St. Maarten/St. Martin

The Dutch and French sides offer distinct accommodation experiences. On the Dutch side, the Philipsburg and Maho areas have the largest concentration of resorts and hotels. Sonesta Maho Beach Resort is the closest hotel to the famous airport runway beach, with rooms from around $250 a night. The newly rebuilt Sonesta Ocean Point, an adults-only property nearby, starts around $350. For families, Simpson Bay Resort & Marina offers apartment-style suites from $200 with kitchens and a pool complex.

The French side skews more boutique. Grand Case, the restaurant capital of the island, has charming small hotels like Hôtel L'Esplanade with hillside suites overlooking the bay from around $250, and Le Petit Hotel right on the beach from $300. Orient Bay has beachfront options like Palm Court Hotel from $200 and the Esmeralda Resort with villa-style units from $180.

For luxury, Belmond La Samanna on Baie Longue is the island's premier property - a clifftop resort with a stunning beach, spa, and rates from $600 to $1,500 depending on season and room category. Villa rentals are popular on both sides, with French side properties in Terres Basses and Orient Bay commanding $300 to $800 a night for two to three bedrooms.

Budget options exist primarily on the Dutch side, where guesthouses in Simpson Bay start around $80 to $120. Book December through April well in advance. Hurricane season (September and October especially) brings deep discounts of 40 to 50 percent.

St. Maarten/St. Martin may be the best eating island in the Caribbean, and the French side village of Grand Case is the reason. This single coastal street, sometimes called the Gourmet Capital of the Caribbean, packs over a dozen restaurants into a half-mile stretch. Le Pressoir, in a Creole cottage, serves refined French cuisine with Caribbean touches - duck breast with guava reduction, seared foie gras with mango chutney - at around $50 to $80 per person. L'Auberge Gourmande offers classic bistro fare at white-tablecloth tables set on the beach. Talk of the Town does grilled crayfish and lobster at slightly more accessible prices.

Interspersed among the sit-down restaurants are the lolos - roadside barbecue grills where Grand Case locals eat. Sky's the Limit and Talk of the Town Lolo serve ribs, chicken, grilled snapper, and johnnycakes straight from the grill for $10 to $15 a plate, eaten at picnic tables with cold Carib beer. This is some of the most satisfying food on the island.

On the Dutch side, the Simpson Bay strip has casual international options - Karakter Beach Lounge on the lagoon side of the airport runway serves cocktails and tapas-style plates on the sand with planes landing overhead. For breakfast, Zee Best in Simpson Bay is a long-running Dutch pancake house that draws lines on weekends. Philipsburg's boardwalk restaurants serve decent seafood but cater primarily to cruise ship passengers.

For the best value, eat lunch at the lolos in Grand Case, splurge at one restaurant for dinner, and self-cater from the excellent French supermarkets - Super U in Marigot stocks cheeses, wines, and charcuterie that make villa cooking a pleasure. Budget $50 to $80 per person per day for dining out.

The dry season from December through April is peak time on St. Maarten/St. Martin, with daytime temperatures in the low to mid-80s Fahrenheit, low humidity, and steady trade winds. This is when hotel rates and restaurant crowds peak, particularly around Christmas, New Year's, and the annual Heineken Regatta in early March, which fills every hotel and anchorage on the island. Carnival on the Dutch side (mid-April) and the French side (February/March) bring vibrant parades and music.

May and June offer a shoulder-season sweet spot with warm weather, manageable crowds, and rates 20 to 30 percent below peak. The wet season runs July through November, with September and October posing the highest hurricane risk - the island suffered catastrophic damage from Hurricane Irma in 2017 but has rebuilt extensively.

Summer brings hotter temperatures in the upper 80s and occasional afternoon showers. Water temperature stays warm year-round at 79 to 84 degrees Fahrenheit.