Philipsburg, St. Maarten Port Reviews

Went to see maho beach and airport. Did not stay...beach was crowded. Went to another beach 10 minutes away. It was a great idea! Beach area was clean, not crowded, and rented a beach chair. Locals were selling barbeque food. P.S. paid for taxi service. Well worth the price and service. Look for small taxi stand off to the right of the Welcome to st. Marteen sign.

Nice beach and very friendly people. There is still a lot of visable damage as result of huricane Irma but people have suche a positive vibe that I did not notice this after a short time. Love the island and people. Will come back for sure!

So I know when post this review some people are going to want to say oh some people just complain about everything. I honestly have almost no other real complaints about anything but I really want to share the experience we had on this island. We absolutely hated everything about this Island and do not wish to go back. I also heard other chatter throughout the week from other cruisers that they had bad experiences too. I don't know if the hurricane had on impact on not just the physical aspect of the island but the whole demenor of the people as well because everything we experienced was opposite of what we had heard. I had heard so many good things about this island from past cruisers. I also was prepared knowing that the island had been devestated by the hurricane. We had also attended a Port shopping/highlight talk with the shopping expert on our ship the day before to better prepare ourselves with information and after attending this were excited to shop here. We were advised by Royal Caribbean to stick to the Dutch side of the island at this time. The damage was obvious immediately upon getting close to the island, sadly there is very little green the trees and everything are just gone. I could have overlooked this, and even the damage and debri on front Street. I understood they were devestated and had no help in rebuilding and repairing and were just getting by the best they could. What my family could not overlook was the behavior of the people. We had a planned excurison that got cancelled last minute ( as were many others according the the excursion desk) that was a little dissapointing but no biggie we were still going to enjoy the shopping and then the beach. We took the Water Taxi to the center of town and that was great all of those guys were super nice. Our plan was to shop first on front Street and then hit the beach. Sadly our experience was less than desireable. As soon as we got off the boat on the pier the harrasment to get us to buy this or do that or take this excurison etc etc was constant we expected this a bit right there at the pier but it NEVER ended. Every 5-10 feet someone new was walking with us down the street trying to get us to rent their chairs or do whatever it was they were offering. Some were very pushy but still nice enough in their pitch others were just flat out rude when we declined telling them all we wanted to shop first. We were lied to, called named, they crossed physical boundaries going as far as to try to take things out of my arms to guide us into where they wanted us to go and more than once we had women touching my teenage daughters hair trying to braid it and one trying to put a bracelet on her arm even after she repeatedly told them NO THANKS ! This went on for the entire walk from the center of town until we got to the end of the beach to the far left and turned on to front Street. Once on front Street it didn't get much better we walked all the way down Front Street. We Constantly we had cars stopping as we were walking along the street trying to pursuade us to get in so they could take us somewhere. Almost every other store front had someone outside trying to pull you in and walking along down the street with you trying to pursuade you in. I suppose some people are ok with this but we weren't. A guy threw a glass bottle at us. We were constantly bombarded and honestly it put me on edge and there were times I felt unsafe. We are here on this street to shop, give me space, let me breath and walk and think about things. We did encounter a few nice people, and did a little shopping but the nice experience was few and far between. Overall our experience was terrible we were treated very rude more than once when we were in a store just looking and didn't decide to buy whatever they were showing us ( even though we never asked to see it in the first place) at one point they placed a very expensive ring on our teenage daughters finger even though she declined the man literally grabbed her hand and put it on her and then after dropping to significantly low prices after my husband said no thanks several times on all the discounted offers he finally just said we can't do that today we aren't interested and they asked what in the world we were doing there if we too cheap and couldn't afford it. Another store that tried to get us to come in when we said we weren't looking to buy any of that told my husband a good husband and father would buy us something nice. I realize they need money but the desperation was too much and turned us off majorly. I couldn't wait to leave and was ready to get back on the boat. When we went back to the street infont of the beach the whole thing started over again. We decided we would give the beach a shot and knew exactly where we wanted to go and people got ruder when we told them we already had a spot, they played 20 questions wanting to know where and with who and how much blah blah blah. So we finally get where we want to go and settle in to our chairs which was a good deal but I have never been to a beach that is so crowded in my life. The ocean itself was nice the water was calm in this area and warm but just far too crowded. You have to weave in and out of chairs and umbrellas all on top of each other to get in and out of the beach and water. Our spot came advertised with "free bathroom" when I went to the restroom I found out why. The bathroom was in an alley that was guarded by a gang of people who needed to know where your were and who you were with before they granted access to the bathroom. A lady in front of me had 2 young ( one crying ) children because they wouldn't let her kids use the bathroom without paying because she wasn't sitting in the right spot to get free bathroom access. She tried to explain this was the only close bathroom and that she had no cash on her but they had no sympathy and they demanded $10 for the kids to use the bathroom. I found this to be disgusting appalling behavior. We only sat for about an hour before we all decided we would rather be on the ship. We had several people come up to us offering aloe massages and hair braiding while on the beach. There was a local teen boy who wouldn't leave my daughter alone, was trying to get her to go with him, touch her and was making her feel very uncomfortable. My husband had to get very rude with him before he left and moved on to another girl a few feet away. We thankfully didn't have any other incidents while on the beach but others around us did. The couple next 2 us went to have lunch told the guy running the area they would be back he instructed them to leave something on the chair to save it. Not even 5 minutes later he removes their items from their chairs and resales it to another lady for cheaper telling her they weren't coming back. When the original couple comes back he told them he just rented the chair temporarily while they were gone. They end up just leaving because he refused to offer them other chairs. I saw another family on our ship in the section of chairs next to us who were quoted a deal for $30 and they handed the guy a 50 dollar bill and the guy says oh sorry no change ( that was a lie) after saying they wanted their money back and would find somewhere else he says no refund and then says oh I'll bring you a bucket of beer to make up the difference, I saw them later back on the ship and they said they never got their change or any beer. I saw others walking along stop on the beach to put a towel down and wanted to enjoy the ocean ( very common practice in the US as most all beaches are public) but were ran off by the guys workin the area told they had to pay if they were on the beach. I don't know that there was one single spot on that beach that wasn't taken up by these guys and there chairs so I dunno if just enjoying the beach for free would have been possible.

