Maho, St. Maarten

For us, a great find in St. Maarten on the Dutch-side is the Maho. This hotel is very close to the airport ($7 taxi) and is located across the street from some very nice restaurants of varying price ranges.

The rooms are very comfortable and the air-conditioning is as fine as you would find in the United States. Finding food at the hotel itself is very inconvenient and a breakfast is not included in the room package price.

The beach next to the hotel is very short. It takes three minutes to walk from one end to the other. The water is as blue and spectacular as you would find in Barbados, but the beach is very crowded. A jewel we discovered this trip is Mullet Bay. This beach is found in the opposite direction of the airport and beach next to the hotel. It is located next to the golf course just before you get to American University (the medical school). If you go to this beach before 9h30 a.m. you will find that you get the entire beach to yourself. It takes only about 10 minutes to walk to this beach from the hotel and is truly one of the finest beaches we have found in the Caribbean.

Now with this all said, our preferred stop in St. Maarten/St. Martin is still the French side in Grand Case, but if you do not have a rental car and want to be near the airport, the Maho Hotel is a great choice.