St. Maarten in brief
Most people arrive here asking which beach — Maho, Mullet, Orient, Great Bay.
The better first question is how far you are prepared to be from the gangway at four in the afternoon.
Ships dock at the A.C. Wathey Cruise & Cargo Facility at Point Blanche, on the eastern arm of Great Bay, at roughly 18.0119 north, 63.0461 west.
It is a dock — and our St. Maarten shore excursion guide found nothing describing routine tendering here either.
There are two piers, and the port publishes exactly one of them.
Port St. Maarten's own cruise page gives Pier 2 at 445 metres, taking two ships of over 220,000 gross tons each and more than 6,000 passengers and crew apiece — and stops there.
The older A.C. Wathey Cruise Pier South is widely put at 545 metres, four ships at once, in operation since 2007. None of that is on the port's site — its facilities and history links both land on a coming-soon page — so treat those three numbers as circulated, not published.
That is a lot of people on one small bay. The government's own figures put 1,597,940 cruise visitors through here in 2025 across 592 calls, up from 513 the year before — a 16% increase.
The walk into Philipsburg is the single most-argued number at this port, and we are not going to resolve it for you.
The port's own cruise page says "Walk to Philipsburg in 15 minutes." The Sint Maarten Tourist Bureau says a mere 15 minutes — its word, not ours.
visitstmaarten.com says 10 minutes along the main road outside the port gates — over about a mile, or 1.5 km. cruisehive says under 15 over roughly the same distance.
cruisecrocodile.com says 20 to 30 minutes, and tells you to keep the water on your left.
Our own guide says 10 to 15. All of them are describing the same mile of flat waterfront, and the difference is pace, heat and how many people are doing it at once.
So budget the long end, not the short one — nobody has ever missed a ship by allowing twenty-five minutes for a fifteen-minute walk.
The water taxi is the alternative, and the thing people get wrong about it is what the ticket actually buys.
The Sint Maarten Tourist Bureau's own page says $6 one-day tickets for unlimited rides, sold by one of two private companies. It is a per-person day ticket, not a fare per trip.
cruisehive puts the same day pass at $7 per person. Two other guides describe it differently — cruisecrocodile says $7 adults round trip, and freestyletravelers says about $7 round trip or $5 one way and states flatly that those are individual fares rather than day passes.
We are going with the tourist bureau, because it is the island's own tourism body — a government page, not a guide. Ask at the booth what your ticket covers before you hand over money.
Three stops serve the waterfront: Captain Hodge Wharf, Walter Williams Jetty and Bobby's Marina, all per the port's own page.
The border is the strangest thing about this island, and the most useful.
Driving from Dutch Sint Maarten into French Saint-Martin involves no border stop at all — the State Department says so, and cars pass through without stopping.
It costs nothing and asks for nothing — what changes is everything else.
The Dutch side runs on the Caribbean guilder, legal tender since March 31, 2025 and pegged at 1.79 to the US dollar, with US dollars accepted almost everywhere. The French side runs on euros, and the State Department's French Saint Martin advisory sets a EUR10,000 cash limit on entry and exit.
Taxi fares change character too. Dutch-side fares are a national tariff enacted by law — French-side fares are negotiated before you get in, not metered on the way.
The genuinely hard constraint on this island is not the border — it is two bridges.
The port's own schedule has the Simpson Bay Bridge opening at 8:30, 9:30, 10:30 and 11:30 in the morning and at 2:00, 4:00 and 5:00 in the afternoon, with the Causeway Swing Bridge at 8:00, 10:00 and 4:30.
Road traffic stops while a bridge is up, and no schedule anywhere says how long an opening lasts — not the port's, not the operator's.
Clear Simpson Bay before that four-to-five o'clock cluster, not during it.
Which excursion is worth the drive, and which is a coach seat with a view, is the job of our St. Maarten shore excursion guide.
On foot from the ship
The port and the tourist bureau both say 15 minutes, visitstmaarten says 10, and cruisecrocodile says 20 to 30 — one flat mile, four answers. It is a flat waterfront mile with the sea on your left, and the spread is about heat and crowds rather than distance.
Great Bay is the near end of the same waterfront, so the sand arrives well before Front Street does — visitstmaarten's about-a-mile figure describes the town centre, not this. Beach bars rent chair-and-umbrella packages by the day, and the price is worth asking before you sit down.
The Sint Maarten Tourist Bureau's own page gives $6 one-day tickets for unlimited rides, from one of two private companies, stopping at Captain Hodge Wharf, Walter Williams Jetty and Bobby's Marina. Other guides quote $7, and some describe it as a per-trip fare rather than a day ticket.
Duty-free outlets, market stalls, bars, restaurants, a dedicated cab stand and the tour pickup points, per the port's own description — plus over 100 cabs waiting, so the queue is rarely the problem.
The State Department says there are no border controls and cars pass through without stopping. You cross by road, not by queue — but the currency, the fare system and the entry rules all change on the other side.
Great Bay Express sails for Saint-Barthélemy from Bobby's Marina in Philipsburg — a walk or a water-taxi hop from the pier. That makes it the one off-island trip you can reach without a road at all.
What's nearby, broadly
The first four of those are a walk or a water-taxi hop, and everything from Maho onward is a road trip through Simpson Bay, which is where the bridges live. So the list is really two lists, split by whether a raised bridge can stand between you and the ship — and the French-side entries at the far end all sit on the wrong side of that question.
Commonly reached from
This is one of the Eastern Caribbean's busiest calls, with Royal Caribbean, Celebrity, Carnival, MSC, Holland America, Norwegian and Disney all regular, per our Caribbean cruise guide, and itineraries carrying it very often also call at St. Thomas and Tortola. The ranked tour decision for this port lives in our St. Maarten shore excursion guide.
Planning your St. Maarten day
The specific picks — which paid excursion is actually worth it, what to skip, and why — already have their own dedicated guide, built and kept current on its own schedule. This page stays at the port-identity level on purpose; that one goes deep.
Booking a tour yourself? Our comparison of Shore Excursions Group and Viator covers which of the two suits which kind of port day — and when the ship’s own tour is still the better buy.
Best St. Maarten shore excursions
St. Maarten shore excursions weighed against the drive back: Maho's jet blast warning, fixed taxi fares, Pinel, Orient Bay and bridge openings.
See the full excursion guide →Practical notes
Money on this island is two systems, and only one of them is obvious.
The Dutch side's currency is the Caribbean guilder, legal tender since March 31, 2025 on the Central Bank's own page, pegged at US$1 to Cg1.79.
The old Netherlands Antillean guilder stayed legal tender to June 30, 2025 at one for one — and it is gone now.
US dollars are accepted almost everywhere on the Dutch side, and most cruise-facing prices are quoted in dollars anyway.
The French side runs on euros. Some places list dollars alongside — and the exchange you get in a restaurant is a convenience rate, not a bank rate.
The State Department's French Saint Martin page also sets a EUR10,000 maximum on cash carried in or out. That is a rule about the French border, not about the island crossing.
Entry is the easiest part of this port, and our Caribbean hub states the useful version of it.
Neither side needs a visa for US citizens, and cruise day-visitors do not need the ED entry card at all — the ship's ID is what you carry.
Crossing between the two sides needs nothing at all. The State Department says there are no border controls — cars pass through without stopping.
Leaving the island is different. Anguilla and Saint-Barthélemy are separate jurisdictions with real immigration, so carry a passport if either is on your plan.
The French advisory asks arriving visitors for a passport valid six months beyond arrival and no visa under three months, with proof of lodging and onward travel. As a cruise caller you are not arriving in that sense, but the rules describe the place you are walking into.
Both advisories are Level 1, and both were reissued in August 2026.
The Dutch side is Level 1, Exercise Normal Precautions, issued August 24, 2026 — and the French side is Level 1 too, issued August 14, 2026.
The Dutch-side advisory names one specific place, and it is not a neighbourhood.
It says do not attempt to experience the jet blast of approaching and departing aircraft at Maho Beach, because it can result in serious injury or death.
Watch the landings from the sand, not from the fence — a tourist died there in 2017.
On ordinary crime both advisories are calm. The Dutch one notes frequent petty theft in tourist zones and says most crimes against foreigners are crimes of opportunity, and the French one flags petty street crime including purse snatching.
Getting around splits by which country you are standing in.
Dutch-side taxi fares are a national tariff enacted by law, under the 2020 decree and last updated in 2022 per visitstmaarten.com — zone fares, not meter readings.
The headline fare disagrees with itself across sources, and we are printing the spread rather than picking. From the cruise port to Maho, visitstmaarten's national tariff page shows $20 for one or two, $9 each for three to five and $8 each for six or more; the Sint Maarten Tourist Bureau's own taxi page shows $25 for one or two and $9 each for three to five.
