Bernards Tours/trips

[davenew]

Sooooo....

 

I've read so many great things about B's tours and we were so excited.

 

And it was NOT something I would do again. The public one, at least. We're a family of 3 so we're not going to book a private tour.

 

It was a VERY long day.

 

The iguanas were good, but ONLY because it had rained and they were in the trees (more like low bushes), not on the mat.

 

There was a stop at an overlook with a guy who shoved sea urchins into peoples' hands (not caring that the urchins' spines were breaking off every time he touched them).

 

Orient Beach was fine, but relaxation had just started when it was done (1.5 hours for the whole thing).

 

The bakery, bleah. Sweet and goopy. Huge long line. It's literally all we had time to do before going back to the bus.

 

Our driver wasn't personable IMO. His info about the island felt like an angry lecture.

 

Maho....I was just DONE by the time we hit Maho. We did NOT get there in time for the BIG jets, and because he said that, I wasn't relaly paying attention. My son and I were sort of hiding in the shade there, and I just couldn't get into it. We nearly caught a taxi to just get back.

 

Because of the lateness of the end of the tour (at the port) I didn't feel comfy going back into Philipsburg, which meant I didn't do the small amount of shopping I had wanted to do.

 

 

Hopefully our tour was a "one off". There were some major partiers in our van, and they seemed to be having fun, but that wasn't our scene that day, so it was kind of offputting.

 

I hope your private tour is way better.

 

We'll be in SM again this year, and I think this time we'll just head to Orient by taxi for a few hours, eat in Philipsburg and buy some chocolates, and call it good.

 

WOW

I am really surprised with your comments.

We have done Bernard's tours on the two occasions we have visited and found them to be well worth the charge.

On both trips, we had The Mail man, who is the most friendly and knowledgeable person around.

He showed us the urchins, but when we politely declined, he accepted that and moved on to someone else.

We had a lot of friendly people on our tours and I accept that we may have a different conclusion than you, but al in all, we have had no reason to complain about Bernard's Tours in any way shape or form.

[Mom-rules]

I am still debating on the one with Orient and the one without. We will have 2 teens with us - topless is fine, full on nudity not so much. I just want to make sure we will have time to enjoy Maho. I tried booking on his site but didn't pay the deposit part, just asked questions on the form page. Haven't heart anything. Do I need to pay the deposit to get a response?

 

We just got back from 10 days on the island. We too tried to reach Bernards Tours and it took 3 days for them to get back to us. For us it was to late as we were already there. We found that we could actually hire a taxi to give us a tour. Great guide..maybe not as indepth in the history department but sure hit all the major sites.

[Turtles06]

I am still debating on the one with Orient and the one without. We will have 2 teens with us - topless is fine, full on nudity not so much. I just want to make sure we will have time to enjoy Maho. I tried booking on his site but didn't pay the deposit part, just asked questions on the form page. Haven't heart anything. Do I need to pay the deposit to get a response?

 

We visited St. Maarten for the first time in February, and did the tour with Bernard's that included Orient beach and had a fun day. We have little interest in shopping, and we did want to spend some time at the beach, so that helped us decide between the two tours.

 

We have zero interest in seeing fully nude people on a beach, and where Bernard's dropped us at Orient was not a problem. (The part of the beach where full nudity is permitted is way down to the right as you face the water, nowhere near where you'll be dropped off.) Be advised, though, that there were topless women walking around, as well as men wearing just enough to say they weren't fully nude.

 

We had about half an hour at Maho, enough to see some planes take off and land, and really that was enough, although I suppose some folks might want to have more time there.

 

Enjoy whatever you decide!

 

 

(photo by turtles06)

[Summer35]

My name is Fee and I am living with my family on St. Maarten / St. Martin. We moved here from Germany and enjoy life on a caribbean island. If you are on the island just let me know - we offer island trips and have a lot of tipps for you.

 

 

Hi, Fee,

 

we are from Germany, too and will visit St. Maarten next year in April. What Kind of tour can you offer and do you have a Homepage?

