St. Martin/St. Maarten
6 Tips to keeping your sanity while braving the airport with tiny humans:
Check with your airline to find out kid equipment travels free (i.e. pack and play, carseat stroller.) You can check your stroller at the gate - this is key if you have a little one in a stroller! Also- check all your bags, you will want your hands free to tend to your kids.
I ride and die with the fanny pack. The herschel fanny packs are my favorite, perfect size and very cute! I keep all travel documents - and only travel docs in here. That way I’m not digging through a huge bag to find them and there isn’t a risk of putting them down and losing them forever.
Minimize stuff you bring with you on the plane. While it is important to keep the kids busy and occupied, the idea of crayons and toy cars spilling all over the plane is what nightmares are made of. Loose items are not your friend - they will get lost and your kids will have a melt down.
Give plenty of time between connecting flights. When we were on our way home, we RAN through the Atlanta airport (and anyone who has been there knows how big it is) and we missed our connecting flight by 5 mins. We were that family running through terminals with a million suitcases and strollers with babies and ultimately the frantic lunatic show we performed for everyone was pointless. Here is the kicker which leads to my 5th point: we just watched Home Alone 2 that Christmas with our oldest and in our mad dash to the gate, he was terrified about getting lost.
Talk with your kids about what to do when they get lost. If they are too young to have a phone number memorized - I usually have it somewhere on them and instruct them to find someone who works behind a desk or a friendly mom with kids with her and ask them to call me. Also - be proactive and talk with them about how to behave in the airport (running like a madman down the terminals is not a wise choice and could lead to you getting lost- do what I say, not what I do!)
Have reasonable expectations. Kids are going to be kids - they are going to get bored they are going to look for mischief. Let them be kids, and allow yourself permission to enjoy it instead of getting embarrassed or frustrated.
Divi Little Bay Beach Resort
We stayed at the Divi Little Bay Beach Resort based on a family recommendation who stayed there a few months prior. It had a beautiful beach that had a great area to snorkel -it had plenty of water sports availble to rent! (We enjoyed the jet ski on our last day about 30 mins before we headed to the airport!) The pools were great for the kids and the infinity pool was gorgeous. There were kids activities to participate in and I did a few morning yoga classes!
Pinel Island
Pinel Island is on the French side of the island and is only accessible by kayak, paddle board or ferry - we chose kayak. It was not a hard paddle and the water wasn’t rough. We saw iguanas swimming on our way over (who knew?!). Pinel Island has lots of iguanas and the kids loved them! There are places to eat and on the island and plenty to do! We took a fun hike with the kids and saw a lot of great views. This website helped us navigate our planning for our day trip: Caribbean Paddling.
What to wear/what to pack: I packed towels, suntan lotion and a few snacks and waters in a bag - I would recommend a waterproof bag though. I also wore these water shoes the entire trip and have no regrets.
Random Winds
Random winds was by far the best excursion. We had such a great, accommodating experience with the crew! They served snacks and drinks, we stopped to do a little snorkel/paddle boarding (they had their own equipment) and then stopped again to do the Tarzan swing. If you only do one excursion - go with Random Winds, you won’t be disappointed!
Exploring the Island
There is so much to do, see and explore on St. Martin, here are a few other things we chose to do:
SkipJack’s for a delicious seafood dinner
Maho Beach: getting a picture with the plane is trickier than I anticipated. Its a really loud beach (not just because of the amount of people there) - we stayed for less than an hour. There are places to eat near by if you wanted to extend your time there.
The failed attempt to get to The Secret Tide Pools of Devil’s Cupper. If you ever get to this - let me know how. We ended up scaling the edge of a cliff and turned back. Mike will never forgive me for not pressing on. We WILL go back and we WILL find that rascally Devil’s Cupper. I just left my big girl pants at home that day I guess…
Friar’s Bay Beach for more snorkeling!
The skinny on snorkeling:
I purchased snorkels for all of us - Nate was WAY too young to actually do it, but he enjoyed putting the equipment on and off.
I would have packed something like this floatation device if I thought about it - noodles would also work nicely but I can’t see that going in a suitcase.
We purchases this fish identifying card for the boys to use to determine what fish they saw.
This is a great resource for first time snorkelers out there: First Time Snorkeling Tips
This is life in my lane, I hope it helps you navigate yours!
-Christy Smith