TravelTalkOnline Forums Travel and Vacation Forums St. Maarten - St. Martin Left or Right Side of the plane when flying into SXM

I will be flying into SXM from JFK in early June. For the best views or the surrounding islands and to see some pretty sights just before landing, does anyone have a preference of which side of the plane they sit on?

Left side. There is a search function at the top of this page.

Ok, good. That's the side I booked. Thank you.

And yes, I just found the search feature. For some reason it doesn't pop up when I use my cell phone but when I'm on my laptop, the "Search" is there.

Definitely left side for views BEFORE landing. Right side gives you that classic view of Sunset Beach Bar as you land, but nothing before that.

Agree with left side for seeing more of the island prior to landing. Sitting on the right side, you see almost nothing of the island until just before you land, so if that is important, left side is the better choice. However, we always choose to sit on the right side.

Since our flight leaves Toronto around 9 AM, for most of the flight the sun is on the left side, so you often need to put down the window shade. Our flight home leaves around 4 PM, so we also sit on the right side for the same reason. It also allows for wonderful views of Simpson Bay and Pelican Key on our way out.

Agree that sitting on the right side definitely has better views leaving (unless of course you have the very unusual situation of taking off the "wrong" way).

You tend to see more prior to getting to St. Maarten from the right side of the plane as most flights I have been on fly just north of the major islands. But left side of the plane is best for viewing Anguilla and St. Maarten as you land.

That's why they make chocolate and vanilla! I prefer to see Anguilla and SXM, as I have no idea what the other islands are that one flies over, to get there!

All of this talk about plain old "vanilla" and "chocolate", give me some "Rocky Road" !

We had a beautiful view of Anegada on our last flight.

You might see Puerto Rico, Dominican etc. from the right side and probably Anguilla only from the left. I have no preference as long as my but hits the ground, but always seem to book right side seats.

I never thought about it until this post but we have been seated on the right side of the plane all 4 of our trips. Trip #5 is in 4 days so maybe we will be on the left.

We prefer the right side coming and going. Don't like looking into the galley area since we fly FC plus like seeing SSBB on approach and take off.