TravelTalkOnline Forums Travel and Vacation Forums St. Maarten - St. Martin Covid Testing Option Simpson Bay

For the people staying at LaVista, Atrium, Royal Palm and Flamingo you can get tested at the facility at Simpson Bay resort.

Yes, I am aware of that but not everyone stays at those places so this is another option. Initial reports from a couple of other testing sites have not been positive and have taken 2-3 hours to get through the process.

Agreed, initial reports from several places have not been good. This place I guess is brand new? Or they are just starting to do tourist testing as of this weekend? Not sure which..

The clinic/lab referenced requires pre-payment to secure a reservation for testing.

No thanks.

What? You don't want to give your Credit Card number over the phone or over the internet in a foreign country. Me either.

Wow, I think I would decline also..

I do not think they do phone appointments but I am not 100% sure.

We will be using the Simpson Bay testing as we are staying there on the last portion of our vacation. Will let you know how it went.

We used the lab in the Orange Grove plaza. We had booked it in late December right after Canada make it a requirement to return, test was done on Friday and printed negative results were available for pickup Saturday which was our departure day. We payed $70 each at time of testing. PCR test is required for Canada so the Simpson Bay resort option was no good for us. We had several American friends use that facility and while the first night was a bit chaotic they improved things quickly. Getting tested in SXM was easier, cheaper and more efficient than in Canada. Things have gotten tighter in Canada now with testing before departure, testing on arrival and probably the deal breaker for most will be the mandatory quarantine at a hotel until your test are recieved (stated cost $2000 per person) if negative you must still quarantine at home for the rest of your 14 days. Our timing was fortunate as we were able to quarantine at home which we are now doing. The month in SXM was well worth the efforts.

Well, that's CAD $2,000. That's just USD $1,565!

Now...that's not too bad....

True, but that's at the END of the vacation so not many loonies left. 😀

Something that needs to be factored in to the vacation budget to plan ahead for if needed.

Can I get tested on the French side instead of Dutch for test to return to US?

I wouldn't know why not, you just need to find a place for testing and results in a timely manner.

Our Airbnb host said most pharmacies on the French side offer rapid tests and that would be an option if we had issues. We are planning for a doc's office in Philipsburg, so we didn't try it.

Just finished the process with SLS located across the street from the medical center on Cay Hill. Registered and received our appointment time prior to leaving on 1/30/21.
15 minute process the day of our appt. on 2/5/21. Negative results emailed to our portal at 9:30 a.m on 2/6/21. $75/ each.....paid cash........couldn't have been easier.
Not sure why folks are stressing over this simple process????