[14Terry]

Just got back yesterday and we did Bernard's Tours. I highly recommend them. You can go to their website, pay $5 deposit and the balance is collected the day of the tour. Ours was fantastic! Happy cruising!

 

 

Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

[ecnirp]

Please let me know what you think. We go after you. I really am curious about the beach. We went to the one right across from the cruise port last time. We liked it but it was crowded.

 

 

Hi

 

Back from our holiday now, had a great time.

 

The trip was really good, we did the 5 person private tour as booked.

 

Our driver was 'Dave', he was really good, very passionate and knowledgable on St Maarten and the people, we joined our driver at around 08:45, Bernards tours is in a large white tent just over the road from the port, we checked in, paid the balance and then got in the people carrier.

 

He drove us around the island in our own air conditioned people carrier, this seated around 8, so we had plenty of space (the standard tour were more like buses for 20-30 people). We stopped several times for photo's, the amount of time we stopped was upto us, we just returned when ready to move on as it was the private tour. He had a cooler with soft drinks and the rum punch, all included in the price, so that was really good in the heat (was in the 90's)

 

The first stop was to see in a small bay where there was a guy giving a talk on sea urchins and molesques, I didn't really like the way he was handling them for the tourists, so we just had a walk in the bay where it was very shallow water and you could see the crabs/starfish/urchins in the rocks etc, so was a nice chilling stop.

 

The next stop was the Iguana's, I was abit concerned from some of the reviews I read, but I was surprised it was much better, its basically a bay, with a small mangrove of branches, so Iguana's/Lizards of various sizes come and go out of the mangrove, as the guides/tourists offer them food, so they are free to come and go, which is good, the Iguana's know the deal, so they happily come out for the food and disappear when the tourists leave !!! once again we waited till the big tour had left, then we had the iguana's too ourselves, which was cool.

 

We then went to Orient Beach, we asked Dave the best beach and he recommended Orient Beach as it had plenty of facilities, we had a 9 year old boy and his grand parents with us, so we wanted decent facilities. We really enjoyed the beach, we paid $10 for 2 deck chairs, sun shades, table and 2 drinks for about 2.5 hours. The beach was busy buy not packed, quite a few hotels, so plenty of facilities to get changed/showered after the sea and get food drinks. There are also plenty of water sports if you wanted, but we just wanted to chill for a few hours, so it suited us, the 9 year old loved the beach and sea. The beach is large enough you could move up and down to find a more quiet space if you wanted.

 

After about 2.5 hours we decided to leave the beach and head to Maigot, which is a town on a harbour, lots of shops etc, it was a public holiday the day we visited, so most of the shops were shut, that suited us as we did not want to shoo really, so we just bought some of the local pastries which were really nice and had them for lunch with a walk around the harbour.

 

Next we went to Maho beach, which was fun, we saw 2 large Airbus planes land and 1 take off around 1:30pm (the large planes land in the afternoon), we had a sit on the sand and went in the sea, the beach is really small and is very busy with everyone waiting for planes, there is a busy road between the runway and beach with a large bar next to it, was great to see the planes fly over.

 

We then headed back to the port at around 2:30pm, had a few stops along the way for photo's as you go through some amazing valleys which were hit by the Hurricane about 6 years ago.

 

We arrived back at the port at around 3pm. We just had a look around the port shops then boarded our ship, as we set sail at 5pm.

 

The trip was excellent, we really enjoyed the private bus, well worth the extra compared to what we saw on the standard tour buses, we left places early or stayed longer dependant on how we were enjoing the stop, which really suited us, we never felt pushed to move on, Dave just said he would make sure we make it back to the port intime for our ship to leave. Daves knowledge and passion for his Island was excellent, we have a very inquisitive 9 year old boy asking lots of questions about life on the Island and he was always very happy to chat and share his knowledge, we got a real feel for how it was to live on St Maarten, with their interesting laws from the French side compared to the Dutch side.

 

I will try and post some pictures later.

[Melozone]

Hi

 

Back from our holiday now, had a great time.

 

The trip was really good, we did the 5 person private tour as booked.

