WARNING: THIS IS SUPER DANGEROUS AND LIFE THREATENING. EXPERIENCE AT YOUR OWN RISK.
A few years ago I watched an insane video of a plane swooping over a beach on the Caribbean island of St. Maarten, while it looked super dangerous, I vowed to one-day tick plane watching in St. Maarten it off of my bucket-list! Crazy right?
Well today, I can say that I have! I recently took a trip to the French & Dutch isle and it was the only activity I was able to squeeze into my short trip.
The unique and thrilling adventure of plane spotting is best experienced on the tiny yet beautiful Maho Beach, which is located at the tip of the runway at St. Maarten’s Princess Juliana International Airport. Fun fact: Like I mentioned up above, St. Maarten is a Dutch & French island. What this means is that there is a Dutch and French side, which is pretty cool. There is a distinct difference once you cross the boundary line. Maho Beach and the airport is located on the Dutch side.
The Princess Juliana International Airport is considered to be one of the most dangerous airports in the world because of how close planes descend over the popular tourist beach. It is also one of the few remaining airports where you can get THIS close to planes taking off and landing which makes it so popular.
When I say close, I mean you can feel the jet stream! I stood behind it and got blasted into the water! Looking back on this, I’m thinking this was pretty dangerous!
If you’re not as adventurous as I am, you can always walk to the Sunset Beach Bar, which is on Maho Beach and watch in amazement from a safe distance. You can check the monitors as they keep track of all departure and arrival times.
I sat on the beach all day and watched tiny prop planes and HUGE jets like American Air, JetBlue and the biggest of them all KLM 330 dip close to the shore.
Watch the adventures unfold.
Would you try plane watching in St. Maarten?
LET’S KEEP IN TOUCH!
