Getting Around St. Maarten: Taxis, Cars, Buses and Ferries

Quick answer

If you are here for more than a couple of days and plan to leave your hotel, rent a car. It is the cheapest and least frustrating way to reach both sides, the good beaches, and dinner on your own clock. The exceptions are real, though, so read on before you book.

St. Maarten has no meters and no Uber. Taxis run on a government-regulated zone tariff, a fixed price by pickup and destination zone rather than by distance. Public minivans cost $1 to $2 and cover the whole island, with no fixed schedule. Driving is on the right, same as the US. Ferries connect the island to Anguilla, St. Barts, Saba and St. Eustatius, and one route carries on to St. Kitts.

The island is small, about 87 square kilometers (34 square miles), but small does not mean easy to get around without a car. The buses cover one main road and not much else, taxis are fixed-price and add up fast, and the things worth seeing are spread across two countries.

Which option for your trip?

• Cruise day. Do not rent. You dock in Philipsburg, so take a taxi to one beach and back, book a ship excursion, or, if you are game and watching your budget, ride the bus along the main road. Whatever you do, mind your ship’s all-aboard time. The bridge and rush hour can bite.
• Resort-based week. If you will mostly stay put, taxis plus a rental car for a day or two of exploring can beat paying for a car you leave parked all week. If your resort is isolated, like Anse Marcel, a car buys back a lot of freedom.
• Explorer week. Rent a car, no hesitation. Seeing both sides, chasing beaches, and eating where you feel like it all depend on it.
• Budget trip. Lean on the $2 buses along the main road and your feet, with the occasional taxi for the gaps. Base yourself near the route, around Simpson Bay or Philipsburg, and it is genuinely cheap, just slower.

Still deciding where to sleep? Start with which side to stay on and where to stay, then come back here.

Taxi

Full breakdown with the complete zone chart: Taxi rates

St. Maarten taxi fares are set by national decree, not by meter. They are established under the National Decree on Taxi Tariffs 2020, administered by the government’s tourism and economic affairs department. Whether the published figure is per person or per taxi is genuinely unsettled across sources, so agree the total with the driver before you set off. Either way there is an extra charge of roughly $5 to $9 per additional passenger, depending on distance. The full zone chart sets out both readings.

Sample published rates from the airport:

Night rates run higher: fares increase 25% between 10pm and midnight, and 50% between midnight and 5am. Waiting time is billed separately, and hiring a taxi by the hour runs around $50 an hour.

Only registered taxis with plates starting TX are legally bound by the government rate card. Unlicensed rides are not.

Taxi associations submitted a proposal in 2025 to raise these rates, and the Ministry had not ruled on it when this page was last checked. Treat the dollar figures as a strong estimate rather than a guarantee, and check the tariff card the driver is legally required to display.

Taxis make sense for airport transfers, a night out when you would rather not drive, and cruise passengers doing one beach and back. As daily transport for a week, they get expensive fast.

Rental car and driving

Full breakdown: Renting a car and driving in St. Maarten

Driving is on the right-hand side, same as the US and Canada. Most main roads are paved and in decent condition. Secondary and hillside roads can be narrow, steep, and occasionally potholed. There are no toll roads, and fuel is cheaper than you would expect for a Caribbean island because St. Maarten is a free port.

To rent: the minimum age is generally 21, with a surcharge common under 25. You need a valid driver’s license from your home country and a credit card in the renter’s name for the deposit. An International Driving Permit is recommended but not universally required, and most agencies accept a standard license printed in Roman characters.

Book early. Supply is genuinely limited, especially in high season (December through April) and around big events. Cars sell out and prices spike close to the date.

The insurance reality. This is where the cheap headline price stops being cheap. The daily rate is often the small number. The insurance and the deductible, the excess you owe if anything happens, are the big ones, and the counter will push a costly waiver hard. Before you travel, check whether your credit card or a standalone rental policy already covers you, and decide then rather than at the desk under pressure. Photograph the car all the way around before you drive off, existing scratches and all, so a pre-existing dent does not land on your bill. Many policies also exclude gravel roads and beach tracks, which is exactly where a few of the better beaches make you drive.

Roundabouts: yield to traffic already circulating. Sources conflict on right-of-way at intersections outside roundabouts, and the car rental page sets out that disagreement rather than resolving it with a guess.

The two chokepoints

• The Simpson Bay bridge. The bridge over the lagoon inlet opens on a set schedule several times a day to let boats through, and traffic stacks up on both sides while it does. If your route crosses it, check the day’s opening times and leave a buffer, especially heading to or from the airport.
• Airport road at rush hour. The main road past the airport and through Simpson Bay clogs badly in the morning and again in the late afternoon. A hop that takes ten minutes at noon can take forty at 5pm.

Parking, honestly, by area

• Philipsburg: paid lots on the edge of town, tight streets, and near-impossible on a big cruise day. Park on the outskirts and walk in.
• Simpson Bay: fine by day, but restaurant parking on the strip gets tight at dinner.
• Maho: parks easily most of the time, except when a big arrival brings the plane-spotting crowd.
• Grand Case: one narrow main street, tight parking, worst on Tuesday nights in season for Harmony Nights.
• Marigot: paid parking near the market and marina.
• Orient Bay: beach-club lots, some paid.
• Quiet condo and resort areas like Cupecoy, Oyster Pond, and Anse Marcel are easy. You park at your place.

