St. Maarten is a small island nation in the northeastern Caribbean. Divided between France and Netherlands, It is the smallest island in the world that is divided between two nations; the southern Dutch half is one of the four constituent countries that form the Kingdom of the Netherlands. St Maarten is a spectacular island with magnificent beaches and marvelous landscapes attracting thousands of tourists from all over the world.
St. Maarten’s both half’s are not part of the schengen area, full border checks are performed without any relaxation when traveling between island and Europe. Princess Juliana International Airport serves for the island. Several large jet aircrafts, carrying tourists from all over the world land on this famous airport, nearly all the flights to Saint Maarten are served by this airport. The short length of the main runway of this airport and its location between a large hill and a beach attracts aviation photographers to this airport to take pictures of large jet planes flying just a few meters above tourists and visitors sunbathing on the Maho Beach.
Maho Beach is the favorite place for many of the tourists as it offers a unique attraction of watching big planes flying just above your head. People standing on the beach are sometimes blown into the water due to the jet blast from the jet planes taking off from runway 10. Recently the airport authorities have added an additional fence behind runway 10 to prevent tourists from being blasted by the flow of large jet engines of the aircrafts. Because of the jet blast’s erosion there is nearly no vegetation on the beach area but just the white sand.
There are many hotels, resorts, restaurants, bars and nightclubs near the beach area to facilitate and serve tourists visiting the island. This beach is one of the few places in the world where you can see aircrafts in their flight path. Visiting this beach is a truly amazing and unforgettable experience.
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