We planned an epic trip back to the amazing island of Sint Maarten this month of December 2024 and had an absolutely amazing trip. My wife and I went for the first time in 2009 and wanted to share our experiences with three other couple friends of ours. St Martin / Sint Maarten is a Caribbean island which is split half Dutch and half French and is truly one of the most beautiful places we have been. Check out our travels which were all shot on my GoPro Hero 12.
We booked a direct flight to the island from Charlotte and thankfully both travel days went smoothly and no problems at all. The AirBnb rental was on the Dutch side of the island which was about a 30 minute drive from the airport. The car rental company we booked provided great service by dropping the Jeeps off at our rental and simply signing off on them to begin our island adventure.
Day one included some chill time at the house, dinner in and plenty of island rum drinks. We all got to bed early as day two began at 830am with an all day catamaran cruise around the island. We had the opportunity to see the entire island from the water, drop into a few snorkeling spots, had lunch and drinks on the boat and we were even gifted a double rainbow in the late afternoon!
All eight of us agreed on cooking a little bit at the house each day and also touring the island for the many amazing restaurants we heard about. This island is world renown for their cuisine and it did not disappoint. The next few days included some chill time, beach combing and enjoying a day on the tiny island of Pinel. We took a little boat taxi over early that morning which allowed us to reserve a prime front row beach location with a walk up bartender, beach chairs and umbrellas for the day. After lunch the guys and I took a hike to the back side of the island which had incredible views and enough wind gusts to knock you over, but the quaint beach front was completely protected.
Some other well known beaches we hit up during the week were Dawn Beach, Oyster Bay Beach, Friars Bay, Happy Beach, Orient Beach and Grand Case to name a few. Each one was so unique and still had many more places to go, but not enough time. Erin and I have already decided to make a point of traveling back and even considering a move much later in life and retiring to this beautiful place in the world.
The last big excursion we planned was an extreme zipline course called Loterie Farm. I did capture some crazy video footage and plan to post that online soon. A small pickup truck took us up to the top of the island for us to clip in and take 7 massive zips down the island and back to the starting point at check in. The tour included some high ropes course segments as well and the last three zips were over a quarter mile in length. I did turn my Garmin watch on for this activity and tracked over 18mph on the longer zips.
After another day of chill time and enjoying our view from the rental was had, we concluded our epic trip with a fine dining experience at one of the most well known French restaurants on the island called Le Cottage. It was perfectly executed and we all agreed that is was one of the best meals we have ever had.
I would highly recommend adding this magical island to your vacation bucket list! I have included some of the places and services we used below as reference.
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