This is a GREAT place to swim. Very shallow, no rip tides to worry about. Good little gift shops and restaurants. Loved this place. Just hard to get to without a car.. you need to take the ferry over. If you use a taxi... it will be about $30 one way. I loved this beach!
Very disappointed in Pinel Island! My husband and I took the nature trail to the side of the island - the beach was literally FULL OF TRASH. We then headed back to try some snorkeling and was extremely disappointed. There are two restaurants at the dock where the ferry dropped us off. From what we could tell, that was the only decent beaches on the island. We were told twice by the people at Karibuni that we were not welcome to sit on the beach unless we paid for their chairs! A Total Disappointment!
The island of St. Martin, despite having some great places to visit, it's becoming quite a crowed/confusing place.
It was my first time on the Caribbean and I must say I was expecting something else. A more relaxed place, more natural, more wild. In Pinel Island I found that.
Pinel Island it's a wonderful place to visit and the perfect getaway from St. Martin.
You have to go to the eco-snorkeling site and dive there, do the trail around the island and lay low on one of the two existing restaurants (for me, I advise you to go to the Yellow Beach).
I would rate it the no.1 place to visit if you're ever in St. Martin.
Love going to Pinel for a quiet day away from the hustle of Orient.
A short ferry ride from Cul de Sac (5 min. and $7.00 per person) it is great day to relax by calm waters with 3 restaurants to choose from for lunch. You can hike to the other side for beautiful views and the actually have some of the best snorkeling there. We always set aside a day for Pinel when in St. Martin.
We put this off till the end of our trip and I really regretted it. It is a small island right off the shore of St. Martin. The beaches were beautiful and kid friendly (the water stays shallow). While the island is "uninhabited" there are 4 restaurants there. The one we ate at was good (nothing amazing), especially considering everything was prepared by shipped in water and generator power. Iguana roam the island and seem to have little fear of people. What I really enjoyed was the hike. There is a trail that goes around the island with information as you go to explain what you are seeing, point out the sights or just teach you about the area. I would like to go back, try the other restaurants and finish the hike.
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