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St Martin Field Trip / Caribbean Travel / Travel Tips / → All Tags

Whatever Language You Speak, St. Martin Understands What You're Saying

St. Martin has typically been considered the brief stopover island for fabulous jetsetters who then fly onward to St. Barth's. That is until our writer Shira Levine discovered that the bipolar island with a French and Dutch identity crisis is worth lingering on for a few days. Questions or suggestions? Let us know.

Now that we've told you what the difference is between St. Martin and St. Maarten, as well as where to eat, where to day trip and ahem, what to wear, it's time to tell you how to book your trip.

On it's own, St. Martin makes for quite the more affordable, lovely weekend getaway thanks to direct flights to Princess Juliana Airport on several major airlines (Delta, JetBlue, American Airline) and from U.S. cities that include New York, Los Angeles, Washington DC, Miami, Philadelphia and Dallas. However, we recommend saving the fancypants destination of St. Barth's for a day excursion if you're on more of a budget but still curious how the glitterati vs. the globerati vacation.

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St Martin Field Trip / Caribbean Travel / Beach Travel / Bathing Suits / Thongs / → All Tags

It's Hard to Avoid The Thongs in St. Martin

St. Martin has typically been considered the brief stopover island for fabulous jetsetters who then fly onward to St. Barth's. That is until our writer Shira Levine discovered that the bipolar island with a French and Dutch identity crisis is worth lingering on for a few days. Questions or suggestions? Let us know.

St. Martin has a notorious backside (if you will) within it's French and Dutch sides. Perhaps the most famous/infamous and popular beaches are the ones along Orient Bay. These beaches have the bathing suit optional policy. The beaches known as the "Five Stars of Orient Bay" include: Kontiki, Kakao, Bikini Beach, Waikiki and Coco Beach. They're all named for their respective rather cheesy beach bar and restaurants.

Of course there's a boobies beach with a bar called Baywatch. For the record, however, the initial gung-ho nature of the naturist bathing has gone limp a bit over the years. Not exceptionally soft, as you certainly can still spot some T&A. We make no promises on the quality and firmness of said T&A.

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St Martin Field Trip / Caribbean Travel / French Caribbean / St. Maarten Travel / Food Travel / → All Tags

Eating in St. Martin, Where Caribbean Food Actually Tastes Good

St. Martin has typically been considered the brief stopover island for fabulous jetsetters who then fly onward to St. Barth's. That is until our writer Shira Levine discovered that the bipolar island with a French and Dutch identity crisis is worth lingering on for a few days. Questions or suggestions? Let us know.

Besides being the "friendly island" St. Martin is also considered the Gastronomic Capital of the Caribbean. This is a bold statement considering that Caribbean food often looks lovely with excellent presentation, but rarely tastes fresh and frequently lacks flavor. (Unless we're talking Jamaican jerk and the credit there goes to the spices.)

We're going to have to point the finger at the U.S. who exports a lot of goods to the Caribbean undercutting the prices of locally grown island grub to explain this non-fresh phenomena. Fortunately, when it comes to St. Martin the lobster is from St. Martin. The coconut is from St. Martin. The scallops are from St. Martin. You'd be hard pressed if you found out your avocado was actually shipped in from Mexico.

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Prime-Plane-Spotting-Map / Princess Juliana Airport / Plane Spotting / SXM / Island Travel / American / → All Tags

Island Danger: Jet Blasts May Cause Death On St. Maarten

We love airplanes, you love airplanes, so let's go look at airplanes! In our Prime Plane Spotting series, we'll let you in on all the best spots to whip out your cameras and binoculars for a piece of the aviation action.

No list of plane spotting locations is complete without highlighting the amazing daredevil antics that occur daily at Princess Juliana Airport on the French/Dutch Caribbean island of St. Maarten.

Due to the island's small size, mountainous center, and popularity with international tourists, jumbo jets from as far as Europe and island hoppers from neighbors like St. John zero in on a short runway that dead-ends right at the beach. This beach, Maho Bay, is open to the public and consistently draws aviation geeks, photographers, and curious tourists to the Sunset Beach Bar for some serious eye-level plane spotting.

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Scuba Dives / SCUBA / Diving / Bonaire / → All Tags

Summer Coral Spawning Means Full Undersea Friskiness

If you’re into watching coral getting frisky, a resort in Bonaire should be on your short list for a summer diving trip. The Divi Flamingo Beach Resort has set up diving trips based on the prime periods for watching the coral do the nasty. The best chance of witnessing the coral spawning takes place four to eight nights following a full moon, and the resort is more than ready.

Scheduling these special dives for August, September, and October, the resort hopes that these will be the lucky days for both divers and the coral. Boulder Star, Brain, and Branching coral are just some of the varieties that will be getting busy under the waves. There’s Sea Rod coral too, but we’ll be mature and skip the obvious jokes about that species.

Packages for this trip start at $950 per person, and you’ll get seven nights at the resort, breakfast buffet daily, unlimited shore diving, and one free night dive during the spawning. If you’re more of a prude and would rather give the coral some privacy, the resort also allows you to create your own dive package. You’ll be able to avoid all the provocative behavior and just keep your eyes focused on the fish.

