) I have no regrets. I'll admit I didn't learn all the history as we didn't have a guide but we sure had fun.

Managed to watch some of the big planes land and we really enjoyed that.

We have done our tour through Joyce Prince (www.joyceprince.com). You can make up your own tour and she will offer suggestions as well. She's very sweet and has a great tour with a clean, well maintained vehicle. We have her booked for our next cruise in December. Bernard's has had great reviews on this site as well - I just haven't booked through him before.

 

Have fun! I highly recommend checking out the planes landing at Maho Beach. :eek:

About what did this run you?

It's $35 per person for about 3 - 3 1/2 hours. You can add additional time and I think that is $10/hour flat (not per person). Let her know up front if you are interested in possibly adding additional time. That way she won't book another tour right behind you.

:o Ooops! Just checked my reservation info and it's actually $30/per hour extra - flat (not per person).