TravelTalkOnline Forums Travel and Vacation Forums St. Maarten - St. Martin Recommendations for similar islands

I love St Martin and have stayed on both the French and Dutch sides. Just for variety, may I please have your recommendations for similar Caribbean islands? Here is my personal wish list, but your recommendation doesn't have to meet all the criteria:

Weather: My ideal is sunny and 85F in winter, with water 80F.
Beaches: The beach is my main daily activity. I like having people around, but not loud music. Water should be clear, and deep enough to tread water and also touch bottom (about 5 to 6 ft for me). Sandy bottom safe for bare feet. Baie Rouge meets the criteria pretty well.
Scenery: Love green mountains and green trees.
Safety: US Travel advisory level 1 preferred.
Medical: Reasonably good hospital within a 30 minute drive. St Maarten Med Center met my needs in my one visit. I do buy airlift insurance.
Language: Need a place where English is spoken.
Dining: I cook my meals and rarely eat out, so I need a decent grocery store.
Serene: Want to avoid urban environments for lodging and beaches.
Evenings: I enjoy sitting on a deck where people pass by.

Thanks!

BVI has several places to stay on or near the beach that are similar to St. Martin.
Antigua is nice, with a different beach for every day of the year.
Grenada also matches your specifications.

Some other islands meet several of the checkboxes, but not all of them. Particularly the combination of English language (which rules out the French islands) and proximity to quality health care takes most of the Caribbean destinations off your list.

Thank you Zanshin, I'll look into those islands you listed. If I could overcome the language barrier using translation technology, which islands would you add?

Close by Anguilla seems to fit. Uncrowded beaches, boring compared to SXM. Clean, good food if you want to go out and grocery if staying in.

Grenada. Meets most all of your specifications. A beautiful island, wonderful locals, called "The Spice Island". Lots and lots of nutmeg!

I heartily agree with Zanshin on his select islands. We only day-tripped to the BVIs from St. John and found them to be lovely. We truly enjoyed Grenada having stayed there for ten days. We loved it’s friendly people, beautiful and wide variety of scenery and photo ops. Too much to see and experience in a bare week but worth the effort trying. The falls and the rain forest were new experiences for us and were all lovely. So glad we did it once and hope someday to return.
PS - St. John, USVI, was also lovely and had much of what you’re asking for.

Most of these islands will be much more expensive in terms of lodging/dining/groceries compared to SXM, which is a relative bargain in the Caribbean, so bear that in mind.

Turks and Caicos or Grand Cayman if you have a deep wallet.

I have always enjoyed our vacations in Guadeloupe ,especially when they had the cheap flights from the US on Norwegian Air.
But, very few people speak any English.

From my travels pre covid:


Antigua: Jolly Harbour and English Harbour get my vote. Both are small communities, one is planned with boat docks for a back yard and the other is boat and pple watching at Nelson's Dockyard.

Grenada: Grand Anse area for the culture and spice smells once you head away from town. Food was good too. Less touristy.

And wow the bvi!!!

St Lucia is an option as well. I found the water rough in Rodney Bay so cannot comment on this.

Also, bequia in St Vincent though medical is a short ferry away. The Grenadines sparkling blue water is mesmerizing.


Confused yet? Try them all!

I also recommend Grenada. It ticks all your boxes.

I loved Grenada! It is truly beautiful and does not have as many tourists as some of the other islands. St Kitts is nice too and compares well to St. Martin. The Cayman Islands have a British flavor and some beautiful beaches there too. Excellent medical facilities and lots of grocery shopping for those dinners cooked at home. Enjoy whatever you choose!

We enjoyed Nevis and Curacao

My wife and I have been to over twenty one Caribbean islands. We fell in love with St. Maarten off a cruise ship, first rented and then purchased a villa.
We find St. Maarten is very affordable compared to other islands, no taxes, friendly people and nice beaches.

I would have added Grenada, Nevis, Carriacou, St. Vincent, Dominica and other islands if it weren't for the stipulation about quality healthcare close by. And all the French island meet the excellent healthcare criteria but fail on the "English understood" one.

These responses have me digging deeper and as a result Greneda is on my radar now. Thank you all.

You will not be sorry. Grenada is a beautiful island!

we've been to quite a few islands, but got hooked on SXM after our first trip quite a few years ago...so much so that we've been going at least once a year almost every year since...but we had also really enjoyed our previous visits to Barbados, so when we skipped SXM for a couple of years after Hurricane Irma, we went back to Barbados instead, and were pleasantly reminded how much we really liked the island

so although it's been a few years since our last visit to BGI, we still talk about substituting Barbados for SXM...and actually since we now split the time of our yearly visit between SXM and SBH, we would probably miss our time on SBH more than SXM