Jewel of the Seas in St. Maarten

We continue our Southern Caribbean Vlog Series with Philipsburg the capital of St. Maarten.

St Maarten is the Dutch side of the Caribbean Island of Saint Martin & was our third stop on Jewel of the Seas. This was our second visit to this beautiful island. Today we explored Philipsburg taking part in the activity St. Maarten the Race.

Philipsburg is a beautiful town. The sea surrounding Philipsburg is gorgeous with a selection of superb beaches nearby. On a cruise you only get a short glimpse of an island and there is much more still to see in St. Maarten.

Unfortunately St. Maarten was badly hit by recent hurricanes. I wrote following Hurricane Irma about my memories of this beautiful island. I am pleased to see that cruise ships are starting to return to many Caribbean Islands including St. Maarten. They are still in recovery phase but tourism is essential for their long-term prosperity.

We are due to visit the island again in August and looking forward to see it once again. St. Maarten is one of the most popular cruise destinations in the world and on the day we visited there was several other ships in port. The Island manages these crowds well and there are many activities available throughout the island. However; it is likely it will take sometime for all to be back up and running.