Getting Around

We leave for St. Thomas, St. Martin and San Juan in 3 weeks with a 6 month old. How do we get around the islands? I know not all taxis have seat belts in the back so I'm nervous.

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If you don't plan on bringing a car seat, then buses (usually via ship's excursions) will do....no baby seats on buses!

San Juan will have seatbelts....it's a U.S. territory. You CAN find cabs with seatbelts in your other ports....so if you are going to DIY, you can use your carseat. Walking, if you aren't going far, is also an option!

It really depends on what you want to do in each place.

St Maarten has a water taxi from the port to town. This is what we planned to do until the storms rolled in. I believe it also gets you close to a beach.

St Thomas has 2 possible docks for cruise ships. 1 is very close to the main town and has a lot of shops at the port. The other one is farther from town, but also has shops.

There are some shore excursions that involve motorcoaches (where car seats can't usually be used), some that involve water transportation and others that use taxis or vans.

We just chose to stay in the port area or on the ship when we were in port (we had been to all our ports before) so we did not take our car seat. From what I've read on here you should be able to get a taxi that can accommodate the car seat--it might take a little longer to find one but people say they are there. If you have a taxi that can accommodate the car seat drop you somewhere you might want to make arrangements to have them come back to get you.

My husband is the only one who hasn't been to any of the ports. I'm leaning towards the water taxi at St. Martin and then staying near ports for the others so we don't need the car seat. I'm really not sure what's the best plan

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Old Town San Juan is compact enough to walk.

Old Town San Juan is compact enough to walk.

I'll have my almost 75 year old grandmother with me also

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St Thomas has "open air safari" buses that imnsho aren't safe for anyone, never mind children. They consist of a Ford truck with 5 benches installed on the flatbed part of the truck. No seatbelts, no doors, nothing. I did find taxis with seat belts and even one with a top tether, so using a car seat is definitely an option. All ship tours at that time through NCL involved these vehicles, despite the fact I was told when booking that they would be coach style buses. I was not happy :(

We too took the water taxi and walked around St Maartin, there was enough architecture to see to keep us happy. Plus the chocolate shop and "museum" by a person involved in the making of the Star Wars movies were nice treats!

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