yellow plane
When we took our granddaughter Hannah on a Caribbean cruise, the one thing she said she wanted to do was see the airplanes at Maho Beach at our port stop in Saint Martin – which is actually Sint Maarten since both the airport and cruise port are on the Dutch side of the part Dutch and part French island. There was also another teen and her mom with us so we had a group of 5 on this cruise.
airplane coming in for a landing
Princess Juliana airport sits just across a narrow road from Maho Beach so when airplanes come in for a landing they fly very low over that beach. People like to go there to get photos of the underside of airplanes flying directly overhead.
don’t be stupid
There’s a warning sign on the fence next to the runway because people used to hang onto that fence when planes took off and get blown off by the jetwash, which resulted in injuries for some people. Now there is a secondary fence where they’d likely get blown into barbed wire if they tried that.
airplane approaching the beach
The first time we went to Maho Beach it was a big beach with a little beach bar. There was a surfboard standing upright out on the beach with the day’s schedule of all the large airplanes landing there. The beach had lots of space for people to relax in beach chairs and wait for planes to fly overhead. Some people went in the water.
once the planes get close they fly over quickly
The next time we saw Maho Beach some years later there was practically no beach at all. People perched on the rocks next to the narrow road to watch for planes. The once small bar had morphed into a giant bar attached to a shopping area with a pool. Someone there said that a storm had taken all the sand away, but it would come back so we didn’t really know what to expect this visit.
plane over the beach
Symphony of the Seas was the 4th of 4 ships to arrive so the port was quite crowded when we disembarked the ship. The line of people waiting for water taxi tickets was so long that they probably could have walked to town quicker than waiting to buy a ticket and then waiting again for the water taxi. The shops were full of people too. When we got to the taxi stand there was quite a long line. Most of the people want to go to Maho Beach so they filled van after van of people going there and the line moved fairly quickly. The fare was for a round trip so we were given wristbands that would allow us on for the return trip and told where to meet the vans from that company since there were others at the beach.
little beach by the Sand Bar
As to be expected by the constant stream of vans heading there, Maho Beach was pretty crowded. The original Sunset Bar now has the surfboard that was once out on the beach enclosed within the bar, but it still has the schedule of the days large airplanes written on it. Another bar called the Sand Bar which was on the other end of the shopping area also had a surfboard, but theirs had a menu instead of the airplane schedule. Both bars have some covered seating area, but the Sunset Bar is on the side where the airplanes land. There was a small bit of beach by the Sand Bar that had no crowd, but would also not have the airplane view that the beach on the other side of the Sunset Bar has.
girls with coconuts
Both of the bars serve food. The Sand Bar had a little stand selling coconuts for drinking coconut water from, and it also had ice cream.
Maho Beach
There was a lot less sand at the beach than on our first visit, but more than on our last. It was still a tiny beach with big beach bars and some shops. There was a bit of sand below the rocks along the road that passes by the end of the runway this time, and some within the rocks as well. There wasn’t much beach so a lot of people sat in the rocks or on the cement barrier between them and the road. Others stood or walked in the road, which barely had enough room for cars going opposite ways to squeak past one another so the multitude of people slowed the traffic considerably, sometimes stopping it entirely.
the cement barrier by the road is where a lot of people sit
The bit of the beach directly in line with the runway was solidly filled with people so we found a spot on the cement barrier a short distance from there. The two teen girls went out into the water for a bit and we all saw a lot of planes and a couple of helicopters. Small private planes come in between the larger commercial planes so there are a lot more landings than what the schedule on the surfboard shows.
small plane
Instead of going to Maho beach, people can take excursions on a boat that will hang out in the water under where the planes fly over so they can see the low flying aircraft without ever setting foot on the beach. There were several boats out in the water, but they did not come close to the beach so it was safe for people to swim. The girls said the swimming was good, which most likely meant that the water was warm since they more hung out in the water than actually swam, as was the case with most of the people in the water.
distant plane
Looking out over the water and in the sky beyond, the first clue that an airplane is coming is distant lights on the horizon, which eventually materialize into a plane. They start out as a distant speck, but it doesn’t take long before the plane is over the beach and gone. From the viewing area at the edge of the Sunset Bar or the beach adjacent you get a bit different perspective, but still a good view.
pool in the shopping area
The little pool in the little shopping area looked kind of like nobody ever used it. Which is likely the case since there is a beach there. One of the shops on the side by the parking area sold sweet treats and for awhile they had free samples.
beach and shops in Phillipsburg by the port
If you want a beach for beach purposes there are better ones on the island. There’s a really nice one right at Phillipsburg by the port which people can get to by water taxi or on foot. For snorkeling there are other better beaches elsewhere on the island. For parasailing and water toys there’s Orient Beach on the French side. Taxis aren’t as easy to come by going anywhere but Maho Beach, but there was a separate line at the taxi stand for people who wanted to go elsewhere so it is possible.
American Airlines plane
Maho Beach is all about the planes. If you want to see planes fly close overhead it’s the place to be. Otherwise not. The beach is small and very crowded. Our taxi van driver said it’s the smallest beach on the island, though likely it’s also the most popular one because of the airplanes headed into the runway across the street.
Cruise Stories 