Maho airplane expeience

[viperrtblck]

headed to st. maarten in sept on our cruise. would like to go to this beach as last time I was here was 5 years ago.  see royal has the excursion in the cruise planner....is it easier or better to do it through royal, or save some money and grab a cab once your in the pier and have them take you to that beach??  can't remember what we did last time we went.

 

thanks

[Merion_Mom]

Do it either completely on your own or with Bernard on one of his tours. 

[Clarea]

You can also do the public bus, for $1.25 per person, each way.  Catch the bus on Back St, behind the courthouse.

[hirent]

Just take a cab, or the bus as suggested above.

There is nothing any tour operator can do, that you can't do for yourself at Maho Beach.

At the most they can package up transportation with some food and drink.

The airplane experience itself is independent of anything else.

One tip: determine the day of the week (of your port day) and check out the flight arrivals on that day. You can plan your trip to be present during the landings of wide-body jets.

Have fun.

 

Edited January 30, 2019 by hirent

[DerekDun8]

I agree with the others. We took a cab from outside the pier and then caught one back and had them drop us off downtown. 

[cruiseguy1016]

Do it on your own. It'll be much cheaper. If you want a drink while there, I recommend the Driftwood Boat Bar. It's at the other end of the beach from the Sunset Bar and Grill. It's less crowded and the drinks are cheaper.

[NavyCruiser]

Rent a car & drive around the island...

[jdg623]

Definitely take a cab. They will try to fill up a van to bring the cost per person down. Lots of people going to Maho. The bigger planes tend to land in the afternoon. Last time we were there, we took a cab to Mullet Bay beach first - it's not as crowded as Maho - enjoyed the beach for a couple hours, then walked over to Maho after lunch. It's a very easy 15 minute walk. Spent almost an hour at Maho enjoying the planes, then caught a taxi back to the ship. Easy peasy and had a fabulous time! We're doing it again in April, and probably also in October. 

[crookedhalo]

Just be mindful of your time if you do it on your own - traffic can be a bear - especially in the afternoon on a weekday!! Plan accordingly, wouldn't want to watch the rear end of the ship sailing without you aboard!!

[Sitzmark]

We are planning on just grabbing a cab.

[GTO-Girl]

Take a tour with Bernard’s Tours who will be sure to get you to Maho to see the big jets come in.  And you will have no worries getting back to the ship on time!!

 

We have used him multiple times and are always very pleased...

[jdg623]

We've done Bernard's Tours on previous trips and have been very pleased - they provide an excellent overall island tour. HIghly recommended. But we didn't have a lot of time at Maho with this tour - maybe 20-30 minutes. We would have liked to hang around longer. If all you're interested in is the beach and Maho, I'd really suggest just getting a taxi and going directly. If you want to see more of the island (and I recommend this if it's a first visit) then do Bernard's tour. 

[cruisefun77]

6 hours ago, Host Clarea said:

You can also do the public bus, for $1.25 per person, each way.  Catch the bus on Back St, behind the courthouse.

Definitely use the Back St. bus.  Interesting experience and you get to see how the locals travel.  Just hop on, pay, and go with the flow.

[MandiesPharm]

Definitely use the Back St. bus.  Interesting experience and you get to see how the locals travel.  Just hop on, pay, and go with the flow.

Don’t forget to say hello to all when you get in!

The buses are easy to use. Look for the ones that say “Maho” in the window to get there and to return you want one that says “p-burg”.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[cementhands]

Grab a cab. 

Bring ear plugs.

Beach is quite nice with gentle waves.

Hold onto small children and ya hat!

[Clarea]

Too bad KLM discontinued the 747 to St. Maarten.  That was an experience!

[sellwingri]

On our last cruise, we planned to spend a couple of hours at Maho beach as we usually do in St Maarten.  We took our time getting the ship and by the time we got to the taxi line, it was over an hour long.  We ended up back on the ship.  

[waterbug123]

18 hours ago, hirent said:

One tip: determine the day of the week (of your port day) and check out the flight arrivals on that day. You can plan your trip to be present during the landings of wide-body jets.

Have fun.

 

 

I don't believe there are actually any wide-body aircraft that land at SXM anymore.  KLM discontinued their once daily 747 flight from Amsterdam a few years ago.  You can still see a number of narrow-body, commercial jets, as well as numerous small private jets and prop planes.

[Clarea]

1 minute ago, waterbug123 said:

 

I don't believe there are actually any wide-body aircraft that land at SXM anymore.  KLM discontinued their once daily 747 flight from Amsterdam a few years ago.  You can still see a number of narrow-body, commercial jets, as well as numerous small private jets and prop planes.

 

I thought Air France still flew an A340 there from CDG, but maybe that's gone too?

[ObstructedView2]

To sit on a noisy small beach with one little beach bar & have sand blown in your face & your belongings just to watch planes land; take a taxi....

 

Different strokes for different folks, but its just not worth traveling to a beautiful island in the Caribbean with so many lovely beaches & decide to go to this small beach simply for a selfie & or video of a plane above you. Exotic St Maarten has so much more to offer. 

 

🌴

[waterbug123]

17 minutes ago, Host Clarea said:

 

I thought Air France still flew an A340 there from CDG, but maybe that's gone too?

 

I don't know, maybe?   And now that I've had my coffee, I realize of course that anything coming from Europe would be a wide body aircraft, it's just the 747 that now longer flies the route.  That's the one everyone was always excited to see!

[effinaround]

Air France flies the A330-200 (scheduled to operate today's flight) and last I heard KLM was using an A330-300 after switching from the 747-400.

[Clarea]

2 minutes ago, effinaround said:

Air France flies the A330-200 (scheduled to operate today's flight) and last I heard KLM was using an A330-300 after switching from the 747-400.

 

Thanks for the update.

[Mikew0805]

Done this many times, and each time we rented a car. This is the only way we would do this.. we get a good 4+ hours at Maho. Yes traffic is bad on the way back, but we leave 2 hours before we have to be on the ship. No worries.

[effinaround]

Correction, KLM is operating the A330-200 and not the -300.

 

I'm hoping to some day make it there as well.  Watching jets land never gets old for me.