Hi,
My first post on pprune so here goes.
Fantastic place, I went with my family this Easter & stayed 2 weeks at the La terresse club - opposite the Sonesta. Got a taxi from the airport & then after paying about $20 wished we'd walked! In fact at the end of the holiday we did & walked back to Princess Julianna. Theres a couple of hundred yards of road with no pavement but its not too bad & takes about 15 minutes max. You are in a great resort, we tended to have a meal in the evening & then wander around the locality of Maho & nosied around the other resorts including Sonesta. Sonesta has nice gardens which link up with La Plage next door & all 3 resorts, Sonesta, La Plage & La Terrasse are somehow related.
Lots of restaurants nearby, our favourite, just opposite Sonesta, was Cheri's which was always packed with a great atmosphere & entertainment. Good food & about $20 - $25 per head. Some other nice but quiter places on the little street just at the back of Cheri's. Other more expensive places but we didn't try. The Casino seems to be the centre of the nightlife but we didn't bother as were not into that so much. What we went for was simply the aviation action & thats worth the trip on its own. Nonstop take-offs & landings from 9am - 10pm just about. Mainly bizjets but loads of local island hopping twin otters , regional airliners & the odd A340 & 747 from Europe.
Fantastic experience to be blasted on their take-off run whilst holding onto the perimeter fence or sitting on the beautiful beach watching the jets turn onto long finals & then proceed to float onto the tarmac just feet over your head. Unbelievable!
If you want a memorable daytrip, do what we did, wander along to the airport & book tickets on a twin otter to Saba - the volcanic peak island you can see from your balcony about 20 miles away. Lovely island & the shortest commercial runway in the world, about 300 yds! I'm a PPL flying from Netherthorpe, shortest licenced RW in GB & Saba is shorter with a cliff at each end. Awesome! Sit near the front & watch the pilot make his approach. Cost about $90 each return but the highlight of the holiday. In fact we've decided to return in the near future for a week on Saba & a week on St. Maarten at Maho.
As for car hire, we booked a car for our family of 5 from Sonesta's reception for about $25 per day. I think it's about the cheapest place I've ever booked a car from & no messing around as you pick-up & drop-off where you stay.
I know you'll have a great holiday, we did, any questions then let me know.
cheers
Nick
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