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St. Maartin Excursions


LovetoCruise87

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We took a tour with Bernard's Tours when we went on our honeymoon, it was great and we loved it 
It was a tour of maybe 10-12 people, air conditioned van, drinks onboard (soda, water, rum punch)

We stopped at many sights including some time at Orient Beach for some swimming 

 

https://bernardstours.com/

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I took my oldest nephew there several years ago for his graduation trip.  I am taking another one on the 8/22 cruise for his.  The older one said that he loved taking the tour of the island (I was surprised he remembered) and was disappointed that we weren't going to St. Maarten.  So I guess we will take another tour.  I hope that the Cruise Planner gets up soon so that we can plan it.  

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This island features some awesome beaches you really should get off the ship to visit if you've never seen them before, like Orient and Grand Case on the north/French side and Maho by the airport on the south/Dutch side, to name a couple.  We are also on the Aug 22 AOS cruise and will likely run up to Orient beach with a couple who has never visited St Marten/Martin.  We suspect the beach and surrounding cafes, etc., have rebounded quite a bit after the last big hurricane a few years ago (Irma). 

We are also looking into renting a car/van/suv with driver for our group for the day.  Thinking that will work better than trying to catch a ride back from the beach. 

You should have no problem hiring a car/van and driver for the day from the taxi stand area instead of pre-booking this. We did this before for about $150/day, if memory serves. Just sent a note to St Marten/Martin tourism office about the typical availability of vehicles for hire near the cruise port.  I also plan to check with Bernard's Tours and see what we would get for their $360/day private tour including how many people this can cover in one vehicle.   Maybe we would want to split the cost with others?.  

Also saw that Royal just posted a couple Orient beach excursions from $64 to $99 pp.  The higher priced one includes lunch and an additional 1.5 hrs at the beach (compared to 3 hr for the cheaper excursion w/ no lunch), and both appear to include lots of rum punch ?.

And from what I can see on the tourism website, we will need a negative Covid test within 48 hours of arrival.  So I'm thinking this requirement would match up with the mid-cruise test Royal is now requiring for 7-day E. Caribbean cruises.

18 days and counting!

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On 8/4/2021 at 2:11 PM, Iluv4n6 said:

And from what I can see on the tourism website, we will need a negative Covid test within 48 hours of arrival.  So I'm thinking this requirement would match up with the mid-cruise test Royal is now requiring for 7-day E. Caribbean cruises.

18 days and counting!

I don’t see a anything on Royal’s site about mid cruise testing. We stop at st Maarten late October on Symphony. Of course we’re now a vaccinated cruise because of st Thomas. How did you find this out? 
 

Sorry didn’t mean to hijack the thread ?

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On 8/3/2021 at 9:23 AM, gtgtgt said:

Our favorite in St. Maarten by far is Captain Bob's Soualiga Destinations snorkel day trip (https://www.soualigadestinations.com/) -- even if you don't snorkel it's a wonderful day!  They are just a 5-10 minute walk from the cruise port.  They are independent from RCCL but they will get you back on time. 

How much beach time is offered on this excursion? I enjoy snorkeling and the wife does as well, but she prefers beach time. 

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On 8/7/2021 at 6:40 AM, Jill said:

I don’t see a anything on Royal’s site about mid cruise testing. We stop at st Maarten late October on Symphony. Of course we’re now a vaccinated cruise because of st Thomas. How did you find this out? 
 

Sorry didn’t mean to hijack the thread ?

https://stmaartenehas.com/travel-requirements/

@Jill As I re-read the current St Maartens travel requirements, I don't see a testing requirement for cruise passengers before getting off the ship.  I may have looked at the testing requirements for someone flying to the island before taking a cruise. Sorry for any confusion...I'll keep focused on getting my pre-cruise test for Allure Aug 22!

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On 8/3/2021 at 7:00 PM, Brenna said:

We took a tour with Bernard's Tours when we went on our honeymoon, it was great and we loved it 
It was a tour of maybe 10-12 people, air conditioned van, drinks onboard (soda, water, rum punch)

We stopped at many sights including some time at Orient Beach for some swimming 

 

https://bernardstours.com/

Another vote for this tour 

If you go with this ask for the Mailman as tour guide. Great tour even better rum punch 

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On our first cruise in 2015, we just took a taxi to Orient Beach.  Other than the disappointment that The Greeter wasn't there, it was absolutely phenomenal.  Of course, the weather in April was gorgeous and we had a blast.  The taxi doesn't take too long.

