Carnival season in St. Maarten (SXM) / St. Martin is pure vibes on both the Dutch and French side of the island. But once the confetti settles and the speakers quiet down, you’ll find an island worth exploring on its own terms—beaches where the water is clear enough to spot fish before it reaches your knees, ziplines through the hills, rum tasted straight from the still, and a speedboat day that reaches both sides of the island.
We’re showing you not just what to do, but how to get there—which bus, which stop, what it costs, and where the free parking is. Here are the best things to do in SXM when you’re not at Carnival.
The island celebrates two carnivals each year—St. Maarten Carnival (on the Dutch side, usually in April–May) and Saint Martin Carnival (on the French side, often in February). Each has its own unique vibe: the Dutch side brings the big fetes, pageants, and road parades, while the French side keeps it rooted in traditional masquerade and live music.
You can check out both carnival programs by clicking below:
Whether you’re here before the bands roll out, resting between events, or extending your trip, these activities are among the best things to do in SXM beyond Carnival.
This is one island with two Carnival seasons, so “when to come” depends on which one you’re building your trip around.
Carnaval de St. Martin on the French side runs January 30 – February 10, 2027, centred in Marigot. St. Maarten Carnival on the Dutch side runs April 15 – May 3, 2027, centred in Philipsburg. They’re months apart, so you’re picking one—not catching both on the same trip.
Either way, the pattern is the same: the early days are build-up and the road events land at the end. If you want the parades, arrive for the final stretch. If you’d rather have the island to yourself, come in at the start of a season or stay on after it closes. That’s when the ziplines and the distillery tours are at their easiest—no crowds, no road closures, and tours running on normal schedules.
Give yourself seven to ten days if you’re combining Carnival with the activities in this guide. Four or five days will cover the road, but the daytime experiences are the first thing that gets cut when the schedule tightens.
One thing to plan around: the full 2027 daily schedules for both Carnivals haven’t been published yet. Book flights and accommodation around the season dates above, then slot your activities in once the programmes drop.
These make the list for one reason: the water. It’s clear enough that you can see fish swimming around your ankles before the sea even reaches your knees—no boat, no tour, no snorkel trip required. Three trips: two on the Dutch side, one on the French.
Do these two together. They’re on the same road, the same bus route, and they’re a short walk apart, but they give you completely different afternoons.
Maho is the one everyone knows—the beach at the end of the Princess Juliana runway where planes come in low enough to feel it. It’s a thrill for a few hours rather than a full beach day, and there’s a good reason for that: you won’t find beach chairs or umbrellas here, because the jet blast would take them. Tortugas is the spot to sit if you want the planes and a quieter piece of sand at the same time, and Maho Village behind the beach has plenty of places to eat.
Then walk over to Mullet Bay and put your towel down properly. It’s long, scenic, and quiet enough that you can always find your own stretch of sand, backed by the Mullet Bay Golf Course running almost to the shoreline with mangrove forest on the lagoon side. The waves here can pick up, so it’s better for floating than for standing still.
Take the bus marked Maho from Philipsburg—about 25 minutes on the Maho/Cupecoy line, under $2. Mullet Bay is about 30 minutes on the same line if you’d rather start there. Buses run frequently but not on a timetable, so tell the driver where you’re headed. Both beaches have their own taxi zones.
Want to know when the planes are coming? Sunset Beach Bar, next door to Sandbar, posts the day’s arrival and departure schedule—worth a look so you’re not standing around guessing. We wouldn’t eat there though. If you’re hungry, go to Sandbar instead.
If you’re driving, park at Mullet Bay—it’s free, no ticket, no stamp, no time limit. At Maho you’ll need to park in the lot and get your ticket stamped at one of the restaurants past the security line to cover the day, and skipping the stamp costs you upwards of $5 on the way out. Sandbar is the one to do it at.
Little Bay sits on the site of the island’s oldest settlement, tucked between Fort William and Fort Amsterdam. The peninsula holding Fort Amsterdam shields the bay from open-sea swell, so the water is calm and clear over a gently shelving sandy bottom—the best of the lot if you actually want to swim, and the easiest with kids.
You don’t have to be staying at Divi Little Bay Beach Resort to use the beach. Just park before the security booth and walk in from there.
