DeputyDan
Contributor
I was reminded that I had promised to post a trip report on Saba and I have not - so here goes!
My daughter and I visited both Saba and St. Marteen in May 2010. We had never visited either island and I did not want to go that far and not go to both.
We flew into St. Marteen on US Air and used Ace rental car. This operation does not have an on site location but other posters on this board said that they are prompt and responsible and would be there to meet us and sure enough they were pretty well where they said they would be. The car we received was pretty much a piece of junk but that's cool cause it got us where we wanted to go.
We stayed at the Sonesta Maho right at the airport. The facility is pretty old but at $150 a night US it met our needs and the location was good. There were several places to walk to for meals so that was not an issue. We did not eat on site so I can't comment on the food at the Maho.
We did walk out on the beach at the end of the runway when one of the big KLM jets taxied down and then took off. Probably wouldn't do that again. Interesting but not really an intelligent thing to do!
We dove with Octopus diving in Grand Case. We only dove with them one day - 2 tanks AM and 2 tanks PM. They were fine and I would recommend them to anyone who asked. In addition, the dives were better than I had been lead to believe by reading various posts on this board.
The next morning we dropped off the car at ACE had arranged for one of their employees to take us to the Edge ferry. I was wondering if I had made a mistake but I found the employee asleep in his car. He was waiting on us. They don't open that early and he was really doing us a favor handling our needs like this.
The ferry leaves St. Marteen for SABA around 9:00 am. We had made reservations ahead of time so there were no issues. The ferry crew charged me $5.00 US for each of our bags. Said they were too heavy - even our carry ons. I figure he just pocketed the money.
On SABA we were supposed to be picked up by SEA SABA and taken to our lodging. However, they never showed up. After about an hour of waiting, a local asked us what was up and we told him. He called us a cab (I am sure it was a relative looking to make a quick buck) and the cabbie took us to the Cottage Club. The charge was $19.00 US. Sea Saba apologized for the mix up and took the $19.00 off of our final bill.
The Cottage club was top shelf and I would recommend them to anyone visiting SABA. They were within walking distance of everything in the Windward Community. Julianna's is located on the other side of the hill from the Cottage Club and I am reasonably sure that you would also enjoy staying there.
SEA SABA would ask every morning where you wanted to eat dinner at. I asked why and was told that some of the restaurants would not open if there were no reservations for the afternoon. We ate at The Brigadoon, Treasure Pizza, the sandwich shoppe on "main street" and at Scouts Place. My daughter loved with a capital L the red snapper at Scouts place. We went to the grocery and purchased items to cook breakfast in the room.
The diving with Sea Saba is generally a 2-tank AM trip and an option for a one tank afternoon dive. As best as I can remember the one tank dive was $40 US per person per day. My daughter and I did all the dives for the week. Most of the time we were the only two doing the PM dive so it was just us and the DM. On one occasion there was a try scuba couple and on another there were two open water students doing their open water dives. When it was just the two of us the DM didn't care how long we stayed down. In the AM the depth of the dives dictated dive times.
We booked our entire package "on Saba' with Sea Saba. The package included the 2-tank AM dives each day, lodging and all transportation to and from the dive boat. They also pick you up (supposed to anyhow) and drop you off at the pier or airport upon arrival and departure.
We had no issues with Sea Saba and would use them again. We didn't really have a "yuck" meal at any of the restaurants and I will agree that the Brigadoon is pricey!
There are ATM's on the island and the grocery store would take USD, Euros or Guilders. I think with the new laws that were adopted in October 2010, the currency going forward will be the USD. Don't quote me on this!
For the trip back to St. Marteen we used the Dawn II ferry. Based on the way this ferry is designed I would say to anyone who gets sea sick easily - pick another method of transportation. You sit down in the ferry and can not see out. As we were arriving at St. Marteen the ferry operator called for a cab to take us to the airport. The cab was a Limo and the charge was $19.00 US for the trip. This ferry and the Edge ferry operate from two different sections of St. Marteen. The Dawn II ferry arrived close to the cruise ship docks.
All in all we enjoyed the trip. The diving is more about the pinnacles and formations than the sea life. We did see our first peppermint basslets there. Most of the sea life is the typical caribbean fare - and it's all good!
