Today was one of those perfect vacation days! We tendered to Marigot on the French side of St. Martin. This is so much better than arriving at Philipsburg on the Dutch side of the island! All the large ships head for Philipsburg, so the Wind Surf definitely has an advantage by arriving on the French side...much lighter crowds (although the island was jammed when we were there anyway! It's a very popular Caribbean island.)
Since this is one of the more developed islands that we're visiting on this itinerary, we decided to rent a car. We selected a mid-size, four-door from Xtreme ($35 US). The rental kiosks are right on the pier so it's very easy to rent a car, even if you don't have a reservation. Xtreme provided great service and the car was ready after about two minutes of paperwork.
We immediately headed to nearby Fort Louis (you can walk to the Fort from the pier, by the way). Once you park there is still a very steep staircase that you must climb, but the view is really worth it! From here, you can see just about all of Marigot. This is also the perfect spot to take photos of the Wind Surf.
From the Fort, we headed to Plantation Mont Vernon. This is a good stop if you enjoy learning a bit about the history of the island and want to take photos (plantation house, coffee bean production area, rum distillery, etc.). There is also a nice gift shop here.
After the Plantation, we headed to Orient Beach…quite lovely but really crowded! If you want to parasail or water ski, this is a great spot. If you want peace and quiet, find a more secluded beach!
After looking around for a bit, we moved on to Grand Case and had a delicious lunch at a small French restaurant called Le Soleil. From there we drove around to take in some sights and then ended up back at the pier for some shopping at the Marigot Marketplace (local crafts and souvenirs).
We were getting pretty tired so we headed back to the ship to rest and decided to have dinner there.