 

Our driver was 'Dave', he was really good, very passionate and knowledgable on St Maarten and the people, we joined our driver at around 08:45, Bernards tours is in a large white tent just over the road from the port, we checked in, paid the balance and then got in the people carrier.

 

He drove us around the island in our own air conditioned people carrier, this seated around 8, so we had plenty of space (the standard tour were more like buses for 20-30 people). We stopped several times for photo's, the amount of time we stopped was upto us, we just returned when ready to move on as it was the private tour. He had a cooler with soft drinks and the rum punch, all included in the price, so that was really good in the heat (was in the 90's)

 

The first stop was to see in a small bay where there was a guy giving a talk on sea urchins and molesques, I didn't really like the way he was handling them for the tourists, so we just had a walk in the bay where it was very shallow water and you could see the crabs/starfish/urchins in the rocks etc, so was a nice chilling stop.

 

The next stop was the Iguana's, I was abit concerned from some of the reviews I read, but I was surprised it was much better, its basically a bay, with a small mangrove of branches, so Iguana's/Lizards of various sizes come and go out of the mangrove, as the guides/tourists offer them food, so they are free to come and go, which is good, the Iguana's know the deal, so they happily come out for the food and disappear when the tourists leave !!! once again we waited till the big tour had left, then we had the iguana's too ourselves, which was cool.

 

We then went to Orient Beach, we asked Dave the best beach and he recommended Orient Beach as it had plenty of facilities, we had a 9 year old boy and his grand parents with us, so we wanted decent facilities. We really enjoyed the beach, we paid $10 for 2 deck chairs, sun shades, table and 2 drinks for about 2.5 hours. The beach was busy buy not packed, quite a few hotels, so plenty of facilities to get changed/showered after the sea and get food drinks. There are also plenty of water sports if you wanted, but we just wanted to chill for a few hours, so it suited us, the 9 year old loved the beach and sea. The beach is large enough you could move up and down to find a more quiet space if you wanted.

 

After about 2.5 hours we decided to leave the beach and head to Maigot, which is a town on a harbour, lots of shops etc, it was a public holiday the day we visited, so most of the shops were shut, that suited us as we did not want to shoo really, so we just bought some of the local pastries which were really nice and had them for lunch with a walk around the harbour.

 

Next we went to Maho beach, which was fun, we saw 2 large Airbus planes land and 1 take off around 1:30pm (the large planes land in the afternoon), we had a sit on the sand and went in the sea, the beach is really small and is very busy with everyone waiting for planes, there is a busy road between the runway and beach with a large bar next to it, was great to see the planes fly over.

 

We then headed back to the port at around 2:30pm, had a few stops along the way for photo's as you go through some amazing valleys which were hit by the Hurricane about 6 years ago.

 

We arrived back at the port at around 3pm. We just had a look around the port shops then boarded our ship, as we set sail at 5pm.

 

The trip was excellent, we really enjoyed the private bus, well worth the extra compared to what we saw on the standard tour buses, we left places early or stayed longer dependant on how we were enjoing the stop, which really suited us, we never felt pushed to move on, Dave just said he would make sure we make it back to the port intime for our ship to leave. Daves knowledge and passion for his Island was excellent, we have a very inquisitive 9 year old boy asking lots of questions about life on the Island and he was always very happy to chat and share his knowledge, we got a real feel for how it was to live on St Maarten, with their interesting laws from the French side compared to the Dutch side.

 

I will try and post some pictures later.

 

Thank you so much for all the great information! I'm so glad the cost was worth it. You just never know what you will get for your money.

 

I'm sure we will have a fantastic time as you did. I'm looking forward to the trip.

 

Thank you again! Will love to see your photos!

Edited May 18, 2016 by Melozone

[ecnirp]

Some pics from Bernards Tour.

Edited May 19, 2016 by ecnirp

[geauxgirlgeaux]

I am still debating on the one with Orient and the one without. We will have 2 teens with us - topless is fine, full on nudity not so much. I just want to make sure we will have time to enjoy Maho. I tried booking on his site but didn't pay the deposit part, just asked questions on the form page. Haven't heart anything. Do I need to pay the deposit to get a response?

