St Thomas, St Maarteen and San Juan

[Tigergenesis]

I’m looking for some excursion suggestions for our upcoming cruise (April).  We typically avoid ship excursions (unless something we really want to do is only offered by the ship) and prefer to book with local tour operators. We’d love some suggestions on what to do on our cruise. 

 

Our ports are:
St Maarten
St Thomas
San Juan

 

We are not too big on tours or shopping.  We love nature, food, drinking/distillery tours, adventure.

 

We usually like to do a boat side snorkeling at one port.  Which port would be best?  Any tour operator suggestions?

 

We also like to do something with a unique animal experience (other port examples:  swim w/ sea lions, swim w/sharks, visit monkey farm).  Any suggestions at these ports?

 

We also like adventure tours (other port examples: ziplinging, waterfall jumping, river tubing, etc).  Any suggestions?

 

Any place to get massages on the beach?

 

What are the “must do” excursions at these ports?

 

Thank you in advance!

[Ms411]

San Juan offers swim with turtles activity that doesn't require getting on a boat so it's more affordable than most other swim with turtles. I found it on AirBnb under their Experiences section. The area is popular with hawksbill turtles whereas the St Thomas sea turtles are green sea turtles. Lots of other fun activities listed on Airbnb Experiences.

 

Coral World on St Thomas has some dolphin encounters. 

 

Many people rave about the day sail on St Maarten. The captain is probably mention in the St Maarten forum.

 

[JerseyGirlatHeart]

Highly recommend Random Wind in St Maarten.  So much fun … drinking, eating, jumping, swinging, swimming, snorkeling.  
 

 

[Threeplusone]

We just returned from St Thomas and used Sailing the Cosmos for a half day sail and snorkel trip. Highly recommend! They’ll work with you to customize your trip. Super nice couple! It was the highlight of our trip.

[kabux]

Came on to recommend Random Wind Day Sail in St. Maarten - Jersey Girl beat me to it!!!  

Highly recommend - we are going again in March!

[blue_water]

On 1/6/2024 at 4:42 PM, Tigergenesis said:

I’m looking for some excursion suggestions for our upcoming cruise (April).  We typically avoid ship excursions (unless something we really want to do is only offered by the ship) and prefer to book with local tour operators. We’d love some suggestions on what to do on our cruise. 

 

Our ports are:
St Maarten
St Thomas
San Juan

 

We are not too big on tours or shopping.  We love nature, food, drinking/distillery tours, adventure.

 

We usually like to do a boat side snorkeling at one port.  Which port would be best?  Any tour operator suggestions?

 

We also like to do something with a unique animal experience (other port examples:  swim w/ sea lions, swim w/sharks, visit monkey farm).  Any suggestions at these ports?

 

We also like adventure tours (other port examples: ziplinging, waterfall jumping, river tubing, etc).  Any suggestions?

 

Any place to get massages on the beach?

 

What are the “must do” excursions at these ports?

 

Thank you in advance!

One of our favorite daysails is with the Golden Eagle on SXM. We toured SXM in the morning and enjoyed the daysail from 11 on. The highlight was a stop at the island of Tintamarre. We also took the full-day sail while staying on the island. Unfortunately the snorkeling is not the best around SXM.

Otherwise we would head to Friar’s Bay or Happy Bay to enjoy a nice lunch, great beach, and few fellow cruisers.

 

For the daysail snorkeling, hands down one of the daysail outfits that go to the cays off St John from St Thomas. There are some favorites, mostly monohulls. We’ve only taken the New Horizons out of Sapphire Marina while staying at the property. You can ask for recs on the STT forum on TripAdvisor, and find listings on the VINow site.

 

There are even better daysail and adventure options, but these depend on your time in each port…?