cost of St. Barts for a day

Can anyone give me a ballpark figure for what I can expect to pay for a day to St. Barts by plane? That would include lunch and drinks and renting a car. Thnx so much for your input! (Going in April to SXM.)

1.5 mil

just joking. Last time we went was 1982 and it cost us over $500 for 2 people, boat from Bobby's Marina P'Burg, lunch, tour of island (in French so we understood nothing).

We visited St. Barts last year by plane.

If I remember correctly it cost roughly 70 Euro each way on a commuter plane from the L'Esperance Airport, St. Martin.

We did not rent a car in St. Martin, don't know if I would bother. But it depends on what you are planning to do there.

We ate a late lunch at a great restaurant for ambience and people watching. http://www.tombeach.com/la-plage-restaurant/ It is a 7 minute walk from the airport. It is pricy but quite the experience. I believe lunch for the four in our party was approximately 400 Euro which included 2 bottles of wine and the lunch lasted 3 hours. We were not rushed out but lingered while we were waiting our return flight. Quite the experience!

To give you an idea of our day there, we took an early flight from St. Martin. We walked into Gustavia, spent most of the day there, ate a light breakfast, window shopped, walked and explored. We then took a cab to La Plage for our late lunch. Then walked back to the airport for our flight back.

It was a spectacular day - well worth every euro!! Would I do it again - YES in a heartbeat!!

I use Gumbs Car Rental on St Barth. You can find pricing at http://gumbs-car-rental.com They have a booth at the airport, or will deliver a car to the ferry terminal. My advice is to do as d_fish suggests, and fly St Barth Commuter out of the Grand Case Airport. Lunch can vary from $30 for cheeseburgers, fries, and beers for two at Le Select to $400 - $500 for two after pillaging the wine list at a 5-star beachfront hotel.

thanks for the responses....this is something I've always wanted to do and I think this will be the year!

We just did this on Friday. Flying out of Grand Case on St. Barth Commuter air was 140 euros p/p round trip. We rented a car at Sixt for roughly 45 euros with insurance. They threw in a one hour parking pass for Gustavia. We did some window shopping in Gustavia (you could spend a pretty penny there) then drove around the island ending up at St. Jean for lunch at Nikki beach. We had a leisurely lunch and a bottle of wine. Total was 250 euros for 3 of us. We could have done lunch more cheaply by buying sandwiches etc in town and then taking them to Governors beach (which was really pretty). It was interesting that Nikki beach was more restaurant than beach club. There were no loungers on the beach or anything like that. Several of the beaches that we liked did not appear to have any concessions.

It wasn't a cheap day trip but something we've been wanting to do for a while. and we were glad we did it. Just the flight over in the little plane and landing on that runway is an experience. According to the tabloids, over New Year tons of celebrities were there. We didn't see any, but there were some massive yachts in the harbor.

Tip for you: If you book your flight with the St Barth commuter, when checking in for your flight ask to sit next to the pilot. If no one else has asked before you, you'll get the front seat. I did and it was an awesome!!

Our day trip to St Bart's was one of the highlights of our vacation!

Probably not the answer you are looking for but the more budget concious TTOLers might be interested... We went to St-Bart's on Thursday, booked a ferry on the Edge through Stmaartenauction.com and won the auction for 41$ USD (Return ticket for two), rented a small car with Avis for 67 Euros tax, insurance and fuel included. We filled up a backpack cooler with beer, cheese and a nice lunch which we enjoyed on the beautiful Grande Saline beach, after exploring the island we headed to Niki Beach with our wine glasses brought from home and a nice bottle of wine purchased in SXM, we finished off the bottle in Gustavia before heading back. Total damage was under 150$ USD for two for an amazing day in St-Barts. Probably not everyone's cup of tea and I doubt anyone else has done it for such a low cost but it was perfect for us!

miachance, sounded excellent! My kind of day trip.

Brought back memories of one of our 1st trips to SXM. Stopped in a small store (no longer there) on back street, bought cheese, baguette, grapes and a bottle of wine then headed to Dawn Beach (prior the ugly Westin).

Most delicious , inexpensive lunch at one of the most beautiful places I'd ever seen. And I went topless for the 1st time. No biggy for some but it was then for me.

$17,000!!! <img src="http://www.traveltalkonline.com/forums/images/graemlins/thinks.gif" alt="" />

funny article about St. Barth...(link to another forum since the original article on the Miami Herald site doesn't seem to be available anymore)... Dave Barry Visits St. Barth

Loved this --
My experience, the first trip I took.

"...Fortunately the ferry ride lasted only an hour and 15 minutes -- or,
translated into Seasickness Time, eight years..."