Tag Archives: Sonesta

A Walk in Maho

Maho’s a nice part of Saint Martin, and one I’ve never really appreciated. Shopping centers, the casino, sky bars– not a lot to love, in my opinion, especially when it’s pretty much a fake little tourist village that looks nothing like the rest of the island. Actually, though, it’s a pretty nice to place to spend an afternoon. I took a trip through Maho with my dog today, and I enjoyed the simple pleasures I found.


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Maho Village

Other than the huge resort Sonesta, Maho is mostly residential. I’m not sure why you’d call it a village when it’s really a lot of condos, but it’s a pretty nice place to live. Very safe and secure, with a lot of guards and a lot of gates. The one thing that I don’t love is all the big, barking dogs behind those gates. Kito and I decided to leave the resident dogs to their own business and check out the rest of Maho.

Maho Shopping

There’s one main road in Saint Martin, and it runs through Maho. Both sides of the street are lined with spacious sidewalks and places to shop or eat. The boutiques are fun to browse through. There are some nice little souvenir shops with low-priced t-shirts, so it’s a good place to look around if you’re not up for Philipsburg. The clothing stores are beyond my budget, but it doesn’t hurt to window shop.

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Maho Eating

There are a lot of places to eat in Maho. A local fave is the pizza shop behind the casino, but I have to admit that I’ve never been there. Three Amigos isn’t bad, but you’ll have better luck at Maho’s best kept secret, Taco Macho. You can find it in the Alegria complex past Sunset Beach. We’ve enjoyed Moomba on a special occasion, although it’s a little pricey. Fig & Bananas is very popular with the wine and tapas crowd, so if that’s your jam, you really can’t go wrong. We’ve also had pizza at Rialto, which is good for a quick lunch. The most popular spot in the area is definitely Sunset Beach Bar, a top tourist destination where you can watch the sun set over the ocean and see planes fly just above your head. Our number one favorite is Gio’s, the gelato place on the corner. Try the cheesecake. It’s delicious.

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Maho Beach

To be honest, I’m not sure if it’s called Maho Beach or Sunset Beach, but either way it’s a great place to go. During tourist season from October to May, artificial sand expands the beach to accommodate the hundreds of people who wait for airplanes to blow them away. Yes, Maho Beach is that beach– the one where you can get blasted by a 747 jet or stand a few hundred feet below and landing plane.

Today, Kito and I walked to Maho Beach. I’m not really into the whole jet blast thing, but I do love seeing the planes come in for landing at Princess Juliana Airport. Plus, it was a dry day today, so Saba stood out sharply against a clear blue sky in the distance. I love that view. Kito just loves getting attention from all the tourists. Maho Beach is actually an incredibly friendly place to go. I just walked down and sat on the retaining wall with my dog, and lots of people stopped to talk. A few people gave me a quick smile and paused to pet the dog, and one little Dutch girl who was selling watermelon at her lemonade stand gave me a slice for free, just because. Or maybe because I looked homeless. Hopefully not. A tourist from the Netherlands sat down beside me and we talked about our dogs for a while. She’s an agility trainer and her dogs compete in Belgium all the time. We watched the planes for a while before Kito started getting hot and wanted to go home.

If you have time to walk around Maho, why not take an hour or two to do it? There’s a lot of other great things to see on the island, but Maho’s not half bad.

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The Sonesta Resort in Maho, Sint Maarten

If you are looking for a nice place to stay on your Sint Maarten vacation, be sure to think about Sonesta Resort in Maho. This weekend, I had the opportunity to babysit there for an American University of the Caribbean employee. The resort is both adult and kid-friendly, with great things to do for all ages. The kids especially enjoyed Sonesta’s giant pool and the kids’ club room! I liked the view of Maho beach from the dining patio.

Somesta is an all-inclusive resort, and offers both day passes and overnight stays. Let me give you a tour of the resort!

Sonesta Resort

Welcome to Sonesta! Your five-minute drive from Princess Juliana Airport takes you past Maho beach to this resort at the entrance to Maho. The first thing you see as you enter is the spacious lobby. Even before you leave the lobby, there is so much to do! The lobby contains a computer area, a casino, a shelf of books, shopping, a grand piano, a ping-pong table and several board games.

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If you take an elevator up, you can enjoy the Sonesta Spa, where you can get a nice massage. Of course, I did not do this, but I imagine that it is a good way to relax. Also up the elevator are ten floors of rooms. The rooms are comfortable and roomy.

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View from the top level of the resort

The best part of the resort, in my opinion, is outside. The pool is amazing! It is at least twice as large as most pools and has a quaint bridge crossing from one side to the other. Sometimes, there is a waterfall over the pool. At one end is a swim-up bar that serves alcohol as well as non-alcoholic drinks. One of the kids ordered a nonalcoholic pina colada that looked delicious.

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In addition to the pool, the resort also has a beach entry. Like all of Sint Maarten beaches, it has gorgeous white sand and crystal-clear water.

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You can enjoy this view from either the bar or the dining area. The buffet spread for each meal is amazing. Entrees, fruit juice, sides, delectable desserts– yummy! To my great amusement, one the kids came back from the buffet with just a roll and butter. Sometimes there is such a thing as a little too much variety, I guess.  One of the cool things about this patio is that you can watch the planes land and take off from Princess Juliana Airport. Maho Beach, just across the bay, is famous for the planes that fly low overhead and blast beach-goers with sand.

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There are plenty just-for-kids things to do here, too! Outside is a rainbow jungle-gym for kids to get out their wiggles while parents enjoy the ocean view.

Inside is the Maho Bungalow Kids’ Club. This is a childcare area that is a lot of fun for the kiddos! There is an indoor playground, movies, video games, a giant-sized Connect Four, and organized activities. Eduardo and the rest of the team do a great job keeping kids entertained and safe from 10:00 am-5:00 pm while parents conduct business or enjoy what Maho has to offer. Sometimes they have weekend night pajama parties from 7:30-9:00 pm.

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Historically, the AUC spouses organization takes a day trip to Sonesta to celebrate the fifth semester spouses last week in Sint Maarten. I’m looking forward to returning to Sonesta! Maybe Ben and I will even have a “daycation” there after block exams sometime.

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