You may see a $25, $10 and $9 scale quoted elsewhere, our own excursion guide included. The $10 middle tier is on neither published page, so we leave it out.
Waiting time is the fee people forget. The first five minutes are free, then it is $5 per 15 minutes — worth knowing before you ask a driver to hold at Maho while you wait for a jet.
French-side fares are negotiated rather than fixed — agree the price, the currency and the return pickup before you get in, not at the end.
There is no Uber or Lyft here. Over 100 cabs wait at the terminal on the port's own figure — and a booking app launched in 2024.
Public minibuses run from Emmaplein station, five to ten minutes' walk from the pier — and that guide puts the Maho ride at about 30 minutes.
The bridges are the one thing on this page that can genuinely cost you the ship.
The port's own schedule has the Simpson Bay Bridge opening outbound at 8:30am, inbound at 9:30am, outbound at 10:30am and inbound at 11:30am, then inbound at 2:00pm, outbound at 4:00pm and inbound at 5:00pm.
The Causeway Swing Bridge opens at 8:00am, 10:00am and 4:30pm.
Road traffic stops while a bridge is up, and no source we can reach says how long an opening lasts — that is an unknown you plan around, not one you estimate.
For anything past Simpson Bay or on the French side, aim to be back at the pier 90 minutes before all-aboard — 90, not 60. No official buffer guidance exists for this port, so that is our number rather than the port's.
Your line sets all-aboard. Use the time in the ship's daily program, not the one you remember from booking.
Crowding, connectivity and the accessibility gap.
This is a busy port and the numbers say so. The government reported 1,597,940 cruise visitors in 2025 across 592 calls, against 513 in 2024 — a 16% rise in passengers, with calls up about 15%.
On a stacked day the water taxis fill, the beach chairs go early and Front Street gets packed. Check how many ships are in before you decide the walk is the relaxing option.
Accessibility is where this port has the thinnest information of anywhere on this page — thinner than the taxi tariff, which is saying something. Our St. Maarten guide found nothing reliable for the pier, the water taxis, the beaches or the adventure parks, and neither did we.
Carnival sells an island tour it calls fully wheelchair accessible, with a lift or ramp vehicle and a route avoiding steps — and Celebrity lists Philipsburg among its ports with accessible tours, arranged by email rather than booked online.
Ask your line directly before you book anything here. A port this large publishing this little on access is a gap worth naming rather than working around.
Sources: Seabound Journeys' own Caribbean cruise guide and St. Maarten shore excursion guide, Port St. Maarten's own cruise and SLAC pages (portstmaarten.com), the Sint Maarten Tourist Bureau (vacationstmaarten.com), visitstmaarten.com's national taxi tariff and cruise pages, the Government of Sint Maarten's own 2025 arrivals release (sintmaartengov.org, February 27, 2026), the Centrale Bank van Curacao en Sint Maarten (centralbank.cw), the U.S. Department of State (travel.state.gov, Sint Maarten advisory issued August 24, 2026 and French Saint Martin advisory issued August 14, 2026), cruisehive.com, cruisecrocodile.com, freestyletravelers.com and the berth coordinate from OpenStreetMap via Mapcarta — all consulted September 21, 2026.
Planning a St. Maarten port day?
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St. Maarten FAQ
Where do cruise ships dock in St. Maarten?
At the A.C. Wathey Cruise & Cargo Facility at Point Blanche, on the eastern arm of Great Bay, at roughly 18.0119 north, 63.0461 west.
There are two piers, and Port St. Maarten publishes one of them. Its cruise page gives Pier 2 at 445 metres, taking two ships of over 220,000 gross tons each with more than 6,000 passengers and crew apiece.
The older A.C. Wathey Cruise Pier South is widely given at 545 metres, four ships at once, in operation since 2007 — but not by the port, whose facilities and history links both go to a coming-soon page. We print those as circulated figures rather than as the port's.
Which line uses which is not published either, so check your ship's port-day information.
Can I walk from the cruise pier into Philipsburg?
Yes, and it is about a mile of flat waterfront with the sea on your left.
How long it takes is genuinely disputed. The port's own page and the Sint Maarten Tourist Bureau both say 15 minutes, visitstmaarten.com says 10, cruisehive says under 15, and cruisecrocodile.com says 20 to 30.
Our own guide says 10 to 15. Budget the long end, not the short one — the variable is heat and crowds, not distance.
How much is the water taxi, and is it per person per day?
