St. Maarten/St. Martin – Weekend in Paradise

I can honestly say that I had never heard of St. Maarten/St. Martin before I booked a flight there. In fact, I haven’t explored much of the Caribbean. However, this past winter/spring I took advantage of the ability to work remotely on Fridays and of weekends to travel more. Around the time I booked my flight, my daily routine included looking for cheap flights on theflightdeal.com. I originally saw a $300 flight to Belize, which is somewhere I’ve wanted to go for the longest time! Sadly, the deal was gone before I could book it.

At that point I already had approval to miss a day of work, so I decided to go somewhere else instead. I used skyscanner.com, which lets you search for flights to “anywhere” (i.e. you don’t have to put in a destination), to find cheap flights the weekend I wanted to go. St. Maarten/St. Martin was one of the cheapest options, so I booked a ticket!

We arrived in St. Maarten/St. Martin early Friday afternoon and returned mid-day Monday, leaving 2.5 days to enjoy paradise.

Day 1 - Morning Flight to St. Martin

• Dawn Beach
• Sunset Dinner in Grand Case

Day 2 - Water Adventures

• Surfing Lesson
• Scuba Diving

Day 3 - Transfer to Simpson Bay

• Hike Pic Paradis
• Simpson’s Bay

Day 4 - Early Afternoon Flight Back

• The Westin Dawn Beach Resort & Spa: A really nice Starwood property on the east coast of St. Martin. It has direct access to Dawn Beach and a beautiful pool.
• The Villas at Simpson Bay Resort & Marina: A nice resort complex on the southern part of St. Maarten. It has several restaurants, a pool and a small private beach. It is moderately priced but has a time share vibe.

DAY 1: FLIGHT TO ST. MAARTEN

We arrived in St. Maarten around 1 PM after two flights. The landing into the SXM airport was stunning, flying right over the crystal blue waters and island. At the airport we took the Alamo Rental Car shuttle to pick up our car nearby. I was less than impressed with our rental, which I didn’t think would make it up some of the hills on the island. Luckily, we survived. The drive to our hotel took about an hour, mostly because of traffic around Philipsburg. The island is pretty small, so even the major road had only one lane each way.

Note: St. Maarten/St. Martin is a fairly hilly island, so expect ups and downs if you are driving. Also be beware of bikers.

Once we checked in, I spent some time enjoying the beach (Dawn Beach), which the hotel had direct access to. We then decided to drive to Grand Case (about 30-40 min) on the northwest part of the island for dinner. Grand Case is a cute area with a lot of shops and restaurants. We ate at La Villa Restaurant, which had a patio right on the water. We timed our arrival perfectly and were seated in time to see the beautiful sunset.

Sunset in Grand Case

DAY 2: WATER ADVENTURES

Surfing Lesson

I walked along the beach in the morning. We then drove the 20 minutes over to Galion Beach for our 8 AM surfing lesson. We booked a group lesson (which was limited to 4 people) through SXM Surf Explorer ($60 for a group lesson or $70 for a private lesson). We had an amazing surfing instructor. He showed us how to stand up on the board and had us practice on land first. We then took a mini boat out to the surfing spot. The instructor looked out for the best waves and told us when to stand up to maximize our chances of catching a wave. It was a blast!

Scuba Diving

We headed immediately from Galion Beach to Kim Sha Beach for our Discover Scuba Diving session with Ocean Explorers ($89 each). Since the Discover Scuba Diving tour is for people who aren’t PADI certified, they did a good job of helping us understand scuba diving before we went on a dive. We practiced breathing in shallow water and did a practice dive off the side of the boat. After everyone was comfortable, we went to a dive site, which was a ship wreck. We went down about 30ish feet (we could still see the sky) to explore the wreck. We saw a sea turtle and a plethora of fish during our 30-40 minute dive. After an exhilarating but exhausting day, we relaxed at the hotel pool. We then headed to dinner down the street at Big Fish.  

Scuba Diving

DAY 3: TRANSFER TO SIMPSON BAY

Pic Paradis

There was a conference at the Westin Dawn Beach for the rest of our stay, so we switched to a hotel on the southern part of the island. We left our bags at the front desk and headed out for a hike. We drove 30 minutes to Loterie Farm, which has zip lines and lets you do a self-guided tour to the top of Pic Paradis (for around $6). The trail was well marked and had some steep parts. It took about an hour to an hour and twenty minutes round trip. The top had nice views of the island.

Pic Paradis

Following the hike we ate lunch at Yvette’s in Orleans, which was an amazing Creole restaurant. We then drove to Simpson Bay to check in at our next hotel. I spent some time on the beach (which was a lot smaller than Dawn Beach). We then ate dinner at one of the hotel restaurants and had a beautiful view of the sunset. The following day we had an early afternoon flight, so we grabbed breakfast at the hotel and then headed to the airport.

Note: A lot is closed Sunday afternoon, so don’t try to do any shopping then.