On the island now
This week on St. Maarten and St. Martin
The week splits clean down the middle. Four cruise days back to back, Monday through Thursday, and then nothing at all Friday, Saturday and Sunday. Tuesday and Thursday are the heavy ones: Icon of the Seas and Star of the Seas are the two biggest ships calling here all month, and they both sit at the Cruise Terminal until 5pm. If you want Philipsburg, Front Street or Great Bay without the crush, take Friday onward. Everything worth planning around this week happens on that quiet weekend, and it is all on the French side. The Collectivite's Journees europeennes du patrimoine run Saturday September 19 and Sunday September 20, with guided visits to the old Spring sugar works, the Guavaberry distillery and Heritage Village at Colombier, the Old House in French Quarter, the history of the Treaty of Concordia, traditional sewing workshops, and a cultural walk through Marigot. Registration is required, through the form the Collectivite has published, and slots are booked ahead. Saturday morning at Amuseum Naturalis in French Quarter is the easiest one to just turn up for. Two honest notes. The Dutch side has nothing confirmed on the calendar this week, which is unusual and is partly a sourcing gap on our end: Le Pelican's weekend agenda for September 18 to 20 had not posted when we checked Monday morning, and the Daily Herald's Out 'N About listings are a Thursday print supplement we cannot read automatically. We will have more by Thursday. And two things are on published calendars for this week that we could not corroborate anywhere: a monthly karaoke night at Huppel The Pub in Philipsburg on Friday September 18, listed on the SHTA annual calendar with no time attached, and World Cleanup Day on Sunday September 20, which the SHTA calendar credits to Nature Foundation and EPIC but which neither organisation has announced on its own channel. We are leaving both off the page until someone confirms them.
Week of September 14, 2026 to September 20, 2026
Updated September 14, 2026. Dates are reported from the SHTA calendar and can change, so confirm before you build a day around one.
Happening this week
Events
Sat, Sep 19
Journees europeennes du patrimoine, day one. Guided visits organised by the Collectivite's Direction des Affaires Culturelles with INRAP, Guavaberry Tradition, Les Fruits de Mer, Island Friend Tours, the Swaliwomen Kultural Association, ACS ZEPIN and Heritage and Ancestral Trails of Colombier. Saturday's timetable: 8am at the old Spring sugar works, 9am for St. Martin's plant heritage at the Old House in French Quarter and for the Guavaberry distillery and Heritage Village at Colombier, 10am again at Spring, 10:30am at the Guavaberry distillery and Heritage Village, and 4pm for a cultural walk through Marigot. Registration is required, through the Collectivite's online form or the QR code on the event poster. Each visit has limited places. Go early if you want the Spring sugar works, which is the one that books out.
Spring sugar works, the Old House in French Quarter, Colombier, and MarigotFrench sideSourceConfirmedSat, Sep 19
Amuseum Naturalis Heritage Days morning, 9am to noon at The Old House in French Quarter. Free, outdoors, no booking needed, with a volunteer on site to answer questions. This is the Old House stop on the Journees du patrimoine programme and the easiest one to simply turn up for. The exhibits cover the animals found only on St. Martin, traditional building techniques, the bush tea garden and the agricultural heritage displays. Run by Les Fruits de Mer.
Sun, Sep 20
Journees europeennes du patrimoine, day two. Sunday's timetable is the fuller of the weekend: 8am at the old Spring sugar works, 8:30am for a traditional sewing workshop, 9am for the history of the Treaty of Concordia and for the Guavaberry distillery, 9:45am for the Treaty of Concordia again, 10am for the sewing workshop and for Spring, 10:30am at the Guavaberry distillery, 11am for the cultural walk through Marigot and 11:30am for the sewing workshop. Registration is required, through the Collectivite's online form or the QR code on the event poster. The Treaty of Concordia sessions are the ones to take if you only do one: the 1648 partition is the single fact everyone repeats about this island and almost nobody gets right.
