Understanding the island
I lived in the island for 4 months working as a Catamaran Captain. Here I share what to do in every corner of this French / Dutch territory.
The island is divided in 2 parts, French side on the north called St Martin and Dutch side on the south called Sint Maarten. A tale says that the French and Dutch were so civilized that rather than fight over the island, they had a frenchman armed with a bootle of wine walk in one direction and a Dutchman equipped with a flask of gin taking the other. The meeting point became the border, and the French ended up with a bit more land because the gin was stronger than the wine.
There is free movement between the islands, that means you don’t need to do immigration passing from one side to the other by land. On the other hand, by boat you must do clearance separately. On the French side the currency is Euro but US dollars are widely accepted. On the dutch side, the currency is Gilders, but most of the people use only US dollars and Euros accepted in some places.
Casinos can be seen everywhere and shopping is cheap because is a Duty free island.
The main attractions include over 20 beaches, hikes, viewpoints, ziplines, restaurants and night life. Also one of the most famous airports in the world, Maho beach.
Main cities
The capital from the dutch side is called Phillipsburg and the capital from the French side is called Marigot. Those are the biggest cities on the island and good to go in case you need to buy anything.
Phillipsburg is where all cruise ships stop, so there are a few other activities around such as the Pelican peak where people can have a view and do zipline. There is a Yoda guy movie exhibit which is a small starwars museum. In the capital of the Dutch side you can also visit Guava berry museum, a famous flavored local rum.
Philipsburg has a nice boardwalk, a lot of street art, plenty of shops (clothing, electronics, souvenirs, jeweleries) and great bay beach that is calm and reasonably clean.
On the French capital Marigot, beside some shops, nice bakeries and bars, the main attraction is to climb the fort Louis. Its is a 15 minute hike with steps and gives you breathtaking views from the island.
The second biggest city is called Grand Case, is a nice little town with front beach restaurant & bars. Great place if you want to to have lobster with reasonable price.
Nightlife and Restaurants
Simpson Bay is a famous place for sailors and boaters, is a very live area of the dutch side.
If you want to go for night life, there are discos there such as Jungle, Roxxy and Lotus. If you want to go on bar with live music, you have Soggy dollar and my favorite Nowhere Special (on this bar you can write on the walls with a pilot).
You have a countless numbers of restaurants from Seafood such as Skip’s Jack to Avantika with is a fancy Thai restaurant. My favorite restaurant was Pineapple Pete that has a wide menu from Burgers to Sushi. If you want to go local, Captain’s Rib Shack is your best call. If you want to go really fancy you can visit Bamboo House Cole Bay. If you just want junk food you have also options such as Burger King and Macdonald’s all walking distance.
Other nice places to visit in the area include La Sucriere, that is a wonderful French bakery and Sint Maarten yacht club that is the best place to watch the bridge opening for the boats entering the bay.
Toppers Rum also nearby is a Rum brand, where you can see the whole production process, buy souvenirs, access a front water restaurant and taste the best Icecream in the Island, 5USD for a cone with a scoop.
Nightlife out of Simpson bay can be seen in Grand Case on the french side, and Maho district, including the famous disco Moon Bar, Sunset Beach bar and Casino Royale, where you can get free beers while playing there. On the dutch side you can also visit Port de Plaisance, a Marina and entertainment venue with stores and restaurantes.
Nature and sightseeing
There are plenty of nature related activities, starting from Sentry Hill. Rainforest Adventures runs a cable car that goes all the way up to the top of this hill. There is a a great viewpoint from the entire island and you also have the option to come down in a zipline or on a buoy. This hill is located on the Dutch Side.
Another option is Pic Paradis, the highest spot in the island 424 meters above the sea level, located on the french side of the island.
If you want something a bit fancier and really go into nature, Loterie Farm is a private natural reserve with 54 hectares where you can wander around or just enjoy one of their pools. It has an entry fee according to which activities you will be using and is not cheap.
My top one activity related to nature was to visit Perrotville, an big human cage full of parrots flying around where you could hand feed them. For only 10 USD you get to spend as much time as you want having a lot of fun with various types of friendly parrots.
Two hikes I strongly recommend include from Friars Bay to Happy Bay and the hike to Lovers Beach. Breathtaking cliff views, plenty of cactus, a very marked path and great beach to swim after all.
Two amazing places for snorkel include Tiki Hut and Anse Marcel Beach. Tiki Hut is a Catamaram located in little bay where you can see a big underwater park with wrecks. You can do this activity paying for the company Seatrek where they provide a full set of equipment, or you can just sneak in Divi Bay Resort, and swim there from the beach. Underwater there are two airplanes, an helicopter, supermarket kart, and many other attractions. If you bring bread you will be overwhelmed with the amount of fishes that you can hand feed. Anse Marcel bay is famous for turtles, you you swim deep enough you might be lucky to sightsee one!
Trou de David was one of the most beautiful spots I have visited in the Island. There is no public access for it, you can either swim from Baie Rouge Beach for about 200 meters or get into a boat an go there via water.
Another spots related to nature include Rotary lookout point where you can see whales on the right season, Oyster Pound lookout, Ile Pinel and Ile Tintamarre that are nature reserves and can be accessed by speed boats and ferries.
Beaches
The island is packed with beach options, here I will share one of the top ones.
On the Dutch side I strongly recommend Maho beach, one of the most famous beaches in the world, where you can see planes landing right by the beach. You can also get blown by the jet blasts from the big airplanes.
Another nice beaches on the dutch side include Cupercoy Bay Beach, Mullet Bay, Simpson Bay, Kim Sha beach, Great bay beach and Little bay beach. The east side of the island is having some problems with Sargassum seaweed, this affects the quality of beaches such as Guyana Bay, Dawn beach and Oyster Pond
On the french side the beaches are more beautiful and the top ones are Friar’s Bay Beach, Plage de Happy Bay, Baie Rouge beach, Long Beach, Aux Prunes Beach, Plum Beach, Anse Marcel and Grand Case beach. On the east side the same problem with the seaweed happens, compromising the quality of Pinel Island and Orient Bay.
Aux Prunes Beach can only be accessed entering a private residential area. We rented a car for a day and entered without problems, just waving at the security guard in the entry. We crossed from the main street to the beach side, passing by an abandoned land. Topless is very common in the french side and there is a nudist beach right by the end of orient bay beach.