We visited Saint Maarten on our 2022 Caribbean Cruise. The island is interesting in that it is split between 2 different countries. France controls the northern half and refers to it as Saint Martin, while the Netherlands claim the southern half, calling it Sint Maarten. Since the cruise ship docked in the port in Philipsburg, I’ll refer to it as Sint Maarten.
We had previously visited Sint Maarten in November of 2013, staying in a resort on Simpson Bay and exploring the island and as many of its 37 beaches as we could. Since we were familiar with the island, we decided to rent a car at the docks to revisit a few of our favorite places and try to explore some that we didn’t get a chance to previously.
In September 2017, Hurricane Irma, a Category 5 hurricane, hit Saint Maarten and caused widespread damage. It was reported that 70% of the infrastructure on the Dutch side had been destroyed. It was gut-wrenching to see the videos and pictures of this beautiful place we had fallen in love with just a few years earlier. Five years later, we could still see signs of damage left over from the storm. It was sad driving through these areas and observing the changes to these beautiful areas.
Our first stop was Kim Sha Beach on Simpson Bay. We wanted to revisit some of the places we had enjoyed on our first visit. It was a little early to get a drink at Buccaneer Beach Bar, so we wandered along the beach until they opened at 11 AM.
Before lunch, we decided to stop by a couple more beaches in that area. On our last visit, we had taken some awesome pictures at Mullet Bay Beach. The rocky cliffs at Cupecoy Bay were as stunning as we remembered. I had to be careful of the direction I took pictures, as there were some other visitors enjoying the only nude beach on the Dutch side of the island!
Next, we had to go to Karakter’s on the beach for lunch. True to its name, it has a ton of character and has the greatest view of the beach. The kitchen is built in an old bus that is parked on the beach. A wooden deck and lots of beach chairs provide seating for customers.
As of 2024, they’ve modernized the entire restaurant and rebranded as just “K” Beach Club and Restaurant. I think it looks nice but has lost the charming character it once had.
We drove up to the French side of the island to try to find a couple of beaches we didn’t have time to stop at during our last visit. It seemed the French side had more damage that hadn’t been repaired since the 2017 hurricane. Several beaches were behind private resort areas, and the road to Lover’s Beach showed that it had been abandoned for some years. We still drove down and walked along the rocky beach. We planned to drop off the rental car and visit Pirates in Paradise along the boardwalk of Little Bay bridge. During our last visit, we chatted with the owners, who were from our home state of Ohio. The bar is full of Ohio State sports memorabilia. Unfortunately, an approaching storm rushed us back to the ship.
