Bernard's Tours

[teknoge3k]

Anyone have experience with Bernard Tours (Bernard's SXM Tours)? We booked their "Tour 2" excursion and was wondering if anyone had feedback using them. They seemed to have good reviews but wanted opinions of people here who have used them.

[Dall]

We have gone on Bernard's tours several times. Very reliable and obviously great tour [emoji51]

 

 

Sent from my iPad using Forums mobile app

[Ashland]

We've done a private tour with Bernard's...great option for a first visit to the island. Orient Beach, Marigot & Maho.

[jonnysgirl81]

you are in for a great day!

[peterp]

Only good things to say about the Tours. We have used him twice now. Both wonderful, fun tours.

[baldhill156]

We were there 2 weeks ago and did a private tour through Bernard's Tours. There were 4 of us, so it ended up costing about the same as the excursion offered by our ship. Our guide was Romeo and he was nothing short of fantastic! He started by asking us what we had in mind to see or do and made sure our day was memorable. I feel like we got to see the "real" St. Maarten. Romeo took us to several spots to take pictures of some of the most amazing views. He told us of the history of the island and pointed out lots of things along the way. If we had a question, he knew the answer! We had lunch on the French side at a little place on the beach that was just a local hangout and the food was delicious! After lunch, we visited a street market in Marigot and also a local bakery that Romeo recommended. Of course, we finished the day with a stop at Maho Beach. I never felt rushed or like I was on a tour. It was truly "our day" spent with someone who was more like a friend showing us around than a hired guide. I can't recommend it enough. (And I met Bernard that morning and he was great too!)

[kcsavage]

My favorite excursion ever. We've used Bernard's Tours twice and you won't be disappointed. Last time we had the Mailman as our driver and he was so entertaining and informative. Our group of 18 (ages 8-65) had a wonderful time. Orient Beach is beautiful and airplane beach might be my most favorite place on Earth. Mailman even got the kids in our group right up against the fence to feel the blast when the planes were taking off (I've read from some people not to do this) but we loved hanging on to the fence for dear life - lol. Hope that helps and that you have fun.

[teknoge3k]

Thank you for the feedback everyone! We're excited. :D

[many cruises]

We used Bernard's Tours to taxi us to and from Grand Case (on the French side of the island) and back to the ship. We didn't want to rent a car so we hired Bernard's Tours to drive us to Grand Case. Grand Case is beautiful with many gourmet restaurants, bars on the beach, and boutique shops. There were very few cruisers there and our day was wonderful...a few drinks on the beach, a wonderful lunch, and some shopping. Bernard's driver was great and very entertaining...she picked us up exactly on a preset time and drove us back to the ship. It was a great day!

[cruisetimeforme]

Wanting to tour with Bernard's but daughter is concerned about the 4 yo seeing too much at Orient beach. Any thoughts? Seems like a great tour Thx

[cruiseaway7522]

Wife and I went last April and did not see any, go to the left if you decide to go

[iflyrc5]

We have toured with Bernard about 4 times. The first time was about 7 years ago. He had one new van, a cooler full of rum punch, beer and soft drinks and did the tour himself. Go forward 7 years. He has a fleet of vans and buses and a large number of fantastic guides and has done all this with no advertising. Only word of mouth (and typing) on Trip Advisor and Cruise Critic.:D

[hawkeye1981]

Wanting to tour with Bernard's but daughter is concerned about the 4 yo seeing too much at Orient beach. Any thoughts? Seems like a great tour Thx

 

If you stay on the left side of the beach you'll be ok. Don't head right if you don't want to see you know what.:eek:

[KyleClark]

Are you tall? I am 6'2" tall and the seating on the mini-bus was tight. There was another gentleman that was 6'1" inches tall and he cramped too. We decided to alternate riding shot-gun with the driver as their was a little more room up there.

 

Other than that no complaints.

[fletch1027]

We are looking into booking a Bernards tour. Couple of questions:

 

- Do the guides time the Maho visit to catch the largest of the planes coming and going? (I know the 747 no longer lands there :() but there are still some big ones coming in

 

- How soon ahead to they typically book up?

