Where to stay and what to see
All there is to the Dutch side are vast hotel developments along the SW coast and the shore of the lagoon, lots of them with night clubs and casinos. There’s also an international airport, the Princess Juliana Airport, built on a low-lying isthmus between the sea and the lagoon.
All intercontinental air traffic comes through it and therefore to the Dutch side, although both sides of the island contributed money to have it built. Other
than the beaches and the lagoon there’s not much to see, tourists being principally attracted by the duty free shopping in the many shops in Philipsburg.

Philipsburg
Founded in 1733, the town is built on a thin strip of land between the Great Salt Pond and Groot Baai and consists of small buildings mostly lining Back Street and Front Street, the two main streets with most of the business premises. Further back and to the E around Great Salt Pond there’s a new quarter with big modern buildings where you’ll find the banks and the government offices.
There’s a very nice sandy beach on Philipsburg’s sea front (Front Street) with, on its E side, the ferry dock. Close to the waterfront, the small and lively Walthey Square is surrounded by lots of shops, bars and restaurants.

On its farther side you’ll see the Old Courthouse with its campanile and bell turret, a charming bit of period architecture. In Front Street and Back Street there are lots of restaurants with a wide variety of menus from Chinese through Indonesian.

On the seaward end of the E side of the bay are two big jetties where cruise liners dock. Every day in the season, the cruise ships offload their hordes of passengers to invade the narrow streets and the duty-free shops. But before night falls, these day-trippers clamber back aboard their floating palaces and the streets are all at once deserted. All that are left are the night birds aiming to end their evening in the casinos or nightclubs around the lagoon. If Sint Maarten isn’t Las Vegas, it’s certainly one of the Lesser Antilles whose night life is most lively and cosmopolitan.

Around the island: