TravelTalkOnline Forums Travel and Vacation Forums St. Maarten - St. Martin How far out are you looking/booking?

Don't know.... just yesterday canceled November in USVI , as the COVID numbers are not going the right way for the USVI and BVI, which I hoped to visit on this trip. Right now, tickets for SXM and AXA in hand for end of January thru late February, thru Miami, and not liking the way Miami's COVID numbers are going, and watching SXM's numbers... well, have to wait and see.

hey rural, in the same boat as u for the Nov trip....fingers crossed

My expectations are not high at this point. I think the next 6-8 weeks will tell a lot. If I have to jump through a lot of hoops to make the trip or on the island, I will cancel.

We arrived Thursday. Weather is awesome, people were happy to see us. There is no traffic, no wait at a restaurant, beaches are not crowded. We literally have the entire Royal Islander pool to ourselves. Businesses are asking us (begging almost) to tell American tourists to come. Businesses and their employees are hurting and live on tourism. Basically, do the same thing here as home. Wear a mask in stores and social distance. There are sanitizers everywhere and a lot of places do temperature checks. Planes were empty coming here, 30 or so on our flight and 30 or so on the flight yesterday. In my opinion, there has never been a better time to be here. So, if you can meet the requirements to come and you are not at high risk, then come!

Beachbumz--since you live in Florida, where did you get your test? Were you able to get a compliant test, or did you have to re-test when you arrived?

Thanks very much for your constructive comments. We all still have to live and die lol.

Still hoping for November, Lesley. Please don’t cancel our reservation.....

We are.saying prayers for you guys as well as for all our SXM friends from over so many years. You guys are strong and like with everything else you’ve endured, you will survive! 🙏🙏

This is all so much.

I saw a post on FB where the couple were THE ONLY table at Sunset in Maho. That must be a very strange feeling.

It's like that all over. Have had a couple of business people say last week was the worst week since reopening. Breakfast at the YC this morning with 3 people, one the bridge operator.

How can I cancel your reservation Pat ?
Please have faith and stay strong and safe . But we need you Folks . We don't have any natural resources .

The biggest problem, in my mind, is the fact that the government of Sint Maarten has made the testing requirements almost impossible to meet. And they have stated that the reason the requirements are so stringent is to deter travelers from the US. They can't have it both ways; it just won't work.

Correct, and the constant flip-flopping on requirements and misinformation and usually NOT posted on an official government site makes me very cautious.

I would have to disagree with that statement. The 72 hour window is pretty standard for any country wanting testing done. Croatia even went to 48 hours last week now. There are companies out there doing test that can turn around quick and not have the EUA statement on the results. You just have to search them out.

And another hoop to jump through, if it gets too complicated, I will cancel.

As will we. As much as we really want to see the island in real time, there’s only so many hoops I’m willing to jump through to be there, always with the knowledge they can still add more restrictions last minute.

I fully understand the concerns the island has for its own people and coupled with the lesser amounts of medical facilities, I get it, but I just don’t know how many more chances and changes I’m willing to deal with at this point.

Rooms and flights booked for 3 weeks starting end of May 21.
Lesley I will be contacting you soon to reserve a car. Just waiting to see if we will be coming back sooner.

Booked and hopefully going for our three weeks in Nov/Dec, and also booked for April. I'll test prior assuming that is possible, pay to be tested again in SXM if need be. What is the bribe rate presently? Asking for a friend.

125.00 in PJIA

Those of you who do make it to the island and business people, here lie Leslie) need to tell the businesses that they need to pressure the government to modify the 72 hour requirement. Currently that makes it impossible for the vast majority of Americans to comply. As others have said, yes health of the islanders is a huge concern, but the Island cant have it both ways. If they really want tourists to come in numbers to sustain the island economy then they need to loosen up the rules.

I honestly think that is the point of the rules, to allow a few in only

The Prime Minister has actually stated that as a fact.

My simple answer to the original question is infinity. Even if the confusion over what the tests say is settled, and even if it were easily possible to get the tests and results in the required time span, there is still the border issue. If we can't stay at our favorite French side places, go to the French side beaches, eat at the French side restaurants and see our friends there, we will wait it out for however long it takes.

We just booked flights on Delta for last week of May. If the French borders remain closed, we will cancel. Agee with Biturbo that we'll just wait however long it takes. I booked now only because we had some Delta certificates that were about to expire.

We got our april trip cancelled and we booked our december trip in january, before all the Covid thing....We keep our fingers crossed, so far our flight is still on but as for now, the government (Canada) stated that we should avoid all unnecessary trip and we have to self-isolate for 14 days when we come back so that makes it hard to do. Plus the PCR test....what if we are asymptomatic and the test turns out positive ? I don't know if we would be able to get a refund for everything at the last minute !

Bluejacket - May's a great time. Maybe it will work for us also.
Extreme - I know, right? I hope everything works out.

Carol, I guess I didn't update my location. I live in Phoenix, AZ now. We actually traveled from St. Thomas to St. Maarten, so we were tested in St. Thomas. We went directly to the lab there. We do know of a lab in Phoenix that can get results within the 72 hours. Also, our friends flew in from Las Vegas and I know a lab there that got them the results in time. Basically, you have to find a private lab, not one of the big ones that is being fed by everyone.

We have told all of them that that is the problem. There is a finger prick test that gives results in 15 minutes. It's 90% accurate from what we were told. St. Thomas accepted that test. I think those odds are pretty good if they just did the test at the airport vs the risk of contracting within the 72 hours...just my opinion.

BeachBumz--OK.

Many of the restaurants and businesses that we all love are struggling to survive. We went to Pburg yesterday and it was desolate. We spoke to a French lady who said that many of the businesses had already permanently closed. She is upset that the French side closed the border. Beach chair guys sitting around with no customers, begging us to get chairs, jewelry stores begging us to come in (more than normal), many are just closed. It was very sad, much worse than when we came after Irma.

What I love about the locals is not a one of them complains, unless asked, but they are struggling.

Just to put that 90% accuracy rate in perspective. A team from Johns Hopkins Medicine found that the RT-PCR test may miss more than 1 in 5 covid-19 cases. So the accuracy rate of the RT-PCR test is less than 80%. Story Here.

And that does not surprise me. IMHO, way too much being put into testing when it may or may not be 100% accurate or even close. Another false sense of security, as are many things associated with this situation. Thanks for the link.

But testing is better than not testing, as is wearing a mask.

Yes, IF the test results can be trusted and are accurate.

Again, still better than nothing.

A false positive or negative does nothing to help this situation.

So, your response is to not test anyone? Nothing is perfect in this world. You do what you can do.

Not saying that. I believe in testing but not all test are accurate and will skew statistics which many policies are made from.

It sounds like the PCR test is the most reliable one but regardless, you do what you can do.