My Relax Place

Princess Juliana International Airport located at Saint Martin.

Saint Martin (Dutch: Sint Maarten; French: Saint-Martin) is a tropical island in the northeast Caribbean, approximately 240 km (150 miles) east of Puerto Rico. The 98 km² (38 square-mile) island is divided roughly in half between France and the Netherlands; it is one of the smallest inhabited landmasses in the world that is divided between two nations.

Sint Maarten, the Dutch side, is known for its festive nightlife, fun beaches, and plentiful casinos, while Saint-Martin, the French side, is known more for its world-famous nude beaches, jewelry and clothes shopping, exotic drinks made with native rum-based guavaberry liquors, and rich French Caribbean cuisine.

The island is served by many major airlines that bring in large jets, including Boeing 747s and Airbus A340s, carrying tourists from across the world on a daily basis. This fuels the island’s largest revenue source, tourism. Princess Juliana International Airport — which opened a major new terminal in November, 2006 — is famous for its short landing strip —only 2,130 metres/7,000 ft, which is barely enough for heavy jets. Because of this, the planes approach the island flying extremely low, right over the beach. Countless photos of large jets flying at 10–20 m/30-60 ft over relaxing tourists at the beach have been dismissed as photoshopped many times, but are nevertheless real.

Related Articles

This entry was posted on Tuesday, December 26th, 2006 at 4:37 pm and is filed under Funny Junk, Interesting Stuff, Wonderful Things. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.