TravelTalkOnline Forums Travel and Vacation Forums St. Maarten - St. Martin Should we go?

We have a trip planned for the first week of November and my wife is growing concerned about all the hoops that we will be required to jump through to go. She is also concerned about getting stranded there if requirements change while we are there. Before Covid, we had made annual trips for ten years. We have not been back since Covid issues began. We are both fully vaccinated, we stay at OBBR, and fly AA from Charlotte.

When we scheduled this trip we really thought all this would be history. What can you tell her to allay her fears?

A lot can change over the next three months. Just look at the last three. Any advice given today might be reassuring now, but it may not help much in October or November. With that said, here's what reassured me when we traveled last December.

• We had the option to cancel or change our flight and apartment reservations up until a few days before. If you're in the same boat, nothing has to be decided now and you have the luxury of seeing how things develop.
• I was also reassured that we had a direct flight that required passengers show negative results to board. It's not foolproof, but I felt safer than I would on a domestic flight.
• We bought additional travel insurance that covered costs for emergency evacuation and also included trip interruption expenses that would have given us plenty of money if we just needed to quarantine on the island for several days in the event of a positive test while traveling.
• Once we arrived, we were outdoors most of the time and rarely had any exposure inside to anyone not in our family.

I mentioned this in my trip report after returning, but the most stressful part was our time in the CLT airport. We were stuck in line for about 45 minutes, no one was social distancing, and there was no guarantee anyone checking in had been tested since the line was for multiple flights. Once that was done, we were able to avoid too much contact with others -- even on the plane. However, it wasn't a great way to start the trip. I worried about it the entire time I was gone.

Read all the trip reports and you will see some form of this quote "We worried and stressed for nothing"

Four more days for us!

MXS,

We are long time SXM visitors and have made two trips back since Covid with our third scheduled for the early half of November. We are both seniors and fully vaccinated. If we are allowed to fly our trip will be a definite go.

Both trips we were very careful about staying out of shops and crowds and we did our dining in mostly open air restaurants and this will be our plan for November as well. Taking reasonable precautions is just the right thing to do - for you, for her and for those you might come in contact with - but no kissing or hugging island friends - even though it seemed so strange at the time not to.;

I will always be cautious and wear a mask as required but I will not live my life in fear of Covid, or anything else for that matter. Everyone has to make choices for themselves and honestly, if she really doesn’t choose to go, I’d wait until the time is right for both of you.

But we are going until they say we can’t or we just aren’t able to. 😊😊

Edited to add -

And yes, the hoops are annoying, aggravating and surely a test of your patience on occasion, but once you’ve made it through them, the trip itself is so worth all the efforts made.

Jumping through those hoops is definitely worth it. I'd be more concerned with the November weather.

Personally, I would go. But, I would casually monitor the situation over the upcoming weeks. My wife and I are discussing this presently, and we have the advantage of having a son who is a scientist and worked with many of the leading laboratories in the world on COVID-19 treatments and vaccines. So, we still turn to him for advice (as we should). Watching too much news coverage on COVID can heighten stress to the point where we can't live our lives. Mankind and vaccines have existed together throughout history, and although this has been a really bad one it's still just a virus and we can't put our lives on 'indefinite hold' as we get older. You are both vaccinated (I assume with one of the mRNA vaccines) so that's all you can do at this point to ensure you won't develop severe illness that requires hospitalization should you get sick. Despite the flare for dramatic news coverage, breakthrough cases are still exceptionally rare at .0098. Yes, the Delta variant is more infectious given the mutations to its spike proteins, but our vaccines handle this variant just fine so I would lessen my level of concern here. On St. Maarten, when you dine in most cases you'll be in an open air environment and relatively safe from contracting anything. The same goes for being on the beach, hiking in Loterie Farms, or even visiting Parrot Ville.

So what could go wrong? Yes, a new variant could emerge, but it would likely be no worse than Delta. My son has assured me over and over again that it takes many years for a virus to be able to evade our immune systems, and SARS-Cov-2 is not there are this point. The only thing that I would hate to deal with is if I tested positive prior for our return trip back to states and couldn't get on our flight back home. But, I think that would be a long shot. If it did happen, then having alternate arrangements back home may be necessary for those who work, are boarding a pet, have a house sitter, etc. So, making sure you have cell service on SXM is a must at this time. As for November weather, maybe we've been just lucky, but we've had really nice weather on our November trips (with the exception of that stupid hurricane "Lenny" that travelled in the wrong direction back in 1999!). If we can find 'reasonable' air fare we may just run into you on SXM.

