Sint Maarten Shopping

When we travel I enjoy purchasing souvenir tees. On this particular trip to St. Maarten I wanted a Hard Rock shirt. The store has a large variety and I found a colorful tee that I liked. $30 later and it was wrapped up in a bag ready to go.

Caribbean Trends is a duty free shop that carries a nice variety of liquor. We were searching in particular for the best priced Johnny Walker Blue for my brother-in-law. This shop had a nice Johnny Walker in a case along with two crystal glasses for $160; which was the best price we found on the island. The price was right and to boot it came in it's own rollaboard case so it was easy to transport back to the ship.

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Little Switzerland is a chain of stores that has locations throughout the Caribean, Key West and Alaska. The store caries a large assortment of jewelry, watches, crystal, porcelain and giftware. They carry a large selection of Lladro pieces which are favorites of my wife. They also have a nice selction of Breitling watches; which always makes me happy to see.

We have shopped at various locations of the store throughout the Caribbean and are always happy with the mechandise as well as the excellent customer service.

What to buy: Our last trip to St. Maarten brought us to this store to purchase a watch I had seen the previous day in St. Thomas. I was happy to see they had the same watch and at exactly the same price. Needless to say it was probably the easiest sale that Singh had had in the day.

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After getting harassed at the beach all morning we decided to pack it in and hit the shops. Sint Maarten has a nice little duty-free shopping areas.

I bought some cute little "island" framed prints and magnets. And, if you like Dutch goodies, you can find stroopwaffels, Droste chocolates, St. Maarten Delft-like ware, and other goodies here.

Two things you can get for super discounts here are jewelry and electronics. It seems every other shop here sells jewelry, high quality too. Vendors are honest when asked if the product is a replica, but in the case of jewelry, it's usually the real thing.
When you go into a shop, it's very common for a sales person to tell you it's your lucky day, because not only is the item you are looking at for sale, but he is authorized to give you a discount. He will then type a figure into his calculator and show it to you. If you pause, he will usually offer to throw in something else free. Sure, they say this to everyone, but the price he shows you truly is an impressive discount and the jewelry is legit.
I have a Raymond Weil watch that I got as a gift some years ago. I know what it is worth ( A LOT) and they had the same watch for much cheaper. Not a replica, the same watch.

If you are afraid of replica's, don't be. The vendors will be very honest with you. The most common replica's we saw were for handbags. My wife really knows handbags and even the replicas are very well made.

What to buy: youre best bet is jewelry or electronics.

What to pay: Ok, it's still expensive because it's the real deal, but it is much cheaper than you can get most places, certainly cheaper than the US

This shop is one of the biggest and oldest in St. Martin. Open since 1930, the shop also enjoys a reputation for quality diamonds. We looked at a lot of diamonds in some of the smaller shops but their color quality was often poor. All of the diamonds here are guaranteed to appraise higher at home. They also have 2 service centers (NY & LA) in the US to back up their lifetime guarantee. My husband bought this necklace for me while I was at the beach soaking up the sun. I later discovered it at the bottom of my glass of champagne.

What to buy: It is definitely worth it to buy diamonds on the island. However, if you do not know what you are looking for or have not done your homework on diamond quality it is best to keep your purchase below $1000. In addititon to the necklace, my husband also bought some diamond studs for our daughter and a watch for himself. We were very pleased with all of our purchases.

What to pay: I'd estimate that prices are about 1/3 less than in the US. Plus, you do not pay taxes.

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Shopper's Haven is a nice family owned jewelry store that we stumbled across while wandering around St. Maarten. They not only sell jewelry but make their own pieces. The store is small but has a large selction of diamonds, gold and assorted gemstone jewelry. Rick was very friendly andgreeted us upon walking through the door. We were looking for a wedding band for me and hadn't found anything I wanted as of yet. Rick pulled out some cases of rings and immediately my eyes locked onto a white gold band. The ring was beautiful and simple. The weight of the ring was good and the quality was excellent. The size was a bit small but Rick assured me he could size the ring within two hours and it would fit perfectly. We paid for my ring and went off to explore. After two hours we returned and my ring fit perfectly as promised.

We really liked th friendly service , quality merchandise and that it was family owned. We will definitely return here in the future.

What to buy: Anything you could want in jewelry from rings, bracelets, earrings and pendants.

What to pay: Affordable to expensive

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The Guavaberry Emporium is the place to go to sample or purchase some of the island's famous Guavaberry Liqueur. The Guavaberry is grown on St. Maarten only and is a famous local product. The Emporium stocks a variety of Guavaberry products and you can sample them all at the daily tastings.