THE BEST ST. MAARTEN TOUR: TAKE THIS GREAT CRUISE EXCURSION!
If you’re coming to St. Maarten by a cruise and you’re looking for a great tour around the island, this one is the best!
I’ve recently taken my first Grand Voyage cruise, and one of our stops was the beautiful island in the Carribbean – St. Maarten. Since I only had a few hours on the island I started frantically searching for the best tour that would take us all around the island.
I’ve searched and searched and ended up booking a tour on Get Your Guide called “St. Maarten Half-Day Tour of French & Dutch Sides” by Amigo Tours.
This is a review of the tour and our experience, but this is not sponsored in anyway!
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WHAT IS THE ST. MAARTEN HALF-DAY TOUR ABOUT
This tour aims to showcase the beauty of the island of St. Maarten – both the Dutch and the French side. The focus is of course, on cruise passengers, so they make everything perfect and accessible to you.
The tiny island is easy to see with a driver, so the tour usually lasts around 4.5 hours. Ours was a bit longer, around 6 hours, but the tour guide was very mindful of everyone’s cruise boarding time.
The tour includes the following locations: Rotary Lookout Point, Orient Bay beach, Marigot, Maho Beach, and Cole Bay Hill. It also includes drinks – you can choose between water, soda, or rum punch! The meals are not included.
ST. MAARTEN TOUR MEETING POINT
Although in the information on Get Your Guide it says the meeting point is at the information center, no one waits for you there. You are meant to go toward the EDC parking lot at the exit of the sea port, and then take a left towards a smaller parking lot. There are a few mini buses on that parking lot where they’ll be waiting for you.
Read more >>> THE BEST TORTOLA, BVI CRUISE EXCURSION
If you are unable to find the parking lot, in the port look for people in purple shirts with Amigo Tours written on them. They’ll help you out!
This is the only thing I didn’t like about the tour. We were late because of the misleading information, but they were kind and waited for us for about 10 minutes!
ST. MAARTEN TOUR LOCATIONS
Rotary Lookout Point
Rotary Lookout Point was our first stop on our tour, and it was a lovely one. We had around 10 minutes here which was enough as there’s not much to do there. The lookout point has a gorgeous view of the Atlantic ocean, and if the tide is low you can walk over to the small island in the ocean. For us that wasn’t possible, but the views were incredible.
Orient Bay beach
We continued to the Orient Bay beach where we stopped at Wai beach bar which was outstanding . It’s a bit pricey but it’s an excellent stop for a break with food, drinks, and toilets. We had around 30 minutes on this beach so we didn’t have a swim break, we only strolled along the beach. The tour guide also bought everyone a shot drink, which was really nice.
Marigot
Marigot, a french marina, was our third stop where we had an hour to have lunch. The tour guide kindly recommends a restaurant, but you’re free to go and explore the location and other restaurants as you please. This was the least interesting stop for me as there’s not much to see.
You can walk around small streets, visit the street market, or sit at one of the cafes/restaurants. There’s a marvelous fort Louis at the top of a hill overlooking the town, but I wasn’t sure if an hour would be enough to hike up to it, so we skipped it.
Maho Beach
After lunch we continued to the most popular and absolutely mind-blowing location – Maho beach. This is the famous airplane beach where the mammoths of the most famous airlines land only a few meters over your head. The thrill of swimming while the planes are flying over your head is something I’ll never forget.
We had 45 minutes on this beach and while we were there, we saw 3 big commercial airplanes land, and a few smaller propeller-driven planes.
Cole Bay Hill
Our last stop was Cole Bay Hill, a charming viewpoint from which you can see island’s stunning landscapes. We only had a few minutes to take a few pictures but it was enough to enjoy the gorgeous views from the top of the hill.
THE TOUR GUIDE
Our tour guide, Humprey, was amazing! The man knows everything about St. Maarten and he gave us plenty of facts about all our stops, and also everything we’ve driven past. He is also very funny and talkative, so the tour was never boring. He gave us plenty of drinks and made sure all of us are back at the port on time. I couldn’t recommend him more!
OVERALL SUMMARY
This tour was something I chose after we couldn’t find a car to rent, so the most important thing to us was that we would be able to see all the lovely attractions we wanted to see on our own. This Amigo tours Half-day tour of St. Maarten did exactly that. Every single spot we wanted to see was included in this tour, and more.
The drive was lovely, the mini bus with AC was more than comfortable, and the drinks were ice cold. I really recommend you try the rum punch!
The only downside we had with this tour was the unclear instructions to the meeting point, but that’s all. If you’re visiting St. Maarten and you’re looking for a great tour, this is definitely it!
BOOK THE TOUR HERE!