We had a fun day at the beach on the Dutch side. It was walking distance from the cruise port. Local people are supper friendly. Had a lunch at local restaurant and the food was great. Did some shopping and sightseeing in the town nearby.

Visited: Oct 14, 2018

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Little Divi Bay beach all the way!!!!!!!!!!!!!! No place more fun!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Great fun, food, drinks!!!! Safe and fun for all!!!!!!!!

This port had more of the recent hurricane damage visible but was still very enjoyable while doing our land excursion...An Ultimate Island tour.

Visited: Mar 31, 2018

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This was one of my favorite ports we stopped at! Everything was very well priced. I didn't do an excursion. We just went to the beach.

Visited: Feb 24, 2018

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The port was beautiful and the people were friendly and helpful. The zipline experience was awesome. We recommend a visit to the Old Man Guavaberry Shop on Front Street.

Visited: Mar 22, 2019

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Relaxing to just take water taxi to Philipsburg and go to beach.

Visited: Jun 16, 2019

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This island by far had the most damage. We do not stay on this island, we take the ferry from Marigot to the island of Anguilla. It has the most breathtaking beaches of any island I’ve ever been to. Here’s the catch.... IT’S EXPENSIVE! And, you can only enjoy the beach for about 3 hours. 3 hours of paradise for approximately $100.00 a person. I’ll try to break this down..... $8.00 per person to get to the ferry across St. Marteen - the 9:30 a.m. ferry. $20.00 per person one way for the ferry. $10.00 per person to leave the island of St. Marteen....some kind of tax. (They do stamp your passport) $10.00 per person from the ferry port on Anguilla to Shoal Bay. $10.00 again to pay when you leave the island if Anguilla.....some kind of tax, again.... then all of the cab fare and ferry ride charges back again. (So, it might be just a tad over $100.00 per person) The ferry on the island leaves every hour, starting at 8:30 a.m., so in order for us to make our way back to the ship in time, 4:30 p.m., we needed to leave the beach we were on by 2:00 p.m. to catch the 2:30 ferry, and then the cab back across the island with traffic. I don’t care, it’s worth it to me. We are looking into the cost of staying at a resort on the island. It is breathtaking. Other excursions I would do on this island.... the Facebook group I was in on this cruise shared pictures of zip lining on this island, and that looked pretty fantastic. While we were in the cab, we saw a group of about 15 people on 4 wheelers, some people were doubled up, riding with smaller children on back, and I though that looked like something I would like to do. Again, I have no information for either of these, just something I noticed.

Visited: Feb 25, 2018

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