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Are Shore Excursions a "Must Do"?


Georgiagirl

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My husband and I will be on the HOS in June.  The itinerary includes a stop at St. Thomas/Charlotte Amalie and St. Maarteen.  Are there beaches at each of these ports that are close by?  I really do not want to spend a lot of money on shore excursions for each port so was curious as to what are our options if we do not choose a shore excursion.  TIA!

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I have been on st Maarten but never on a cruise, saying that I believe the cruise port is basically right at philipsburg which sits directly on Great bay. There is a boardwalk with quite a few bars and restaraunts that r right on the beach they run specials like a bucket of beers and 2 lounge chairs for 15 bucks. The beach is very nice and there are some great restaraunts. On the road side of the boardwalk is basically a large shopping area with rows of stores. 

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  • 5 weeks later...

St Maarten has a nice beach that you can swim / snorkel on that is right on the main shop-drag.  The ship will dock a little ways away, but there is a shuttle ferry you can get on or you can walk.  St. Thomas, don't recall a beach that close as we only did our walk around shopping there.

on the left side, is the main drag where all the shops are - on the right side, just outside the frame is where the ships are docked.  Behind me is the ferry dock that shuttles you to and from the boat dock.  The beach on the other side of the ferry dock is similar to this one.

image.thumb.png.fa898c51891bd048cd0e6124b95caf02.png

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Have been there several times. We do the beach and then hit the boardwalk and have a great place to go and get a bite to eat.  Can`t remember the  name,  but it is on the second floor. It`s a husband and wife place.  Lovely couple.   We have never done an excursion there. We simply love St. Maarten.

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Both ports are totally doable without an excursion.  Magen’s bay in st Thomas is a taxi/short bus away and beautiful...though it can get crowded.  We took a ferry to St. John’s that we did an excursion but you could just ferry and St. John’s was an amazing beach.   We were in st Maarten in March, walked to the beach and had a great free time.  We could have gotten chairs or buckets of beer but didn’t need to.  Have a great trip!!!  Jane

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