The quiet island of St Maarten/St Martin…

I have to say, one of my favorite islands in the Caribbean is the island of St Maarten/St Martin. Most people know it as the island that is half Dutch and half French. The two countries seem to coexist better than most neighbors.  There is no border crossing, just a simple sign on the side of the road.  After arriving in the morning, I'm always antsy to get on land and start enjoying our visit.

I have visited this island three times now, each as part of a cruise experience. Once via Royal Caribbean’s Enchantment of the Seas with my brother and his wife, once via the Caribbean Princess with our friends Kim and John and once via the Carnival Glory with our friends Chad, Cindy, Jimmie, Angela, Mark, Susan, Shannon and Jason.  The water here is amazing... 

Your ship docks adjacent to downtown Philipsburg. There is taxi service at the dock and plenty of drivers willing to take you anywhere you’d like to go.

One of my favorite places in St Maarten is the Holland House Hotel, or specifically the bar at the Holland House hotel. It’s an open air bar with beautiful flowers growing on the trees in the back. Each time we have visited the island, we make it a point to stop there for a Miami Vice. It is one of the best I’ve had.

On the one side of the hotel is the beach.  It's nice to stroll along the boardwalk and stop into the little bars and shops that dot the shortline.  From this point you can see your ship docked across Great Bay.

On the inland side of the hotel, you can walk directly onto the streets where all the shops are. If you’re expecting Rodeo Drive you’re going to be disappointed, but if you enjoy exploring local island culture and enjoy the atmosphere that these places bring, you’ll enjoy this place.

There are a couple of places in St Martin (the French side of the island) that I really enjoy. World famous Orient beach is one of them. The water is great and there are little beach bars dotted along the shoreline.

The beach is famous for it’s nude portion. Walk out onto the beach and turn right and you’ll run into it eventually. No need to be self conscious here, there are all shapes and sizes and everyone is just acting themselves, sleeping or relaxing in the sun and playing in the water. On one visit, we walked all the way down to the far end of the beach to a brick building where there was a little bar. We stood there having a drink at the bar alongside our naked counterparts as if it was completely normal.

Another part of St Martin I enjoy is Marigot. It’s a nice little town along the waterside with a number of shops and restaurants. It’s a very nice area and if nothing else, a nice place to just wander and window shop. Beyond Marigot, there is the Turtle farm and the Rum Cake factory, typical tourist stops if you’re so inclined. There are even little cigar stands where you can pick up a Cuban cigar if you like. I tried one and couldn’t tell the difference between that and any other cigar so I guess I’ll stick with my old standard; La Gloria Cubana Cedros from the Dominican Republic…

On one of our trips to St Martin there were ten of us traveling as a group and we chose to do an island tour together. We all piled into this large window van and set off to do a run around the island before being dropped at Orient Beach. The most memorable part of that tour for me was when the van got a flat tire and we had to stop until the driver’s son could make it there to help fix it.

Lucky for us, the tire went flat right in front of Maho Beach, which is also adjacent to the airport runway. If you look it up on YouTube you can watch the planes landing and taking off from the Princess Juliana International Airport. Pretty amazing…

We not only got to walk on the beach and watch the planes come in for landings right above our heads, but we also got to have a drink at the Sunset Beach bar which was right on the water. One of the best things about the Sunset Beach bar is that they have an ongoing special: