St. Martin: Catamarans, Colorful Beach Bars & Planes Overhead

Sunset in Marigot

St. Martin opened with a catamaran day, which might be the best possible way to start a beach trip — sailing out along the coast, stopping to swim and snorkel off small offshore islands, with rum drinks doing the rounds the whole way. It set the tone for the rest of the week: slow mornings, beach hopping, and dinners that ran late.

Our home base days settled into a rhythm fast — pool mornings, then the beach, then sunset drinks with the classic island move: a bucket of ice-cold local beers shared around the table. One night turned into ribs and a proper island dinner overlooking the water as the sun went down; the food here leans casual and unfussy in the best way.

Dinner at Skip Jacks

We spent a full day at Orient Beach, on the French side, easy to pick out from the string of red and blue umbrellas lining the sand. It’s the liveliest beach on the island — beach bars right on the sand, a real social scene, and warm, calm water that’s easy to spend hours in without noticing the time. We stayed out swimming and posing for the requisite too-many beach photos until the light started to turn gold.

Orient Beach

Evenings had their own energy entirely — one night out ended at a beachfront club lit up red and pink, dancing barefoot with sand still on our feet from the day. Mornings after usually meant fruit-and-eggs breakfast plates on a hotel patio and a strong coffee, which we more than once carried straight down to the beach to drink with our toes in the sand — genuinely one of the simple best parts of the whole trip.

No St. Martin trip is complete without Maho Beach, and it delivers exactly what it promises: planes landing low enough overhead that you can see the landing gear and read the markings, close enough that people brace themselves in the sand as they pass. We got the classic shots — plane roaring in right over our heads mid-selfie — and grabbed a photo at the “SXM, I Love St. Maarten” sign nearby, which is basically the island’s unofficial photo booth.

One of our favorite finds was Sunset Beach Bar & Grill, right on Maho Beach against the airport fence — the legendary spot where the planes come in low enough to feel, close enough that the bar itself is basically built around the moment of impact-braced anticipation right before touchdown. We had tacos and sandwiches there while watching yet another plane cut low across the sky on final approach, which by this point in the trip had stopped being surprising and started being the backdrop.

Fish tacos at Sunset bar

By the end of the week the days had blurred together in the best possible way: beach, coffee, plane-spotting, repeat. St. Martin doesn’t ask you to plan much, and that turned out to be exactly the point.

Highlights: Catamaran & snorkeling day · Orient Beach · Maho Beach plane-spotting · The “SXM, I Love St. Maarten” sign · Sunset beers in a bucket