That same peninsula is worth walking up. A short hike from the beach takes you to Fort Amsterdam, and while the fort itself isn’t especially well kept, the view is the reason you go—blue water stretching out over Philipsburg and Great Bay below you. It’s the best photo on this side of the island and it costs nothing.
Taxi is the easiest way from Philipsburg, and Little Bay has its own taxi zone so the fare is set before you get in. Walking is doable, but budget more than you’d think—from the Boardwalk it’s closer to 27 minutes, and it depends where in Philipsburg you start. There’s no bus service along this stretch, so don’t plan on catching one.
Head to the far end of the beach near the rocks. There are chairs under a tree there you can use for free, in the shade. The chairs out on the open sand are the ones you’d likely be paying for—but you never have to rent anything to spend the day here. You can also walk the coast from Little Bay straight over to Belair Beach, so it’s an easy two-beach day on foot.
Orient Bay and Le Galion are the two French-side beaches everyone sends you to, and right now both are covered in sargassum—the brown seaweed that piles up along the shoreline and takes the swim with it. These two are where we’d send you instead. Same coast, still clear, and one leads to the other on foot.
Friar’s Bay sits between Marigot and Grand Case in a quiet residential pocket, and it’s where Saint-Martiners actually go. The water is calm and sheltered enough that locals swim laps in it morning and evening. You can rent loungers from the restaurants on the sand, and there are two very different lunches waiting—French cooking at one end of the beach, Caribbean at the other. Creole accras, fish tartare, cocktails with or without the rum. The Friar’s Bay Sailing Club rents dinghies, kayaks, paddleboards, and snorkel gear year-round. Come on a Sunday or during school holidays and you’ll find barbecues at either end of the beach, music going, families spread across the sand.
From the north end, a ten-minute walk over the clifftops brings you to Happy Bay—white sand, turquoise water, coconut palms, and nothing else. No bars, no shacks, no chairs, so bring your own cold drinks. The tourist office calls it one of the most beautiful of the island’s thirty-seven beaches, and the walk is easy enough to do barefoot.
Drive or take a taxi from Marigot. This isn’t a stretch where you want to be relying on a bus. There’s no road to Happy Bay at all—the walk from Friar’s Bay is the way in.
For a flavorful cultural experience, stop by Topper’s Rhum Distillery in Cole Bay—another must on the list of best things to do in SXM. The guided tour walks you through the process of making their award-winning rum, from fermentation to bottling, then into the barrel aging room where you learn to properly nose and taste it. You’ll get unlimited tastings of their six signature rhums and their famous rum cake, and you may even get to try some of the 100+ flavors still in development. Book your spot below and go thirsty.
Topper’s is at 60 Welfare Road in Cole Bay, on the stretch heading toward Simpson Bay—right on the Philipsburg–Maho bus route, with minibuses running throughout the day. Take any bus marked Simpson Bay or Maho, $1–3 USD, and either tell the driver where you’re going or watch for the big blue Topper’s sign on your right. You can’t miss it. Taxi works too; Topper’s is in the Cole Bay taxi zone.
One of the best things to do in SXM for adrenaline lovers is visiting Rainforest Adventures at Rockland Estate. Start with the Soualiga Sky Explorer, a chairlift that glides high above the lush hills, then zip across Sentry Hill for breathtaking 360° island views. If you’re brave enough, take on the Flying Dutchman, one of the steepest ziplines in the world.
I’ll be honest—the Sky Explorer wasn’t for me. I’m afraid of heights, and the chairlift moves slowly, which only stretched out the part I was dreading. My husband and my niece went up to the top without me and came back raving about the views while I waited at the bottom for the ride down. So take that as information rather than a warning: if you’re there for the view or the photos, you’ll probably love it. If heights aren’t your thing, know that the pace won’t do you any favors.
Located in Cul de Sac on the Dutch side, Rainforest Adventures is about a 15-minute drive from Philipsburg and easily accessible by car or taxi. If you’re traveling like a local, you can hop on a public minibus headed toward St. Peters (look for the sign on the front of the bus).
Most visitors treat Philipsburg as the place the cruise ships dock and leave it at that. Give it a morning and it’s the easiest day on the island to do without a car—everything is within a few blocks of everything else, and most of it costs nothing.
