Lifestyle
Great Bay Beach, Philipsburg
Great Bay has had a recurring pattern of time-limited no-swim advisories when the Great Salt Pond is pumped into the bay, and the Nature Foundation has recorded sewage indicators there after heavy rain. Here are the dated advisories and test results.
By SXM Daily ยท
Last checked: 14 October 2026
Next check: 14 January 2027
Great Bay Beach follows the Philipsburg waterfront on the Dutch side, with the town behind it and the bay in front. Every so often, government departments have told people not to swim in Great Bay for a while, and the Nature Foundation has found signs of sewage in the water after heavy rain. Each one was a dated, time-limited event, not a description of the water today.
Photo: Richie Diesterheft / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 2.0
The beach and the boardwalk
Philipsburg is built on a narrow strip of land between Great Bay and the Great Salt Pond, and Great Bay Beach is the bay-side edge of that strip. It is a sand beach that bends around the front of the town. On OpenStreetMap the sand stretches roughly 1.5 km, from Bobby's Marina at the eastern end to a point past Walter Plantz Square in the west.
The Philipsburg Boardwalk separates the sand from the town. It is a paved waterfront promenade about 1 km long, with restaurants and beach bars along it that look out over the water. Front Street runs parallel to it, just inland.
The water in front of the beach is Great Bay itself, which is also where the cruise ships berth, so ships in port are in plain view from the sand. To the west, the Fort Amsterdam peninsula divides Great Bay from neighbouring Little Bay. The beach and the boardwalk are at their busiest on cruise days.
Getting there
From the cruise port: ships tie up at the Dr. A.C. Wathey Cruise and Cargo Facility at Pointe Blanche, south-east of town on the same bay. On the map, the walking route follows a footpath beside Juancho Yrausquin Boulevard north to Bobby's Marina, where the sand begins, a distance of about 1.2 km. Wathey Square, further west along the waterfront, is about 1.6 km from the terminal on foot. Water taxis also run across the bay from the port to the Philipsburg waterfront.
From town: Front Street is only a short walk from the sand. Narrow lanes known as steegjes cut between the buildings, and on the map several of them, including Kerk Steeg, Apotheek Steeg, Loods Steeg and Speel Steeg, come out on the boardwalk. Wathey Square also opens directly from Front Street onto the waterfront.
Why no-swim advisories come up
The Ministry of VROMI sometimes brings down the level of the Great Salt Pond by pumping pond water into Great Bay. That water can be contaminated by runoff. When pumping takes place, VROMI or Collective Prevention Services (CPS), a department of the Ministry of Public Health (VSA), has advised the public to stay out of the bay.
Each advisory is time-limited and tied to a specific pumping operation.
Past advisories and water tests
- December 2015, CPS: advised against swimming in Great Bay while water from the Great Salt Pond was being released into the bay.
- August 2019, Nature Foundation: tests at Great Bay Beach after heavy rain found coliform bacteria, an indicator of sewage. The foundation urged swimmers to be cautious, particularly east of the Captain Hodge Pier.
- June 2020, Nature Foundation: retests found an average Enterococcus level above the norm of 35 CFU per 100 ml, with the highest reading near Bobby's Marina.
- October 2020, VROMI: advised against swimming in Great Bay during a pumping operation to lower the Great Salt Pond.
These entries record what was found or advised at the time. They do not say whether the water is good or bad now.
Sargassum advice
On 29 July 2026, CPS advised against swimming in places where large amounts of sargassum seaweed are rotting. That advice applies across the island, not to Great Bay in particular.
Before you swim
After heavy rain, or when the Great Salt Pond is being pumped, look for a VROMI or CPS notice before going into the water at Great Bay.
Sources
- https://www.soualiganewsday.com/index.php?Itemid=518&id=5969%3Acps-advises-against-bathing-swimming-in-great-bay-on-tuesday&option=com_k2&view=item
- https://naturefoundationsxm.org/water-quality-test-conducted-by-nature-foundation-at-great-bay-beach-shows-sewage-contamination/
- https://naturefoundationsxm.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/03/Water-quality-testing-results-SLS-document-22June2020.pdf
- https://news.sx/government/ministry-of-vromi-alerts-public-to-great-salt-pond-pumping-operation-advises-against-bathing-swimming-in-great-bay/
- https://stmaartenmediacenter.com/seasonal-sargassum-seaweed-present-in-coastal-areas-cps-urges-community-to-continue-to-take-health-precautions/
- https://www.frommers.com/destinations/st-maarten-st-martin/active-pursuits/beaches/
- https://www.frommers.com/destinations/st-maarten-st-martin/planning-a-trip/
- https://www.fodors.com/world/caribbean/st-martin-and-st-maarten/places/st-maarten/philipsburg
- https://www.fodors.com/world/caribbean/st-martin-and-st-maarten/things-to-do/sights/reviews/great-bay-427323
- https://portstmaarten.com/cruise
- https://www.royalcaribbean.com/inspire/caribbean-philipsburg-st-maarten-beaches
- https://10best.usatoday.com/awards/great-bay-beach-philipsburg-st-martin/
- https://www.openstreetmap.org/way/184301256
- https://www.openstreetmap.org/way/184307226
- https://www.openstreetmap.org/way/721957939