St. Thomas/Maarten - beach on our own

[PS1211]

Hi, all-

We're sailing on the Allure July 6th with a group of 10. We were thinking about doing a beach day on either St. Thomas or St. Maarten on our own. What are your recommendations for beaches and transportation? We have kids aged 13, 9, 7 and 3. Thanks!

[Clarea]

We always enjoy Maho Beach on St. Maarten. Taxi or bus available.

[DonnaK]

Since you are on Allure, which docks at Crown Bay in STT, if you are looking for a nice beach that's convenient and easy to get to, try Emerald Beach (aka Lindbergh Bay/Beach). It's a quick taxi and not too expensive taxi ride away, and there are facilities there. Surely there are more beautiful beaches on St. Thomas, but with 4 little ones, this is a good option.

Edited June 23, 2014 by DonnaK

[Jiffymom]

Do you think the GS on deck under whirl pool will be noisy.

[jmrothermel]

Do you think the GS on deck under whirl pool will be noisy.

 

 

Random?? :rolleyes:

 

 

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[richardb]

St Thomas, we preferred Emerald to Magens Bay. Magens was pretty trashy/dirty (at least at that visit). Megans is in a park, so there was an entrance fee at that time. You can get a van for your whole group to either one.

 

St Maartin, we (almost) always go to Orient Beach. We went to Maho once with our kids because they wanted to watch the planes landing. The surf was very rough and the water dropped off very fast. But the beaches in St Maartin are always changing; washing away and then rebuilding, depending on time of year. Again, you can get a van at the pier for your whole group.

 

P.S. If you go to Maho, be sure to beat the afternoon drawbridge (ask your driver) when returning to the ship or risk missing it.

Edited June 23, 2014 by richardb

[dcikon2]

Though seeing the planes is neat for a few minutes, Maho is not a great swimming beach, especially for kids. Think about either Orient or Mullet Bay.

[mitsugirly]

We just did Mullet Bay for the morning hours and then walked over to Maho to watch the big planes come in for the afternoon before heading back to the ship (last month). It made for a great day and we got to do 2 beaches and only pay for 1 trip there. :)

 

I have a complete review from our day there listed in my signature line if you are interested. There's tons of pictures included.

[Life is Good Cruising]

Hi, all-

We're sailing on the Allure July 6th with a group of 10. We were thinking about doing a beach day on either St. Thomas or St. Maarten on our own. What are your recommendations for beaches and transportation? We have kids aged 13, 9, 7 and 3. Thanks!

 

Totally agree that Emerald Beach in St. Thomas would be ideal for the family. It's very close to Crown Bay, water is calm, they have a beach bar and a restaurant. There are chair rentals $5 each, plenty of shade if needed and there are restroom facilities. Taxis will be in the Best Western Emerald Beach Resort parking lot to take you back to the ship.

 

For St. Martin, as much as I love going to Maho Beach, and the kids would love seeing the planes land and take off, the water can be rough at times with an undertow. Other times at Maho, the water can be just heavenly. Having 4 kids, I would also suggest going with Orient Beach. There are also plenty of taxis at the end of the pier in back of the Information Center in Philipsburg to take you to Orient Beach or anywhere else you may want to go and plenty of taxis there to take you back to the pier. If you do decide to go to Orient, you can ask you taxi driver for a return pick-up from him.

 

Since there are 10 of you, another suggestion for St. Martaan would be to take a private tour with Bernards Tour. You'll see the island, they'll take you to both Orient and Maho beach. They are highly recommended on both cruise critic and TripAdvisor and we have used them numerous times.

 

http://www.bernardstours.com/

Edited June 29, 2014 by Life is Good Cruising