Getting to St. Barts

St. Barths is not the easiest place to get to (which is generally considered a good thing). The most popular routes to get to St Barts is to fly to St Martin and then take a ferry or commuter plane to St Barts. Another option is to fly to San Juan, Puerto Rico and take a short flight to St Barts.

Here are a few tips and companies that will make planning the trip easier.

Voyager High Speed Ferry The two Voyager ferries offer regularly scheduled high speed & comfortable trips between St Barths St Martin and Saba. Since 1995, more than one million passengers travelled with Voyager. Voyager Ferry Website

Great Bay Express Ferry Service Monday-Saturday Departs: St. Martin at 8am and 5pm Departs: St. Barts at 9pm and 6pm Sundays Departs: St. Martin at 9am and 5pm Departs: St. Barts at 10am and 6pm The Great Bay Express makes two daily trips between (Phillipsburg, St Maarten) and (Gustavia, St Barts). The ferry has both air-conditioned and open-air seating with a capacity of 45 passengers. The ferry trip takes 45 minutes. The round-trip fare for adults purchasing a ticket in advance is 55 euros; the cost is 60 euros if purchased day of departure. Mention SBHonline. Phone: 011 590 590 52 45 06 Email: sbh.ferry@orange.fr

Air St. Maartin Specializing in Seamless Connections to St. Barths. Shared Charter Flights From St. Maarten To St. Barths starting at $240 per person Private Charter Flights From St. Maarten To St. Barths starting at $950 for the whole aircraft. Organizing and coordinating commercial flights, private charters and shared charters with VIP services to and from St. Maarten, St. Barths, Anguilla, Antigua, San Juan, Puerto Rico, Aruba, Bonaire and Curacao and throughout the rest of the Caribbean. Phone: 599-543-1023 Fax: 1-866-503-0347 Email: info@airsxm.com Reservation Request More information

Tradewind Aviation Fly directly from San Juan to St. Barths with Tradewind Aviation - Daily flights in executive configured Cessna Grand Caravan's direct from San Juan, Puerto Rico to St. Barthelemy. Private charters are available in Pilatus PC-12s or Cessna Grand Caravans from Puerto Rico and the US Virgin Islands. Travel in style and luxury to St. Barthelemy with Tradewind Aviation. More information

Wimco - A St. Barts Vacation Planning Specialist A complete trip planning service for the island of St. Barths. Wimco will handle your villa or hotel reservation, charter or commercial flight arrangements from any destination, car rentals, boat trip/transfers, and set up local services like villa provisioning, restaurant reservations, babysitters, private chef service and more More information

Sun Destinations A complete reservation center for the island of St. Barths. Sun Destinations will take care of every detail of your vacation planning including flight arrangements, car rentals, boat trip/transfers, and villa and hotel rentals. More information

First: Getting to St. Maarten or San Juan

Historically, the most common way to get to St. Barths (SBH) is to fly first to the Dutch side of St. Maarten (SXM) and then take a prop plane for the short, ten minute flight to St. Barths.
St Barth Commuter flies to St Barts in 15 minutes from St Martin airport.

Fly from San Juan and take a one hour charter flight directly to St. Barths which eliminates the St. Maarten airport (and its many hassles). Tradewind Aviation offers a scheduled charter service.

**One thing to remember -- planes do not fly to St. Barths at night (no lights at the airport!) so you have to arrive on St. Maarten in time to catch the last flight of the day at 4:50 p.m. or take one of the ferry services.

St. Maarten to St. Barths:

St. Maarten is a fairly unpopular airport and visitors to St. Barths like to spend as little time there as possible. If at all possible, bring only carry-on luggage to St. Barths. (As mentioned above, you can now also avoid St. Maarten entirely if you fly directly from SJU to SBH on Tradewinds Aviation).

Additional Advice:

The In Transit Gate:
The rules and regulations regarding the In Transit gate change constantly so be sure to check what is being said in the discussion forums before you go. Sun Destinations offers VIP transit services to speed you through the process.

•The Voyager- the largest ferry leaves from the French side of the island (you fly into the Dutch side) which is about a 20 minute cab ride from the airport. The Voyager ferry makes the boat trip to St. Barts a comfortable and fun experience.
Phone: + (590) 87 10 68

Arriving in St. Barths by private boat:

You'll arrive at the lovely Gustavia Harbor. You should alert the port authorities at least an hour before your arrival on VHF channel 16. The Harbor office telephone number is 05 90 27 66 97.
Yannis Marine provides private boat taxi service from St Martin to St Barts. They have a fleet of fantastic boats. This option will be more expensive than the ferry but very cool, and very enjoyable.

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