Maho Beach Afternoon by Taxi?

[sjmbruce]

We'll be docked at St. Marteen from 8am-5pm. We're thinking about starting a little later in the morning, doing any shopping near the port, and then around 11:30 taking a cab to Maho beach. The plan involves laying on the little beach, having lunch at the restaurant/bar, and hopefully seeing a few planes. We'd take a cab back around 3:00 or 3:30. I'm feeling weird about only going to one spot, but a little beach day would be nice with the bonus of possibly seeing a large plane land. Will there be cabs available at 11:30 near the ship to take us there? What about at the beach to take us back - or at least somewhere to call one? Is 3:30 too late of a return time?

Thanks!

[Rosy1013]

I just was there last week, and our cab driver advised us to leave Maho by 2 or 2:30 because of traffic. You could always go to the beach first then shop. You could relax a little more knowing you were just about a mile's walk from the port. Plus the beach was much less crowded when we got there at 10 then it was later at around 12

[RMH]

If you take a cab straight to the port from Maho, you should be fine. There will be lots of cabs there to take you back - especially if there is a cruise ship in port. There can be traffic, but with fewer people taking land vacations it is not as bad as it has been in the past. Plus there is a road around the bay now, so if the bridge is up the cab drivers can go around it. As Rosy says, you can go in the morning, but you will not see any big planes if you do that - they tend to land and take off between noon and 4:00 PM. And there are fewer big planes than there were before, so you may want to check Google Flights or another site if seeing a big one is important to you.

 

With all that being said, Maho is not the best beach for a relaxing beach day. The beach is small, even more so since the hurricanes, it can get crowded, and if you are there when a big plane takes off and directly behind the jets, all your stuff will blow into the water.

[sjmbruce]

Thanks for the advice! I'll definitely check out flight schedules when it gets closer to our travel date. We may end up going from around noon until 2:30 if a plane or two will make an appearance.

Can their taxis accommodate four people?

[Karysa]

I am a chicken and would leave at 3 now from Maho as the car AND boat traffic ( bridge ) was way less on our January vacation than normal. This will change but for now when there is way less 3 o clock traffic from the staff leaving the timeshares and resorts I would not hesitate to leave Maho at 3.

[RMH]

Can their taxis accommodate four people?

 

Yes - and you will probably have some 'friends' with you as well. All the taxis I saw were the mini-van style with seating of between 10 and 15, depending on how creative the driver was.

[sjmbruce]

Yes - and you will probably have some 'friends' with you as well. All the taxis I saw were the mini-van style with seating of between 10 and 15, depending on how creative the driver was.

Haha thanks, good to know.

 

I'm assuming that there is a set price, per person?

 

Does anyone have an idea of how much it is from the port to Maho?

[RMH]

I want to say it is $7 per person as long as there are 4 or more in your group, but I could be wrong. We took the bus, a great option by the way, and it was $2 per person.

[parrihjo]

Is the bus easy to find and get around on? We want to go to Orient that morning and then go to Maho that afternoon. Can we do this by bus or should we arrange for private car? Thanks

[RMH]

The bus is very easy to find and use, but not if you are going to Orient Beach. It does not go there. Caching it from Philipsburg to Maho is easy, but if you are going to include Orient in your day you need to take a taxi or a tour.

[Airrace]

Most of all the larger planes land in the afternoon! You can go to Joyceprince.com and look over the schedule of airplanes landing any particular day. I haven’t used Joyce’s tour service but like that she has the airplanes

 

 

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[Airrace]

Most of all the larger planes land in the afternoon! You can go to Joyceprince.com and look over the schedule of airplanes landing any particular day. I haven’t used Joyce’s tour service but like that she has the airplanes

 

 

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You will need to click on Maho Beach once you get to her website it is in the left hand bottom corner.

 

The first large plane to land today is at 12:15 pm.

 

Hope this help Support!

 

 

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[sjmbruce]

Most of all the larger planes land in the afternoon! You can go to Joyceprince.com and look over the schedule of airplanes landing any particular day. I haven’t used Joyce’s tour service but like that she has the airplanes

 

 

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Thanks for the website! I might be missing something but I don't see a place to check on future days - just flights for the current day. I'll keep an eye on the trend or maybe try to find some WiFi when we pull into port. It looks like if we get there around 11:45 and stay until 2:30 or so, we should see our fair share of planes. Thanks again!

[HampshireCruiser]

We'll be docked at St. Marteen from 8am-5pm. We're thinking about starting a little later in the morning, doing any shopping near the port, and then around 11:30 taking a cab to Maho beach. The plan involves laying on the little beach, having lunch at the restaurant/bar, and hopefully seeing a few planes. We'd take a cab back around 3:00 or 3:30. I'm feeling weird about only going to one spot, but a little beach day would be nice with the bonus of possibly seeing a large plane land. Will there be cabs available at 11:30 near the ship to take us there? What about at the beach to take us back - or at least somewhere to call one? Is 3:30 too late of a return time?

 

Thanks!

 

 

 

We were on a cruise to St Maarten 2 weeks ago and you will find an abundance of cabs that will take you to Maho Beach. Just walk through the shops and they’re parked at the back of the tourist info. The taxis are normally 12 seaters so you pay a proportion depending on the amount of people. I think we paid $8 each because we were full. You might have to queue for 20-39 as there were 3 ships in. It’s worth the 20 min journey to the beach. There’s a bar where you can eat and it displays the aircraft arrival times. We didn’t see a large aircraft although there was one due about an hour after we left. There wasn’t much beach as the tide was in so quite a lot of people in the water or sitting on the pavement along the road. It was really busy. However, it looks like they have installed a new fence in front of the old one so if you were to hang on to the fence you are actually standing in the road and there’s a high kerb in between the in and out lanes so you need to be careful as we understood it was the kerb on which the woman hit her head and was killed before the hurricane. It’s still worth a visit. Jo

 

 

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[Airrace]

Thanks for the website! I might be missing something but I don't see a place to check on future days - just flights for the current day. I'll keep an eye on the trend or maybe try to find some WiFi when we pull into port. It looks like if we get there around 11:45 and stay until 2:30 or so, we should see our fair share of planes. Thanks again!

 

 

 

If you want to use the website you will have to pay a fee

 

 

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[Airrace]

Yes in the afternoon you can see the big airplanes like a 737 from Delta or an Airbus from Jet Blue. The all land on after 1:00 pm. Typically the destination determines the size of airplanes. Like 737 and airbus are usually flying from NYC or Atlanta.

 

 

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