Renting a Car

[CruisingSoon88]

DH and I will be in St. Maarten in May. We will have our sons ages 6 and 3 with us. I have been all over the place in deciding what to do here. I checked on private tours and they are out of our price range at $350. We really want to go to Maho and see the planes and the outdoor market at Marigot sounds interesting as well. After researching on here, I am leaning towards renting a car for us that day. I have honestly never considered doing this on a cruise stop before. Will this be our cheapest option considering that it will be almost $40 just for us to get to Maho? A car would be right at $100. An organized tour group is just not our thing and I like the freedom that our own car would give us. How bad is traffic? The construction is supposed to be done by then as I understand. Will we have trouble finding parking? Please tell me if there are any complications that I may not have thought of. Also please share any positive or negative experiences with car rentals there. Thanks in advance for your help!:)

[WatchhillDave]

DH and I will be in St. Maarten in May. We will have our sons ages 6 and 3 with us. I have been all over the place in deciding what to do here. I checked on private tours and they are out of our price range at $350. We really want to go to Maho and see the planes and the outdoor market at Marigot sounds interesting as well. After researching on here, I am leaning towards renting a car for us that day. I have honestly never considered doing this on a cruise stop before. Will this be our cheapest option considering that it will be almost $40 just for us to get to Maho? A car would be right at $100. An organized tour group is just not our thing and I like the freedom that our own car would give us. How bad is traffic? The construction is supposed to be done by then as I understand. Will we have trouble finding parking? Please tell me if there are any complications that I may not have thought of. Also please share any positive or negative experiences with car rentals there. Thanks in advance for your help!:)

 

 

I have rented a car several times in St. Maarten never any issues.

go towards maho 1st there is a drawbridge that could delay you on the way to marigot check on times ?? Have used Arthurs car rental in the past

he has a web site to book in advance hes a good man and local .its about

45 to 75 dollars depending on car. he is across the street from taxi stand.

Have a good trip

[Karysa]

DH and I will be in St. Maarten in May. We will have our sons ages 6 and 3 with us. I have been all over the place in deciding what to do here. I checked on private tours and they are out of our price range at $350. We really want to go to Maho and see the planes and the outdoor market at Marigot sounds interesting as well. After researching on here, I am leaning towards renting a car for us that day. I have honestly never considered doing this on a cruise stop before. Will this be our cheapest option considering that it will be almost $40 just for us to get to Maho? A car would be right at $100. An organized tour group is just not our thing and I like the freedom that our own car would give us. How bad is traffic? The construction is supposed to be done by then as I understand. Will we have trouble finding parking? Please tell me if there are any complications that I may not have thought of. Also please share any positive or negative experiences with car rentals there. Thanks in advance for your help!:)

 

The most cost effective way would be to go by bus. You can do a search at the top of the page to find out how to go about this. To get to Maho seems very easy. I read that from the pier to Marigot is easy as well. It would be a good 20 minute walk to the bus from the pier though which would be far and longer for a 3year old.

Also Maho can have a drop off from the shore and some people have reported that the noise from the planes could possibly damage young childrens hearing. I have never thought that it was that loud but my hearing would not be the same as a 3 year old.

Have you considered taking a taxi to the butterfly farm and then a 5 or so minute walk over to Le Galion beach? I went to the butterflyfarm in the summer and the youngsters that were there really seemed to enjoy it. Le galion is known as "baby beach"on the island and is a really great beach for small children such as yours. With the cost of the butterfly farm I don't think it would save you any money and the bus is not an option for that route but it is another great way to spend the day with children .

If you do rent the car look in to the new carousel in the Cole bay/Simpson bay area. It is another great place for a stop with children.

[CruisingSoon88]

The most cost effective way would be to go by bus. You can do a search at the top of the page to find out how to go about this. To get to Maho seems very easy. I read that from the pier to Marigot is easy as well. It would be a good 20 minute walk to the bus from the pier though which would be far and longer for a 3year old.

Also Maho can have a drop off from the shore and some people have reported that the noise from the planes could possibly damage young childrens hearing. I have never thought that it was that loud but my hearing would not be the same as a 3 year old.

Have you considered taking a taxi to the butterfly farm and then a 5 or so minute walk over to Le Galion beach? I went to the butterflyfarm in the summer and the youngsters that were there really seemed to enjoy it. Le galion is known as "baby beach"on the island and is a really great beach for small children such as yours. With the cost of the butterfly farm I don't think it would save you any money and the bus is not an option for that route but it is another great way to spend the day with children .

If you do rent the car look in to the new carousel in the Cole bay/Simpson bay area. It is another great place for a stop with children.

 

Thanks for the info, but the whole reason that we booked this particular cruise was to go to Maho. I may bring some earplugs with me just in case. We had considered using the bus, but I heard it mentioned on here many times that they really don't go by a set schedule and are never on time. That makes me pretty nervous. I also like that we can get a carseats if we rent a car. We aren't really looking for a beach day to like dig in the sand as we will be doing that at another stop. I'm still leaning towards getting a car. Hearing others' positive experiences reassures me. I appreciate everyone's input!

[parrotplay]

I also rented a Jeep last year at Arthur's and we are going to do the same for our cruise in February. We went to Marigot for a few hours, shopped and had lunch, the we went to Maho to watch the planes. I believe the big jets usually come in early afternoon. There was traffic, but we did not have any problems getting around. There is also plently of parking at Maho. We had to drive a little to get a parking spot at Marigot, but we found a place in a few minutes and parked close to the market.

