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St. Maarten Without an Excursion (Private $120 Island Tour!)

Ed and Mai WanderFree Retirees
Ed and Mai WanderFree Retirees
Casual
👁️ 34 views📅 1 months ago⏱️ 23:05
What This Creator Said
Creator RecommendsCruise VlogCasual Creator
👶 Best for Family (Young Kids)Caribbean

Source: Our analysis of the creator's lived experience, based on what they said in this video.

Creator's Key Takeaways

We are continuing our 50 days on the Caribbean and um we are in St. Martin, I think is how it's pronounced today.

This is our first time ever being here.

We got family with us today. So, um, we're enjoying having family with us on this adventure.

We are always excited to go new place.

Creator's Tips & Advice

Hire a local taxi driver for the day instead of pre-booking an expensive cruise ship excursion.
Be prepared for busy roads and congestion when multiple ships are in port.

🆕New to Cruising? This Creator Addresses:

Navigating a new island with multiple languages and sides (Dutch and French).Walk around to explore both the Dutch and French sides, and consider using local buses to get around.

Questions This Creator Answers

QWhat can you do in St. Maarten without booking an excursion?
QHow can you save money while exploring a cruise port on your own?

Topics Covered

Port Destination1½ Happy BaconExcursions2½ Happy Bacon

Port Highlights

St. Maarten2 Happy Bacon
Top:
How to read the Trip Bacon Score
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Sad Bacon — creators took issue with this
Meh — no strong opinion either way

Scale: 0–5 strips in half-step increments. 0 = “meh”, 5 = “bacon bliss”. Aggregated from creator-review sentiment, weighted by channel expertise.

About our Bacon Score methodology
YouTube Video Description

Welcome back to our 50 Days of Cruising the Caribbean series! 🌴🚢 In this series, we’re visiting 13 different cruise ports without booking excursions—showing you what you can do on your own and how to save money along the way. 👉 In most of our previous episodes, we stayed close to port or explored nearby towns on foot. But in St. Maarten, we decided to try something a little different… Instead of pre-booking an expensive cruise ship excursion, we hired a local taxi driver for the day. ✔️ $120 total (for all four of us) ✔️ Private tour ✔️ Comfortable air-conditioned minivan And it gave us the freedom to see so much more of the island. During our day, we: Walked through shallow water to Îlet de Pinel 🏝️ Climbed up to Fort Louis for amazing views Crossed the famous Simpson Bay Bridge Watched planes land just overhead at Maho Beach ✈️ right next to Princess Juliana International Airport This ended up being one of the best ways we’ve explored a port so far—still no cruise excursion, but with the added benefit of a private, customizable experience for less money. 👉 If you’ve been following our series, this is a great example of how you can go beyond the port without overspending. 🎥 This video is part of our full series: 50 Days of Cruising the Caribbean – 13 Ports, No Excursions Be sure to check out the rest of the ports to see what you can do on your own at each stop! 👍 If you’re enjoying this series, don’t forget to LIKE & SUBSCRIBE! #StMaarten #CaribbeanCruise #CruiseTips #CruiseVlog #NoExcursion #MahoBeach #PinelIsland #FortLouis