In a travel conversation this weekend with two family members who recently visited the Eastern Caribbean, the question was asked:
“What was the most memorable thing about St. Maarten?”
The answer was unanimous.
The planes.
On the outskirts of Philipsburg is Princess Juliana International Airport. At one end of the runway is a beach called Maho Bay. That’s literally at the end of the runway. People go 
there to watch planes land.
For us, it was last year, so we passed the recommendation on to our son and daughter-in-law. We’d arrived on the Explorer of the Seas. They’d arrived by plane, which meant flying over the heads of people they would soon join.
Hundreds of cruise passengers regularly gather on the beach (or in the bar on the beach) to wait for the next plane to arrive. Nobody bothers to check a flight schedule. It’s the Caribbean way.
Sure enough, here comes a jet and…whoosh…just like that, it has flown over your head faster than the shutter speed of your camera, which inevitably misses the mark. No problem. Wait for the next jet. Whoosh again…empty air again.
This is billed as “the closest you’ll ever come to a plane in flight without being on the plane” and it is hard to imagine being any closer. Big and small, the planes look like they’re going to land on the beach or, worse yet, on you. The jets are especially low because they have to be…touch down is right there on the other side of the road.
Maho Bay is about a half hour from Philipsburg, capital of the Dutch half of the island known as St. Maarten in the south and Saint-Martin in the north, where it is governed by the French. The half-hour bus ride costs $2. Lunch in the beach bar is about ten times that, just for the food.
Whatever the costs, it’s worthwhile. If it wasn’t, we wouldn’t be writing — and you wouldn’t be reading — about the subject of a weekend family discussion.
Today at portsandbows.com: Oceania ramps up for 2015-16
Norwegian Breakaway
7 nights
September 28, 2014
New York (return): King’s Wharf
Inside: $479
Cost per day: $68
www.ncl.com