 

Our two subsequent visits, we took Bernard's tours and they were awesome!   The rum punch is tasty, and they stop at some interesting and cool places.  Maho Beach is a must, and hopefully a big'un will land while you're there.

 

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  • 2 months later...

Hi all, my wife and I are still new cruisers, we are going on our 3rd on 11/27 on Allure.  On our first 2 cruises we only booked excursions through RC.  After reading through this forum and specifically this thread, I'm intrigued about using third party companies but still have the anxiety of using something not sanctioned by RC as I've been told if you're late, they will leave you. 

I'm sure a company like Bernards Tours who is used to cruisers and making sure they make it back on time doesn't have issues. Have y'all ever encountered any problems?

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39 minutes ago, AlwaysRollin said:

Hi all, my wife and I are still new cruisers, we are going on our 3rd on 11/27 on Allure.  On our first 2 cruises we only booked excursions through RC.  After reading through this forum and specifically this thread, I'm intrigued about using third party companies but still have the anxiety of using something not sanctioned by RC as I've been told if you're late, they will leave you. 

I'm sure a company like Bernards Tours who is used to cruisers and making sure they make it back on time doesn't have issues. Have y'all ever encountered any problems?

On St Maarten, I wouldn't be concerned about booking a private tour, or just grabbing a taxi to get to where you want to go.  Just make sure that you have a watch (not your phone) and set it to "ship time" which may not be local time.  Make sure to allow at least an extra hour to get back.

Companies like Bernards Tours will ensure you are back in plenty of time - their business depends on it.

 

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8 hours ago, Dan Curtis said:

Not sure if you enjoy horse back riding,we booked  thru Royal and it was a nice scenic ride to the farm, you ride thru the hills and then down to the beach, where the horses ride along the beach, then out in the water you go, the horses actually  love the water, highly recommend.

Thanks so much for this update; I've got it booked in December, and was wondering how it was!  It's one of my bucket list items -- riding a horse on the beach and riding in the water!

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58 minutes ago, IRMO12HD said:

Thanks so much for this update; I've got it booked in December, and was wondering how it was!  It's one of my bucket list items -- riding a horse on the beach and riding in the water!

IT was on my wife’s as well, we really enjoyed it, the horse looked like they are taken care of quit well, tour guide was great, of course they take your picture and try and get you buy it at the end. One little tip, the horses are in the water up to about the top of the saddle, so your legs and shoes are going to get soaked, something we didn’t think of, my wife had Sandels , no big deal, I had gym shoes, I actually found a Payless once we got back in town and bought a cheap pair of shoes for the rest of our trip, but awesome day, we hope to do it again in February.

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4 hours ago, Dan Curtis said:

IT was on my wife’s as well, we really enjoyed it, the horse looked like they are taken care of quit well, tour guide was great, of course they take your picture and try and get you buy it at the end. One little tip, the horses are in the water up to about the top of the saddle, so your legs and shoes are going to get soaked, something we didn’t think of, my wife had Sandels , no big deal, I had gym shoes, I actually found a Payless once we got back in town and bought a cheap pair of shoes for the rest of our trip, but awesome day, we hope to do it again in February.

So sandals are ok?  I was thinking of wearing my Tevas

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On 8/11/2021 at 3:26 PM, Ray said:

Another vote for this tour 

If you go with this ask for the Mailman as tour guide. Great tour even better rum punch 

Adding yet another vote for Bernard's Tours - we were fortunate enough to have Mailman as our guide for the Island Tour II. When we went, Orient Beach had not yet recovered from Irma (this was spring of '19), so they substituted Grand Case for our beach stop.  Oh, and that rum punch...

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On our two visits to St Maarten, we did a couple different things.

First Visit: We rented a car at the port, drove over to Orient Beach and went parasailing (Awesome!) and then went to visit Topper's Rhum for a tour and tasting. (VERY good rum.

Second Visit: We booked a tour to visit Topper's Rhum again (had to re-stock!), followed by a lunch at Topper's Restaurant (same owner, different location), and a very nice visit to the beach nearby. We booked this through a third party site.

FYI: Topper's Rhum and Topper's Restaurant have now moved into a new location in the same facility since we last visited in January 2020.

 

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  • 1 month later...

Horseback riding was great!  Geared to all ranges of experience. Horses are well-mannered and obviously used to the trail route. They use hackamores (no bits) and horses neck rein.  They do collect your shoes before the horses go in the water if you want.  I was able to take my GoPro with me, using a short handle with wrist strap. We didn’t purchase the pix they took; IIRC, they were abut $20 each. 