Front Street is the spine of it: pastel Dutch colonial buildings, duty-free shops, and the much-photographed Courthouse, the island’s national symbol. Keep an eye out for the old Guavaberry building at the head of Front Street too—an 1830s National Monument that started life as a house and later became a restaurant. It’s one of the most photographed buildings in town.
Run one street over and you’re on the Boardwalk, which opens straight onto Great Bay Beach. That’s the stretch to walk slowly: bars, local food, and the sea on one side the whole way.
Every bus line on the Dutch side starts and ends in Philipsburg, so this is the easiest place on the island to reach without a car. Minibuses stop at Emmaplein, a short walk from Front Street. If you’re driving, there’s parking along Pondfill Road and more at Bobby’s Marina.
Come early. Philipsburg fills up when the cruise ships empty out, and Front Street is a different street at 9am than it is at noon.
Full disclosure: this is the one thing on this list I haven’t done myself. I’m including it because it’s the highest-rated water experience on the island and because it keeps coming up from visitors who want more than a beach day.
It’s six hours, five stops, and both sides of the island. You snorkel at Tintamarre in the French nature reserve, stop at Pinel Island, snorkel the reef at Creole Rock, swim at Mullet Bay, and finish anchored off the runway watching the jets come in over your head. Lunch, snacks, and drinks are included, and the boat caps at sixteen people, so it’s a small group rather than a crowd. It leaves from Dock Maarten Marina at 9:30am.
The tour leaves from Dock Maarten Marina in Point Blanche, a 10 to 15 minute walk from the cruise terminal. No public buses run to Point Blanche, so take a taxi or drive — there’s parking at the marina. Don’t plan on catching a bus for a 9:30am departure.
Bring $10 cash per person for the Nature Reserve fee—it’s collected at check-in and it isn’t included in what you pay Viator. Take something for motion sickness too if you’re prone to it; the Atlantic side can get rough and the captain sometimes reorders the stops because of it.
If you want to get up into the hills, that’s its own kind of day. We’ve covered the Loterie Farm trails and the rest of the island’s day trips in our guide to day trips and excursions for St. Maarten Carnival.
Whether you’re coming down from the Carnival rush or just looking to explore the island’s softer side, remember: the island’s energy doesn’t stop when the trucks do. From rum tastings and ziplines to beach days and cultural gems, there’s always something new to experience in St. Maarten / St. Martin.
Yes. Every beach on both sides of the island is free, with no entry fee anywhere across the island’s 37 beaches. A few sit beside resorts, so you may have to walk around or through the property to reach the sand—just tell the guard you’re heading to the beach. At Divi Little Bay, park before the security booth and walk in from there.
It depends where you sit. Beach bars and clubs rent chairs and umbrellas, and some waive the fee if you order food or drinks. But you never have to rent anything—the sand is free, so a towel works fine. At Divi Little Bay, there are chairs under a tree at the far end near the rocks that you can use for free. At Maho you won’t find chairs at all, because the jet blast would take them.
Some of them. Maho and Mullet Bay are both on the Philipsburg to Maho/Cupecoy line, about 25 and 30 minutes respectively, for $1–3 USD. Little Bay is not—there is no bus service along that stretch, so take a taxi or walk. The French-side beaches are not a realistic bus trip either; drive or take a taxi for those.
Not for most of this guide. The minibuses cover the main road well, so Philipsburg, Maho, Mullet Bay, and Topper’s in Cole Bay are all easy without one, and the bus marked St. Peters takes you straight to Rainforest Adventures. Where a car earns its keep is off that road—Little Bay and the French-side beaches, where the buses don’t reach. If that’s your plan, renting a car gives you the freedom to stop for roadside BBQ, chase sunset views, and reach the spots most visitors never see.
Plenty. Rainforest Adventures at Rockland Estate has the Soualiga Sky Explorer chairlift and the Flying Dutchman zipline. Topper’s Rhum Distillery in Cole Bay runs guided tours with tastings. Philipsburg gives you Front Street, the Courthouse, and the Boardwalk in one walkable morning. And there’s a full-day speedboat and snorkeling tour leaving from Dock Maarten Marina. For hiking, see our guide to day trips and excursions.
Two currencies, one island. The Dutch side uses the Caribbean guilder, though most places also accept US dollars. The French side uses the euro, and not every business there will take another currency. Carry some euros if you’re spending the day in Marigot, Friar’s Bay, or Grand Case.