She is not concerned about the virus itself. We are confident in the vaccine and will take the appropriate cautions. She is just concerned about all the hoops that our government and that of St. Martin require us to jump through. She is especially worried about getting there, somehow messing up on getting the proper paperwork, and not being able to get back. I am hoping to show her some responses here to relieve her apprehension.

Others can answer her concerns better than I can about the technical stuff. There are plenty of posts on this board that appear to cover this well. Good luck.

The hoops are just about the same as they were when we went in January with the exception of the test to return. Not a big deal...just a P.I.A....my opinion is that some airlines cause more grief than the hoops.

Go! It is a little nerve racking filling in the paperwork & waiting for approval. But I actually have not heard of anyone getting completely turned down. We are not very tech savvy & I agonized about having our test in a PDF file. All we ended up doing was taking a picture of the document and attaching that,. Easy peasy! We were there in July & are going back in mid October for another month. We were able to spend time with friends. We made sure we masked in stores or any indoor places. Washed our hands often, carried hand sanitizer. We had no problem with the test to come back either. Took about 15 minutes & we were on our way. Just make sure you give yourself plenty of time at the airport when returning. We got there 3 hours early on a Wednesday & took about 2 hours to get through. ( We could not check in early because of checking bags.). Our time on the island was so special. The clock is ticking on us, We get older even with covid around. Just use common sense. You are vaccinated, you already know how to protect yourself!

We were there in December and March before we got our vaccinations and felt very safe. In December the Dutch side cases were approx 130 while March was lower. While terrible for the islanders these trips were among our best with reduced crowds. Yes hoops to jump through but we felt well worth the effort. Booked for two weeks in December. Already planning what restaurants to go to and excited Buccaneer Beach Bar reopened.

I was pretty much just where you folks are before we got here. If you don't have to travel too far from where you are flying out of, get the ID NOW from Walgreens--if possible. They seem to be getting scarcer than hens teeth right now, but if you can get one the results come back in just a few hours. We got our test, got our results, and were able to upload to SXM and get our results---all in the same day!!--I was imagining all sorts of things but came to the conclusion that we wanted to be on the island. We would just do what was necessary to get there. I said to my husband "if we get there, we get there". If not, we will go at a later date. Hopefully the airlines will continue to let you change your arrangements for the future. I do know that maybe where you are staying would not be so easy to change.

We are here, and glad that we just pushed through the hoops.

Hope you do too.

Thanks Pat and I just heard that even though we are vaccinated already , come September after attending our Daughter's Wedding in Toronto , we will have to do a test . Well that's life because we have to be there .

Go

My wife and I are booked to go Oct 31 for 2 weeks. We missed going last year at the time do to all the covid requirements and will go unless there is a shutdown

We are in St. Maarten now and will be for another two plus weeks. Other than mask wearing at certain places and an 11:00 p.m. Dutch side curfew (which doesn't impact us), everything is great. We were also here in April so we have "jumped through the hoops" twice and are glad we did.

Key Information for Travelers to Sint Maarten

Make sure you are fully vaccinated before traveling to Sint Maarten.
Unvaccinated travelers should avoid nonessential travel to Sint Maarten.
Because of the current situation in Sint Maarten, all travelers may be at risk for getting and spreading COVID-19 variants.

COVID-19 in Sint Maarten - COVID-19 High - Level 3: COV

Travel Requirements – Sint Maarten EHAShttps://stmaartenehas.com › travel-requirements
EUSTATIUS, WHETHER VACCINATED OR NOT, WILL BE REQUIRED TO PROVIDE PROOF OF A NEGATIVE COVID-19 TEST FOR ENTRY INTO SINT MAARTEN WHEN RETURNING

Oh Boy...this is our first time actually wanting to get travel insurance because of the uncertainty of health or weather.

Was exploring the TTOL links to Insure My Trip …I'm overwhelmed, as I was offered 47 different plans....

Otherwise, we are ready. Jumping through hoops will be ok, as we know what they are and can plan for them. I have already ordered two boxes of tests for our return to the US Covid test, that we can do in the room and via telemedicine. It's our departure test and timing that I am concerned about as we are traveling on a Tuesday.