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On 8/3/2021 at 10:23 AM, gtgtgt said:

Our favorite in St. Maarten by far is Captain Bob's Soualiga Destinations snorkel day trip (https://www.soualigadestinations.com/) -- even if you don't snorkel it's a wonderful day!  They are just a 5-10 minute walk from the cruise port.  They are independent from RCCL but they will get you back on time. 

Best activity we have ever done in the Caribbean. We are looking forward to do this one again in January!

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On 12/12/2021 at 7:57 PM, Leroyr55 said:

Has anybody done the Toppers rum tour? Was it worth it. And has it ever been available on the cruise planner?

Topper's Rhum is definitely worth checking out. We've been there twice, but we've never booked it through RC. 

They have somewhere around 12-15 varieties for sale at any given time. The tour includes a handful of tastings from their collection of experimental flavors not yet available for sale. (There's somewhere around 50 experimental flavors!)

The times we've been there (January 2019 & 2020) the distillery was in a hole in the wall warehouse, but they have recently moved to a new location at Cole Bay that combines both the distillery and Topper's Restaurant. (The previous restaurant was a small, bar like place and they serve VERY GOOD food!)

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On 12/2/2021 at 9:08 AM, Atricks said:

We booked the beach + sloths from  https://www.boddentours.com/roatan-tour-excursion-availability   (Victor's Monkey & Sloth Sanctuary) based on a friend's recommendation (Wonder of the Seas March 11th)  but the other one we looked at was Daniel Johnson's sloth tours which was also mentioned.  (The RC ones were sold out on that)

 

On 12/2/2021 at 9:53 AM, wordell1 said:

I have been on both and they are both really good.  

 

On 8/6/2021 at 10:40 PM, SpeedNoodles said:

We used this company for an ATV tour, and it was a blast!  We drove around the entire island (both Dutch and French sides), visited many beaches and had a fantastic lunch.  

https://www.splashinthesun.com/

We booked both of these and took them last week (well, Bodden's on Roatan last week, and the ATV tour with Splash in the Sun the week before);  both were fantastic!!  We'd not hesitate to use either of them again.  The ATVs were a blast, and getting to see Roatan on a private excursion was great!  Highly recommend!!

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  • 2 weeks later...

Hello! We set sail Nov. 2022, so excited! Has anyone done the Kim Sha Beach excursion or the Buccaneer Beach Getaway at Simpson Bay Lagoon? Looks like Orient Beach is getting a lot of good reviews. We are going as a family with an 11 year old who wants to hit the beach and isn't fond of big waves. Our goal is to relax at a calm (not crowded) beach, and have lunch. All recs appreciated! Thanks so much!!

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4 hours ago, AnnC said:

Hello! We set sail Nov. 2022, so excited! Has anyone done the Kim Sha Beach excursion or the Buccaneer Beach Getaway at Simpson Bay Lagoon? Looks like Orient Beach is getting a lot of good reviews. We are going as a family with an 11 year old who wants to hit the beach and isn't fond of big waves. Our goal is to relax at a calm (not crowded) beach, and have lunch. All recs appreciated! Thanks so much!!

I have done Kim Sha beach. It was a lovely beach, not all lounge chairs are ocean front. If you are the second half off the bus you will most likely not get an ocean front chair. We spent most of our time there in the water or at the restaurant so the view from a lounge chair didn't matter. Loungers are included, but umbrellas were an extra $5 cash only. I thought this was a bit nickel and dime-ish but happily paid the additional $5. The beach was beautiful and the ocean was calm with not much sea weed about. There are local vendors that walk up and down the rows of chairs selling their goods and offered foot massages. They will move on with a kind 'no thank you' however, another one will be along right behind them. The restroom and lunch restaurant are a short walk away and lunch was delicious! Both my husband and I ordered the bang bang shrimp which is served as a sandwich on a large baguette with french fries. Lunch was served at a specific time and I felt this really interfered with our ocean time as lunch was scheduled right in the middle of our time there. I don't think it could be helped, but I would have preferred to arrive earlier in the day and had lunch towards the end of our time so we could have an uninterrupted stretch of beach time. Our excursion tickets stated that "nudity may be observed" in the fine print, and indeed it was! However the topless bathers were limited to just a few and only noticed this as we walked past them on our way to the restaurant. Overall this was beautiful beach excursion and I would rate it a solid "B". We also booked Secret Sands Beach on St. Thomas and this was a much more secluded beach with no vendors. Also calm, beautiful waters with little seaweed. No umbrellas offered, but natural shade can be found. Also- no lunch but beverages were included. If I were choosing one of these, Secret Sands on St. Thomas was my favorite of the two by far.

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  • 3 months later...

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