Eastern Caribbean
Plan your visit
The big jets mostly arrive between late morning and mid-afternoon, so check the airport's arrivals before you go. Keep well away from the fence during take-offs, and hold on to your phone and belongings.
About this place
Maho Beach is a short strip of sand on St Martin's Dutch side, and it would be an ordinary beach if the runway of Princess Juliana International Airport did not end just across the road. Planes coming in to land pass only a few dozen metres above the sand, and the arrivals of the biggest jets have made it one of the most photographed beaches in the world.
Plane spotting is the whole point, and a crowd gathers on the sand for every big arrival. Take-offs are another matter: the blast from a jet's engines is strong enough to knock people over, and in 2017 a tourist holding on to the fence was killed by it. Warning signs line the fence, and the police patrol to keep people away from it.
We saw it from the water on the Rhino Rider excursion, watching the planes come in before we headed on to Kim Sha Beach.
Worth it for the spectacle of the landings. Watch the arrivals from the sand or the water, and never stand behind the fence for a take-off.
Location
Find Maho Beach
Maho Beach is on Beacon Hill Road on St Martin's Dutch side, at the western end of the airport runway, about twenty-five minutes by car from Philipsburg.
Coordinates: 18.0397° N · 63.1206° W
Featured in
Where you'll see it in our videos
Travel series
Icon of The Seas
This series follows our seven-night Eastern Caribbean cruise on Icon of the Seas, round trip from Miami in May 2026. We gave ourselves two days in Miami before boarding, then sailed to St Maarten, St Thomas and Perfect Day at CocoCay, with three sea days to get to know the ship.
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