St. Maarten...What We Did - handstand happiness

This trip to St. Maarten was completely last minute. We were offered use of a timeshare and literally bought our plane tickets about 3 weeks before the trip. However, even with procrastination, our trip went very smooth! Luckily, St. Maarten is an easy 3.5 hour direct flight from Charlotte, so pretty easy to get to, and busy season ended in April, so getting reservations and such wasn’t an issue.

St. Maarten is only about 37 miles, so fairly small, but seems so much bigger winding through all the hills. There are a lot of roads, beaches, restaurants, etc..jammed on this beautiful island! It is divided into the Dutch side (St. Maarten) and French side (St. Martin), with no physical barrier. Then, the island has tons of bays, beaches, and neighborhoods to visit. Definitely rent a car if you go! It was so much fun to discover the island and get where we wanted to go, when we wanted to go. Driving was relatively easy around the island, and the people are super nice. Depending on where you go, the island can seem pretty touristy, but we also found ourselves on peaceful beaches surrounded by rugged nature and beauty, and the prettiest blue water you have ever seen!

We went Monday through Friday, so had a good 5 days and 4 nights, but I would honestly recommend staying longer, at least a full week. Besides getting back to see our kids, we were NOT ready to leave. I would honestly consider living somewhere like St. Maarten. There is so much to do and although we had THE BEST time, I wouldn’t necessarily say we relaxed a ton, because we were running around to different beaches, exploring, etc..so I would have loved to have had another day or 2 to just lay around.

STAY

view from our room

We stayed on the Dutch side and were pretty close to the airport, which was nice. We stayed at Pelican Key at a timeshare, but we also visited some awesome resorts. We decided if we returned to St. Maarten we were definitely staying at Belmond La Samanna. It was also on the Dutch side and we went there on a recommendation for dinner (and I slipped in a massage there as well). The resort was BEAUTIFUL and the people were so great! Some other places we visited and would recommend…

Karibuni Lodge
Grand Case Beach Club– I don’t have any pics of the resort, but we ate here at the Sunset Cafe and it was a great spot for lunch.

Oyster Bay
La Playa at Orient Beach

Most of these, besides La Samanna, are located on the French side. We found that we ended up driving over to the French side almost every day to visit a beach or for lunch/dinner, but the drive was 30 minutes max. I would probably recommend staying on the French side as there seems to be more beaches to visit and more to do on that side, unless of course you want to stay at a 5 star resort, and then hands down, go to La Samanna.

Beaches

There are over 40-something beaches on St. Maarten, and we had lots of recommendations, but here are the ones we made it to in our short trip!

Orient Beach: So, honestly, to us, this was like the touristy Myrtle Beach of St. Maarten. Don’t get me wrong- there are TONS of things to do on this beach. Any activity you may want to try and beautiful water. Lot of great restaurants and waiters to serve you fruity drinks by the beach but also people walking by trying got sell you something every 5 minutes. It was a pretty beach and great to see, spend a day there, but it was not our favorite.

We ate lunch at La Playa and it was delicious! (see below)

Just before you get to the entrance to Orient Beach, stop at Paradise View. Great spot for pics and souvenirs!

Pinel Island: BY FAR OUR FAVORITE!!! It was a super short ferry ride over to Pinel Island from the French side. You could have also kayaked over pretty quickly. Once we got there, there were 2 restaurants. We camped out at the Karibuni Beach Bar, where I had THE best Frozen Mojito and a delicious lunch!

Friar’s Bay: Such a peaceful beach with calm water, great for families. There was a bar here as well, and you can take a short 10 minute hike over to Happy Bay, which was super quiet and a beautiful, secluded beach!

view from our hike to Happy Bay from Friar’s Bay

Baie Rouge: A beautiful beach on the Dutch side. We weren’t here long, but another great beach with lots of restaurant options!

Maho Bay: you CANNOT miss Maho Bay! It is super touristy, but you will see why. It is incredible to watch the huge planes begin their descent to land right over your heads as you stand on the beach below. The photos look photoshopped, but they are not. You will see planes of every size land here- super cool and exciting!

Restaurants

The food in St. Maarten is AMAZING!! It is known as the culinary capital of the Caribbean. Many of the French chefs are sent to train here and there are TONS of great restaurants (over 300 to be exact). We went to as many as we could!

Lunches

La Playa at Orient Beach

Tuna Tartar & Fries

La Playa Pizza

Karibuni Beach Bar on Pinel Island

Nelson got to pick out his fresh lobster for lunch.

Sunset Cafe at Grand Case Beach Club

Probably the best mussels I have ever eaten!

Dinners

Big Fish at Oyster Bay: We had some really great sushi at this restaurant and the decor was beautiful.

Spiga in Grand Case: This was probably my favorite restaurant. SO GOOD!

This gnocchi was AMAZING! Literally melt-in-your-mouth good!

Maple Syrup&Mascarpone Cheesecake with Caramelized bananas and Vanilla Ice Cream

La Cigale : such a romantic date night setting, with DELICIOUS French food. This is where I told Nelson that I wanted to put our adorably charming French waiter in my pocket and take him home with us. He thought it was the weirdest thing he had ever heard. I just wish I would have gotten a picture of our waiter. HAHA!

The melting chocolate cake

Trellis at Belmond La Samanna: another ridiculously romantic date night setting. We sat outside on the covered patio and it POURED down rain almost the entire dinner. PERFECTION.

Lobster risotto

Scallops

…and an honorable mention to Top Carrot! They had the best options for healthy food, fresh juices/smoothies, AND a good latte, which can be difficult to find in the Caribbean sometimes. Definitely check it out if you are on the Dutch side. They have great breakfast and lunch options and are located in Simpson Bay.

TIPS for stay on St. Maarten
1. As usual when you travel, take cash! Lots of places on the island only accepted cash…like the GAS STATION..who knew!?! haha

2. The U.S. dollar is accepted everywhere.

3. Apply sunscreen like all day, everyday. Honestly, I don’t burn often, I typically tan, but of course got burnt our 1st day at St. Maarten. Lesson learned.

4. Wear bug spray.

5. Do NOT drink the tap water.

6. Rent a car and just follow the signs. The maps aren’t super helpful and many roads aren’t labeled, but there are signs at each major intersection directing you towards the most popular areas. Following those will get you close to where you want to go, so just make sure you pay attention!

7. People were comfortable going nude on all the beaches, not just the “nude beaches”. Definitely popular at Orient Bay. This didn’t bother me, but just beware. There can be a topless woman anywhere you turn.

Don’t hesitate to email me or comment with any questions regarding our stay or St. Maarten travel! I HIGHLY RECOMMEND IT and would definitely go back!

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