St.Maarten/St.Martin Tripple Beach Tour

We booked an excursion called “Tripple beach Tour” that visited all three of the best beaches and advertised about 1 to 2 hours at each beach (yes the two p’s in triple is how the excursion is spelled). First off, the excursion says to meet at the cruise port. What they don’t tell you is that the cruise port it huge. It has a bus terminal for excursions on one end. On the other end is a parking station for most of the other tours. We went to both and no one had heard of this company. We finally figured out that we had to leave the port to where a bunch of random taxi drivers and other off-the-beaten-path excursions were waiting. It took us about 40 minutes of walking to find the excursion operator. They then had had us sit around for about 30 minutes waiting for others to find them. A random woman walked up to us and told us we were in her tour van. She put us with two others. The tour became very weird very quickly. The guide began pointing out everything on both sides of the road, like… everything including stray animals and random houses. She also ended every sentence with, "right?" Which is fine, but the problem is if you didn’t say “right” back, she would yell at us that we were not answering her. Try answering “right” to every sentence someone says, especially if they are talking nonstop about everything they can see and think. We started taking turns in our 4 person group saying “right” like putting another coin in the machine to make it keep running. The excursion was nothing like what was advertised. It kind of started somewhat like what was advertised. We did make it Orient Bay first.. and did stay there for an hour as advertised. It was unfortunately the least exciting beach. Though beautiful, it was super windy and I suppose this is the norm as there were countless kite surfers and kite surfing rentals. Then our “beach excursion” became an impromptu island guided tour instead. This included about an hour driving into a super congested area, turning around and going back through all the congestion a second time for no apparent reason just to return to the main road. What was that all about? The guide said she was skipping Mullet Beach because “It’s just too hard to get in there. Too many cars. Too many people. We also don't have a lot of time left.” When I suggested we should still try as it was described as one of the best beaches in the Caribbean, she finally relented. Agreed that it’s a small parking area at the beach, but there was no traffic. No congestion. She gave us 15 minutes. Easily one of the most beautiful beaches I have ever seen. White sand and pockets at the first entrance for snorkeling over small rocky/reef areas. I wish we had started here instead. Maho beach was only about 10 minutes away from Mullet Beach. It was all that it was described as. Super crowded, but no one cared as soon as a big plane would come in to land. People would hug and high five when a big jet would fly just a few hundred feet overhead. Totally worth the stop, though I would not recommend spending the entire day here. We were allowed 30 minutes from our guide. In total, one hour Orient Beach, 15 min Mullet Beach, 30 min Maho Beach. Our guide had decided that our all-day tour ended at 1:30 pm to return to the port. The other people in our group pulled out paperwork showing all the time we were supposed to spend at the various beaches and description of the tour. It didn’t matter. We had the guide drop us off at the main boardwalk across from the cruise port. It also has a beautiful beach and all kinds of stores and restaurants. We rented a couple of chairs for $10 for the remaining 3 hours that were supposed to be part of our excursion. There is a water taxi from there for the large cruise crowds that return from across the bay.

This was a great way to see the island & learn about the French & Dutch side. The beaches were beautiful. We stayed at 2 of the beaches for an hour and then Majo beach for about 30-40 minutes which was fine considering there are very few chairs & is pretty crowded. There is a large restaurant there though if you wanted to grab a drink and watch the planes land.

Tour guide tried really hard, but this was nothing like what was advertised. Envisioned sitting for an hour or two at 3 different beaches. More of a drive around the island and spend a very short time at a couple beaches. Spent 1 hour at Orient Beach. Then went on a random hour of traffic into a town on the French side. Then were told there was just a quick stop at Maho. We talked the guide into 15 min at Mullet Beach. Then 30 min at Maho to see a few planes come in. Not a bad experience at all, but also nothing like what we imagined when we bought this tour. There were 6(!) cruise ships in port which made our guide overly concerned about traffic. She ended the tour after 4.5 hours when we expected longer. If you do sign up for this cruise, just know they meet you just outside the port gates, not so much at the end of the pier as advertised. We looked for a long time to find them. St. Martin is beautiful, but I'd go straight to Mullet Bay then onto Maho beach for the last hour of my time.