St. Maarten
alljengi from Edinburgh · CC BY-SA 2.0
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St. Maarten & St. Martin, One Island Twice
Two countries on 37 square miles, aircraft landing over your head, and the best eating in the eastern Caribbean.
- days
- 5
- bases
- 3
- places to eat
- 5
- budget
- mid
One island, divided between the Netherlands and France since 1648, with no real border between them. The Dutch south has the airport, the cruise port and the nightlife; the French north has Grand Case, which is the best street of restaurants in the Caribbean. Five days lets you use both properly.
What you get
The whole trip, decided.
Not a list of sights. A route someone has already walked, with the bookings that need doing early flagged, the transfers timed, and the costs written as real ranges instead of a fantasy number.
- 5 days
- written out morning, afternoon and evening
- 3 bases
- where to sleep each night, and why there
- 5 places to eat
- with what to order and which base it is near
- 5 local tips
- the things a guidebook does not tell you
- A route map
- showing how the whole trip fits together
- Full costs
- stay, food, activities and transport, broken out
- 6 pre-trip checks
- what to confirm yourself before you book
- A printable PDF
- works offline, yours to keep
Why this one
Worth the flight.
- Maho Beach, where jets pass a few metres overhead on approach to SXM
- Grand Case at dinner, a single street of restaurants and beachside lolos
- Pinel Island, a five-minute boat hop to a tiny island with two beach grills
- Marigot's market and Fort Louis above it
- Crossing an international border without stopping, several times a day
Best months are December, January, February, March, April, May. Expect around $1,500–2,900 per person, excluding flights for the whole 5 days, excluding flights. The guide breaks that into stay, food, activities and transport so you can see where it goes.
How this stays honest
Checked August 2026
Prices, opening days and entry rules drift, and no written guide can outrun that. So costs are always ranges rather than quotes, every plan carries the date it was last checked, and the last page is six things to confirm yourself before you book anything.
I take no commission from any hotel or operator. You book everything yourself, in your own name, at the price you can see.