Regarding travel insurance, you need to look at the limits on the various policies and what types of perils you are most interested in covering. I am not necessarily that worried about Covid coverage now, as coverage for regular medical expenses and medical evac. But some things, like cancel for any reason insurance, have to be purchased within a very short period of time from when you made your initial payment, so if you're outside that window, you don't need to worry about that. Also, on medical insurance, I look for PRIMARY coverage, not secondary coverage. That is what is very important to me, because my Medicare Supplement has only partial coverage for medical costs outside the US, and I don't want to have to shell out extraordinary amounts of money and wait 6 months for an insurance company to pay me back. For the actual cost of the trip and trip cancellation, those aren't that important to me for a trip to SXM because I could probably get my money on that applied to a future trip for the hotel and the airfare probably I could get refunded. Your mileage may vary.

I paid for entry testing for a dozen, paid for separate medevac for a dozen, paid SXM insurance for a dozen, paid for exit testing for a dozen.

Complete waste of money.

But the trip was great.

Go! You need it. The island needs it!

Not a waste since you got to go. Price of vacation. 👍

At some point a price becomes unattractive or unaffordable.

I question the value-added effectiveness bothways. How many people has it kept home or trapped on sxm? Perhaps if you had to apply for EHAS account 5+ days prior to arrival and pay your $30. Then if you test positive you can get your $30 (now $15) dollars back.Then they could at least see if there is any value added.

30 or 15 is meaningless in the scope of things besides if you test positive the buying of the insurance won't proceed anyway. Its no longer 5+. Its 72 hrs before last flight. Not arrival. Not sure what you're getting at.

Yup...15 bucks is the least of what I would be concerned about

We went in March into April, was it an EFFEN hassle with all the paperwork. Was it worth it? You can't believe! Seriously, I had to pinch myself the next day when I look out the balcony doors at Beachside Villa's and saw that beautiful sunrise over the ocean! We had masks with us, wore them into places to eat. We ate at open air places!! We brought our own straws (Stainless steal reusable) and the staff was more than willing to give them a quick rinse! Have a great time!

I meant with the 5+ days is having folks indicate they are coming by signing up with EHAS and then if you test positive you get your money back and then they have a data point of who was kept out.

Sorry, if your premise is that there is ANY value to SXM to someone coming to the island who is Covid positive, I do not agree. It has to be a negative.

Still don't get it.

[/quote]Still don't get it. [/quote]

Nope

For you folks not getting my point. I dont want any positives getting on the island.

My point is change the EHAS process to declare you are coming on a specific date and maybe even flight many many days in advance. You now have an EHAS trip ID number. You pay your insurance premium at that time as well. Then when the 72 hour window arrives if you test positive you get your money back because you aren’t coming. Now the island authorities have a clue as to what number and what percentage of planned vistors couldnt come because of a positive covid test.

Its a data collection idea. Right now we are just pouring money in a hole with no idea if it is worth the money.

I know, if you have to ask about money you probably shouldn't be going to st maarten in the first place.

I see what your talking about but the current system they have going is good enough for me. I would think the people testing positive days before planned arrival is minimal.

David - Consider these stainless steel straws. They come with their own collapsible brush and are easy to carry. I have several and love them.

Collapsible Straws LINK I just wash the straws and their container out every time I come back home from using them.

Unless we are told we can't go, we are going this year. Gonna live our lives, follow guidelines, get a booster, if necessary.... So done with locking-down.

If there was a ‘like’ button I’d use it on this post!! 🙂🙂

Has anyone considered what happens if you test positive for the return test to the US? Having to stay an extra 10-14 days on island sounds fun but not practical for most of us that are not working remotely. Even vaccinated, it’s still possible to test positive, especially with Delta spreading like it is. Feeling nervous about October

That's really my only concern, and we're both retired. I can imagine you young folks who are still gainfully employed would be even more concerned!

And Joyce, I couldn't agree more! Hope to see you and Matt there.

"stay an extra 10-14 days on island sounds fun "
Not really. You would be confined to your room.

True! Would be terrible!

Yes go. But go with an open mind and plan for everything. I have three trips planed for the year. This time purchased refundable tickets, have insurance as well through my homeowners. Can you afford to stay on island if you get COVID? That’s another issue. We are fortunate as we own our place. But I would only pull the trigger if you can handle lots of changes (curfew), testing, mask wearing, etc.