St. Maarten — Philipsburg
7:00 am — the Galaxy docks in the harbor of Sint Maarten / St. Martin.
8:30 am – 12:00 pm — Island tour.
We spend the rest of the day in Philipsburg shopping and "extreme beaching".
Natural Wonders — St. Maarten
At 8:30 am we meet our tour guides at the pier.
For three and a half hours we explore the "natural wonders" of St. Martin (French side), also known as St. Maarten (Dutch side), by minibus.
For just $35 we get a fantastic island tour and learn all about St. Maarten/St. Martin.
At the Zoo in Philipsburg
First we visit the Sint Maarten Zoological Botanical Garden in Philipsburg at the end of the Great Salt Pond.
Here we see animals that we normally only know from zoos back home, but which are actually native to this region.
Since we unfortunately don't have much time to seek them out in the wild, we content ourselves with the zoo and admire tropical birds in walk-through aviaries and visit a bat cave. There is also an interesting collection of South American reptiles and mammals (e.g. capybaras). An ostrich has also "stayed on" here — apparently left behind by a circus.
On the French Side
We head east first and enjoy the view of Dawn Beach. Here we cross into the French part of the island and continue north, past Baie Orientale (incomprehensible to our American fellow passengers that nude bathing is allowed here) to Cul de Sac. On the Atlantic side we take a short break and enjoy the magnificent view into windy bays while watching numerous surfers.
Marigot — St. Martin
Marigot is the French capital of St. Martin. Charming and unmistakable, it feels as if the town were transplanted directly from the Côte d'Azur to St. Martin. Unfortunately, we barely have enough time to drive through and mentally enjoy a croissant at one of the many little cafés. Shortly after we cross back onto the Dutch side and enjoy the wonderful view along the coast over the sea and beautiful beaches. By midday we are back at our pier.
In the age of the Euro, the French side of the island has a harder time of it, as the roughly 1 million tourists per year prefer to spend their money on the Dutch side, where the weaker Netherlands Antillean guilder or US dollar is used, making things noticeably cheaper.
Around 12:00 noon we arrive back at the cruise pier in Philipsburg.
Continue to the afternoon in Philipsburg.
