Friends trip to St. Martin & St. Maarten
The twin islands of St. Martin and St. Maarten
The island of St. Martin and St. Maarten is so unique because there are two different countries located on one island. St. Martin is a French territory, and St. Maarten is a Dutch territory. You only have to go through customs once when you arrive on the island, when you cross the border within the island there is no immigration check point, just a sign telling you you’re at the border. Despite it being one island, the two sides are quite different. St. Maarten is more built up and it is where the majority of the bigger hotels, casinos and the main airport are located. It also felt more Americanized, the grocery stores had items similar to the states, US dollars are the main form of currency and English was the only language I heard spoken. St. Martin on the other hand, feels French. Most people speak French, although many speak English as well, Euros are the main currency, but most places also accept US Dollars. Beaches on both sides are great, they were a little calmer on the St. Maarten side, but also more crowded.
We did a friend’s trip to the island and had an amazing time. There were six of us, so we rented two cars from Hardy’s and they were fantastic. They met us at the airport as soon as we walked out, and we were on the road in less than 10 minutes. I highly recommend renting a car, but be prepared for heavy traffic. Try to plan your drives outside of rush hour. It was the worst through the town of Margot, and parking was very limited in Grand Case. Despite those issues, I am still glad we had a car to fully explore the island and go to different beaches.
The first night we stayed at the Hilton Royal Palm. We has a two bedroom unit, that included a full kitchen and living room. It was surprisingly great for the price point and has a fantastic little beach that's perfect for kids, or adults who are nervous of deep water. It was really nice that they have a little convenient store, deli and gift shop (good place to buy floaties and sunscreen) on site. The rooms on the left side are closer to a beach bar that plays music at night. We didn’t mind it, but if you want a quieter room, I recommend requesting something on the right side of the property.
For the majority of our trip we stayed at an incredible villa that we rented through Villa Blue, near Orient Bay, and everyone agreed that it was the perfect location. We loved the village and beach there, and it was easy to get to restaurants and the grocery store. One of the highlights of the trip was Chef Tim, who we booked though Fabulous Feasts. He cooked the most amazing food for us so we could just relax in the evening. The second highlight was a private boat charter with Boomerang to Anguilla. Two of us had been to Anguilla, but the rest had not, and I really wanted our friends to experience the beaches there. The boat trip took us to all the best beaches on Anguilla, had a full bar and a delicious lunch served on board.
We also did the Rainforest Adventure zip line. It took quite a while to get through the shorter ziplines because we were behind a tour group. If you are new to ziplining, or feeling a little nervous, the short ones are a good place to start. If I were to do it over, I would just do the one big zipline and spend some more time at the top. There is a really cool bar up there with fantastic views of the island. If you don’t want to zipline you can ride the chair lift back down. It’s definitely worth going for the views!
We stayed at The Morgan Resort on our last day to be close to the airport, and it was a perfect place to spend the day before our late afternoon flight. It has a fabulous pool and very good restaurant on site, the fish and chips were everyone's favorite!
At the end of our trip we flew to St. Barths for 4 days and loved it as well.
My recommendations for St. Martin/St. Maarten
- Best food (other than our chef): restaurant at The Morgan
- Best beachfront restaurant: La Playa at Orient
- Best beach: tie between Orient and Mullet
- Best snorkeling: rocks on the left side of Mullet, around the corner. Only attempt if you are a decent swimmer and use fins.
- Best beach bar to party: Aloha Beach Bar Restaurant on Sundays
- Best shopping for souvenirs: Grand Case neighborhood
- Best grocery store: Super U at Hope Estates
- What I would skip next time: Doing all of the ziplines at the Rainforest Adventure
- What I’d do different: bring a lot more cash. Ended up needed more than we normally do for this kind of trip, mostly for tips. Took out more at an ATM and now we have a bunch of euros we can’t use.
For pics of beaches on all three islands and blog updates, please follow my Instagram and Facebook pages!