Saba is an experience and if you are really into diving it really should be on your to do list!
DD
My daughter and I visited both Saba and St. Marteen in May 2010. We had never visited either island and I did not want to go that far and not go to both.
We flew into St. Marteen on US Air and used Ace rental car. This operation does not have an on site location but other posters on this board said that they are prompt and responsible and would be there to meet us and sure enough they were pretty well where they said they would be. The car we received was pretty much a piece of junk but that's cool cause it got us where we wanted to go.
We stayed at the Sonesta Maho right at the airport. The facility is pretty old but at $150 a night US it met our needs and the location was good. There were several places to walk to for meals so that was not an issue. We did not eat on site so I can't comment on the food at the Maho.
We did walk out on the beach at the end of the runway when one of the big KLM jets taxied down and then took off. Probably wouldn't do that again. Interesting but not really an intelligent thing to do!
We dove with Octopus diving in Grand Case. We only dove with them one day - 2 tanks AM and 2 tanks PM. They were fine and I would recommend them to anyone who asked. In addition, the dives were better than I had been lead to believe by reading various posts on this board.
The next morning we dropped off the car at ACE had arranged for one of their employees to take us to the Edge ferry. I was wondering if I had made a mistake but I found the employee asleep in his car. He was waiting on us. They don't open that early and he was really doing us a favor handling our needs like this.
The ferry leaves St. Marteen for SABA around 9:00 am. We had made reservations ahead of time so there were no issues. The ferry crew charged me $5.00 US for each of our bags. Said they were too heavy - even our carry ons. I figure he just pocketed the money.
On SABA we were supposed to be picked up by SEA SABA and taken to our lodging. However, they never showed up. After about an hour of waiting, a local asked us what was up and we told him. He called us a cab (I am sure it was a relative looking to make a quick buck) and the cabbie took us to the Cottage Club. The charge was $19.00 US. Sea Saba apologized for the mix up and took the $19.00 off of our final bill.
The Cottage club was top shelf and I would recommend them to anyone visiting SABA. They were within walking distance of everything in the Windward Community. Julianna's is located on the other side of the hill from the Cottage Club and I am reasonably sure that you would also enjoy staying there.
SEA SABA would ask every morning where you wanted to eat dinner at. I asked why and was told that some of the restaurants would not open if there were no reservations for the afternoon. We ate at The Brigadoon, Treasure Pizza, the sandwich shoppe on "main street" and at Scouts Place. My daughter loved with a capital L the red snapper at Scouts place. We went to the grocery and purchased items to cook breakfast in the room.
The diving with Sea Saba is generally a 2-tank AM trip and an option for a one tank afternoon dive. As best as I can remember the one tank dive was $40 US per person per day. My daughter and I did all the dives for the week. Most of the time we were the only two doing the PM dive so it was just us and the DM. On one occasion there was a try scuba couple and on another there were two open water students doing their open water dives. When it was just the two of us the DM didn't care how long we stayed down. In the AM the depth of the dives dictated dive times.
We booked our entire package "on Saba' with Sea Saba. The package included the 2-tank AM dives each day, lodging and all transportation to and from the dive boat. They also pick you up (supposed to anyhow) and drop you off at the pier or airport upon arrival and departure.
We had no issues with Sea Saba and would use them again. We didn't really have a "yuck" meal at any of the restaurants and I will agree that the Brigadoon is pricey!
There are ATM's on the island and the grocery store would take USD, Euros or Guilders. I think with the new laws that were adopted in October 2010, the currency going forward will be the USD. Don't quote me on this!
For the trip back to St. Marteen we used the Dawn II ferry. Based on the way this ferry is designed I would say to anyone who gets sea sick easily - pick another method of transportation. You sit down in the ferry and can not see out. As we were arriving at St. Marteen the ferry operator called for a cab to take us to the airport. The cab was a Limo and the charge was $19.00 US for the trip. This ferry and the Edge ferry operate from two different sections of St. Marteen. The Dawn II ferry arrived close to the cruise ship docks.
All in all we enjoyed the trip. The diving is more about the pinnacles and formations than the sea life. We did see our first peppermint basslets there. Most of the sea life is the typical caribbean fare - and it's all good!
Saba is an experience and if you are really into diving it really should be on your to do list!
DD
