Hello all. As a good aviation nut I have St. Maarten / Maho Beach high in my bucket list, but the destruction caused by the hurricanes in 2018 was big, I remember comments about severe damage to hotels/infrastructure, lack of basic supplies, and a very explicit call to not going to the island until the situation became normal or at least sustainable. Some pictures showing just a few rocks where Maho Beach was before the hurricane were also circulating in some media but I don´t know about authenticity of that. Reports of people fighting for food or a bottle of water are not the best news if you want to visit a remote place.
I´m now planning my next vacation and I would really appreciate any information up to date regarding the current situation on the island, how are the hotels prepared for visitors, is there a beach where Maho Beach was located or not, is the public safety in normal values compared with pre-hurricane numbers, in other words, does the "aviation nuts paradise" still exist ?.... or is basic rebuilding still in process and should I wait for a couple of years before going ?.
I checked some travel sites and the prices are suspiciously low, so my guess is the conditions are not good yet, but I hope some of you can help me with fresh / first hand information.


Any information will be great, thanks in advance.

Rgds.

Gonzalo

PatrickZ80 wrote:

Those reports of people fighting over food and water were from the first few weeks after the hurricane, that isn't anymore. From what I've heard it's completely restored. Hotels have been renovated and are open. Maho Beach is there again like it was never gone. Only if you look carefully you can still see traces of the damage caused by the hurricane, but nothing to worry about.

Thank you very much Patrick! I hope the bargains I saw a couple of days ago remain available until I took my chance!

Best Rgds.
G.

Also, the terminal building has reopened to some extent. No more tents.

Its completely fine, just avoid the cruise ship dates (or spot at later times after the ships leave for the next island) and you'll be fine

stl07 wrote:

Its completely fine, just avoid the cruise ship dates (or spot at later times after the ships leave for the next island) and you'll be fine

Good luck with that, it's one of the busiest island for cruise travel.

As posted above,the island has bounced back well, there are fewer hotel rooms available, but the big ones are pretty much open, though some of them are still construction sites.

The beach bar is open, the beach itself looks good.

Cruise ship schedules can be found here :

http://crew-center.com/philipsburg-st-m ... -june-2019

http://crew-center.com/philipsburg-st-m ... ember-2019

OA260 wrote:

Cruise ship schedules can be found here :

http://crew-center.com/philipsburg-st-m ... -june-2019

http://crew-center.com/philipsburg-st-m ... ember-2019

Wow...there is more cruise ship traffic than in JFK Approach !! But I guess this is part of the fun...
Thanks for the info.

Rgds.
G.

Wow...there is more cruise ship traffic than in JFK Approach !! But I guess this is part of the fun...

Believe me when I say it really is no fun at all when you are on Maho with about two thousand hyped up fat American cruise ship passengers shouting, screaming and 'yeehaing' all afternoon, all wanting to get a shot for instafacegram of a wide body feet above their heads whilst clutching a bucket of some overpriced cocktail. Get there early and grab a good spot and guard that spot with your life!

Have fun!

TravelsUK wrote:

Wow...there is more cruise ship traffic than in JFK Approach !! But I guess this is part of the fun...

Believe me when I say it really is no fun at all when you are on Maho with about two thousand hyped up fat American cruise ship passengers shouting, screaming and 'yeehaing' all afternoon, all wanting to get a shot for instafacegram of a wide body feet above their heads whilst clutching a bucket of some overpriced cocktail. Get there early and grab a good spot and guard that spot with your life!

Have fun!

Jajajaj thanks for this laughable post !! LOL
Rgds.

TravelsUK wrote:

Get there early and grab a good spot and guard that spot with your life!

Or just go when there aren't 5 cruise ships in port... which is most of the time.

As for the island as a whole, it's not what it was, but it's coming back. Orient Bay Beach and Grand Case are still a shell of their former selves, but better than they were just after the hurricane. Other places may be more or less back to normal, but those are just a couple of the biggest destinations.

Personally, I'd give it a couple more years before going back, although you could help them by going back now. I tried to spend as much money as I could afford on my last trip there (3 months after the hurricane).

I just visited last week. All the major tourist spots on the Dutch side are in great shape. I explored off the beaten path on the French side and there's still plenty of devastation and rebuilding going on. But 100% an extremely lovely island with absolutely lovely people.

Oh yea I forgot to add, stick to the dutch side.

If you go when there is more than one cruise ship, or a big one like Anthem of the Seas, just save your money and go to a different beach and spot on a different day, I made the mistake of not following this instruction and left the beach without any real spotting since I was so annoyed and wasted my money.

But apart from that, It will be the time of your life

have fun

TravelsUK wrote:

Wow...there is more cruise ship traffic than in JFK Approach !! But I guess this is part of the fun...

Believe me when I say it really is no fun at all when you are on Maho with about two thousand hyped up fat American cruise ship passengers shouting, screaming and 'yeehaing' all afternoon, all wanting to get a shot for instafacegram of a wide body feet above their heads whilst clutching a bucket of some overpriced cocktail. Get there early and grab a good spot and guard that spot with your life!

Have fun!

Like this?:

tjwgrr wrote:

TravelsUK wrote:

Wow...there is more cruise ship traffic than in JFK Approach !! But I guess this is part of the fun...

Believe me when I say it really is no fun at all when you are on Maho with about two thousand hyped up fat American cruise ship passengers shouting, screaming and 'yeehaing' all afternoon, all wanting to get a shot for instafacegram of a wide body feet above their heads whilst clutching a bucket of some overpriced cocktail. Get there early and grab a good spot and guard that spot with your life!

Have fun!

Like this?:

OMG!! That looks really crowded....but is MAHO Beach anyway....
I’m really doubtful about going now or wait for a couple of years...in some way I think waiting should be the best, so probably that will be.
Thanks to everybody, your inputs were really helpful!!
Best regards
G.

I was on a cruise last March, jet blue and south west were the only scheduled pax flights. There was heavy construction. A year ago i def. Would suggested not to. An excursion to maho was still fun even though we were out on a party boar 50ft from shore. No doubt progress is being made. If this is your best chance go for it, but waiting a year or 2 for the full beauty might not be a bad idea.