On repeat
Weekly fixtures
Open daily sunrise to sunset. Volunteer on site Saturdays 9am to noon, including Saturday September 19
Amuseum Naturalis at The Old House, free and open every day, with a volunteer on site on Saturday mornings
Live status
Ships in port and weather
Cruise ships in port
Read from the Port St. Maarten schedule portal in a real browser on Monday September 14. The whole week falls inside the September table, so there is no month-boundary gap. Four calls in seven days, all at the Cruise Terminal: Rhapsody of the Seas today, Monday September 14, 7am to 5pm at CPN-NE. Icon of the Seas Tuesday September 15, 7am to 5pm at CPN-NE. Regal Princess Wednesday September 16, 6am to 3pm at CPN-NE. Star of the Seas Thursday September 17, 7am to 5pm at CPN-NE. Nothing Friday, Saturday or Sunday. Tuesday and Thursday are the two to work around. Icon of the Seas and Star of the Seas are the largest ships calling here this month, so Philipsburg, Front Street, Great Bay and the Boardwalk stay busy from mid-morning to the 5pm sail-away on both days, and the taxi and water-taxi queues run long. Wednesday clears earlier than the rest: Regal Princess sails at 3pm, so Front Street is usable again by late afternoon. The whole back half of the week is free. Everything on this page happens then. Both days of the Journees du patrimoine, Saturday and Sunday, land on zero-ship days, which matters more than it sounds: the Marigot walk and the Colombier sites are reached on roads that back up badly on a heavy cruise day, and this weekend they will not. Next call after this week: Tuesday September 22, when Icon of the Seas and Rhapsody of the Seas are both alongside, the only double of the month.
- Mon, Sep 14: Rhapsody of the Seas
- Tue, Sep 15: Icon of the Seas
- Wed, Sep 16: Regal Princess
- Thu, Sep 17: Star of the Seas
- Fri, Sep 18: 0 ships
- Sat, Sep 19: 0 ships
- Sun, Sep 20: 0 ships
Source: Port St. Maarten cruise schedule, as of September 14, 2026.
Week-ahead weather
The Met Department issued this at 6:00am LST on Monday September 14, valid to 6:00am Tuesday. Today through Tuesday morning: variably cloudy with isolated showers likely. High near 33C (91F), low near 28C (82F). Winds easterly, a light to moderate breeze at 6 to 13 mph. Seas smooth in sheltered water at up to 2 feet, slight in the open at 2 to 4 feet. The outlook through Wednesday morning is partly cloudy with isolated showers. A loose pressure gradient is keeping the winds gentle and the moisture patchy, which is the recipe for a hot, sticky week with a short shower that passes before you have found shade. The air quality advisory that ran during last week's Saharan dust was cancelled on September 12. Sunset today is 6:15pm and sunrise tomorrow is 6:00am, which is worth knowing if you are driving back from Colombier or Marigot at the weekend. These are still the peak weeks of hurricane season. Check meteosxm.com yourself before you commit to a boat or a hike.
This is a week-ahead outlook, not a daily forecast. For today's conditions, checkMeteo SXM. Outlook written September 14, 2026.
Good to know
Common questions
What's happening in St. Maarten this week?
The weekend carries it. Journees du patrimoine runs Saturday September 19 and Sunday September 20 on the French side, with guided visits to the Spring sugar works, the Guavaberry distillery and Heritage Village at Colombier, the Old House in French Quarter and Marigot. Registration is required. Nothing is confirmed on the Dutch side this week.
Which days are quietest for a cruise-free St. Maarten this week?
Friday, Saturday and Sunday. The Port St. Maarten schedule, read September 14, shows four calls Monday through Thursday and none at all after that. Tuesday and Thursday are the busiest, with Icon of the Seas and Star of the Seas both alongside until 5pm.
Do I need to book for the Journees du patrimoine visits in St. Martin?
Yes. The Collectivite de Saint-Martin has opened registration through an online form and a QR code on the event poster, and the guided visits on September 19 and 20 have limited places. The Amuseum Naturalis morning in French Quarter on Saturday, 9am to noon, is free and needs no booking.
Sources
Where this comes from
This page is updated weekly, and every listing above carries its own label. Confirmed means we checked it with the venue or the operator. Reported means it comes from a credible source we trust but have not called. Unconfirmed means it is on a published calendar and we could not get it verified, so check before you build a day around it. Last updated September 14, 2026.
- Port St. Maarten cruise schedule portal, September table read in a browser on September 14
- Meteo SXM public forecast, issued Monday September 14 at 6:00am LST
- Collectivite de Saint-Martin, Journees Europeennes du Patrimoine 2026, published September 7
- Le Pelican, the full Journees du patrimoine 2026 timetable, published September 9
- Amuseum Naturalis at The Old House, opening hours and the Heritage Days calendar entry for September 19
- Le Pelican weekend agenda of September 10, whose look-ahead box confirms the patrimoine dates. The agenda for September 18 to 20 had not posted when we checked
- SHTA 2026 Annual Events Calendar, the source for the two unconfirmed listings left off this page: Huppel The Pub karaoke on September 18 and World Cleanup Day on September 20
- Nature Foundation Sint Maarten news, checked September 14 with no cleanup announcement posted since August 21
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