Sint Maarten / Saint Martin - The Caribbean Shopping Destination

Information Pages

St. Maarten/St. Martin certainly offers the best duty-free shopping opportunity in the Caribbean. Liquors and tobacco, clothing and fashion, jewels, electronics and perfumes: you will find more boutiques and tax free shops than you heart can desire! We used to travel from island to island and, whenever possible, throw in a few days of French lifestyle in St. Maarten/St.Martin. Especially French cuisine made us ravening, and so the first stop after the airport was always the supermarket.All those cheeses, the fresh baguettes and croissants,the foie gras and the oysters for Christmas and New Year provoked in us a near pathological shopping and feeding frenzy!

Soon we discovered that St.Martin's supermarkets did offer more than French food, and we couldn't believe the variety of Asian, Latin Indian and Chinese, , Middle-Eastern, Italian or Dutch items sold in those shopping paradises. Then we would go to our cozy bungalow and organize aperitifs and dinners for our island friends. This was easy on our purse, considering that wine, champagne and other drinks are much cheaper here than anywhere else.

Of course, shopping wouldn't stop at the supermarkets. Christmas shopping in St. Maartn/St. Martin was especially dangerous for our wallets. Ladies need some jewels from time to time, and so we would walk up and down Front Street in Philipsburg or the center of Marigot, in search for that nice little piece of gold, with that nice little gemstone that would fit to the newly acquired evening dress. After all, we would never get it cheaper than in the countless tax- and duty-free jewelry shops around the island. Imagine: For 250 USD, we got a dive watch which would have cost us 400 Euros in Europe!

As for clothing, we couldn't find a better place than St. Martin to go shopping and renew our wardrobe. Here, we could afford to pamper ourselves with luxury articles from world famous French or Italian brands in the fine boutiques of Marigot. Then comes beach wear, resort wear, casual clothing, shoes, accessories and lingerie, until you have everything you need under the sun.

Finally, we put the icing on the cake with French perfumes, after shaves and all kind of cosmetic products supposed to keep us young and good looking: again, duty-free and available at perfumeries and drug stores all over the island. After all that shopping and before getting ready for dinner and partying, it was time for the "hair-stylist", many of them having worked with some famous European or American  stars of the "haute-coiffure".

Then, again it was time to leave the island, but not without remembering our dear friends which couldn't enjoy St. Martin with us. There is always money left for some souvenir shopping. But the choice is so large that it will take an eternity to make up your mind. Better start sampling them from of the first day, whenever you stroll through the colorful street markets in Marigot or Philipsburg or pass the huge amount of souvenir shops wherever you go.

Our St.Martin shopping addiction ended some time ago, since now we live on the island and have all the time of the world to shop. How did it come to this? Let's say, it partially was an inevitable consequence of our shopping frenzy. Whenever we had to leave the island, our bags were so heavy with all the new stuff we bought that we really couldn't go on traveling around with them. So we bought an iron crate and left our older belongings in a bungalow in St. Martin. After a few years, we had nearly accumulated enough for a new home. And so we decided that we may as well stay here.