Saint Martin / Sint Maarten, Caribbean

This island is divided into 2 countries, the northern French side called Saint Martin and is part of France and the EU. The southern Dutch side called Sint Maarten and is part of the Kingdom of the Netherlands.

The island lies east of the US Virgin Islands and south of Anguilla and is one of the Leeward Islands

The capital of the French side is Marigot. Philipsburg is the capital of the Dutch part.
The Dutch side is more developed with a faster pace of life and they have renovated more after Hurricane Irma. . Vehicles left hand drive.

We docked at Philipsburg on the Dutch side -

As we got off, there was a small steel band to welcome us

I got a shared taxi with others for an island tour.

We went up a hill and into the French side -

We went down to Orient Bay. This area was devastated by hurricane Irma (Sept 2017)and the old established resort, Club Orient was ruined. We saw the nudist beach then stopped at the next beach and I went for a paddle -

Then on to Grand Case on the other side, also badly destroyed by Irma. Then down to Marigot the capital. The marinas were badly destroyed during Irma. View of Marigot -

 The tourist market -

We then went back to the Dutch side and onto the famous airport, Princess Juliana International Airport. This is located right by Maho beach and is known for planes passing overhead. In the past people used to hold onto the fence to experience the jet blast but this has now been banned. Also the KLM 747 no longer flies here. It has been replaced by a smaller Airbus - the A330.

There are still videos on youtube showing large planes landing and taking off, such as here and here.
The beach was absolutely packed with holidaymakers. We had 20 min here and were lucky enough to see 4 or 5 planes coming in. Seeing this was a highlight for me.

Made our way back to the ship but the traffic was terrible, especially in the one way street in Philipsburg. View over Philipsburg -