Mar 20, 2024
Glad we did it - We walked from our cruise berth to the duty free and tour terminal, it took a little while to find Bernard's - in the area marked EDC. Our driver was Ken, but at the start, boss Bernard came on the bus to welcome us and wish us an enjoyable trip. We drove through Phillipsburg, including past a statue of the first school bus driver on the island, that Ken said was his grandfather, and nearby saw some iguanas. We visited a beach viewpoint, the French capital Marigot, and on to Maho beach to see the planes for nearly an hour. Traffic was sometimes busy, it was reassuring to be with driver that knew the roads.
Review provided by Tripadvisor
Jan 3, 2024
Awesome time - The Mailman was awesome! So glad we booked this tour. It was 1000% better than the one we booked through the cruise ship the day prior.
Review provided by Viator
Nov 7, 2023
Amazing Experience - What a beautiful island! Our driver Freddie was a joy! A native, he immersed us in the history and provided comic relief! The bus was comfortable with great A/C and the ride was smooth. I left the tour feeling I knew so much about the island and it has prompted me to learn even more. We stopped and an area with a French Bakery. Yummy!! Maho beach was loads of fun but be careful when standing on the beach when planes are taking off! I got a face and hair full of beach sand!
Review provided by Tripadvisor
Sep 14, 2023
Great experience - Mailman was awesome! He educated us on the islands history and we enjoyed all of the stops. We appreciated him picking us up at our resort.
Review provided by Tripadvisor
Jul 20, 2023
Action Jackson! - Great time! Got to see all the key places, including Maho Beach. Spent an hour at Emerald Beach (hidden gem) to swim. Saw lots of cool things and met lots of cool people along the way.
Nice air-conditioned van with water. Our driver, Action Jackson, was the BEST! Shared tons of island history and knew his way around. Very friendly and informative guy.
Bernard's does a great job!
Review provided by Tripadvisor
May 1, 2023
The MAILMAN delivered us from EVIL! - We had so many laughs with THE MAILMAN! He made the tour what it was! We had a very difficult time finding where our tour was and then the owner of Noel Taxi helped me to find out who our tour operator was. Turns out we were standing in front of the tour operator THE WHOLE TIME! We had a good laugh about that.
The tour was informative and good fun. I would highly recommend this tour to EVERYONE looking to have a good time. I made LIFELONG friends on this tour.
Review provided by Viator
Apr 22, 2023
Sights on St. Maarten - We had some trouble locating the meeting point as our information just said meet on the pier. Pier staff got us pointed in the right general direction but still didn't find it. Two phone calls still didn't get us there and we finally found it by sheer luck so that was stressful. We had an early boarding time for our ship but still felt we were good with a 4 1/2 hour tour that should have had us back by 2:30 with our half an hour late start. Driver started taking us on Adventure Tour 1 but we got it straightened out early on. Seeing the island including a stop in Marigot, Grand Case beach and Maho beach was wonderful with additional stops along the way. The driver had another tour group employee on board and Daniella was the one trying to keep us on time (thank goodness!). The tour still took longer than scheduled and, although we enjoyed it, the stress of getting back was very nerve-wracking. When we got back we were wanting to hurry back to the ship but the driver insisted on a picture with him. We then raced back down the pier and boarded at 3:20 (with a 3:30 on-board time) which was a very stressful way to end a day on a beautiful island.
Review provided by Viator
Apr 8, 2023
Adventure Island Tour 2 - Great tour and price. Tour Guide was at pick up area which was hard to find and a long walk to get too but shuttle was running with air conditioning, and he gave us water or rum to drink along the way. Small bus was clean and small group was on time. Guide was knowledgeable of history of island and very friendly. Stops were long enough to browse or eat on our own.
Review provided by Tripadvisor
May 9, 2023
Not so great Adventure Island 2 Tour with Bernards Tours - There were 20 of us on our tour so it was a little tight on the bus. Due to traffic, it took 1 hour and 10 minutes to get to Orient Beach, arriving at 10:40. When we got there our driver Terry/Terrence told us we had 40 minutes at this stop, it was supposed to be 90-120 minutes per the description on the website. A few of us complained and he then said to be back on the bus at noon. Apparently, he later told two other couples to be back by 12:30, so we lost 25 minutes of our time at the beach sitting on the bus waiting for the other couples and Terry, who was napping in the beach bar. When we got to Marigot we only had 40 minutes, so shop or lunch, no time for both. Then on to Maho Beach where we had 1 hour, more than enough time there. It took us 45 minutes to get back to the ship because of the traffic. All in all this tour lasted 6 hours and there would have been no way to do it in any less time. It should be advertised as a 6 hour tour, or even better, a 6 1/2 - 7 hour tour and allow a solid 2 hours at Orient Beach so lunch can be enjoyed there. You can even charge a few dollars more.
Review provided by Tripadvisor
Nov 27, 2023
I wish we hadn't booked it. - We were going to do the 4 hour Maho Beach trip, but we switched to this one to join people from a Carnival cruise Facebook group. The tour was highly recommended by the owner of the Facebook group. We signed up to be with "Karen's group", which consisted of over 100 people. We left the ship at 10 am, walked to Bernard's tours, and had to wait in the hot tent because they didn't have the machine ready to run credit cards. We then boarded bus #2, which was VERY hot and overcrowded. The driver, whose name I can't remember, except that he said people call him "Sugar Ray Leonard" seemed friendly.

At 11:13 we stopped at an overlook at Oyster Bay, and we were supposed to be able to get out and take pictures, but nobody in front of us wanted to get out, and because the bus was overcrowded, we couldn't get out. So, the bus moved on.

At 11:25 we reached another lookout where people didn't want to get out, but we insisted this time, and we squeezed out of the bus.

At 12:30, after about 20 minutes of waiting for the driver to find out if he was at the right place, we got out at Captain Frenchy's and spent about an hour at a nice beach at Grand Case. They provided us with some mediocre rum punch in tiny, plastic cups. We had to go all the way back into the restaurant if we wanted refills.

By 1:30-2 we were loading back into the hot bus.
We stopped at a roadside flea-market and told we had to be back at the bus in 20 minutes. This was supposed to be the shopping, pastries, and cocktails part of the tour. It was actually about 10 tents that were selling identical souvenirs. No French pastries. No cocktails.

At 3:20 we arrived at Maho Beach, the exciting part where we were supposed to see jumbo jets fly over us. We saw 3-4 small airplanes, and had to be back at the bus by 3:50.
 No jumbo jets.
It took 1 1/2 hours to get back to the port.
Our driver, who said he was born and raised on the island, got LOST, so we NEVER got to go to the Iguana farm, which was one reason we bought the tour in the first place. Out of more than 6 hours with Bernard's Tours, we spent 4 HOURS of it on a bus, and didn't get what we paid for.
Review provided by Tripadvisor