It all starts with that landing, the one best seen from the Sunset Beach Bar, when the Boeings and the Airbuses every so slightly graze the top of the runway’s chain-link fence on Maho Beach — or at least that’s the way it looks with a Carib in your hand.
The Caribbean’s most famous landing is about to get busier this winter with a new nonstop flight between New York and St Maarten, set to begin in December.
American Airlines has announced it will be adding a new route between New York’s John F. Kennedy International Airport and St Maarten, with service officially kicking off on Dec. 7.

It’s a big boost for the destination out of one of its most important source markets, particularly the French side, which has been in the midst of a tourism renaissance in the post-pandemic period.
Indeed, it’s the French side that has most of the island’s top places to stay, from the uber-popular Grand Case Beach Club to lovely boutique hotels like Le Martin and Karibuni.