TravelTalkOnline Forums Travel and Vacation Forums St. Maarten - St. Martin First trip - which excursion?

My husband and I will be staying at Sonesta Great Bay Beach Resort All Inclusive in July for 4 nights. This will be our first trip to St. Martin and we will probably only do one excursion. Any suggestions on an excursion or tour company we should book so that we can see a lot of the island?

Celine Too lots or options have done them all you can't go wrong.
http://www.sailstmaarten.com/

Personally, I wouldn't do any organized excursion with that amount of time.

The whole island is an experience. I might rent a car or pay a cabbie who will wait or return for the day to drop you off at various places such as Pedro's at Orient beach and stroll have lunch and enjoy the beach, then go to Grand case and then Marigot and mullet beach and maho beach Simpson bay and phillipsburg. Then you'll know where you want to stay and go on your most probable next trip.

If you want to see the island, I suggest you hire a taxi to do a private tour of the island, and let him or her know what your particular interests are, and they can tailor the tour to you. Suggest you contact TTOL sponsor Wilfred Brooks, who can take care of you in nice style. There are a ton of great water excursions, etc., but on most of them, you won't get to see much of the island itself.

SXM is a fairly small island and very easy to drive on...and rental cars are cheap...definitely recommend renting a car for the duration and seeing the whole island at your own pace <img src="http://www.traveltalkonline.com/forums/images/graemlins/Groovin.gif" alt="" />

https://www.12metre.com/

Right in great bay. If you are interested.

Rent a car and check out the island - Orient, Grand Case, Simpson Bay... Once you check out the first class restaurants you probably won't do an AI again

I agree, after the first trip, a car is the way to go. But since they've never even been on island before, they might feel more comfortable taking a cab around the first time, just to get some lay of the land..

I could not agree more AI's are nice, but St. Martin is one island with so much exceptional food.

I loved the 12 metre regatta and I found I heart My Ram here! http://www.stmartinisland.org/st-martin-events/one-year-in-st-martin.html

12 metre challenge is great fun. If you want a full day out on the water, Aquamania runs sail, snorkel, lunch, open bar trips on Tango and Lombada that are good. Also, Random Wind is a smaller boat with fewer passengers that runs day sails. It is more intimate. All are good.

Lots of excursions on this site.
www.stmaarten-activities.com

The Santino Around the Island tour is my favorite AquaMania boat trip. It stops at four snorkeling sites including Creole Rock. It stops in Grand Case where you can eat lunch at one of the logos - the lunch is not included in the cost of the boat trip. Panel Island is another stop as well as Tinamarre. You don't have to snorkel to enjoy this trip.

Bob and I found SXM on a cruise.. Bob HATES organized anything so we rented a taxi... Bought an ice chest filled it with beer (shared with driver.. don't tell anyone) and asked him to show us HIS island... Our only requirement was we wanted to see the nekkid people on Orient (WAY over-rated... the nekkids not Orient) and beyond that asked us to show us HIS island... we had 1.5 hours on Orient.... stopped at Baie Rouge and Mullet to just take a look.... a couple of hours at some bars he frequented... met some of his friends.... in short fell in love with the island... 9 trips later and no more cruises we keep coming back...

Take a cab on your first trip

Has anyone here been on the Tiko Tiko trip to St Barth's?