St Martin vs Barbados

I currently own 5 weeks timeshare at the Towers Mullet Bay in St. Martin. I am looking to find someone who has experience both in Barbados and St Martin who can give me comparisons....rental costs, cleanliness and convenience of island. We loved Bermuda and believe that is an island unlike any other. Thoughts and real opinions would be greatly appreciated as we are considering selling our SXM units and looking to rent not buy elsewhere. Bermuda is just not guaranteed the warmth of the Caribbean. Thank you

We traded a couple years ago. Great place to trade into. I was expecting to find beaches to visit with parking lIke St Martin. No such luck. Finding beaches to visit was tough. Ended up going to cruiser beaches. Best bet to find a good resort and stay there. Island is safe. Great non beach stuff to do, caves and Mount Gay distillery. Island more built up than St Martin. Would I go back? Heck yes. Would I buy no.
Hope this helps a little.

We have been to both! We like Barbados but love St. Martin, Barbados is definitely more expensive! St Martin seems friendlier, more to do! Driving is not as easy on Barbados! We did enjoy Barbados but we have been back to st. Martin 3 times, our 4th trip coming March 2017. The groceries and eating was extremely high! Everything in restaurants are ala carte, almost $30 just for a decent breakfast. Any other questions just ask!

I have been to Sxm over 20 times but decided a couple years ago to go to Barbados for my honeymoon. Hubby and I are mid 40's and are very fortunate to be able to travel 2-3 times a year. Barbados is lovely, but St Maarten is still our favourite. There wasn't the local beaches like Sxm and it was very busy. If you think traffic is bad in Sxm, Barbados is just as bad. It is definitely more expensive to rent a car there and they are way more industrialized than Sxm. They actually have some large highways and driving on the left side was interesting also. Rentals are more expensive and groceries also. I know a lot of people who bring groceries like meat into Sxm with no problems. In Barbados you must apply for a meat permit weeks ahead. We try to eat fairly healthy and really saw a difference in prices in groceries in Barbados. Lots of English imports in the grocery stores, but you can't compare the grocery imports from Europe in Sxm to them. Sxm has cheaper restaurants also. Also no La sucriere in Barbados so that is definite plus for Sxm! Don't get me wrong, I would go back to Barbados in heartbeat, but it doesn't have the feel of Sxm.

Also, don't expect to see all the Americanized things that out have in Sxm (especially groceries). It is definitely British and caters to those travelers. I am Canadian (pretty apparent from my name) and we met only a couple of Americans when we were there. Loads of British and a few Canadians. Oh and if you drink, holy crap alcohol is EXPENSIVE!!! Worse than Canada even!!! Only rum is somewhat reasonable. Alcohol is easily double or slightly more than that in Barbados. We saw 1 litre of vodka selling at $40-50 US and that wasn't even a premium brand. You need to buy it in the duty free when you land in Barbados. It is actually right across from the luggage carousel.

Sunshine,

We are preconstruction Towers owners and longer yet, St. Maarten visitors but every so often we take a vacation just to see what else is out there, which is how we ended up in Barbados.

It is a beautiful island for sure but if beaches are your thing, IMHO, they don't come close to those of SXM. They're there, but they didn't seem as accessible, just for starters. We never found anything like Rosie's on Mullet and even though I tend to not be a huge Orient fan myself, for those who love it, we found nothing close to that either.

It's an island based on British sensibilities and formalities and when we were there there was no nudity permitted and even topless bathing was verboten. It's been a while and this may have changed and I know there used to be a poster here who lived on Barbados and vacationed on St. Maarten who said it was done, but not openly as on some SXM beaches.

For me, the best part of Barbados was the wide variety of coastlines and seascapes to explore. We did wander into Bridgetown a couple of times but it definitely wasn't at all my idea of a Caribbean experience. And actually, we wandered ALL over the island and even dealing with driving on the 'wrong' side of the roads - I have to admit, sometimes the round-abouts were on the scary side - but in the end we put huge amounts of miles on our rental car. We explored the caves along Crane Beach, and found a working sugarcane processing plant along the road to 'somewhere' and were treated to a tour of it and they even allowed us to climb the ladders and walk the catwalks to see how the cane was handled from raw product to finished molasses. Not everyone's idea of what to see or do but we enjoyed it. The Bathsheba coast line was gorgeous. We explored the coastal lighthouse and in the middle of absolutely no where, we found an old working church or monastery - not sure which is the proper nomenclature but it was beautiful and unexpected and well worth the trip down the road less traveled. Took another dirt road to nowhere and found a wooden dock where the local fishermen were selling their catch to the local housewives. We even got to watch a Bajan sunset wedding happening on the grounds of the resort where we were staying.

If you are a golfer it's there with a lot more formality and maintenance of the courses than at the Mullet course. But my understanding is it's very expensive though I can't say from firsthand experience. We get free golf at Mullet and don't bother. And as I recall, horse races, too, and there are a lot of other more organized activities as well - you won't want for things to do and if you're into exploring, OMG, Barbados is a great destination. But no near island's such as you have just off SXM.

It's been a while since we were there, but I have to say, as much as we enjoyed our long week on Barbados, I don't think it compares to SXM for what I want in a vacation but it is a very beautiful destination. I would never give up my Towers weeks to be there.

I loved our visit to Barbados and it definitely is an island I'd enjoy revisiting but it didn't hold the charm of St. Maarten for me. The food was very good, particularly the flying fish as a first time experience, but again, IMHO, its not equal to SXM though it was quite expensive. The people were very pleasant and seemed to welcome us warmly but we didn't find them as engaging as so many we've encountered on SXM.

And with regard to selling your SXM Towers timeshare weeks, good luck on that. Every once in a while we hear of someone who was able to sell their weeks but it seems that most people end up giving them back and walking away happy to be AMF free at that point.

I know both pretty well. St Martin tends to be superior in terms of convenience, beaches, restaurants, amenities, cost , rental cars and excursions.
The only advantages I see with Barbados are golf and they have beautifully decorated accommodations that is inviting and refined at the same time.
Barbados is about two to three times bigger. There are some scenic elements and historical sites but I found driving around to be annoying. Besides the lack of quality of rental cars and left sided driving, locals would block the road and try to sell you something or provide unneeded advice/directions with the expectations of getting a tip. The problem was that you never knew if they were being friendly or they were about to do something untoward as they aggressively block you in by motorcycle or other means.
There was a lot of solicitation by locals.

Overall, the beaches, waters, food and conveniences of St Martin greatly outweigh Barbados.

Rob

I will be in Barbados on a cruise in a few weeks. Having trouble picking a beach because of the unending parade of vendors harrassing you.

Agreed. It's tough to find good beaches on Barbados due to the limited parking and the beaches being so small.

Crane beach which is usually rated as one of the top beaches in the world was disappointing. Tough to access, water is rough and you have to be hassled by vendors as you access the beach.

I was recently on a cruise that stopped in Puerta Vallarta and Cabo. The beach vendors were relentless. So much so that I never want to go back there. Thanks for your input.

So disappointing to hear this. We stayed at the Crane Beach Resort so parking was a non-issue as was access and we saw no beach vendors at all. But I agree, the water was rough and the surf was NOT for novice swimmers but it sure was beautiful. Times have certainly changed and I guess our visit was a lot longer ago than I thought..... <img src="http://www.traveltalkonline.com/forums/images/graemlins/handshake.gif" alt="" /> <img src="http://www.traveltalkonline.com/forums/images/graemlins/handshake.gif" alt="" />