As the owner of Travel Rent-A-Car I'm looking forward to welcoming you to St Maarten. By providing well maintained vehicles at great rates and service with personal attention, I feel that Travel Rent-A-Car will be a big part of your relaxing, stress free Caribbean Vacation. I penned down some driving tips to help you to safely navigate the island's roads - some of the rules are different from countries like the US.

Drivers are courteous on the island: whenever you have to pull out of a tight spot into traffic, someone will let you in. Whenever there is a traffic jam at an intersection, traffic will still move, because drivers cooperate. Be part of this comfortable driving culture and make room for other drivers, even if it's not their right of way.

St. Maarten/St. Martin follows European laws and signage. Most importantly: traffic coming from the right has the right-of-way! Because this is the 'default' rule, there are usually no street signs on intersections. Only if right-of-way is regulated with signs does this default rule not apply. Drivers on the French side stick to this system much more strictly and assume you know.

Also: Watch out for no-parking zones in Philipsburg and at the Airport. The local towing companies behave like sharks (as anywhere in the world) and are just waiting to take your vehicle. As a matter of fact, they seem to target rental cars. The fees for picking up the car at the towing companies lot is between $50 to $60.

I feel that I don't have to reiterate the common sense safety precautions to you; St Maarten has become a rather urban island, still very safe and friendly. But if you are in the habit of leaving valuables in the car, you might attract the wrong kind of attention... Rule of thumb: don't risk anything you wouldn't risk at home. If you have any other concerns, contact me by email for a personal answer.