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St Maarten ? RC or on your own


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It is the mailman.....pretty close they both deliver! I third Bernards tour.

 

Sue

Bernard's Tour and Mailman...........THE BEST!!!:D Sarafina's was closed for the entire month of September 2 (or maybe it was 3) years ago. :(

Edited by debitoo
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Love Sint Maarten ... have had great experiences with Bernard's Tours ... and getting to the Sunset Beach Bar at Maho to watch the planes land at SXM is a MUST! The two "heavies" from Europe (Air France and KLM or Corsair) usually arrive @ 11:00 to 12:00.

 

There is a Webcam set up at the Bar, which is addicting ...

 

sunsetsxm.com/index.php/home/webcams-update

 

Michael

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This is one of the best islands for going on your own and not the cruise line.

 

Last time we went to St Maartin it was very quiet and we got a limo to chauffer us round the island and visit Maho beach for $90. A private limo, driver and choice of where to go for just over 3 hours. It would have been $60 for the two of us if we could have got another couple to share.

 

It was so quiet and we were the only ship in port and had a very small number of passengers so we paid the little extra for the limo.

 

The duty free in the port is amazing.

 

Do you rent the limo ahead of time or once you arrived at St. Maartin? Were there limos waiting at the port?

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Made the mistake of doing the double decker bus RCI excursion. What a waste. Took a cab back to ship and driver had just finished a 3 hour tour with two couples. He took them where THEY wanted to go at half the price we paid for a crowded, hot bus. Lesson learned. Regardless, St. Maarten is very beautiful.

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* Feeding iguanas (I don't know if that's the "iguana farm" Bernard's Tours talks about, it was a small roadside stop)

 

Almost certainly the same. There was no "farm" in March, that's for sure.

 

 

After reading about Bernard's for years, I was massively disappointed in it! The tour guide's style was YELLING, so I felt like I was getting a lecture about the island instead of a tour.

 

I liked the time on Orient.

 

Sarafina was disappointing as well. The pastries were pretty but so dull and bland. The line was long, the employees blank-faced and unhelpful. Still not sure if I paid for the baguette I ordered and didn't get, because I didn't get a receipt.

 

Maho Beach...by the time we got there I was just done with the day. I wanted to be back in Philipsburg to do some things I thought I would have time to do, but it got cut too close. We wasted so much time at the waiting area, then sitting on the van waiting for there to be space to get out. So it just pushed back the ending time too long.

 

Disappointed in the whole day apart from Orient. And I was really disturbed by the stop to see the guy with the urchins; he had those sea creatures out of the water for at least half an hour, the spikes on one urchin were breaking off, and it was just awful. And he would just put them in peoples' hands whether they wanted it or not. Depressing for the sea life, and an obvious "tip my buddy" moment.

 

 

I would take a cab in the future. The cab system is set by zone there; no surprises in the fare. Head through the port to the ground transportation area and hire someone to take you exactly where you want to go. If you're ending the day with Maho, leave EARLY. The traffic is seriously no joke.

Edited by mollyeilis
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My sister wants to see both sides of the island, and of course visit the french bakery. Since we are visiting on a Sunday I know that most shops will be closed, so really don't want to spend a lot of money.

Should we do the RC excursion? a private tour? or try to find a taxi :eek: we've never done this before, to take us to both sides?

Thank s for any tips or advice!

 

http://www.bernardstours.com/tours.html -- the best island tour I've ever had and it's worth every penny.

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I know everyone here has said they visited the bakery on a Sunday, so maybe we just went on an off day, but on our trip last summer to St Maarten, the bakery (and all other shops on the French side) were closed. We were the only ship in port and went in August which is a slow tourism time, so that might be why. A lot of the shops on the Dutch side right across from where the cruise ship docks were also closed, but not as many as on the french side.

 

 

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The last I knew, Sarafina's was open through lunch time on Sunday, and closed on Monday.

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My sister wants to see both sides of the island, and of course visit the french bakery. Since we are visiting on a Sunday I know that most shops will be closed, so really don't want to spend a lot of money.

Should we do the RC excursion? a private tour? or try to find a taxi :eek: we've never done this before, to take us to both sides?

Thank s for any tips or advice!

 

We have always just negotiated with cab drivers at the port for Island tours of St. Maarten. We have never had any trouble getting a cab to take us on a tour. There have always been other cruisers trying to do the same thing and we have been able to fill a van with no issues. The worst traffic has always been getting through Phillipsburg.

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Sarafina was disappointing as well. The pastries were pretty but so dull and bland. The line was long, the employees blank-faced and unhelpful. Still not sure if I paid for the baguette I ordered and didn't get, because I didn't get a receipt.

 

 

I'm thinking it could be a European thing. When I was in France I'd see the most wonderful looking things......but they didn't seem to have much taste or as sweet as I expected them to be..... seemed to almost the presentation over the taste.

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I agree that if you have never been to SMX Bernard's sounds good (although we never have use him)

 

We have been there many times on cruises and also stayed there for an entire week. We love it there. Now all we ever do is grab a cab and go to Orient Beach. Best people watching beach ever! Lots of bars/restaurants, comfy loungers, just a perfect day.

 

When we stayed for a week, we spent a day at Maho and watched the planes and then the sunset, so awesome.

 

Cannot go wrong with whatever you do, but you do not need to do a ship excursion. There are many, many options for SMX that are way less than what the ship will charge.

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I'm thinking it could be a European thing. When I was in France I'd see the most wonderful looking things......but they didn't seem to have much taste or as sweet as I expected them to be..... seemed to almost the presentation over the taste.

 

Food of course is subjective, but I have to respectfully disagree. I have always loved the pastries and sweets in France (and I have a sweet tooth :)). As I posted above, I found Sarafina's to be very disappointing; half the stuff we bought was stale (including the macarons, which really bummed me out). But the almond croissants were quite delicious.

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Sounds like Bernard's may cover everything we'd like to see/do. We'll be in port from 12:15-8:00, would the tour last the entire time? Is the tour family friendly (we'll have our 8 & 5 year old)?

 

Depending on which of the two tours you pick, they will last either about 4.5 or 5.5 hours. Given your time in port, you would likely be on a tour that starts at 1:30pm. You should definitely check out Bernard's web site for more info; also, if you have additional questions, I found him quick to respond to emails.

 

http://www.bernardstours.com/index.html

 

In terms of "family friendly," just be aware (if you're not already) that the far right end of Orient Beach (as you face the water) is a nude beach. Orient Beach is quite long, and there's no need to be anywhere near that far end if you don't want to. And Bernard's will drop you off somewhere in the middle. That said, it's the French part of the island, and even if you are not on the nude end, there will likely be topless women and men wearing nothing but little thongs (generally those without the body that should go with them).

 

You may want to do some additional reading over on the Ports of Call/Caribbean/St. Maarten board, where you'll find a great deal of info about the island, including Orient Beach.

 

(Note that Bernard's Tour No. 1 -- the shorter tour -- does not include beach time.)

 

Hope that's helpful.

 

Orient%20Beach%203%201024x519_zpshxlyyuey.jpg

 

(Orient Beach -- not the nude end -- photo by turtles06)

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I will concur with all of those recommending Bernard's Tours. Our group used them Jan 2016. It was a great tour and our driver Simon made sure we made it to Maho Beach to watch the planes land and take off when there were a number of them scheduled to do that.

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I know this may have been answered in more depth, and I apologise to the OP for hijacking the thread, but does Bernard's Tour spend plenty of time at Maho Beach? We love Maho Beach but want to see more of the island.... That said we want to see a good number of the big planes come in when we do hit Maho beach! Thanks :)

 

 

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I know this may have been answered in more depth, and I apologise to the OP for hijacking the thread, but does Bernard's Tour spend plenty of time at Maho Beach? We love Maho Beach but want to see more of the island.... That said we want to see a good number of the big planes come in when we do hit Maho beach! Thanks :)

My understanding is that they arrange the timing so you get to see at least one large plane land.

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Our driver, Simon, from Barnard's took us all over the island, includind about 2 hours at a beach on the French side. But he knew we wanted to see a lot of plane activity at Maho Beach. We had at least one very avid photographer, plus several more of us who wanted some good shots of airplanes.

 

We were there before a flurry of activity. Incoming flights included relatively small inter island turboprops, up to the queen of the day while we were there, a large 4 engine Air France Airbus. And we saw take off, a Dutch KLM 747.

 

It was amazing and awesome to me.

 

I know this may have been answered in more depth, and I apologise to the OP for hijacking the thread, but does Bernard's Tour spend plenty of time at Maho Beach? We love Maho Beach but want to see more of the island.... That said we want to see a good number of the big planes come in when we do hit Maho beach! Thanks :)

 

 

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Bernard Tours is great and we really enjoyed our tour with them. After the tour and the Orient Beach time we then finished at Maho Beach to watch the planes for about an hour which was real exciting. While there we had a burger and fries at the Sunset Grill and they were big and they were good and reasonably priced. One thing I liked was on the way from Maho to the ship the traffic was backed up on the main road to a crawl and our driver got off the main road because he said it would push it too close to getting back to the ship and took some back roads which got us back to town to shop a little bit before heading back to the ship. This was an option at the end to get dropped of in town or get dropped off back at the ship. We chose the town drop off and then took the ferry back to the ship. Another great thing with this tour was that it was only 6 of us in a nice roomy van so we were not crowded. Oh the Rum Punch.........Nice! :cool:

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I know this may have been answered in more depth, and I apologise to the OP for hijacking the thread, but does Bernard's Tour spend plenty of time at Maho Beach? We love Maho Beach but want to see more of the island.... That said we want to see a good number of the big planes come in when we do hit Maho beach! Thanks :)

 

 

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We spent about a half hour at Maho beach; really, it was enough. (And there aren't that many "big" planes landing.)

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