St. Martin, Sint Maarten

 Phillipsburg, Sint Maarten   Sat, April 18, 2026

What a scenic bay!

A modern duty free shopping area in the port

Our destination for the day is Paradise Pic on the west side and Oriental Bay Beach .

The entrance to the port

We walked into the town of Philipsburg in 2013. It was a bit of a trek in the heat. In 2023, we took a tour of the  southwestern part of the island visiting the nude beach and the infamous beach airport.

Today we rented a scooter a half mile out of the port.

They actually picked us up at the port entrance.

 We turned the scooter towards the French side of the island, town of Margot. The scooter zoomed by some pretty churches along the way.

We came to the turn off for Pic Paradise. The road turned from asphalt to gravel to rutted cement.

The views were nice.

The road got too rough to scooter up, so Larry stayed with the bike while I hiked the mile up to the top.

Upon reaching the top, I was surprised to see  cell towers.

Walking past the towers I did find the view.

                                                              The sky was gorgeous.

                                                  Walking back down was a rocky treacherous stretch.

Larry had made friends with these Netherlands folks while waiting for me. 

                                         We rode through a couple upscale neighborhoods...

before finding Oriental Bay Beach.

Oriental Bay Beach is one of the nicest beaches in St. Martin, the French side of the island.

We had a gorgeous ride back to Philipsburg.

We enjoyed walking back to the ship.

It was nice to relax in some cool air and

watch the sun set over the Caribbean as the ship pulled anchor and headed to Grand Turk.

The next time we visit Sint Maartin, (hint, hint Larry) we should plan to take the ferry to Pinel Island.