Hi Stampers:

I thought I would share  a little  about St Maarten  and  what I have  learned about this beautiful island  since being here :

Click on any photo to enlarge your viewing 🙂

St Maarten /St Martin 2 names  for 2 difference  areas  St Maarten is the dutch  side  and St Martin is the  French side.

The Island is ONLY  37 sq miles and has 37  beaches  1 beach for every mile of the island and all beaches are topless and the  water is the most beautiful  turq. I have ever  seen .  Approx 80,000 people live on the island. Everything (  stores/shops/) closes  here around 6:00-6:30pm  the only  thing open late are the clubs / casinos/ restaurants . Alot of places are closed on Sundays . We did  find 1 grocery store  in Phillipsburg open on Sunday

Maho Beach is the most unique since this is located at the ocean – approach end of Juliana International airport Planes comes in  less then 50 ft  over your head. It really is a sight  to see  and  kinda spooky.

Orient beach  is the most active  beach on the island  and is 3/4  of a mile long  lots  to do at this beach BUT  beware the  southern end of the beach is  for Nudest  or what they like to call Naturist:)

There is even a named Dawn Beach how cool is that . we have also been to Mullet Bay Band Baie Rouge Beach.

Shopping: 2 awesome places for  Great  shopping  Phillipsburg( Dutch side ) and Marigot  Market (French side)  we have  been to both  and  they are  really  Great Plus  you  can always make a  bargain  I got a beautiful beach cover up   that  was  selling for $55.00 for $20.00. You can get ( 3 ) t -shirts  for $15.00  and Jessie  and I both got 2  sundresses in  tropical prints  for $12.00 each 

Duty FREE shopping:  All shopping is Duty FREE  which is  also  nice .  US citizens  regardless of age  who have been out of the country  for  a minimum of 48 hours and have not used their  duty free allowance  within 30 days  are  allowed $800.00  duty free tax exemption  for family  members  who live in the  same home  and  return together can pool  their  exemptions  so  Rich, Jessie and I  will have  a total of 2,400.00  worth of duty  free articles . Which I might add it a LOT  since everything is  sooo inexpensive here .

US money  is BEST But  if you plan to use  your  credit card do so at  your  own risk since the credit card company will charge  you a  exchange  rate  and  their  rate is NOT  good  +  you  will also be charged  an international  fee  No need to  exchange  US $  to Euro since  the island  will accept  US dollar and will be to your advantage.

Dawns Side note:

Shopping  at local stores/grocery most  price items in NAF  just keep in mind  that the dollar  amount is usually 1/2 that what is listed ob the item , So if a item is 16.00 in NAF  the US dollar amount  would be about $8.00

Transportation :  Small cars, jeeps, 4 wheelers , scooters  and motorcycles and of course  walking  No  stop lights  and  no stop signs  they have alot of  round abouts  here  which helps  with heavy traffic  areas . Everyone beeps their horns   and  you  either  move fast  or get out of the way 🙂 Hey thats my type of driving Hee! Hee! roads are very narrow & It is amazing driving  up hill 

Food : The food is amazing  Here. There is a sunset  dinner  cruise  that is amazing . They have American fast food places here  as well ( McDonals / BK/ KFC/ Pizza Hut/ Sub way  even though  we have not  ate there to see if they taste the same BUT I am pretty sure they do .The drive thur's are  really  different here also.

Temps: always  high 80's-100's  with very high  humidity   which makes it  feel very sticky.  Bring Lots of  sunscreen.  We had one  rain storm since  being here  and it  didn't  last long  If you  seen my photo gallery  you can view  the  double rainbow photo we seen after the  storm.

Loterie Farms  for  easy- ride  zip lines , At least 13 Casinos are all over the island as well if thats your thing .

If I could  sum up our vacation so far in 2 words~ 

LOVE IT!!

P.S scroll down  to view the  video I posted last night  Another video will be posted later  tonight as well stay tuned