Great Bay Beach runs beside the boardwalk and shopping district of Philipsburg. © Scott S. Bateman

St. Maarten travel tips start with an understanding that two countries control this southeastern Caribbean island.

The Dutch side is Sint Maarten and the French side is Saint Martin. The difference is important to know for anyone planning a beach vacation there.

The French side covers two thirds of the landmass even though it attracts far fewer vacationers. The Dutch side, which includes both the airport and cruise port, covers the rest. Places to stay on the French side are mostly villas, while the Dutch side has most of the hotels. So despite its smaller size, the Dutch side is where most hotel and resort visitors go for a beach vacation.

The Dutch side also has one of the best cruise ports in the Caribbean at Philipsburg. Philipsburg offers a great shopping and dining district with Great Bay Beach right by the city. It is the fourth most popular cruise destination in the Caribbean after the Bahamas, Cozumel and St. Thomas, according to the Caribbean Tourism Organization (CTO).

St. Maarten is the ninth most popular island for hotel and resort visitors to the Caribbean, the CTO says. It is more popular as a cruise destination and attracts more than three times as many people by cruise than by hotel visits.

We have visited the island multiple times as both hotel and cruise visitors. We found more than enough things to do to fill one full day or an entire week.

Use the following travel tips based on our experiences to help plan your trip.

St. Maarten Travel Tips in Brief

• Most hotels are on the Dutch side; most villas are on the French side.
• Hotel visitors should rent a car to tour this small island.
• Philipsburg and Marigot are popular attractions.
• January through April as well as June are good weather months. April is ideal.

Where is St. Maarten?

St. Maarten is 200 miles due east of San Juan, Puerto Rico, and 125 miles east of St. Thomas, which makes it a popular and convenient cruise stop along with those destinations during eastern Caribbean cruises. It is only 55 miles north of St. Kitts, another popular port of call for eastern cruises.

Hotel and Resort Tips

Hotel and resort visitors usually fly into Princess Juliana International Airport on the southwest coast of the island at Simpson Bay. The airport is somewhat famous because airliners fly right over Maho Beach as they land and blast beach visitors with jet exhaust. It knocks some of them over and has even caused a few deaths.

The airport is conveniently close to many of the hotels. The majority of them are clustered in two beach locations within about five to six miles of the airport. One is along the southeastern shore of Simpson Bay and the other is farther east at Philipsburg. Many prices stay within a range of about $150 to $250 a night, although a handful cost more or less than that range.

The island has no international hotel brands and fewer hotels in total than other Caribbean islands such as St. Lucia. It may not attract as many hotel visitors as other islands because of its small size, but we had a full week during our visit there.

Attractions and Shore Excursions

St. Maarten is much more a things-to-do island rather than a things-to-see island. It is stronger on recreational activities than on historical and cultural attractions, which are few in number.

Two of the most popular attractions on the island are the capitals—the cruise port of Philipsburg on the Dutch side and Marigot on the French side.

Like the nearby St. Kitts, the island is busy around the cruise port in Philipsburg and quiet on most of the 35 beaches and around the resorts and hotels.

The ruins at Fort St. Louis in Marigot offer great views of the island. © Scott S. Bateman

Philipsburg is a popular attraction with both cruise and hotel visitors because of the many duty-free shops that line Front Street. It runs parallel to the boardwalk along Great Bay. Cruise and hotel visitors also find a nice beach on Great Bay that lies right beside the city.

Unlike the busy Philipsburg, Marigot is a quiet and very French town on the other side of the island. It has some nice shops plus a local craft market that shows up in the town center a few times a week.

While in Marigot, visitors may climb up to Fort St. Louise. There isn’t much left of the fort, but the location has panoramic views of Marigot and Marigot Bay. The French built the fort in 1765 to protect Marigot from the English.

More adventurous souls can take a quick ferry from Marigot over to the even quieter Anguilla for a day of snorkeling or relaxing on that island’s beautiful white sand beaches. Some excursion operators also make runs to Marigot from Simpson Bay on the Dutch side, which we did for a great snorkeling excursion.

Two other attractions on the French side are worth mentioning. The town of Grand Case is known for the best restaurants on the island. The clothing-optional Orient Beach is one of the most famous—and expensive—beaches in the Caribbean.

Transportation / Getting Around

Getting from one place to another isn’t always easy, even though the island is small.

Plenty of car rental agencies reside in Philipsburg and the Simpson Bay area near the airport. But roads often become congested and lack traffic signs. We found driving was much easier and less congested on the French side.

During our hotel vacation on St. Maarten, we rented a car at Simpson Bay for only one day to visit the best attractions on the island. They included Marigot, Orient Beach and Philipsburg.

Taxis operate on fixed fees but do not have meters. Be sure to ask for the rate before getting into the taxi.

Minibuses that act something like a combination of taxis and public buses cover most of the island. They are inexpensive, do not have fixed schedules and stop at fixed locations. They usually accept Euros and U.S. dollars. Visitors should simply raise their hands at a stop when a minibus approaches.

Tourism / When to Go

St. Maarten lies within the hurricane belt. The most popular months to visit are December through April, according to the Caribbean Tourism Organization.

The least popular months are September and then October during the height of the Caribbean hurricane season.

St. Maarten Weather

Island weather has average temperatures in the 80s degree Fahrenheit or high 20s Celsius all year long. It also has low humidity, gentle trade winds and brief but sometimes intense rain showers.

The average annual temperature varies by only six degrees from month to month. The average daytime temperature drops to 83 degrees Fahrenheit or 28 Celsius in January and increases until it average 89 degrees Fahrenheit or 32 Celsius from June through August, according to the Meteorological Department of St. Maarten.

St. Maarten average monthly rainfall. © Scott S. Bateman

July through November is the official island hurricane season. Rainfall reaches a high point from August through November with November having the highest amount of any month.

Annual rainfall of 45 inches gives the island moderate vegetation in the same category as St. Kitts and others. In other words, don’t go there for lush tropical rainforests.

Beach lovers will find that the best time to visit is late spring to early summer. Otherwise, January through April as well as June are the best times to visit St. Maarten for low risk of rain.

Currency / Tipping / Taxes

Official currency is the Euro on the French side and Netherlands Antilles florin (guilder) on the Dutch side. But U.S. currency and major credit cards are widely accepted on both sides of the island.

Hotels usually add a 15 percent service charge on the Dutch side and 10-15 percent on the French side. Taxes typically are 5 percent on the Dutch side and a variable rate averaging 5 percent on the French side.

Culture / Geography

The official languages are French and Dutch on the respective two sides, although English and even Spanish are commonly spoken.

The economy is dominated by tourism, which employs 85 percent of the workforce.

The island, which is only one-third the size of Washington D.C., is the smallest landmass in the world that is shared by two nations.