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St. Maarten,
together with its sister islands Saba and St. Eustatius form part of
the Netherlands Antilles. Curacao and Bonaire are the two other islands
of the Netherlands Antilles and together with Aruba and the mother country
Holland, they form the Kingdom of the Netherlands.
St. Maarten
consists of two parts of which St. Martin, the Northern section of the
island, is considered an overseas part of the republic of France together
with Guadeloupe and Martinique.
The languages
spoken on St. Maarten/St. Martin are amongst others English, French,
Dutch, Italian, Spanish and German. There are about 20 different nationalities
residing and living on the island in a peaceful and harmonious way.
The total population on both sides of the island is estimated at some
100.000 people.
West from
St. Maarten you will find the islands of Anguilla, the U.S. Virgin islands
of which St. Thomas and St. Croix are the most known. The British Virgin
islands, and Puerto Rico, are also situated west from St. Maarten.
On the
eastern side the islands of Saba, St. Eustatius, Antigua, St. Kitts
Nevis and Montserrat are the closest by. Further down the chain of islands
Dominica, Martinique, Guadeloupe, St Lucia and Barbados are well known.
There is
free trade between the islands and travel is not restricted. Major airlines
from the U.S. and Europe fly to most of the islands in the Caribbean
basin. There are quite a number of regional airlines flying daily between
the numerous destinations.
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