It is a per-person day ticket, and the Sint Maarten Tourist Bureau's own page prices it at $6 for one-day tickets giving unlimited rides, sold by one of two private companies.
Sources disagree about both the price and the structure. cruisehive puts the same day pass at $7 per person.
cruisecrocodile.com describes $7 for adults as a round-trip fare, and freestyletravelers.com says about $7 round trip or $5 one way, stating these are individual fares rather than day passes. We follow the tourist bureau, and we would still ask at the booth what your ticket covers.
Where does the water taxi stop?
Three points on the Philipsburg waterfront: Captain Hodge Wharf, Walter Williams Jetty and Bobby's Marina, per the port's own page.
Bobby's Marina is the one worth noting — it is where Great Bay Express sails for Saint-Barthélemy, which makes that the one off-island trip you can reach without touching a road.
Do I need a passport to cross to the French side?
No. The State Department says there are no border controls between Dutch Sint Maarten and French Saint-Martin, and cars pass through without stopping.
Carry the ID your cruise line requires for reboarding — and carry a passport if Anguilla or Saint-Barthélemy is on your plan.
Those are separate jurisdictions with real immigration, not an open road.
What changes when I cross the border, if not the paperwork?
Money and fares, mostly. The Dutch side runs on the Caribbean guilder, legal tender since March 31, 2025 and pegged at 1.79 to the US dollar, with US dollars accepted almost everywhere.
The French side runs on euros, and its taxi fares are negotiated rather than set by tariff. Agree the price, the currency and the return pickup before you get in, not when you arrive.
When do the Simpson Bay bridges open?
The port's own schedule has the Simpson Bay Bridge opening outbound at 8:30am, inbound at 9:30am, outbound at 10:30am and inbound at 11:30am, then inbound at 2:00pm, outbound at 4:00pm and inbound at 5:00pm.
The Causeway Swing Bridge opens at 8:00am, 10:00am and 4:30pm.
Road traffic stops while a bridge is up, and nobody publishes how long an opening lasts. Plan to clear Simpson Bay before the four-to-five o'clock cluster, not during it.
How much is a taxi from the cruise port to Maho Beach?
Somewhere between $20 and $25 for one or two riders, and the two official-looking pages genuinely disagree. visitstmaarten.com's national tariff page shows $20 for one or two, $9 each for three to five and $8 each for six or more; the Sint Maarten Tourist Bureau's own taxi page shows $25 for one or two and $9 each for three to five.
That guide adds a $10 middle tier to the same scale. It appears on neither page, so we are not carrying it — a figure with no source is worse than a spread with two.
Dutch-side rates are a national tariff enacted by law rather than a meter reading, under the 2020 decree and last updated in 2022. Waiting time costs $5 per 15 minutes after the first five minutes free, which matters if you ask a driver to hold while you wait for a jet.
Is Maho Beach safe?
The beach is. The stunt is not, and the State Department names it directly.
The Dutch-side advisory, Level 1 and issued August 24, 2026, says do not attempt to experience the jet blast of approaching and departing aircraft at Maho Beach, because it can result in serious injury or death.
A tourist died there in 2017. Watch landings from the sand, stay off the airport fence and hold on to loose belongings.
How busy is this port?
Among the busiest in the Eastern Caribbean, and the government publishes the figures itself. The island recorded 1,597,940 cruise visitors in 2025 across 592 ship visits, against 513 in 2024, an overall 16% increase.
On a multi-ship day that shows up as full water taxis, early-gone beach chairs and a packed Front Street. Check how many ships are in before you assume the walk into town is the calm option.
What is at the cruise terminal itself?
Harbour Point Village, which the port describes as duty-free outlets, souvenir shops, market stalls, bars, restaurants, tour and excursion coordination points, designated bus tour stands and a dedicated cab stand.
The port also says over 100 cabs wait at the terminal.
Getting a ride is rarely the problem here. Agreeing what it costs is.
Is the port accessible for a wheelchair user?
We cannot tell you, and that is the honest answer. Our St. Maarten guide found no reliable accessibility information for the pier, the water taxis, the beaches or the adventure parks, and a fresh look found nothing either.
What exists is at the cruise lines rather than the port. Carnival sells an island tour it calls fully wheelchair accessible, with a lift or ramp vehicle and a route avoiding steps.
Celebrity lists Philipsburg among its ports with accessible tours arranged by email. Ask your line before you sail, not at the gangway.
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