 

I felt the same way when I went with my 3 teenagers - 2 of which were 15 and 17 at the time. At Orient the nude beach is marked with signs.... you have to intentionally go past the sign to be on the nude beach part which we did not do. There were a few older women sunning without tops - much older women - but nothing else to be concerned about on our visit to Orient. Orient beach is a nice beach with a lot of facilities and is definitely worth a visit. Maho is really fun too and I was skeptical.

[ecnirp]

I am still debating on the one with Orient and the one without. We will have 2 teens with us - topless is fine, full on nudity not so much. I just want to make sure we will have time to enjoy Maho. I tried booking on his site but didn't pay the deposit part, just asked questions on the form page. Haven't heart anything. Do I need to pay the deposit to get a response?

 

I went 2 weeks ago today (review above in this post), with my 9 year old son, we did the private tour, we were also travelling with older grand parents, so we wanted a beach with good facilities, so they recommended Orient. We went to the beach and had no problems, we went to where the hotels and water sports were on the beach and hired 2 sun beds, 2 shades and 2 drinks for $10, there were a few topless ladies there (older ladies), but there were no nude bathers, I did not see any signs warning, so I presumed we were not near the nude part of the beach. Maho is also great fun, most of the big planes fly over early afternoon, its a very busy narrow beach , so not for relaxing.

 

I did ask a question before I booked the private tour about the beach options and I did get a reply, so I would recommend you try again. When I booked I paid a $50 deposit ($10 pp), we paid the $310 balance at the start of the tour.

Edited May 19, 2016 by ecnirp

[MikeBayAreaCa]

Has anyone done just the sightseeing tour?

[Melozone]

Some pics from Bernards Tour.

 

Thanks again for your review and the photos! We have just over two weeks until it is our turn.

[gtaylor]

I went 2 weeks ago today (review above in this post), with my 9 year old son, we did the private tour, we were also travelling with older grand parents, so we wanted a beach with good facilities, so they recommended Orient. We went to the beach and had no problems, we went to where the hotels and water sports were on the beach and hired 2 sun beds, 2 shades and 2 drinks for $10, there were a few topless ladies there (older ladies), but there were no nude bathers, I did not see any signs warning, so I presumed we were not near the nude part of the beach. Maho is also great fun, most of the big planes fly over early afternoon, its a very busy narrow beach , so not for relaxing.

 

I did ask a question before I booked the private tour about the beach options and I did get a reply, so I would recommend you try again. When I booked I paid a $50 deposit ($10 pp), we paid the $310 balance at the start of the tour.

 

Can you recall the name of the bar/restaurant where you received this offer?

 

I think that is the cheapest that I have heard of.

 

gary

Edited May 21, 2016 by gtaylor
Color

[ecnirp]

Can you recall the name of the bar/restaurant where you received this offer?

 

I think that is the cheapest that I have heard of.

 

gary

 

I don't remember the name of the bar, I think it was a deal Bernards tour have, as our guide David told us about it on the way, when we stopped at the Orient Beach he took us onto the beach past the beach huts and the guy on the beach gave us our beach chairs and setup the shades (we never did the drinks as we had drinks from the people carrier).

 

It was right in front of the water sports area where you hire the jet ski's etc, next to the bars and changing rooms.

[Life is Good Cruising]

Can you recall the name of the bar/restaurant where you received this offer?

 

I think that is the cheapest that I have heard of.

gary

 

Bernard's tours takes us to La Playa, $10 is correct for chairs, umbrella and 2 drinks. I pay the guy $20 and get us cushion lounges.

 

 

I took Bernards tour a few years ago. Got very frustrated with other people on our tour who didn't return to the van on time which caused us to only have about 30 minutes at Maho. I was very upset as this was one of the things I REALLY wanted to see and in that time, no planes landed or took off. I know Bernard has to keep people happy but I would book a private tour if you have a lot of people and can split the cost; that way others are not interfering with what you want to do and how long you stay at each point of interest.

