Time to kill in St Maarten

[Malene]

Hello,
After my diving week aboard the Caribbean Expl5orer II, I will have a lot of time between the St Kitts-St Maarten flight and my flight back to France. First flight arrives at 9:55 am and flight to France leaves at 16:55.
Is it easy to get out the airport ? Is there anything interesting to do in that lenght of time ? I know this is not Changi, but your suggestions are more than welcome !
Thanks

Malene

 

[tadzio]

it depends what you want to do; grab something to eat, go to the beach, go have a drink, rent a scooter and go drive around, go snorkeling, go kayaking, go shopping in philipsburg or marigot. there is alot you can do in that time.

 

[Malene]

Hello Tadzio,
Thanks. Is is easy to reach a nice beach with public transport ? I'll search on the web, but would appreciate if you could advise me a specific area or beach.
Thanks again

 

[tadzio]

sure, at the end of the runway of the airport is maho beach. it doesnt have any shade and there are planes constantly overhead but the water is good and there are two bars along the beach. sunset beach bar also has lunch. you can also take the bus at the airport to mulletbay beach which is a pretty nice beach with two beach bars and some good shade. in between maho and mullet bay is the maho shopping area which has a couple of bars and restaurants and a few shops. let me know if you need anything else.

tadzio

 

[Manuel Sam]

You can also try Mullet Bay (one beach further west or away from the airport from Maho). In my opinion, it is a little prettier, it has shade, it has decent BBQ food, there's a little bit of snorkeling on the left side, and the water is nice. Just grab a cab from the airport. I would avoid beaches on the east side of the island because traffic will be terrible going and coming back to the airport.

Tadzio: any beach that you consider a decent shore dive?......maybe Dawn or Lucas? I don't mind a long swim.

 

[tadzio]

hey

dawn beach used to be nice but since the westin built thier monstrocity there the reef has died. baie lucas is still good, especially when it comes to the shell islands closer to orient beach side. i live in europe now so i am a little out of practice but little bay, going around the corner of the fort amsterdam is pretty ok. also oyster pond has pretty decent shore diving if you dive off of the left side. i would also consider baie de l'embouchoure for a decent shore dive as well as petit cayes over on the french side.. i hope to be in sxm around april, if you are still there manuel sam i would love to do some exploring.

stay safe,

tadzio

 

[BTravlin]

I had to change planes in St. Maarten once and I hope I never have to again. Seven hours may just give you enough time to get through the long lines!

 

[DRsharky]

We spent about two weeks in St. Maarten few years ago. We didn't have any problems to get out or in to the airport. And since I love planes we spent one whole day on the beach at the end of the runway, watching the planes land or take off just above our heads. Philipsburg is nice small town, lots of shops and reataurant there, the only problem for us was that everything closed around 4PM as soon as the cruise ships left. But that is not a problem for you, you have to be at the airport before that anyways.
Enjoy your trip

 

[Manuel Sam]

Philipsburg is an option for shopping and eating, but allow at least an hour if not more to get back to the airport due to traffic.

Tadzio, I'm heading down in two days. Thanks for your tips - we'll see what the weather is like. Last I heard the winds were pretty strong, which usually makes for lousy viz near shore.

 

[Jersey]

Sam - as Tadzio mentioned, from the Divi Resort you can beach dive along the point below Fort Amsterdam. At the end of the point is an area created for check out dives and refreshers - platform around 15-20 feet, an old prop plane sunk, few other odds and ends. I do recall it is shallow almost all the way out maybe 20 feet. We picked up tanks at the shop on Divi beach. I've also dove from the beach at Pelican Resort, mostly just making sure gear survived TSA. Not much there, though we did find a $10 bill! Debris from storms, sea urchins, cuda, couple turtles. I've wanted to try getting out the reef off Orient anyone ever heard of that? Long surface swim.