Diva Little bay Beach Resort

Has anyone been there since the hurricanes? How does a cruise guest go there for the day? The cost?the taxi fair there? Do they sell day passes or just charge a fee to use the beach chairs?

DIVI LITTLE BAY -- Went there a few years ago. I read reviews that the post-hurricane condition is good. No day pass needed. You can walk to the beach, rent chair/umbrella, Gizmo's outdoor bar and grill is open. We used bathrooms right inside one of the entrances. On our plan for the next trip. Just take a taxi and arrange a return pickup time with the driver. Was a nice beach for swimming and relaxing while we were there.

We spent several hours at Divi Little Bay in Sept. 2015 while on a cruise stop. We'd been to SXM twice before and enjoyed Pinel Island both times. This time we were looking for a close beach so we could have time for shopping before getting back on the ship. We really enjoyed it and I'd recommend it. I was also curious about how they were dong post hurricane. They were closed for a while but were up and running this past summer. There is a post a few pages back with an update (including pictures, starting with post #7), so I'll attach the link to that post so you can "see" what it looks like. It looks pretty much the same from when we were there.

To get there, we just took a cab from the taxi stand at the port. As for cost, I think the cab ride was $10.00 each (round trip) for my husband and I. We just walked down to the beach and were able to rent two loungers/1 umbrella and I think that was about $15.00 total. That was 3 years ago, so prices may have gone up.

Here's the link to that thread:

https://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=2646999

We spent several hours at Divi Little Bay in Sept. 2015 while on a cruise stop. We'd been to SXM twice before and enjoyed Pinel Island both times. This time we were looking for a close beach so we could have time for shopping before getting back on the ship. We really enjoyed it and I'd recommend it. I was also curious about how they were dong post hurricane. They were closed for a while but were up and running this past summer. There is a post a few pages back with an update (including pictures, starting with post #7), so I'll attach the link to that post so you can "see" what it looks like. It looks pretty much the same from when we were there.

 

To get there, we just took a cab from the taxi stand at the port. As for cost, I think the cab ride was $10.00 each (round trip) for my husband and I. We just walked down to the beach and were able to rent two loungers/1 umbrella and I think that was about $15.00 total. That was 3 years ago, so prices may have gone up.

 

Here's the link to that thread:

https://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=2646999

Is this better than Great Bay Beach next to port?

Hello, we were thinking of going here. But there is 4 of us (2 are kids).. will the cab be $40 round trip?

 

Is this better than Great Bay Beach next to port?

To be honest, I can't answer the question about what the exact cost would be round trip. We were there 3 years ago and there were only 2 of us in the cab and at that time, it was $5.00 pp, each way to Divi Little Bay. I don't know if that is the normal rate or not. I know many places will charge a flat rate, and the more people in the cab, the lower the price for each person. And many times it depends on the driver and sometimes prices can be negotiated. Divi Little Bay is very close to the port. It took about 10 minutes, each way, and most of that was the road through downtown Philipsburg with other traffic and traffic lights. When you're docked, there is a little peninsula that you can see across the bay. Divi Little Bay is just on the other side of that. We really enjoyed it there and I'd go back.

Great Bay Beach is much closer and you can either take the ferry (for a charge, which I *think* is $7.00, pp, round trip) or walk. The beach itself looks beautiful and that would have been an option for us but the main reason we chose not to spend the day at Great Bay Beach was water quality issues that I've seen mentioned here on this board. I'm attaching a link to one of the posts about this issue. I had to do some searching, it was on Page 15. This was just one of many but this describes the issue, the cause, and also pictures. Two of the CC members who commented, Karysa and gtaylor comment frequently on these boards and have a lot of knowledge and are very helpful here on the St. Maarten page here on CC. Although I haven't seen any water quality issues mentioned recently, it was a hot topic a couple of years ago with many posts/comments about it several years ago. This was just a risk I wasn't comfortable with taking at the time of our cruise.

https://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=2504090