St. Martin or St. Maarten?

[kelshe]

I am planning a trip to St. Martin/St. Maarten in August and we are trying to decide whether to stay on the Dutch side at the Westin or on the French side on Orient Beach. My husband and I are avid divers, my 13-year old daughter hopes to be certified by then (she has had ear issues in the past so we'll see), and the family we travel with are non-divers. We are planning 4 days of morning dives and at least 1 night dive. Any suggestions? TIA

 

[DivingPrincessE]

Well my first thought is why are you going to St. Maarten to dive? The island doesn't really have good diving (search here on SB and you will see people back me up on that). There are lots of other islands nearby with much better diving.

ANYWAY...As an island, I love St. Maarten/St. Martin (just wouldn't go there to dive). My recommondation (what I did when I went for a week) stay on the dutch side and spend your time on the french side. The dutch side is much cheaper than the french side. Also be aware the on the french side everything is converted to euros...so not very good for the US $. We were there in 2005 when the $ wasn't as bad as it is now and a cheesburger was advertised for 5 euros...not bad. We got the bill and found out it was $9 US...and it wasn't like a big ruby tuesdays $9 hamburger...it was like a burger king $2 hamburger. After that we bought stuff from the grocery store on the dutch side and packed our own lunches.

 

[kelshe]

Well, we're going to St. Martin/St. Maarten because we are going with non-divers and I couldn't talk them into going to Bonaire Also, my daughter is sort of a wild card because she was not able clear her ears last year to complete her open water dives. She will be 15 months older this year so we'll see.

Great point on the Euros, thanks.

 

[kelshe]

After reading a little more about this and talking with our non-diving friends, I think my husband and I are going to go to Saba for one night and leave the kiddo on St. Martin with our friends. My thought is to fly to Saba on the early morning flight, do a two-tank morning dive, a night dive and two-tank the next morning and then take the ferry back to St. Martin. Any thoughts on dive operators or where to stay for such a short visit? Also, is it better to book a one night package through a dive operator (if such a thing is even available)? We will still dive 1-2 days on St. Martin and it looks like we will be staying near Orient Beach. Thanks in advance for thoughts and suggestions.

 

[Rhone Man]

From the French side you can take a ferry to Anguilla (need your passport though), and there is some pretty decent wreck diving to be had there.

The complete Anguilla scuba diving guide covering dive sites and dive centres

 

[Manuel Sam]

Kelshe

Diving two days with an overnight is something I've done many times. There are three dive operators in Saba: Saba Divers, Saba Deep and Sea Saba. They're all excellent operators and if you do a Google search for 'saba diving", you will find links to all three.

I always dive with Saba Deep. If you contact them, they can arrange the hotel for you as well as the airport pickup and cab rides to and from the hotel. I'm sure that the other dive operators can do the same for you.

I've stayed at Scout's and at Juliana's, with the latter being the nicer of the two. There are many other hotel options, but I like these two because they are in the middle of the town of Windwardside, so the restaurants and shops are within reasonable walking distance.

The ferry ride between Saba and St. Maarten tends to be a little bit rough. If you are concerned about flying after diving, I have done it many times and so far so good. The flights do not exceed 3000 ft. altitude anyway and if you tell the pilot that you just dove and ask him or her nicely to keep it low, they will keep it at around 2000 feet.

 

[grouchyturtle]

When you do an overnight, do you get to do some of the better spots on the second day?

I took the puke cruise to Saba when I was down, bit only for the day. Diving was great, but didn't do any walls or pinnacles.

I second the vote for Saba Deep. Big Mike and little Mike are great. Although, I've never seen a bad review on any of operators there.

 

[shoturtle]

Well my first thought is why are you going to St. Maarten to dive? The island doesn't really have good diving (search here on SB and you will see people back me up on that). There are lots of other islands nearby with much better diving.

ANYWAY...As an island, I love St. Maarten/St. Martin (just wouldn't go there to dive). My recommondation (what I did when I went for a week) stay on the dutch side and spend your time on the french side. The dutch side is much cheaper than the french side. Also be aware the on the french side everything is converted to euros...so not very good for the US $. We were there in 2005 when the $ wasn't as bad as it is now and a cheesburger was advertised for 5 euros...not bad. We got the bill and found out it was $9 US...and it wasn't like a big ruby tuesdays $9 hamburger...it was like a burger king $2 hamburger. After that we bought stuff from the grocery store on the dutch side and packed our own lunches.

I have to agree that the dutch side is way cheaper for the American tourist. The Euro is at 1.60 now. So the French side is not much of a bargain, and it has always be the pricer side of the island. The supermarkets on the French have excellent food. It is just like the ones I been to in Bordeaux. So you can have a real French breakfast in your hotel room, and save some money

But for the non diving holiday activities, there is allot to do on the island. The food is fantastic on the island. There are many cordan blu grads working on the island on the French side. There is couple of local spots that are very good also. Orient Beach up north is a beautiful beach. The tourist shopping is cheaper on the dutchside. The island carries allot of European flare. There are local markets on the French side that you can find items you would find in Provence. Even though the diving is not the greatest, it is a really enjoyable island to stay on.

 

[Manuel Sam]

Grunzster,

The pinnacle dives are usually the first dive of the day. I'm guessing that if you ferried over from St. Maarten, you might have arrived late morning, too late to get in on the first dive. Sometimes they will do a deep pinnacle dive on the second dive if all of the other divers are agreeable to it, but the issue then becomes available no-deco bottom time. So, in answer to your question, yes, overnighting allows you to get in on the deep pinnacle dive the next morning - either that or taking the 7:00ish AM to Saba out of St. Maarten instead of ferrying over.

Should you still decide to ferry over the next time, there are a couple of shallower pinnacle dives that you can request as a second morning dive, subject to the other divers agreeing to it: those are Diamond Rock and Man'o'War Shoals. These are very decent dives in the 70-80 max depth range. Tedran Wall and Tent Reef Wall are a couple of wall dives that can also be done as second dives, but I like Diamond Rock and Man'o'War Shoals better.

 

[NTSilver]

Diamond Rock was my absolute FAVORITE dive at Saba.

Regardless of the euro etc, if I went back to St Maarten / St Martin, I would vote 100% for St Martin Orient Beach. This was the most beautiful beach I have ever seen. I felt the Dutch side was a little commercial, however, I wasn't there that long. Also, it's not a very long drive back to the Dutch side should you choose to stay on the French side.