[Karysa]

Thanks for the info, but the whole reason that we booked this particular cruise was to go to Maho. I may bring some earplugs with me just in case. We had considered using the bus, but I heard it mentioned on here many times that they really don't go by a set schedule and are never on time. That makes me pretty nervous. I also like that we can get a carseats if we rent a car. We aren't really looking for a beach day to like dig in the sand as we will be doing that at another stop. I'm still leaning towards getting a car. Hearing others' positive experiences reassures me. I appreciate everyone's input!

 

 

Then you MUST go to Maho. It is a pretty easy island to drive like others have

mentioned and hopefully others who have done this with young children can give you suggestions for interesting places to stop along the way.

[JP350Z]

Also look into Costal Rental Car, they took good care of us on our crusie there May 2011. Located right at the port, vehicle was waiting for me. Nice, clean vehicles and the only people that had 4 door jeep wranglers.

[kasiamichaud]

My mom used to travel to St. Martin quite extensively so when we were there on our cruise we rented 4-wheelers and drove around the island that way. It was a nice way to get around and the rentals are a short walk from the cruises. I'm sorry I don't remember the prices. Granted - that option depends on how your children will do riding on 4-wheelers

[Patt0Butter]

The last time we were in St.Maarten, we rented a jeep. We had 5 people and toured around the whole island. We did not have any trouble with traffic and found it easy to navigate. We ended up at Friar's beach and had a nice lunch before returning to the ship. We did find that we could have rented a car cheaper on the day rather than pre-booking. Can't remember the exact cost - just remember commenting to self that pre-arrangement cost us.

[HALrunner]

I just came to the SXM board to ask this same question....should I reserve a car ahead of time or wait till we get there? Sounds like a better deal to rent when we get there, however, is there a need to worry about cars not being available if we wait? Also, how does it work with insurance? We usually decline it in the states as our insurance covers rentals with major companies. I have heard there are a lot of break in/vandalism with rental cars. Would hate to risk it and go uninsured. TIA

[jimmyvinny]

We were just there in November and rented a car. Make sure you pay the $5 for a GPS and you'll be fine. We were there on a weekday and traffic was great. There are lots of traffic circles, so if you don't have them at home it might take you a minute to get used to it. Once you get the hang of it, it's a smooth drive.

[MisterBill99]

I was just in St. Martin last week and tried to rent from Arthur's. I sad "tried to" because when we got there, he did not have a car for me. Background: I had a reservation from Hertz but was unhappy because they wanted $100 with taxes because it was their holiday rate. So I emailed Arthur a week before we were sailing and made a reservation with them ($71 with tax). I actually asked in email whether the car I was quoted was automatic. He responded "all our cars are automatic". So imagine my surprise when I get there around 8:30am and he asks if I can drive a manual shift. I told him no. He asked if I had a reservation. I showed him the email on my phone. He finally finds my reservation scribbled on their calendar, but no car is assigned to me and he does not have an automatic (despite the fact that "all our cars are automatic"). And it's not like they rang out, I think I was the first customer there. So he calls Coastal and gets them to come and get me. I start writing up the rental with the and they tell me their long list of optional insurances. At this point I tell them to forget it and I walked over to Hertz, where I still had my reservation (which fortunately I had not cancelled). I paid the $100 (plus $5 for the GPS, money well spent). I got my car and it was an automatic.

 

I need to send Arthur a link to the Jerry Seinfeld bit about the car rental place that doesn't have a car for him. As Jerry says, "You know how to take the reservation, you just don’t know how to hold the reservation."

 

Link: http://blogs.wsj.com/deals/2011/05/09/remembering-seinfelds-car-rental-rant/

 

Of course, in my case, they didn't have the car for me in the first place.

 

Now I will acknowledge that there were 6 ships in port the day we were there. But don't take a reservation if you don't have a car.

[BCFoster]

MisterBill - how was traffic on the island with six ships in port? Also, where is the construction, if any? I am going next week and need to rent a vehicle.

[MisterBill99]

MisterBill - how was traffic on the island with six ships in port? Also, where is the construction, if any? I am going next week and need to rent a vehicle.

No major construction. Roads are not in the best of shape, lots of potholes, especially on the Dutch side. Traffic was not bad, surprisingly, UNTIL I was heading back to the ship and the GPS sent me through Phillipsburg. Once I got onto the road leading to the ship it was OK again. Normally, when I did this without the GPS, I would have taken the outer loop road back from Marigot and not gone through Phillipsburg (where we did not go). But we sat in several blocks of traffic when we were a few blocks away from downtown because that was how the GPS sent us. I mentioned it to the guy at Hertz and he acknowledged that it sent people that way and did not understand why.

 

BTW I got a reply from Arthur's apologizing for the screwup (their words) and offering me a free rental on my next visit. Of course, who knows when that will be. But at least they acknowledged their error.

[BCFoster]

Thanks very much - Maybe Arthurs will give me your free rental next week ;) We are eight people, so I have emailed him this morning asking if we are better off with two cars or if he has a van to accommodate us.

 

I do plan to reserve with someone. Do you mind sharing where you went on the island and what you did. We have done Lotorie Farm extreme zip lining and thinking of that again and then hitting Maho beach to watch the planes in the afternoon.

 

Having spent a week on the island in 2010 we are familiar with the roads a little.

[MisterBill99]

I do plan to reserve with someone. Do you mind sharing where you went on the island and what you did.

We started out at Orient Beach, spent an hour there. Then we went to Grand Case and walked around the main street and had lunch at one of the lolo's (local BBQ places). We ate at Talk of the Town. There are some interesting gift shops there. Then we went to Marigot, where we got some great pastries at Sarafina and checked out the market (which has a lot more crap than good stuff). Marigot was very busy, had to park almost at the end of the lot near the pier, like two blocks down. We did not go to Phillipsburg because I knew how busy it would be and I did not want my wife buying more jewelry she did not need :-).