Tour Of St. Martin (St. Maarten) / Exploring The Island On Your Own

We recently took a trip to St. Martin it was one of the stops on our Princess Cruise. This country is known for its beautiful unique beaches and has some great shopping areas. St. Martin or St. Maarten, is divided in half with one side being the Dutch side and the other side being the French side. If your cruise port is in Philipsburg, it is located on the Dutch side. We rented a Jeep for the day and toured both sides of the island. We want to give you a look at both St. Martin and St. Maarten to show you what there is to do here, some of our recommendations, and the overall vibe of the island and residents. If you are planning a trip to Saint Martin, or Sint Maarten, then you need to watch this video. There are things you definitely don’t want to miss out on and we have a few to show you.

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00:00 Introduction
00:25 Excursion Tour Location
00:54 Water Taxi
01:48 Great Bay Beach
03:24 Touring On Your Own
03:37 Maho Beach
04:36 Navigating The Island
05:31 Orient Beach
06:30 Tour Stops
06:49 Difference Between St. Martin & St. Maarten
07:16 Shopping
07:51 Port Area
08:33 Subscribe

We recently took a trip to St Martin it was one of the stops on our Princess Cruise this country is known for its beautiful unique beaches and has some great shopping areas St Martin is divided in half with one side being on the Dutch side and the other side is

Located on a French side if your cruise ports in Philipsburg that is located on the Dutch side of the island when you first get off the ship you will arrive in the port area of Philipsburg if you have an Excursion booked follow the directions listed on the information

That you received if it tells you to meet up at the Port pickup area that is located over here in this area they have a couple different pickup areas so watch for the numbers to find the area that you supposed to be in if you want to go

Into Philipsburg you can catch a taxi in this area or you can take a water taxi if you’re wanting to save a little money I would recommend the water taxi it was only $7 per person round trip and children three and under are free this was way cheaper than taking a regular

Taxi the water taxis are located in this area over here you will need to purchase your ticket from the stand and they will give you a bracelet that will allow you to get back without having to pay any extra or to check into the booth area you will then follow the signs around

The building down the path to the water taxi the taxi will take you over to downtown Philipsburg area it takes roughly 10 to 15 minutes is to get you over there when you’re ready to go back you will board the water taxi in the same area that they dropped you off in

If you would prefer to walk and save money on water taxi and regular taxis that is also an option one of the ship crew members told me that it’s about a 20 to 30 minute walk to get to Philipsburg so if you choose to do that

Make sure that you allow enough time to walk to get back to the ship if you choose to do that when you arrive you will be right along the beach area in Philipsburg you will see several Beach chairs with umbrellas up and down Great Bay Beach these are not free but you can

Rent one if you would like to they’ll cost you around $ 20 to $25 per day you won’t have any problem at all finding someone to sell you on just walk up and down the road next to great day Beach there are plenty of vendors there selling them and they will approach you

And let you know that they are selling them they also have several bars and restaurants along the beach area so if you want to stay there go grab some food and a drink then relax in a beach chair enjoy the view you can do that if you’re

Wondering how to pay well there is good news even though they are a Dutch and French country they do accept euros and the US dollar so you don’t have to worry about money exchange here’s a little tip for you if you’re looking for it to be a little bit quieter and more relaxing

Then walk all the way down to the far end of the beach to some of the last chairs and umbrellas it’s typically less crowded on that end and a little bit quieter the further you go down the beach the less crowded and quieter it should get just remember once you rent a

Chair though that is yours so you can’t move unless you rent another one from a different vendor each area here is sectioned off and is operated by different vendors either from hotels or restaurants or bars depending on the location so make sure when you find a

Spot it’s the spot that you want to spend your time in instead of taking a traditional Excursion we decided to rent a Jeep and go see the island at our own pace and do the things that sounded most interesting to us one of the things that

