Beach for Cruise stop

First time cruising and first time in St. Maarten so not sure what is a practical idea or not so thought I'd ask here. Will be on Oasis of the Seas stopping in Philipsburg and would like to spend a little time on the beach but not the whole day, also want some shopping and looking around. Is there a beach that would be easy enough to get to that won't be absolutely packed by everyone getting off of the cruise ships.

First time cruising and first time in St. Maarten so not sure what is a practical idea or not so thought I'd ask here. Will be on Oasis of the Seas stopping in Philipsburg and would like to spend a little time on the beach but not the whole day, also want some shopping and looking around. Is there a beach that would be easy enough to get to that won't be absolutely packed by everyone getting off of the cruise ships.

For your purposes the best bet might be to simply use the Great Bay beach located right in Phillipsburg. While it is not my favorite beach, it is sandy, has plenty of rental chairs, and is right in town. You can easily get there by using the inexpensive water taxi (it runs between the port and town) or can even walk it in about 25 min. This beach is only 1 block from the main shopping street.

Hank

First time cruising and first time in St. Maarten so not sure what is a practical idea or not so thought I'd ask here. Will be on Oasis of the Seas stopping in Philipsburg and would like to spend a little time on the beach but not the whole day, also want some shopping and looking around. Is there a beach that would be easy enough to get to that won't be absolutely packed by everyone getting off of the cruise ships.

Little Bay is about 10 minutes via taxi and $20 round trip for 2. It's perfect for a half day at the beach. You can get dropped off at the ship and walk the 15 minutes back to town in dry clothes and no beach bags. You can decide if you want lunch on the ship or at Chesterfields on the way to town or somewhere in town.

There are a few recent threads on Little Bay that will tell you all you need to know about it.

I think that an island tour might work out great for your first time visit to the island.

If it is just the two of you, I can recommend Bernard's Tours for $45 each, and if you are part of a larger group, then Joyce Hanley-Prince, prices depends.

Check their websites for full information on what they offer.

gary

Little Bay has a few names on here so look for threads on Divi or Little Divi beach as well. They are one in the same on this board lol

For your purposes the best bet might be to simply use the Great Bay beach located right in Phillipsburg. While it is not my favorite beach, it is sandy, has plenty of rental chairs, and is right in town. You can easily get there by using the inexpensive water taxi (it runs between the port and town) or can even walk it in about 25 min. This beach is only 1 block from the main shopping street.

 

Hank

Agree with Hank! Great Bay Beach would be so convenient for you for what you want. :)

First time cruising and first time in St. Maarten so not sure what is a practical idea or not so thought I'd ask here. Will be on Oasis of the Seas stopping in Philipsburg and would like to spend a little time on the beach but not the whole day, also want some shopping and looking around. Is there a beach that would be easy enough to get to that won't be absolutely packed by everyone getting off of the cruise ships.

Since you are new to Cruising and St. Maarten unlike myself and the other 3 posters on this thread I bet that you have not heard about the ongoing pollution concerns at Great Bay. There have been promises of correcting this but as far as I know this beach still can have sewage draining into it. This concern is well known to the two cc members that have recommended this beach to you. I haven't swam at this beach since 2006 because I read about this issue on here in 2007. I saw the brownish sludgy water once from walking the boardwalk in 2010 or 2011. I have never even looked that way after as once was enough for me. It seems to be an overflow issue from rain. When you are on a cruise it's pretty difficult to know when the last time it rained on the island was though :).

There have been threads on it here and you ( or others) can do a search for "Great Bay pollution what's it like now" if you are interested in learning more about this. I wish that they posted water test results online like they do here at home so you know which beach to swim at when you are heading out for a beach day but they don't do that on the island and they don't post results at the beach either, or test as often as would be needed to keep things up to date. Oh well I guess that's why we have cc so we can help each other out. At least that's why I thought we had cc.

Gary who suggested a tour for you (good advice as always) has contributed info on this subject and has updated us when he hear's something. He hasn't posted in a while so to me that is not good news as this is an ongoing issue that needs a fix to make it better.

I just want people to be informed before chosing to go there because I think that's fair. If you still go I hope that you have a great day:)

There are currently no warning for Great Bay Beach! :)

There are currently no warning for Great Bay Beach! :)

Tomorrows a different day and that's the issue with this beach. If the problem has not been fixed then the draining sewage just recurs.

There are currently no warning for Great Bay Beach! :)

Where do you look to see if there is a warning or not?

gary

Where do you look to see if there is a warning or not?

 

gary

Really. You went there! lol

We have taken a taxi in the past to Orient Beach and La Gallion - we then have the taxi driver return to pick us up at 1pm then drop us off in town and we make our way back to the ship stopping at all the shops along the way. We are usually in port til 7 or 8 9m so we never had any trouble fitting in a beach and shopping. We do get off the ship asap. This next time around we are going to Kakao.

We have taken a taxi in the past to Orient Beach and La Gallion - we then have the taxi driver return to pick us up at 1pm then drop us off in town and we make our way back to the ship stopping at all the shops along the way. We are usually in port til 7 or 8 9m so we never had any trouble fitting in a beach and shopping. We do get off the ship asap. This next time around we are going to Kakao.

Ditto. We did Le Gallion in 2016 and Maho Beach in 2015. We left the ship as early as possible, went to the beach (taxi and bus respectively) then returned around 1. Husband had plenty of time to waste money ;) on booze and then carry it all back to the ship! I think we also had time to stop at the candy man shop there too.

Agree with Hank! Great Bay Beach would be so convenient for you for what you want. :)

I also agree! In fact, we will be there again in March! Can't wait!

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