Sint Maarten is the southern, Dutch half of the island Saint Martin/Sint Maarten, a constituent country of the Kingdom of the Netherlands. It observes Atlantic Standard Time: UTC-4, year-round, no daylight saving. The IANA identifier is America/Lower_Princes.

The French half (Saint-Martin) observes the same UTC-4 offset under the identifier America/Marigot. Crossing the island changes your country, your language, and your currency, but not your clock.

Maho Beach

Sint Maarten’s most famous feature is probably Maho Beach, located directly adjacent to Princess Juliana International Airport’s runway. Aircraft on final approach pass so low over the beach that tourists can (and do) stand within meters of arriving planes, close enough to be knocked over by the jet blast on landing.

The beach became a global tourist attraction and social media phenomenon. A sign warns visitors of the jet blast hazard. People stand under it anyway for the photograph.

Princess Juliana International Airport was severely damaged by Hurricane Irma in September 2017, which made a direct strike on Sint Maarten as a Category 5 storm. Reconstruction took years. The airport reopened with partial capacity, and Maho Beach has attracted visitors again.

The partition of an island

Sint Maarten covers 37 square kilometers of the island’s southern section. Its neighbor Saint-Martin covers 53 square kilometers to the north. The two sides have no border controls: you can walk, drive, or cycle between them freely.

Sint Maarten became a constituent country of the Kingdom of the Netherlands in 2010, when the Netherlands Antilles was dissolved. It has its own parliament, its own prime minister, and its own finances, within the constitutional structure of the Kingdom.

The Dutch Caribbean connection means Sint Maarten uses the Dutch Caribbean guilder as its currency (shared with Curacao), while the French side uses the euro.

For developers

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