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Tiki Hut is a floating platform located in Little Bay, south of the island of Saint-Martin. The concept is original: on the platform, you’ll find a snack bar, a small swimming pool, and deckchairs. Around, a “Snorkel Park”, where you can observe the underwater life and several wrecks in a designated area. A nice spot if you want to enjoy a day on the water while exploring the surrounding seabed.

Tiki Hut snorkel area, Sint Marteen
View over Tiki Hut snorkeling area.

How to go snorkeling at Tiki Hut?

Tiki Hut floating platform is located in Little Bay, in the Dutch part of the island, at the foot of Fort Amsterdam. The day pass is $50pp. It includes the round trip boat transfer from Bobby’s Marina in Philipsburg (around 10 minutes, departures and returns on request), the loan of snorkeling gear if you do not have your own equipment, as well as than the use of deckchairs.

You will be free to stay as long as you want on the platform, from a few hours to the whole day. If most visitors book the excursion directly with the provider, it is also possible to book it on most cruise ships that stopover in Saint Martin.

Water entrance for snorkeling Tiki Hut

You can get into the water from the many ladders installed around the platforms.

Tiki Hut snorkeling exploration tips

The snorkeling area, called “Snorkel Park”, stretches all around the Tiki Hut platform. It is delimited by buoys, which allow swimming in safety regarding the many boats which circulate in the bay.

Boat wreck at Tiki Hut
The boat wreck is one of Tiki Hut’s main underwater attractions.

Tiki Hut snorkeling area allows discovering several points of interest:

  • A boat wreck and a helicopter wreck, submerged 10-14ft/3-4m deep near the platform. The wrecks are however recent and shelter not much underwater life.
  • The shallows extending along the rocky point. In these shallow areas (↕2-10ft/0.5-3m), you will spot many fish, as well as a great diversity of corals, sea fans and sponges that have grown on the rocks.
  • The deeper areas found around the platform. You can swim there surrounded by hundreds of sergeants majors, attracted by the leftover food thrown by visitors (do not imitate them, as this practice is damaging to the marine environment).
School of sergeant majors at Tiki Hut, Sint Marteen
As soon as you’ll enter the water, you’ll be surrounded by dozens of sergeant majors.

Restaurants and accommodation nearby

The snack bar on the platform offers sandwiches, grills and drinks, which are not included in the day pass.

 

  • Level required Intermediate
  • Maximum depth15ft/5m
  • Water entranceFrom ladders set on the platform
  • Visitor numbersHigh
  • Access costsCost of the day pass ($50, 2021)
  • Restaurants nearbyYes, on the platform

MAP Spot

These spots are accessible to anyone with basic snorkeling skills, and feeling comfortable in the water and with his snorkeling gear. You will enter the water from the shore (beach, pontoon, ladder, rocks) or from a boat. The water height in the sea entrance area is reasonable, but you will not necessarily be within your depth. Moderate currents can occur in the area, even when the sea conditions are good. The distance to swim to reach the most interesting snorkeling areas of the spot does not exceed 200 meters.

This level only apply when the spot experiences optimal sea and/or weather conditions. It is not applicable if the sea and/or weather conditions deteriorate, in particular in the presence of rough sea, rain, strong wind, unusual current, large tides, waves and/or swell. You can find more details about the definition of our snorkeling levels on our snorkeling safety page.