St Maarten in a Day

Dear lilioftheworld.com reader, here is Lili, your co-editor. Today I will take you to another jewel of the Caribbean- St Maarten. St Maarten was one of the 12 islands we visited during a two-week cruise across the Lesser Antilles in the beginning of 2020 (yes, back then when travelling was smooth and easy).

The article about St Maarten is part of the series of posts presenting the islands we visited. In these articles we are giving you tips on what to see and do “in a day”. The other islands we visited were:

In order to read our recommendations for each island, just follow the links. We also shared our overall cruise experience and tips when going on a cruise for the first time.

Introduction

This would be another post with gallery style due to a funny reason. We had a more optimistic sightseeing plan for St Maarten. However, due to the fact that we were not prepared with the schedule of the arriving planes at the famous Maho beach, we happened to spend almost the whole day there. Therefore, this would definitely be my very first recommendation to you- do your homework and check the airport timetable before visiting Maho beach on St Maarten. BUT read carefully- you will see a lot of landing places, however the interesting ones are the big international flights.

Some of the interesting buildings we saw at Philipsburg

St Maarten

St. Maarten is a world record holder for being the smallest island in the world to host two nations. Sint Maarten as called by the Dutch and St. Martin by the French, is a 60 sq km island that features all the charm of the Caribbean. On top of that, it is home to a variety of plants and animal species including the largest collection of butterflies in the Caribbean. If we had more time, I would love to explore exactly this part of the island (maybe most of you are aware of my butterfly passion).

*One of the many cute bars and restaurants along Philipsburg beach*

There is an interesting legend about the division of the island into two. The legend says that two men representing the two respective countries (France and the Netherlands) met on the island to define the border. Not surprisingly, both men wanted the majority of the land for their nation, so they decided to have a contest. They would both start at the same point and walk along the coast in separate directions. When they meet on the other side of the island, they would draw a line from point to point, and that would serve as the border. However, the Dutchman was drunk and hammered when they started the contest. He was stumbling and kept falling down, which is why the Netherlands has less of the land.

Sint Martin

Basically we visited only the southern part of the island, the Dutch one, Saint Maarten. The north part- Sint Marten, which belongs to the French, is characterized with beaches and forest-covered hills. It formerly belonged to the French overseas départment of Guadeloupe but attained separate status as an overseas collectivity of France in 2007. Tourism developed rapidly in the late 20th century, and Sint Martin is now a major Caribbean tourist destination. Its capital is Marigot where trade is actively developed.

Our tour of St Maarten included two things- chilling at Maho beach and exploring the main town Philipsburg. Here are our recommendations for interesting spots you should include in your program.

Interior Sunset bar St Maarten — *Interior Sunset bar*

Explore the town of Philipsburg

During the time we visited St Maarten the big international flights were landing in the afternoon, so maybe it is a good idea to start exploring the island from the Philipsburg town. It is also true that in the afternoon Maho beach was much more crowded, but it is your choice. The points of interest in Philipsburg are not far from the cruise ship port, so you can walk there. It takes around 20-30 minutes of walking.

Plane Maho Beach — *Plane landing over Maho Beach as seen from the back*

Things not to miss in Philipsburg:

Courthouse

The courthouse is an old building on Front street. Considered one of the most important sites on the island, this cupola-topped building is also one of its most emblematic. I have never seen a building having that many purposes over the years. Initially, the shingled structure was home of the town’s founder and namesake, Captain John Philips, a Scottish captain in the Dutch navy. Later on, the former residence has been a fire station, a post office and even a jail. What makes an impression is the artisan wooden pineapple standing on the rooftop. This is the symbol of the hospitality of the local people. Inside the tower there is a belfry with 25 bells.

Boardwalk

Boardwalk is a beachfront boulevard parallel to Front Street where you can find a lot of restaurants and cafes. Many people are strolling down the boulevard during the whole day. It is bustling especially in the evenings.

Boardwalk promenade Philipsburg St Maarten

You can take a stroll by the beachfront boulevard or just chill in one of the cafes

Old Street

This is a tiny street located between Front Street and Backstreet with some high end shops. It was obviously destroyed by a hurricane, but by the time we visited it, it was brand new. All buildings were freshly painted in vivid colors. You have the feeling that you are really travelling back in time. Do not miss taking a photo next to the yellow old car :).

Old street and its yellow car

Maho Beach

I have seen so many photos of airplanes landing literally above the heads of the people on the beach, but I was not aware that this beach is on St Maarten. So, I was super happy when I learnt that we are visiting this place during the cruise.

Initially, I checked the flight schedule and it seemed that there are around 4- 5 flights landing every hour. That is why we decided to head straight to the beach after we arrived at the Philipsburg port. Like on many other islands, we went to the taxi station outside the terminal (not the official one, but the one where “freelancers” were offering their service). If I remember correctly, we could negotiate a ride of $20 one way. The distance is around half an hour, so this is a fair price.

Although the water is the turquoise blue you see on this picture, I did not feel comfortable entering the water (it seemed not so clean)

When we arrived at Maho beach, it turned out that many of the planes are small ones (like the one you see on the picture below) which do not have the same effect as the landing of the big airplanes of the international flights.

St Maarten landing plane Sunset bar — *Landing plane as seen from the Sunset bar and grill*

Anyway, we had plenty of time to:

Enjoy the beach almost on our own. When we got there we were hardly any visitors. We could pick the best location to drop our towels.

Rehearse for taking the best photo. We were 4 of us and we had to think a bit what kind of composition to make

Maho beach creative photo St Maarten — *Maho beach and our creative photo*

Experiment with landing and taking-off planes. The landing is as spectacular as the taking-off. The video below shows how strong the air flow is when planes are departing.

Maho beach posing St Maarten — *Maho beach posing- it requires a couple of landing planes in order to be able to take the perfect shot 🙂*

Have a drink at the best cafe to watch the planes from- Sunset Bar and Grill. Of course it is a bit overpriced, but definitely worth it. The earlier you go there, the better view towards the landing planes you can get. People recommend it for watching the sunset, but as we were on a cruise, we could watch the sunset only from the ship.