We really wanted to see is Maho Beach this beach is world famous for its location at the very end of Princess Giuliana International Airport’s Runway it’s one of the most unusual beaches on the island of St Martin this is the area where planes land right overhead and it

Almost feels as if you can just reach up and touch Them they have a restaurant and bar here that have good food and drinks they also display the arrival and departure schedules for the planes so you can anticipate what time they should arrive and when you should be preparing to get that perfect photo or video this beach

Is very small and can quickly get crowded however if you’re in the area it is a Musto you should go by even if it’s just for a little bit to watch a couple planes land at after leaving Maho Beach we wanted to drive and explore the

Island a little bit we wanted to try and find a nice beach somewhere that was a little less crowded we had heard about how amazing the water is around St Martin and wanted to see it for oursel driving around the island was easy to do but extremely hard to navigate they

Don’t have many road signs at all or markers of any kind to help you know where you’re at the map our rental company gave us really didn’t help that much because there were no roads signs or markers to show us where we’re at to find ourselves on the map we tried the

GPS on our phones but many areas the signal was pretty much non-existent so we just had to pick a road and hope for the best I figured you know if nothing else we’re on one end Island it’s kind of small we would just head in One Direction and we’d probably end up on

The other side at some point we tried to find a couple beaches but like I said there were no signs or directions on how to get to them we drove around these little towns for quite a while knowing that there was a beach in the area but

We just could never find it eventually we went on to a larger beach and there were signs for that and it’s Orient Beach this is a Long Beach area with several restaurants bars and shops scattered along it if you’re looking for a Beach area we didn’t get to see the

Other beaches so we can’t really say what they’re like but this one was really nice if you’re looking for something well more exotic club Orient is located on the south end of Orient Beach and this is the nudest Beach area so if you’re not comfortable with that I

Would not recommend going down or wandering down on the south end of the beach stay in the middle or on the other end while driving around there are several small towns with plenty of shopping areas the only issue you might have is finding a parking spot all of

The locals that we encountered here were so friendly and pleasant we didn’t feel unsafe at all even though this is a French and Dutch Island you still drove on the right half of the roadway just like you do in the the us there are several sightseeing areas along the way

Like this one that we stopped at as we crossed over the Dutch side to the French side there are stopping areas or I guess you can say pull off areas along the road where you can get out and get some photos or videos or whatever it is

You want to do without stopping in the middle of traffic one of the major differences that we notice between the French side and the Dutch side is the Dutch side seems to be much nicer and more maintained one of the locals told us it’s because the hurricane that came

Through a few years ago they said that the insurance companies on the French side have been slow to pay out so much of the damage has not yet been fixed where the Dutch side they said they’ve been able to repair most of the damage and move on from that disastrous storm

Even though the French side isn’t as nice to look at as the Dutch side do not skip out on it they have some wonderful Beaches Restaurant shops and great people over there that make it worth visiting if you choose not to leave the port area and stay around Philipsburg there is

Plenty to do to keep you busy you can take a water taxi or regular taxi into downtown Philipsburg and find tons of shops restaurants and bars this area is full of History too if you don’t want to take an Excursion or rent a Jeep to drive around like we did at least go

Walk around downtown Philipsburg and see all the historical buildings and shops if you don’t want to leave the port area you can still do shopping without having to go into Philipsburg the port has several shops with a couple bars and restaurants to enjoy so you don’t have

To venture far from the ship if you don’t want to I would have to say this is a very nice country if you’re one of those people that are just a little apprehensive about getting out maybe a little fearful of going to a new country to explore this is one that I would

Recommend getting out of your comfort zone a little bit and going exploring because people are just so friendly so nice and it just seemed really safe here in the Philipsburg area so if you do want to get out you want to get out of your comfort zone this is the port stop

I believe that you should try that this was a fun trip and one I think you would enjoy too it’s a beautiful country with a lot to offer if you want to see more of our adventures be sure to subscribe so you don’t miss out thank you guys so

Much for watching and we will see you on the next adventure