A typical day on the beach at Pelican Key, Simpson Bay, St. Maarten


Weather

No matter which month of the year you visit the island, you are virtually guaranteed good weather as the island enjoys warm Caribbean trade winds, which produce daily average temperatures of 80 to 90 degrees or more, beautiful sunny skies, and little rain. When it rains, it's usually 20-minute squalls from passing clouds. 30 minutes later everything's dry again. The average annual rainfall is only 45 inches.

Keep in mind, the island is prone to hurricanes; and, although a hurricane can occur anytime between June and October, the worst month for Caribbean hurricanes is usually September. In 1999, for the first time in ONE HUNDRED YEARS, the island had a horrible hurricane in November. Since then, the island has had no major hurricanes. By the way, September is also the month when several of the hotels and restaurants close for their vacations and/or to do maintenance on their properties.

The island is 1,690 miles from New York City, 1,989 miles from Montreal, 3,065 miles from Sao Paulo, 4,314 miles from Amsterdam, 4,183 miles from Paris, and approximately 150 miles east of Puerto Rico. It is in a time zone one hour ahead of the US and Canadian East Coast from Oct. to April, (GMT-4), but enjoys the same time from April to Oct. Amsterdam and Paris are both (Greenwich Mean Time) GMT+1. French and Dutch are the official languages; English is spoken virtually everywhere.