jonhall
Contributor
We have also used our timeshare for St. Maarten. Our planned trip last fall was cancelled due to the hurricanes. If you are in Phillipsburg and have transportation, you will be close to at least a couple of dive ops.
Octopus and Scuba Fun are in Great Bay close to the cruise ship piers. There are (or were) parking areas in the marina close to both of those ops. Although Scuba Fun's website doesn't seem current - it indicates that their boats were damaged in the hurricanes - there are a couple of recent TripAdvisor reviews for them. I enjoyed diving with them in 2015. Octopus seems to be up and running for sure. There was a boat that picked up on the beach of Divi Little Bay Beach Resort (next door to Belair Beach Hotel), but I'm not positive who the op was (may have been Ocean Explorers out of Simpson Bay.) I really liked diving the Great Bay sites. A 20 minute drive from Phillipsburg gets you to Simpson Bay where Ocean Explorers and a few other ops are/were located. Some neat wrecks are located in this bay. Different diving in my opinion than in Great Bay.
Wish I could say that I'd experienced Saba, but that was in the plan for our cancelled trip, so looking forward to getting back to St. Maarten.
Agree with @boulderjohn last comment and because St. Maarten is not fully recovered yet, I would check with any dive ops you consider to be sure that they are up and running. Hopefully someone will chime in with some very current info.
Octopus and Scuba Fun are in Great Bay close to the cruise ship piers. There are (or were) parking areas in the marina close to both of those ops. Although Scuba Fun's website doesn't seem current - it indicates that their boats were damaged in the hurricanes - there are a couple of recent TripAdvisor reviews for them. I enjoyed diving with them in 2015. Octopus seems to be up and running for sure. There was a boat that picked up on the beach of Divi Little Bay Beach Resort (next door to Belair Beach Hotel), but I'm not positive who the op was (may have been Ocean Explorers out of Simpson Bay.) I really liked diving the Great Bay sites. A 20 minute drive from Phillipsburg gets you to Simpson Bay where Ocean Explorers and a few other ops are/were located. Some neat wrecks are located in this bay. Different diving in my opinion than in Great Bay.
Wish I could say that I'd experienced Saba, but that was in the plan for our cancelled trip, so looking forward to getting back to St. Maarten.
Agree with @boulderjohn last comment and because St. Maarten is not fully recovered yet, I would check with any dive ops you consider to be sure that they are up and running. Hopefully someone will chime in with some very current info.
