Turquoise sea in front of a sandy beach lined with colourful parasols, hotels and palm trees beneath green hills.

Kim Sha Beach

St Maarten, Sint Maarten

Plan your visit

Loungers and umbrellas can be hired from the beach bars. Royal Caribbean's Rhino Rider excursion includes time here, with sunshades and snorkel gear.

About this place

Kim Sha Beach runs along the shore of Simpson Bay, a few minutes from the airport and close to the hotels and restaurants of Simpson Bay village. The water is usually calm, with views across the bay to the hills of the island.

This is a beach for a drink and a swim rather than solitude. Bars line the sand, the Buccaneer Beach Bar among them, and there are loungers and umbrellas to hire, watersports and the occasional party or concert in the evening.

It was the last stop on our Rhino Rider excursion, with sunshades, loungers and snorkel gear waiting for us before the boat ride back.

Our take
An easy, sociable beach to end a busy day: good for a swim and a drink, less so for peace and quiet.
Two people wearing sunglasses take a beach selfie beside a small yellow inflatable dinghy with a Yamaha outboard motor.A white Ocean Explorers boat sits in calm turquoise water near a sandy beach with multi-storey hotels behind it.A woman in a yellow top sits on a yellow inflatable dinghy with an outboard motor on a sandy beach with turquoise sea behind her.

Location

Find Kim Sha Beach

Kim Sha Beach is on Simpson Bay on St Martin's Dutch side, about twenty minutes by car from the cruise port in Philipsburg.

Coordinates: 18.0332° N · 63.0932° W

Featured in

Nearby places

All of St Maarten

Other stops in St Maarten

Bell's Lookout Point sits on a hillside above Cole Bay on the Dutch side of Sint Maarten, with views down to Simpson Bay Lagoon, one of the largest lagoons in the Caribbean.

Cupecoy Beach is a coastal stretch on Sint Maarten with sandstone cliffs, small coves and natural sea caves along its shoreline.

Divi Little Bay Beach Resort sits on a peninsula near Philipsburg on the Dutch side of Sint Maarten, beside a calm, sheltered beach quieter than many others on the island.

Attraction

Fort Amsterdam is a partly ruined 17th-century stone fortification on Sint Maarten, with antique cannons on site and views across Great Bay and Little Bay.

Location

The small beach at the end of Princess Juliana Airport's runway on St Martin, where landing jets pass low enough overhead to feel the roar.

Mullet Bay Beach is a wide white sand beach on the Dutch side of Sint Maarten. Planes pass at low altitude overhead on their approach to Princess Juliana International Airport.