With half the day gone, it was time to zip back to the ship to change into swim suits and grab our snorkel gear. Before leaving, we ate a quick lunch at the Café Promenade on Deck 5, then headed back to the rental car to find Dawn Beach. Many more steep hills and turns later, we found the Westin Hotel – it appeared to be in the same place as Dawn Beach on the map, so we stopped to ask the door man for directions. He said we were there, and that we could park in the hotel’s parking garage, walk through the lobby, and the beach would be right there.
This was the most beautiful beach from the entire trip, and unfortunately, I don’t have a single picture of it because we only took our snorkeling gear out of the car and left the other cameras behind. The sand was pristine white and there were no boats or jetskis. The hotel was also incredible, and if I were to stay for an entire week in St Maarten, this is the place that I would pick. The snorkeling here was absolutely fabulous with real reefs, and at least 30 to 40 feet of visibility. However, the surf was very strong and even with dive fins, I had to work hard to swim back to shore. The wave swells were at least 4 feet tall, consistently. With a mask and snorkel, I could see and breathe just fine, but I got bowled over by the waves trying to get out of water. An hour later, it was time to go.
