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St. Thomas/St. Maarten


KJinTX

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Magens Bay was beautiful but can get crowded if you are a late stop or there are lots of ships.  We took an excursion over to St John's and the beaches there were gorgeous and not crowded... It's one of our favorite stops.  

I haven't done a lot of beaches in St Maarten...I know many ilof they beaches on the French side are still recovering from the hurricane.  On our last stop we just walked to the public beach... It was a short walk from the port, it was pretty, not super crowded and free.  You could buy cheap buckets of  beer and rent chairs but you totally didn't have to.  Lots of bars and restaurants were around but we didn't hit any of them.  Jane

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10 hours ago, mom2mybugs said:

Magens Bay was beautiful but can get crowded if you are a late stop or there are lots of ships.  We took an excursion over to St John's and the beaches there were gorgeous and not crowded... It's one of our favorite stops.  

We must have gotten lucky or we were late enough on our stop to St Thomas that it wasn't very crowded at Magens Bay.

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13 hours ago, KJinTX said:

We are sailing on the Harmony of the Seas next month and wanted to get recommendations on beaches to visit for each stop.  We will have a mix of adults and teens in our party.  Thanks in advance for your insight.

Concur with @mom2mybugs based on our visit in May.  St. Martin still needs lots of work so I'd stick to St. Maarten, and the public beach looked good.

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  • Consider the Royal Caribbean excursion "Secret Sands Get Away" in St. Thomas. We have been there three times and last year I taught my grandkids how to snorkel there. Very quiet, clean and uncrowded. This is a state park with a relatively new bath house/toilet facility. A very nice young man (Kareem) met the bus and had lounge chairs all set up for us both in the sun and in the shade. He had an assortment of cold beer, soda, rum punch, snack and snorkeling gear. He doesn't charge you anything for all this stuff but kindly asks for a tip when you leave. Very calm water and a nice 10' deep grass covered sand bar about 50' off shore, very easy to swim to. Saw some small turtles and loads of tropical fish. Great place!:27_sunglasses:
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I also sail next month on HoS.  I had a friend who just went to St Maarten tell me not  to bother with an excursion and just enjoy the beach.  It is easy walking distance and she said they walked down to the middle of the beach strip and were able to rent two chairs, get a bucket of beer, two drinks, and use of the restaurant's bathroom facilities for $20.  This is what we plan on doing. 

*She said to not rent the chairs they offer as you first arrive at the beach, these will cost you more.  The further down you go the less expensive it gets.

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We have done Magens Bay and enjoy it. Another beach in St Thomas that's equally gorgeous is Sapphire Beach. We enjoyed it there too. Maybe even slightly better, but admittedly, it has been a few years since we've been to St. Thomas. Looking forward to it in December of 2020 on Harmony.

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When you are in Sint Maarten, have a look at Adventure SNUBA.

This high quality tour is offered as a shore excursion by Royal Caribbean and Celebrity and is totally worth it. If it is not offered on your ship, try to book directly with the tour company and they will figure it out for you and get you on their tour. worth it! SNUBA Shore Excursion in Sint Maarten

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In St. Thomas we did the pirate ship excursion that took you to snorkel with turtles and then to have lunch and relax on Water Island which is GORGEOUS and the beach was empty.  That is still one of our favorite excursions we've ever done.

In March we visited the Sonesta in St. Maarten through Resorts for a Day.  It's all inclusive and beautiful and right next to Maho Beach so you can relax on the beach or by the pool with a drink and watch the planes come in.  The customer service was incredible

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