Lets talk Excursions

[Autiemom]

Hi Everyone

tell me what you've done for excursions in St Thomas and St Maarten. What do you recommend? What do you not recommend? Is it easy to get to your excursions etc

 

Thanks you

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[firefly333]

Royal will tell you on the ticket where and when to meet, usually in the port.

 

I did some general excursions I remember we went by the nude orient beach.

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A lot go to st John's in st thomas. We did some thing where the tram goes up the mountain once. Another time a beach and also up to some sight seeing top of the mountain., scary to drive other side of the road on those mountains lol. We had some open trolley kind of transport. 

[livetravelcruise07]

We loved doing Magens Bay Beach in St. Thomas. There is usually an excursion through Royal Caribbean that has a good amount of time there. 
 

For St. Maarten we love doing Maho Beach. It's not a beach to lay around and tan, but mainly watching all the airplanes flying in! There's also a great beach bar on the beach as well! 

[jean87510]

For St. Thomas, we recommend renting a car.  We have stayed there post cruise and found it easier and cheaper to get around.  Another option is St. John but again, much nicer to visit on a land vacation as the day trippers are herded to Trunk Bay and it's crowded.  

 

Things I don't recommend at St. Thomas.  Kayaking and snorkeling and hiking at Hassel island.  Hiking was great as was kayaking.  Snorkeling was terrible. Other terrible place is Coki.  Disgusting, loud music, trash in water, overwhelming stench of weed everywhere.

 

Beaches we loved for snorkeling.  Brewer's.  Also loved Sapphire.  

 

St. Martin.  Definitely Caribbean Paddling to head to Pinel Island.  We have done this 3x.  Decent snorkeling midway.  Nice hiking at the island.  Good food and drink.  Nice staff.  Also, another option is taxi or bus to Mullet Bay then walk over to watch planes at Maho.  Nice inexpensive way to spend day.  We have also rented cars at the port and had fun driving around the island.

 

Both islands you don't really need excursions.  Caribbean Paddling does rent the kayaks and will arrange transport to their place.  

[firefly333]

I'm sure no worse than any other island and it's been more than 10 years but the week after we went there, there was a gang shooting on the road right where the taxi dropped us off. It's a local beach. For many years people avoided Megan's bay, now everyone has forgotten about that shoot out right there at Megan's bay. Just so happened to be right after I was there. That's the beach I mentioned, not by name as I wasnt sure about recommending it. For years and years people said dont go there. We took a taxi there, not with princess who I cruised with that time.

 

 

[S.A.M.J.R.]

St. Thomas

https://boards.cruisecritic.com/forum/82-st-thomasst-john/

https://www.viator.com/searchResults/all?text=st. thomas (picked random week in July)

In 2016, we did an all day sail with Fury Charters: https://usvisailing.com/

 

St. Martin

https://boards.cruisecritic.com/forum/57-st-martinst-maarten/

https://www.viator.com/St-Maarten/d728-ttd

In 2016, we ended up hiring a cab driver for the day who took us all over the island.

 

[OCSC Mike]

St. Martin - Captain Bob's speedboat snorkel tour. Have done it twice and loved it both times. Nice mix of snorkeling, touring the island from the water, some beach time, seeing the planes overhead at Maho, a nice lunch, and beer, water, soda, rum on his boats.

 

https://www.soualigadestinations.com/most-popular-tour-for-cruise-ship-visitors/