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Bernard's Tour in St Maarten...is it a good tour

2thesea

By 2thesea,
in St. Martin/St. Maarten

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sousak78

sousak78

Posted
Posted
2weeks ago myself husband and 15 and 17 yr old sons did a tour with bernard. We had JUNIOR AS OUR GUIDE--HE WAS KNOWLEDGABLE-FUN-AND FRIENDLY. we enjoyed our tour -our punch and beer. we went to the beach and tour and to maho. yes i do wish we could have swam here at Maho but unfortunately there really was not alot of time because we wanted to take pictures of the planes coming in. We did see 3 planes which wee amazing. We were never in St.Martin so it was really nice having the tour instead of taxi to A beach and returning to the ship w/o seeing this Beautiful island. would not hesitate to book with Bernard.

 

Junior was our driver when I went on the 18th and he was exactly as you described, he kept us laughing the whole time (I'll never look at a golf course the same way ever again!). The tour surpassed my expectations. I felt like I had seen so much of the island in such a short amount of time. I was wiped when I got back to the boat.

 

Out of the three islands I visited on the cruise, St Maarten is the only one I feel like I would visit again and I think it's because of the fantastic tour I had. I ran into Bernard himself during our stop at Maho (he was leading one of the private tours that day) and he addressed me, by name(!), and asked how I was enjoying myself. I thought that was really remarkable considering the number of tours he had going that day. Bernards is FANTASTIC - I'd go again with them in a nanosecond!

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  • 1 year later...
Chi Diva

Chi Diva

Posted
Posted

We took a tour with Bernard this past January. I don't know the name of the bar that was there. He gave us passes so we could use their washrooms. But I do know that it was right where the line of rocks separate the two sides of the beach, clothing and clothing optional. That worked out great for us. My husband wanted to do the full monty and there were comfy beach chairs and umbrellas to rent right there.

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gtaylor

gtaylor

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That would be Pedro's, and it's the only spot that I know of where Bernard drops people without a specific, special request.

 

gary

 

p.s. It's only a few minutes walk over to Andy and Cheryl's and the rest of the spots along that section of the beach.

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gr82cu2

gr82cu2

Posted
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Ok, thanks to all! It sounds like he drops you at the opposite end from Boo Boo Jam which is good IMO. I remember being waaaayyyyyy down there and looking towards the other end of the beach thinking it looked so much nicer and fun that way :)

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  • 2 weeks later...
Kmkub Great Review Rare

Kmkub

Posted
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Based on some recommendations here, we signed up for a tour with Bernard in January.

 

The next day I got a confirmation email, which said, "you are confirmed, please reply to this email."

 

I did, and asked if he needed a deposit. That was 10 days ago. 2 days ago I wrote again for an answer.

 

No answer yet. Is this normal? I'm not feeling warm-n-fuzzy that we are actually booked.

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garnetpalmetto

garnetpalmetto

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So food is available along the tour and there are potty breaks? How long is the tour and looks like the cost is $40? Thanks

 

We took Bernard's tour this past Thursday. Food is available along the way - there's Pedro's at Orient, but our bus ended up not staying at Orient very long. There had been a storm the day before and there was lots of seaweed and other detritus washed up on the beach (on top of a few "conservative" types who objected to being in such close proximity to a nude beach) so we spent 2 hours on Maho instead. Maho also had places to eat on both sides of the beach. We also stopped for about half an hour in Marigot and there were restaurants there as well including an excellent patisserie/boulangerie and public restrooms. There were also two coolers on the bus - one with bottles of water and cans of Coke an Diet Coke and the other with bottles of Carib. There may or may not have also been a bottle of rum punch passed around ;)

 

The tour lasted from around 9 AM to about 1:30 PM and they'll drop you off either in Philipsburg for shopping or back at the pier - your choice.

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garnetpalmetto

garnetpalmetto

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Is food available? Are there plenty of potty breaks?:D How long is the tour? thanks!

 

We took Bernard's tour this past Thursday. Food is available along the way - there's Pedro's at Orient, but our bus ended up not staying at Orient very long. There had been a storm the day before and there was lots of seaweed and other detritus washed up on the beach (on top of a few "conservative" types who objected to being in such close proximity to a nude beach) so we spent 2 hours on Maho instead. Maho also had places to eat on both sides of the beach. We also stopped for about half an hour in Marigot and there were restaurants there as well including an excellent patisserie/boulangerie and public restrooms. There were also two coolers on the bus - one with bottles of water and cans of Coke an Diet Coke and the other with bottles of Carib. There may or may not have also been a bottle of rum punch passed around ;)

 

The tour lasted from around 9 AM to about 1:30 PM and they'll drop you off either in Philipsburg for shopping or back at the pier - your choice.

 

As for the traffic situation, we ran into it to a degree but it wasn't too bad - none of the hour and a half waits that I read about in another thread. Bernard's drivers are doing a good job of taking back roads to try to avoid it as much as possible.

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garnetpalmetto

garnetpalmetto

Posted
Posted
Based on some recommendations here, we signed up for a tour with Bernard in January.

 

The next day I got a confirmation email, which said, "you are confirmed, please reply to this email."

 

I did, and asked if he needed a deposit. That was 10 days ago. 2 days ago I wrote again for an answer.

 

No answer yet. Is this normal? I'm not feeling warm-n-fuzzy that we are actually booked.

 

The "you are confirmed" e-mail is normal - not so sure about the silence in response to your e-mails as Bernard's was very responsive to us. As for the deposit, there was none required. We paid in cash the day of our tour when we met up with Bernard and his drivers at the information desk near the Claude Wathey statue at the pier.

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grammyprf

grammyprf

Posted
Posted
We took Bernard's tour this past Thursday. Food is available along the way - there's Pedro's at Orient, but our bus ended up not staying at Orient very long. There had been a storm the day before and there was lots of seaweed and other detritus washed up on the beach (on top of a few "conservative" types who objected to being in such close proximity to a nude beach) so we spent 2 hours on Maho instead. Maho also had places to eat on both sides of the beach. We also stopped for about half an hour in Marigot and there were restaurants there as well including an excellent patisserie/boulangerie and public restrooms. There were also two coolers on the bus - one with bottles of water and cans of Coke an Diet Coke and the other with bottles of Carib. There may or may not have also been a bottle of rum punch passed around ;)

 

The tour lasted from around 9 AM to about 1:30 PM and they'll drop you off either in Philipsburg for shopping or back at the pier - your choice.

 

 

Thanks for the information! :)

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karinad

karinad

Posted
Posted
I'm waiting for a response from Bernard. I emailed him a few days ago to inquire for our Nov. cruise. I haven't heard anything yet. What's his normal response time?

I just checked my Spam box and a response was in there.

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garnetpalmetto

garnetpalmetto

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I'm waiting for a response from Bernard. I emailed him a few days ago to inquire for our Nov. cruise. I haven't heard anything yet. What's his normal response time?

 

Looking back through the e-mails, I submitted the reservation on his website on 9/14 and got a confirmation e-mail the next day - 9/15. I replied to confirm, as per his email, and that was it. I thought that I had contacted him more, but it looks like it was Henry Christopher on St. Thomas that I had to ask a few follow-up questions with - my apologies there! I will say that in contacting several guides and companies that a lapse time of a few days between e-mails was not unheard of.

 

Bernard does advertise a direct e-mail directly on his website (bernard1332002@yahoo.com) and you may want to try that as well.

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