Public buses (vans)

Full breakdown with all five Dutch-side lines: Bus routes

St. Maarten’s bus system is a network of privately owned minivans, regulated by the government, running fixed routes without fixed schedules. Look for vans with “BUS” on the license plate and a white sign with red lettering in the windshield. There is no set stop system on most routes. Drivers pick up and drop off along the way, and you flag one down by raising your hand.

Five Dutch-side lines all leave from Emmaplein or the adjacent Clem Labega Square in Philipsburg, about a ten-minute walk from the cruise port, and reach Marigot, Maho and Mullet Bay, St. Peters, French Quarter, and Sucker Garden. Fares run $1 to $2 by distance. Children under 3 and adults over 65 ride free.

Buses generally run from early morning, around 5am, until roughly midnight, more frequently during the day and tapering off at night. Drivers do not always carry change for large bills, so carry small denominations.

The honest limits: they get unreliable after dark, they follow the main routes rather than detouring to every resort or quiet beach, and they are not the move if you are carrying a week of luggage. For a budget traveler based near a line, though, they are genuinely cheap and far more useful than most guides let on.

Scooters and ATVs: a word of caution

You will see scooters and ATVs for rent, and they look like fun. Be honest with yourself first. The roads are narrow, hilly, and potholed, local traffic moves fast and close, and there is little room for error on two wheels or an open quad. Riders get hurt here every season, often visitors who do not ride at home. If you are not already an experienced, confident rider, this is not the place to learn, and it is not a sensible choice as your main way to get around. If you do ride, wear the helmet, skip it after drinks, and stay off the busy main roads.

Airport and cruise port transfers

Full breakdown: Airport and cruise port transfers

Princess Juliana International Airport (SXM) sits centrally on the Dutch side, close to Simpson Bay and Maho and within a 10 to 20 minute drive of most hotels. It is a single terminal, and the rebuilt arrivals hall reopened in October 2024. Taxis, rental car desks, and hotel shuttles are all on the same frontage just outside arrivals, at the government zone rates above.

For cruise passengers, taxis queue at Port St. Maarten in Philipsburg under the same tariff, at $10 for one or two people into town. Philipsburg itself is a 15 to 25 minute walk from the pier, or a short water taxi along the boardwalk. Traffic gets noticeably worse in the afternoon as everyone heads back before final boarding, so build in real buffer time.

Crossing the border

There is nothing to it. The Dutch and French sides share an open border with no checkpoint, no passport control, and no fee. You drive, bus, or walk across on an ordinary road, marked by little more than a welcome sign. Your rental car crosses without any paperwork, though it is worth confirming with your agency that the insurance covers both sides. For trip planning, this is the point: whichever side you sleep on, the rest of the island is reachable the same day.

Inter-island ferries

Four routes have their own page, and every crossing needs a passport.

To Anguilla

Two options. The public ferry departs from Marigot on the French side, roughly every 45 minutes to an hour from 8:30am, with the last return around 6pm. Reported one-way fares range from about $12 to $20, plus a separate Anguilla tax (around $11 for day visitors, more for longer stays) and a small Marigot departure tax. Private and scheduled semi-private boats leave from the St. Maarten side near the airport, cost more at roughly $65 to $75 one-way, and save you the taxi ride to Marigot.

To St. Barts

Voyager runs three vessels and up to three crossings a day from Marigot (about 60 minutes) or Oyster Pond (about 30 minutes, the fastest crossing on the route). Great Bay Express runs the Shantiwa out of Philipsburg in about 45 minutes. Reported one-way fares run roughly $75 to $99. All arrive in Gustavia.

To Saba

The Edge is the high-speed catamaran out of Simpson Bay, roughly $55 to $75 one-way, and the standard day-trip option at about five hours on the island. Dawn II, the “Heineken Boat,” runs from Dock Maarten in Philipsburg with more luggage space, which divers prefer. Operating days move around and the two main sources disagree on which days The Edge sails, so confirm the sailing day with the operator before you plan around it. The crossing is one of the rougher ones in the region.

To Statia

The Makana, launched in 2022, runs a combined Sint Maarten to Saba to Statia to St. Kitts route from Bobby’s Marina in Philipsburg, about 75 minutes to Saba and about 85 minutes to Statia. The operator says the schedule changes every month according to demand, so confirm dates before building a trip around it. Winair flies to Statia three times a day, and for fixed travel dates that is the more reliable option.

Every page in this cluster

• Taxi rates: the full zone chart
• Renting a car: rules, rates and roads
• Bus routes: every line, stop and fare
• Airport and cruise port transfers
• Ferry to Anguilla
• Ferry to St. Barts
• Ferry to Saba
• Ferry to St. Eustatius

The bottom line

For most people staying more than a day or two, rent a car, book it early, and sort your insurance before you fly. Cruisers, stay-put resort guests, and budget travelers have honest reasons to skip it and lean on taxis and the buses instead. Whatever you choose, the open border means one base can still see the whole island.

Next: line up your base with where to stay, or head back to the plan your trip hub for the rest.