TravelTalkOnline Forums Travel and Vacation Forums St. Maarten - St. Martin Heniken Regatta date for 2018?

Trying to make arrangement for 2018 but want to avoid regatta week.

Regatta 2018 March 1 thru 4

TY Mort for the quick reply.

Do not blame you one bit... Husband and I were on Island this year and last. You have to stay put until its all over. The traffic is horrible, especially near the simpson bay resort. Poor people that have timeshare at that time. Ugly trying to get around, especially the last night... yuk

We didn't think that the traffic was bad at all this year during Regatta. We've been on the island for Regatta for about 15 years, and it used to be horrific. Not in past years, but if you're not used to the small to moderate increase in traffic, it could be intimidating. Especially if you don't like driving on the island in the first place.

The dates for the Regatta are already published through 2022 on their website.

Heard horror stories about traffic and booking dinners so we try to avoid. We just returned from SXM and ran into traffic from the music fest at Happy Bay.

Everyone's personal perception of traffic can and does vary. We used to go every now and then at regatta time and never noticed any big difference from what we experience at Easter but often, the traffic you encounter will depend on where you're headed and what time you're on the roads. Unless we have to be somewhere at a specific time, I always figure we're on vacation and since there's only one main route around the island, we often do a u-turn and just go the other direction. Eventually we reach our destination and often with a new adventure along the way. Oh, the places we've been and the things we've seen....... <img src="http://www.traveltalkonline.com/forums/images/graemlins/Joy.gif" alt="" /> <img src="http://www.traveltalkonline.com/forums/images/graemlins/Joy.gif" alt="" />

What you "heard" might not always be factual. Going back 15 years or so for Regatta, yes it used to be pretty bad and especially on Sunday night. The past several years, it is not that bad at all until close to the final party on Kim Sha Beach and that is not as bad as in past years. If you plan accordingly around bridge openings and party times you can avoid a lot of what you have "heard" about Regatta.

Now, if you are trying to get through Simpson Bay on the Sunday of the final party around 7:00pm, I would expect a lot of traffic and slow movement.

Agreed, other than bridge openings, which can be a real PITA, traffic in general at Regatta isn't that much worse than any other time in high season. I have seen a lot of people complaining here in February/March about bad traffic in general, so not sure that Regatta traffic itself is much worse. And restaurant reservations, except on Sunday night in Simpson Bay, OR if you have a big group, reservations are not that big a deal.