St Martin Itinerary help Tijon, Maho, Marigot, Philpsburg, etc

[tedbearz]

Hi fellow cruisers need help planning my day at St Martin. TIA :)

 

We will be arriving on the NCL Getaway at 8am and departing at 6pm.

 

We are planning on shopping from 10am to 12/1 pm with lunch somewhere in between.

 

We currently have planned the Tijon perfume class in Grand Case in the afternoon at 3:30 which ends at 5pm, so trying to determine what to do between 1-3pm.

 

Questions:

 

Would I be able to fit in Maho Beach in between Philipsburg shopping and Tijon, Grand Case?

 

Beside shopping what would you recommend to do in Philipsburg?

 

Is the shopping better in Marigot or Philipsburg? We are looking to visit the Cartier and LV Boutiques. :D

 

Is there enough to do at Grand Case to get there earlier rather than just go there for the class?

Edited July 15, 2014 by tedbearz

[Life is Good Cruising]

Hi fellow cruisers need help planning my day at St Martin. TIA :)

 

We will be arriving on the NCL Getaway at 8am and departing at 6pm.

 

We are planning on shopping from 10am to 12/1 pm with lunch somewhere in between.

 

We currently have planned the Tijon perfume class in Grand Case in the afternoon at 3:30 which ends at 5pm, so trying to determine what to do between 1-3pm.

 

Questions:

 

Would I be able to fit in Maho Beach in between Philipsburg shopping and Tijon, Grand Case?

 

The stores open at 9:30 in Philipsburg, try to get an early start with shopping. You may be able to to squeeze in an hour or so at Maho and even have lunch there at the Sunset Bar & Grill.

 

If your ship is leaving at 6 pm and your class is over at 5 pm, you are really cutting it close from Grand Case back to Philipsburg. Can Tijon guarantee you a taxi will be waiting for you to take you back to the pier?

 

 

Beside shopping what would you recommend to do in Philipsburg?

Not much but shopping. There is a beach in Philipsburg and some say the water there is a little polluted.

 

Is the shopping better in Marigot or Philipsburg? We are looking to visit the Cartier and LV Boutiques. :D

 

There is no LV in St Maarten or St Martin, they are in St Thomas and a few other islands. Cartier would be on Front St in Philipsburg. There's also a Longchamp on Front St. in Philipsburg if interested.

For me, I could spend hours in Marigot. There's a small mall called West Indies Mall and there are some nice stores and places to eat in the marina in Marigot.

 

Is there enough to do at Grand Case to get there earlier rather than just go there for the class?

 

See answers in red.

 

Grand Case would be a good choice for lunch, it has the beach with beach bars and Tiki Huts called LOLO's (locally owned and locally operated) that have very good food and lots of gourmet restaurants. I don't know the exact distance of where your Tijon perfume class to the beach. If taking a taxi you will pass it first before the beach.

 

http://www.grandcase.com/index.shtml

 

Enjoy your perfume class and your day in paradise!

Edited July 17, 2014 by Life is Good Cruising

[tedbearz]

Thanks so much!

 

The people at Tijon said it would take about 30-40 mins back to Grand Case Dock and they would be able to call a car ahead of time. Should we budget more time to get back ?

[Life is Good Cruising]

Thanks so much!

 

The people at Tijon said it would take about 30-40 mins back to Grand Case Dock and they would be able to call a car ahead of time. Should we budget more time to get back ?

 

My pleasure.

 

30-40 mins I believe is without traffic. I personally would schedule more time for getting back to the ship, taking into consideration, traffic, road construction or an accident. You don't want to be a pier runner, do you?

 

It's better to be safe than sorry :)

Edited July 17, 2014 by Life is Good Cruising

[Karysa]

Hi fellow cruisers need help planning my day at St Martin. TIA :)

 

We will be arriving on the NCL Getaway at 8am and departing at 6pm.

 

We are planning on shopping from 10am to 12/1 pm with lunch somewhere in between.

 

We currently have planned the Tijon perfume class in Grand Case in the afternoon at 3:30 which ends at 5pm, so trying to determine what to do between 1-3pm.

 

Questions:

 

Would I be able to fit in Maho Beach in between Philipsburg shopping and Tijon, Grand Case?

 

Beside shopping what would you recommend to do in Philipsburg?

 

Is the shopping better in Marigot or Philipsburg? We are looking to visit the Cartier and LV Boutiques. :D

 

Is there enough to do at Grand Case to get there earlier rather than just go there for the class?

 

What you have failed to account for is that the all aboard time is usually 30 minutes prior to the ships departure time. In your case that would be 5:30. Given the fact that the drive from Grand Case to the pier is 30 minutes MINIMUM means that you should be out of Grand Case by 4:30.

 

Regarding the shopping I would google the Blue Mall. It's in the Cupocoy region of the island and it's a new high end mall that should have the stores that you are looking for. In Marigot the high end mall is called The West Indies Mall I believe.

 

If you went to Cupocoy you could stop at Maho first and see some smaller planes, Cupocoy then Marigot/Grand Case.

 

Most of the stores in Marigot and Grand Case are closed from 1-3 BTW.

Edited July 17, 2014 by Karysa

[tedbearz]

Thanks everyone for the tips. We ended up doing Bernards Tour in the morning.

 

Afterwards we had one hour in Philpsburg for shopping before heading to Grand Case for the Tijon class.

 

We were able to finish in an hour and get back to the ship with plenty of time to spare.

[Karysa]

Thanks everyone for the tips. We ended up doing Bernards Tour in the morning.

 

Afterwards we had one hour in Philpsburg for shopping before heading to Grand Case for the Tijon class.

 

We were able to finish in an hour and get back to the ship with plenty of time to spare.

 

Glad it all worked out. Did you enjoy the class at Tijon?