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I don't understand why St. Barths has an exemption to allow US citizens in, and not St. Martin?

Wasn't that kind of the work-around in the first place? Leave Sint Maarten, go to St Barths, go from St Barths to L'Esperance in Grand Case.

Or even just the high speed ferries.

There are a number of reasons why France allowed St Barth to open to US travelers, but not St Martin. For starters, St Barth is no longer part of the EU. St Martin is still part of the EU, and is following the EU travel restrictions. The not-EU/EU difference is huge politically. That alone may block President Gibbs from getting the border reopened. The decision is not his to make, but will be made by the Préfet on St Martin, her superior, the Préfet on Guadeloupe, or possibly even at the Minister level in Paris.

St Barth has the same 72-hour rt-PCR test requirement at their airport as Sint Maarten has at Juliana. St Martin has no screening at the border.

St Barth also requires visitors to be retested after 7 days on the island, and they purchased the machines and have local lab capability to do so. I don’t know if St Martin is processing their tests locally, or shipping them off to Guadeloupe.

At the time of reopening, St Barth had had less than 10 cases of COVID. They’re now up to 18. Saint Martin is up to 239, with, I think, 41 new cases in the past week.



Flying SXM-SBH-SFG is an expensive way to cross the border, and may require a 72-hour rt-PCR test result on arrival in SBH.

The ferry service from Philipsburg to Gustavia has been suspended indefinitely. The only ferry operating is Voyager out of Marigot.