Related Stories:
·Divi Flamingo Beach Resort [Official Site]
·Explore A Modern-Day Shipwreck In Nevis [Jaunted]
·Diving coverage [Jaunted]

[Photo: Wikimedia]

Travel Contests / Caribbean Travel / Curacao / → All Tags

Pack a Shovel: Curacao Announces Its 'Treasure Hunt' Finalists

Remember way back in March, when Curacao's tourism board announced that it would be giving away 70 island trips and a lump sum of $500,000 to ten lucky finalists? Yeah, we had to search the archives for news about this but we learned today that the contest has been successfully launched and that the island of Curacao has their ten lucky finalists in hand.

Ten lucky North Americans will be put to the test when they compete in a real treasure hunt on the island of Curaçao in hopes of winning half a million dollars. The Curaçao Treasure Hunt will take place from August 23-25, 2009.

The contest garnered nearly 500,000 entries and 70 other lucky people won a free vacation to the island. But we're still not so sure what this treasure hunt will involve. All we know is that they've hidden $500,000 somewhere on the island and these 10 people have to go find it. Um...may we suggest you bring a shovel?

Remember there's still time to enter the Jaunted-Competitours Travel Contest where you can win a free trip to Europe and a chance to compete against Amazing Race alum, Tyler MacNiven.

Related Stories:
· Half a Million Dollars Is Yours to Find in Curacao [Curacao Treasure]
· Caribbean Travel Coverage [Jaunted]

[Photo: cmgramse]

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Travel Contests / Caribbean Travel / Curacao / → All Tags

Curacao Wants You for Their Tropical Bailout and Treasure Hunt

Sometimes, you just need to stare at a picture of a perfect tropical beach, breath, and relax a bit. If the Dutch Caribbean island of Curacao has anything to say about it, however, you'll be doing fare more than simply looking at a picture of a beach, you'll be stretching out on one and singing the praises of their little blue water gem.

In order to convince Americans that vacations on Curacao are as good as or way better than in the usual spots like Cancun or St. Barth's, their tourism board is giving away 70 trips and a lump sum of $500,000 as a kind of tropical bailout package. Register to win on their website CuracaoTreasure, and of the trips, 60 vacations will be your run-of-the-mill (but awesome) free island packages. The last lucky 10 trippers will however be marked to "participate in an on-island Treasure Hunt in August 2009 with a grand prize of a half million dollars!"

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Bonaire / Summer Travel / Travel Deals / Deals / → All Tags

Deals Travel: Rebates in "Paradise"

Everywhere we travel on our Internet adventures these days, we see articles about ways to save a buck on your next trip. Well, the island of Bonaire, in the Netherlands Antilles, has a new offer for both travelers and cheapskates. They're called Paradise Rebates.

Local businesses feel that you shouldn't have to pay luggage fees and surcharges, so they're offering rebates towards dining, accommodations, activities and vehicle rentals.

While the Tourism Corporation Bonaire didn't develop the discounts, the group is getting behind the effort, hoping to keep visitor numbers up while the economy is down. We're expecting to hear more from the island later this summer, too: As hurricane season ramps up, we wouldn't be surprised if the tourism board reminds us that the island sits outside of tropical storm range.

Related Stories:
· Paradise Rebates [Official Site]
· Tourism Bonaire [Official Site]
· Bonaire Travel coverage [Jaunted]

[Photo: bradleyolin]

Eat-n-Sleep / Caribbean Travel / → All Tags

Eat 'n Sleep Aruba :: Radisson Aruba Resort and Casino

Our Eat 'n Sleep feature profiles a restaurant in a random city and a hotel nearby. It's kinda like that old show "Dinner and a Movie" but you know, with restaurants and hotels. And better jokes.

Sometimes the best Eat 'n Sleeps happen in the same place. That's definitely the case at the Radisson Aruba Resort & Casino. The 353 luxury rooms at this trendy Caribbean hotel offer deluxe accommodations, ocean views, West Indian flair and island touches. It's the perfect place for a tropical escape, and four poster mahogany beds prove the ideal place to unwind after a day in the sun.

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World's Most Dangerous Airports / Saba Island / Islands / Airports / → All Tags

World's Most Dangerous Airports: Saba Island, SAB

For the next couple of days we are doing a quick fly-over of the world's most dangerous airports. Know a stomach dropping, palm sweat inducing airport we should check out? Send it along.

Saba Island is an idyllic, secluded, honeymoon destination. Travel and Leisure voted it the best island in the Caribbean. But before all you soon to be marrieds rush to book a post wedding trip to Saba, please make sure your partner to be can handle a ride on a Win Air DHC-6 Twin Otter.

The landing strip is a reported 1300 feet, which makes it one of the shortest commercial runways in the world. Furthermore, the strip is flanked on one side by steep hills, and on the other side and at both ends of the runway by cliffs dropping into the sea. This creates the possibility that an airplane might overshoot the runway during landing or takeoff and end up in the sea or on the cliffs.

Click here to check out a Saba landing video--looks like the sun can be rather blinding on approach to boot.

Related Stories:
· World's Most Dangerous Airports [Jaunted]
· Yrausquin Airport, Saba Island [Google Maps]

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