St. Martin Rental Car/Beach Review

[cksdenver]

Hi All -

 

We returned from our first visit to St. Martin (11/24/04) via the Caribbean Princess. My thoughts -

 

We rented a Jeep from Best Deal Car Rentals (reserved in advance over the 'net). While their rates and service were fine, they keep their cars in a lot approximately one mile from their rental location at the port.

 

I thought I had a good plan upon arriving in St. Martin. I left the ship 30 minutes before my family, in order to save them the time of going through the rental process. That turned out to be a mistake. While Best had all of the paperwork ready when I arrived at their port location, it took 20 minutes for one of their 'shuttle' cars to arrive to take me to the rental lot. It took at least another 30 minutes to get to their lot, and then back to their port location.

 

In any event, three words to describe driving on St. Martin: Traffic, Traffic, Traffic!!!

 

Upon leaving the port, we headed to Turtle Pier (near the airport) for breakfast (recommended in another post). That route meant driving through P-Burg which, as anticpated, was quite crowded.

 

Our plan after breakfast was to go to Grand Case for jet skiing, etc.

 

In doing so, about a mile south of Marigot, the traffic turned into Bumper-To-Bumper!!!!

 

It took about almost an hour to go just over five miles!!!!

 

After finally arriving at Grand Case, we could not find an access road to the beach. Probably "my bad" here, in not doing advance research, but we tried for almost 30 minutes to find a beach access road, but could not.

 

Giving up on Grand Case, we headed to Orient Beach.

 

Arriving early in the afternoon, the place was packed.

 

While we were successful in renting jet skis and getting our older son a parasail reservation, we found the beach to be littered with seaweed.

 

And, yes, the clothing-optional aspect of Orient was, shall I say, quite evident.

 

The traffic from Orient back to the port was OK, until about a mile outside of P-Burg, when it again went back to bumper-to-bumper until the port.

 

****

 

Other than the traffic, I had no problems driving on St. Martin. While the roads are quite narrow (which is actually pretty cool, if you're into history) and half the traffic signs are in French, the driving aspect was just fine. Living in Denver, I must say that St. Martin (at least for us) rivaled any traffic jam that Denver has to offer.

 

Maybe it was the route we took, but I'm not sure.

 

Again, just my thoughts and experience.

 

CS

[gtaylor]

The traffic from Orient back to the port was OK, until about a mile outside of P-Burg, when it again went back to bumper-to-bumper until the port.

 

Maybe it was the route we took, but I'm not sure.

St. Maarten certainly has traffic problems, but I've never experienced a problem between Orient and the Port. It must have been the route, in my opinion.

[kal]

it took 20 minutes for one of their 'shuttle' cars to arrive to take me to the rental lot. It took at least another 30 minutes to get to their lot, and then back to their port location.

 

we headed to Turtle Pier (near the airport) for breakfast.

 

about a mile south of Marigot, the traffic turned into Bumper-To-Bumper!!!! It took about almost an hour to go just over five miles!!!!

 

Grand Case, we could not find an access road to the beach.

 

Arriving early in the afternoon, [Orient] was packed...we found the beach to be littered with seaweed.

 

The traffic from Orient back to the port was OK, until about a mile outside of P-Burg, when it again went back to bumper-to-bumper until the port.

 

Here are my thoughts on these issues:

 

Car Rental - Good point when renting at the pier. Advice, everyone in the party should gather together and proceed to rent the car at one time. You need to get away from the pier as fast as possible.

 

Breakfast - There are places such as ZEE BEST at Simpson Lagoon and Marigot that are much better.

 

Traffic into Marigot - That route is always crowded but traffic from Cruiseships makes it MUCH WORSE. You have to get off the ship fast and drive quickly to get past that bottleneck early. [This is a typical reason where rental of a Jeep in St. Maarten makes no sense].

 

Grand Case Beach Access - Yep, you didn't do your homework.

 

Orient Beach - It's only packed because of Cruisers. If there are a number of large ships in port, get to Orient Beach EARLY, otherwise no problem. Without cruisers, it's VERY NICE. Seaweed is just an isolated function of previous evening weather/wave actions. It's almost always pretty clean.

 

Traffic to Port - Exclusively caused by Cruisers and number of ships in port. [Alternate routes are available to bypass the traffic]

[mandiecandie5]

Now I'm worried...we leave tomorrow for our cruise and we're renting a scooter. We want to go to Baie Rouge, will that be difficult to find or is it marked on the road??? Thanks for any response!

[gtaylor]

There is a sign, but you might miss it.

 

Take a look at the map here.

 

If you were headed from Marigot, through Sandy Ground and Nettle Bay, nice and straight, the map shows a turn to the LEFT where it's labeled Baie Rouge, and the road heads towards Terres Basses.

 

That truly is an almost 90 degree left turn. If, instead, you go straight instead of making the turn you'll be at the parking area for Baie Rouge.

 

Of note, just to the right of the entrance is a collection of recycle bins.

 

Good luck!

 

Gary

[Robin G]

I would recommend Hertz car rental right on the pier. While they did need to send for the car from another location, we waited a very short time and the Jeep we rented was brand new! We had a great time.