Philipsburg, St. Maarten

Beach along Front Street
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Our first port was Philipsburg, Sint Maarten.  St. Maarten is part of the Netherland Antilles and is the Dutch, southern half of the island.  The northern half is a separate French territory and is called Saint Martin.

We decided to just stay in Philipsburg instead of explore the entire island.  We had heard that Philipsburg has great shopping, but we were disappointed due to the type of shops Philipsburg mainly had - shopping for the upper class!  There were countless stores lining Front Street and Back Street, the two main streets in this narrow town.  There were tons of duty-free stores selling diamonds, fine jewelry, and other things out of the price range of a normal person.  We preferred gift shops where we could actually afford things!  At least you can get all sorts of cute things at the cheaper stores, from jewelry, homemade jams, bath salts, and the usual cheesy souvenirs.  I really liked the Guavaberry Company, where you can try free samples of their locally made liqueurs.  We had a sample of straight liqueur (too strong for me!) and then of a blended drink made with some of that same liqueur (way tasty).  I got some guavaberry honey from there, yum.  They have lots of alcohol, hot sauces, grilling sauces, honeys and jams, and t-shirts for sale there.

Front Street
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The beach lining the sea-facing side of Front Street looked nice, with tons of chairs for rent from varying businesses.  Many businesses had signs up such as "2 chairs, 1 umbrella, 2 beers, $10".  I also must note that every island we visited on this cruise accepted American dollars, a very nice convenience for tourists.