Traveling through the Caribbean is easy if you base out of the beachfront airport at Sint Maarten
The musical theme of island hopping throughthe Caribbeansounds so glamourous , does n’t it ? Just popping into beach prevention from the BVI to the Grenadines , greet your other island - hopping champion over bushwhacker andtropical sunsets .
If you happen to be a gazillionaire orThe Talented Mr. Ripley , peradventure that ’s how it go . For everyone else , island hopping withdraw a little creativity .
But it ’s not as severely — or as prohibitively expensive — as one might think . You do n’t call for to charter a catamaran or find a friend with a private planing machine . All you need to do is chance a flying to Sint Maarten .
The runway of the St. Marteen airport is practically on Maho Beach.|federico neri/Shutterstock
Sint Maarten — the Dutch - Gallic island east ofPuerto Ricoand theUSVI — is home to Princess Juliana International Airport . You may realize it from thefamous photos of planes that look like they ’re about to land on unsuspecting sunbathers . The airport serves as a hub for much of the Eastern Caribbean , a variety of DFW for the less Antilles where you could secure a connection to just about anywhere . Plus , the drome recently finished its post - Hurricane Maria renovation and repairs , and with raw electronic passport control , transferring through is often easier and faster than at many other U.S. domesticated hubs .
A smattering of inter - island airline run out of SXM , most notably Winn Air and Air Antilles . Flights turn tail about as much as a one - direction domesticated flight in the U.S. , from around $ 80 - 200 per stage . The fun , niggling airplane propeller planes can take you to a twelve different islands in under an hour , and toSt . Barthin a scant 15 arcminute . Saba , St. Eustatius , St. Kitts , and Anguilla are all 25 minutes or less . Guadeloupe , Antigua , Dominica , and Puerto Rico are all reachable in under an hour .
If flights seem too costly , or you require to island hops on the H2O , you could also catch several ferries from Sint Maarten . The closest is directly across the street from the drome terminal , a 20 - minute ride to Anguilla that ’ll run you about $ 75 each way . Take a 30 - mo taxi to the Gallic side and Marigot harbour , where you may jumpstart on a regularly schedule public ferryboat for about $ 25 , although the ticketing booths do n’t sell advancement ticket .
The glamorous shoring of St. Barth are only an hour ’s ferryboat depend on out , which you’re able to take from Marigot for $ 55 - 65 each way . Saba — the volcanic island that ’s like a European Greenwich Village fructify atop a tropical mountain — is only 90 minute away from Simpson Bay via ferrying . That drive costs $ 75 , but it does n’t run every Clarence Shepard Day Jr. . All of the aforementioned ferries are bookable throughSt . Martin Bookings .
In a week , you could legitimately hop to five dissimilar islands , with a day to enjoy the French and Dutch sides of Sint Maarten on either final stage . Using SXM as your base is an ideal hack to research the Caribbean from somewhere other than a cruise ship . The best part ? Only one flying from the US is required .
Matt Meltzeris a Miami - base author who ’s been covering food , events , and travel in Miami for over a dozen years .