 

We've taken Bernards tours many times over the years and only experienced people coming back late once which shorten our time in Maho.

 

 

We are doing Bernard's private tour in August for just the two of us. Know its a little pricey for 2 but want the flexibility and control of when and where we go. Not keen on waiting on a hot bus and crawling over people. (don't mean to sound awful). Maybe after your June tour you might be able to pass along some tips. Thanks . Gerry

 

Their vans are air condition.

 

 

I also, have booked a private tour with Bernard; not until November. I will be very interested in hearing about which beach would be enjoyable, other than Orient. Enjoy your trip. TIA for your info.

 

Mullet Bay is a nice beach.

 

 

WOW

I am really surprised with your comments.

We have done Bernard's tours on the two occasions we have visited and found them to be well worth the charge. On both trips, we had The Mail man, who is the most friendly and knowledgeable person around.

He showed us the urchins, but when we politely declined, he accepted that and moved on to someone else.

We had a lot of friendly people on our tours and I accept that we may have a different conclusion than you, but al in all, we have had no reason to complain about Bernard's Tours in any way shape or form.

 

Totally agree with you on Mailman, he is our favorite, along with DJ Dave and John and we always have a great time on their tours.

[Life is Good Cruising]

Thanks again for your review and the photos! We have just over two weeks until it is our turn.

 

Have a great time, it's one of my favorite islands :)

[eric135i]

Took one of their tours last week (May 24, 2016) Family of 3 adults & 3 children.

 

Tour guide & driver was the "Mailman" <--- excellent in all respects & highly recommended.

 

The White tour tent was quite a walk from the cruise terminal, probably close to 10mins. Instructions from Bernard's were iffy & we had to ask several people for directions. We were a few minutes late & the bus was already pulling out. You pay $5/person online and the rest in cash at the tent when you meet the buses. It was a tight squeeze in and out to the back of the bus. Bus was nicely air-conditioned. They give you a choice of Rum punch, Local beer or soda through out the tour which lasted from 2PM- approx. 7PM. We hit traffic towards the end of the tour to Orient Beach (stuck for approx. 45min). This tour took up our the entire stay at St Maarten from our cruiseship (MSC Divina)

 

Sarafina's Bakery shop had good French food, lines were long and service slow, Smoking was allowed in the seating area.

 

Felt like we spent more time riding in the bus than outside the bus. By the time were got dropped off at the Dock, it was already dark and 90% of the shops were closed, so the last 2 hours (7pm-9pm) was wasted.

 

Did not making any stops for Iguanas, only saw some on trees from the bus ride.

 

Stops for pictures and everything else was too short. Hitting Orient beach in the late afternoon was not good in the sense that the sun in coming down and places are closing up.

[shof515]

The White tour tent was quite a walk from the cruise terminal, probably close to 10mins. Instructions from Bernard's were iffy & we had to ask several people for directions.

 

how far is the walk,is it like a mile? Is there an easy way to get to the tent for people who have walking difficulties? Is the tent easy to recognize?.. According to Bernard website, the meeting point is a yellow information building. is it now that tent?

Edited June 5, 2016 by shof515

[eric135i]

how far is the walk,is it like a mile? Is there an easy way to get to the tent for people who have walking difficulties? Is the tent easy to recognize?.. According to Bernard website, the meeting point is a yellow information building. is it now that tent?

 

Not sure if Bernards changed their instructions to the meeting area. On May 24, 2016, the Bernards email directed us to a white tent. It is NOT the first white tent you see, you keep walking past it. There are several tour operators there and we asked a few of them where to find Bernards. Maybe a few hundred feet from the walkway at the Welcome area. We were walking up and down several street curbs and grassy areas. The walk from the pier can be a few minutes depending on where the ship ties up.

[Vany]

Both the 10 year old and 14 year old loved this tour. The man with the sea creatures was great with the children! Got some fabulous photos here!

[ooulio]

HOw can we find out what he has to offer.? We have 4 adults. We would like to do a 2-3 hour offer. What do you have to offer besides for adults. This is for February 2017. trying to find where to write to you.