St. Maarten Hiking

St. Maarten presents some interesting distinction for the explorer and the adventure seekers. The wide beaches along the shorelines are filled with surfers and sunbathers, which seem a far cry out from the more peaceful and quiet country roads and small town hillsides of St. Maarten. The night even adds more tranquility to the hills and interiors while the sparkling casinos and beating clubs of the coast begin to come alive. St. Maarten is a diversity of explorations for different guests of the island.

An excellent way to truly experience the island is by exploring it on foot. St. Maarten hiking is the best way to meet the local people, learn their customs, and most of all see the scenery of enchanting flora and fauna that any visitor would never see from the main road. A good way to begin a St. Maarten hiking is to start from Philipsburg and head towards the north, which will soon take visitors to the site of the island's zoo, Madam Estate area. This area is administered by the St. Maarten Zoological and Botanical Garden which features birds, animals, and plants native to South America and the Caribbean Basin including St. Kitts monkeys.

Going northeast of the zoo on your St. Maarten hiking will lead you to the best known favorite windsurfing and snorkeling beach, the Dawn beach and Oyster Pond. Legend has it, that Oyster Pond is the spot where a Dutchman and a Frenchman stood back to back and started walking around the island in opposite directions that determined the existing boundaries between the Dutch and the French St. Maarten. Oyster Bay is still shared by two governments but the border is extremely informal where swimmers can cross back and forth between the two territories without notice.

For a vision and a savor of history, St. Maarten hiking on Mount Concordia which mounts along the border in the heart of the island, is the best place to experience it. The year 1648 was when a treaty was signed on this mountain and up to this day Mount Concordia remains to be a proud symbol of St. Maarten's three-hundred-fifty-year history of harmonious co-existence between the two cultures.

On the west of Philipsburg, Cole Bay Hill which has an observation platform at the top can be added to your St. Maarten hiking activity. A stop at this site is highly recommended for spectacular views of the surrounding islands such as Saba, Anguilla, St. Kitts, St. Eustatius, and Nevis. Downhill along the shoreline is a popular walking trail that leads from Cole Bay to Cay Bay which takes about an hour.

St. Maarten hiking adventure is a unique and a taste-of-nature experience which should not be missed when visiting this smallest beautiful island gem of the Caribbean, St. Maarten.