Me and my husband were planning a vacation to Caribbean for a very long time and wanted to visit one of its islands. However, with so many options available, we were just not able to decide the place to go.
Well, some of our friends had visited St Maarten or St Martin last year and we remembered how happy they were talking about the place, the beaches, and many things to do and see. After thinking a lot and researching over the internet, we booked our tickets for St Maarten.
St Maarten is one of the smallest land masses between Netherlands and France, with Marigot as the capital in the French side. Well, the island’s name is pronounced and spelled in two different ways. The southern part, which is the Dutch side, it is called as Sint Maarten, however, the northern part; it is called as St Martin.
According to our friends, St Martin offers a beautiful mixed culture of three different countries, which made them very comfortable. Along with that, there are many beaches with the famous Maho beach and attractions that made their stay truly memorable.
So, with all this in our mind, we reached St Maarten in morning at 10:00 AM. The moment we landed, we could smell the salty fresh air and headed towards the Dutch side, which is the southern part of the island.
The Dutch side of the island occupies about 1/3rd part of it with many beaches.
Our first destination which is the closest to the airport was the Maho Village and we had our hotel also booked in there.
After checking in the hotel and having our lunch, we headed towards the very popular Maho beach, which is very famous for the airplanes landing just few feet above your heads, while you sip your favourite drink at the Sunset Grill and Bar.
We both went to the Maho beach and were completely awestruck with the airplanes landing so close to you. The amazing experience held us there for almost 7 hours, where we could see the airlines being so close to us in the air.
After Plane Spotting, we went to the Maho village to enjoy its exuberant night life. The Maho village is famous for its very large Casino Royale and Dunes Casino having wide range of slots and other games. We tried our luck there and came out winning less and losing more.
With clear blue warm waters, St Maarten is one of the best holiday destinations for water sports activities. Since, we have done snorkelling and scuba diving many times before; we wanted to try activities giving us more adrenaline rush.
So, our first water sports activity on the second day was the Stand Up paddling. Stand up Paddling is the easiest of water sports activities for the beginners, for this you need not be a great surfer or a windsurfer.
Stand up paddling gives a broader viewpoint with maximum visibility of what is happening around you under the sea. We were easily able to explore the coral reefs and spotted barracudas, stingrays, and sea turtles.
Simpson Bay
My husband had done kayaking, but I was really keen on doing it this time. So, we went to the Simpson Bay, which is surrounded by large mangroves and lagoon, making it a perfect place to kayak. Through Kayaking, I was able to see the natural ecosystems and got closer to the nature. We did spend a lot of time kayaking the second day and enjoyed every bit of it.
The third day, we did windsurfing as my husband loves it and asked me to experience the thrill. Because of the winds between the force 3 and force 4, we could do the windsurfing easily. We did windsurfing on the Dutch side at the Galion Bay and made it a complete memorable experience.
After doing the windsurfing, we headed towards the Oyster Pond, located towards the eastern side of the island.
The pond is famous for boat charters and is a home to many Yacht charter companies. The boats leave through a coral reef and the pond is encompassed with lovely homes, tall hills, and a small community filled with restaurants, bars, and supermarkets.
We walked through the steep narrow lanes, enjoyed the culture and learnt more about the place from the natives. After this, we went to the dawn beach for a quick swim at the Sunset to end our day beautifully.
Next day, we went to the Loterie Farm, where we did zipping across the loterie forest, and experienced adrenaline rush. After zipping, we went for trekking and climbing, which my husband loved a lot, and ended up having bruises and scratches.
The forest offers plenty of things to do and after a bit of trekking and hiking, we decided to do some more zipping, but with more of excitement.
We did an extreme fly zone zipping, which was much higher than the ground level, had interconnected obstacles. The zip was much faster and longer than the previous zipping. The entire day went by and we relaxed at one of their lounges.
Day of leaving for our place was coming closer and I just wanted to explore more and more as much as I can. I was longing to have a class apart seafood from a long time. Some person nearby informed us that we can get delicious seafood in “Hotel Sint Maarten”.
We went for lunch over there. After visiting there we experienced clear water by the resort side. The beach was not long enough but had very clear waters. Food was really very delectable. Facilities of outdoor activities were also there on the beach. Both of us went for volleyball game. We divided us in two different teams and became companions.
My team turned out to be a real solid as we won over the other team in two straight sets. A commendable experience we had over there and enjoyed each and every bit of it.
In the evening, we went for a catamaran around the island to see the beautiful sun scrolling down beneath the sea. It was indeed an out of the world experience!!
On the final day, it was time to collect some memories in form of shopping so that we can see and remember those exotic moments we spent here. In St Maarten goods are duty free so things were comparatively cheaper in cost.
Leather goods were quite famous there so we thought of buying boots for us. I took long black coloured boots and he took one brownish-red in colour. I also took few leather purses for some of my friends to give them a part of our memories. We took two bottles of 22 years old red wine.
Next target of our shopping was my favourite- Jewellery. I bought few of fancy jewellery, which I can wear in day to day routine.
The shopping was getting heavy and heavy and I still was in a mood to go on and on. But we had to leave the place in the evening so that we can catch our flight on time. So we finalized our shopping, paid the bill and went to our hotel.
We lay down in bed for few hours and relaxed ourselves before leaving the place. View of the beach from the window pane of our room was astounding. Said final bye to the place and left for airport to buckle up with the flight.