St. Martin

[Dinger]

Ok gents, I have a trip to St. Martin booked for later this month. I know some of you folks have been there, so let me have it.

I am looking for info regarding things to do, places to stay (and where not to stay), as well as any ops info that you think one ought to know.

I am told we will be on the Dutch side vs. the French side. We will be there 8 days.

Thanks in advance for some more great info.

 

[Jeff775621]

orient beach is a must see, also a good place to get food is a place called captian olivers i believe is on the dutch side, also, maho beach..nothing beats watching a 757 40 feet above you.

 

[XTW]

also, maho beach..nothing beats watching a 757 40 feet above you.

Who goes to the islands to watch airplanes?


X

 

[Bandit60]

orient beach is a must see, also a good place to get food is a place called captian olivers i believe is on the dutch side, also, maho beach..nothing beats watching a 757 40 feet above you.

A 747 40 feet above the runway beats the 757

 

[Dubya]

Just be sure to get over to the French side to eat. Grand Case is a must do for good grub. Le'Alabama is a good place to start. Have fun.

W

 

[StarHustler]

SXM is one of my favorite vacation spots. Check out the Sunset Beach Bar near the airport (they have a live cam you can view online, just google for it). The French side has some world class dining (it is considered the French Riviera of the Carribbean). Orient Beach is nude so be prepared. The Dutch side is not but there is still plenty to do and see (they have Casinos). You basically get two cultures by visiting SXM. Go to www.traveltalkonline.com and you can get a world of info on the island. Have fun! We hope to vacation there again this July (Summer is the off season down there).

 

[con-pilot]

I have always stayed at the Maho Beach Hotel. It is close to the airport and within walking distance to the Sun Set Beach Bar. In the immediate area of the Maho Beach Hotel there are quite a few excellent restaurants and there is a casino directly across the street. There are reasonably priced rental cars that can be rented at the hotel and I would highly recommend to you renting a car.

Now for the Sun Set Beach Bar. This bar is probably the most famous bar in the world aviation wise. No trip to St. Maarten (Dutch spelling of the island) would be complete without a visit to this bar. Not only can one view extremely low flying heavy airliners landing at the airport there is a sign in the bar that states,

TOPLESS WOMEN DRINK FREE.

And they are not kidding.

Have a great time, I always have.:beer:


One more thing, be careful on the French side at night. There has been a sudden increase of crime against tourist in the last few years.

 

[SCT]

Dinger,
My only advice is to allow PLENTY of time for fueling!!! Even w/ a handler it can take forever. It might be a good idea to go out and fuel on one of your down days. Also, it is not uncommon for the airport to stop accepting arrivals and make you hold on the arrival for awhile.

Have fun-

 

[fly4kix]

Dinger,
My only advice is to allow PLENTY of time for fueling!!! Even w/ a handler it can take forever. It might be a good idea to go out and fuel on one of your down days. Also, it is not uncommon for the airport to stop accepting arrivals and make you hold on the arrival for awhile.

Have fun-

I would recommend Sheldon at TLC, they are first rate. We fueled the morning before departing, the fuelers usually only fuel airlines afternoon so be aware of that.
If arriving in the afternoon, plan on maybe a few turns at SLUGO

 

[FR8FO]

most all the beaches on the island are nude so watch out, dutch is officially clothed and french is officially clothing optional, i forgot where we went fbo wise but we went out the day b4 departure to get gas and the lav serviced, took 3.5 hours. oh and the handler and fbo dudes told us that the fbo indoors is for pax only, wouldn't even let us go in, even though it was 95 degrees outside. also our plane was way out near the commercial side and pax were arriving through the fbo, took 2 hours to get tugged over there.