[teknoge3k]

We are looking into booking a Bernards tour. Couple of questions:

 

- Do the guides time the Maho visit to catch the largest of the planes coming and going? (I know the 747 no longer lands there :() but there are still some big ones coming in

 

- How soon ahead to they typically book up?

 

Here is their website that has their tours, you can pick which one you want.

 

http://bernardstours.com/tours.html

 

Not sure how soon they typically book up. We booked ours about 5 months in advance.

[fletch1027]

Here is their website that has their tours, you can pick which one you want.

 

http://bernardstours.com/tours.html

 

Not sure how soon they typically book up. We booked ours about 5 months in advance.

 

Yep, I've already traded a couple of emails with him. I was curious for those that have done a tour with them if they time the 45-60 mins at Maho to coincide with the arrivals of the larger planes (currently I believe the Airbus A340) that tends to land in the early afternoon...

[ericosmith]

We did the tour a couple of weeks ago and were there for the A340 landing. Also so a widebody Delta land but I don't recall the type. Unfortunately we weren't there for any takeoffs.

[hawkeye1981]

Yep, I've already traded a couple of emails with him. I was curious for those that have done a tour with them if they time the 45-60 mins at Maho to coincide with the arrivals of the larger planes (currently I believe the Airbus A340) that tends to land in the early afternoon...

 

We been with Bernard 6 times. They will take you to Maho around the 2 oclock area. That's when the jets typically come in to the airport. If you want to be there sooner you can ask your driver and if the rest of the van agrees they'll bring you there earlier.

[fletch1027]

We been with Bernard 6 times. They will take you to Maho around the 2 oclock area. That's when the jets typically come in to the airport. If you want to be there sooner you can ask your driver and if the rest of the van agrees they'll bring you there earlier.

 

Sounds about right - the bigger jets seem to be coming in after 2. Looking at today's schedule (we will be there 2 weeks from today), there are these arrivals that I noticed:

 

2:20 - Boeing 787 from Amsterdam

2:45 - Airbus A340 from Paris

2:50 - Boeing 757 from Atlanta & and a few other smaller jets like this

 

and the scheduled departures:

 

2:40 - Boeing 787

4:00 - Boeing 757 (too late for us)

4:50 - Airbus A340 (too late for us)

 

no jet blast for us - we will be heading back to port before 4:50... :(

[stewarttm]

Question - We told Bernard's we dock at 8:00, this is when Royal Caribbean says we dock. I did not realize that St. Maarten is on AST an hour ahead of EST. This means we dock at 9:00 local time. Bernard's confirmation email says to be at the starting location at 8:30. I told them we are on the Allure of the Seas. Is the 8:30 local time or ship time?

[teknoge3k]

Question - We told Bernard's we dock at 8:00, this is when Royal Caribbean says we dock. I did not realize that St. Maarten is on AST an hour ahead of EST. This means we dock at 9:00 local time. Bernard's confirmation email says to be at the starting location at 8:30. I told them we are on the Allure of the Seas. Is the 8:30 local time or ship time?

 

If your cruise is after March 12th, you have nothing to worry about.

 

If your cruise is before March 12th, then you may want to tell them you'll be there at X:00 local time. That way they can make adjustments.

[Regdab719]

We unfortunately had a negative experience with Bernard's Tours on our recent cruise. We where there on 26th Jan for the day and felt that the tour was rushed and crowded. The guy who show the difference from the live to Dead Sea life was ill and not available. To his credit Mailman did show us some of the sea life. The iguanas are no longer available and the beach at Orient was very disappointing - very busy and the cost of a chair and food etc. was just a complete ripoff. Our next stop for lunch was Marigot and we only had 45mins. To order our lunch took 40min so no time to do anything. The stop at Maho did not leave enough time to see what we wanted to see. I understand the need to get back to the ship but in own opinion our tour was rushed and although Mailman was a good guide, we would not recommend this tour.

 

 

Sent from my iPad using Forums mobile app

[allie3490]

I wouldn't recommend. We took his tour back in 2012. I felt we spend way too much time in the hot van and not enough time on the beach or in Marigot. Did not care for the iguana farm. Complete waste of time. Then the last stop was some awful "souvenir" shop that was worse than the crap you find in the dollar store. Never again

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Forums

[buttrfly78]

I loved this tour when I took it a few years back and plan to book it again for July!