Maho Beach St Maarten

Even though I tend to get bored on a beach holiday, there’s one beach in the Caribbean which has a very high entertainment factor. It’s Maho Beach on the Dutch side of the island of St Maarten.

This beach lies right behind the runway of the main airport on the island, Princess Juliana International airport, with planes coming into landing and taking off in close proximity of your beach lounger. It’s actually not a very good beach to top up your tan as lying on it is anything but relaxing. But it’s great fun. The planes that land here fly so low overhead that the roar of the engines is deafening. And when they take off the jet stream of exhaust fumes is blasted onto the beach with such force that you’re blown into the ocean if you don’t hold on to anything steady. Not to mention the sandstorm it causes.

When a plane is about to take off, people gather at the fence right behind the runway and hold on for dear life when it goes down the runway full throttle, breathing in a gazillion tons of toxic fumes. It’ll cost ya a couple of years of your life, but hey, when do you ever get this close to an aircraft taking off?

There’s a great bar called Sunset Bar & Grill on the edge of the beach where you can have a drink in between flights. Don’t worry about missing one, as they have a blackboard in the shape of a surfboard with all arrivals and departures at Princess Juliana International Airport. Now that’s my kind of beach holiday.