i'm not crazy about taking a bumpy ferry or flying in a small plane. has anyone prone to seasickness taken the ferry and survived?? how close is the ferry to the st maarten airport. taking a cab to marigot could take forever.
also, i'm renting a villa without a heated pool in july. do you think it wil be too cold to swim in? any other st barts suggestions would be helpful. thanks

Although I'm not crazy about small planes, this is a breeze. I close my eyes the whole way.
It's a very quick flight as compared to a much longer haul and a certain chance of seasickness with the ferry. Just fly!
You won't need a heated pool in July, I can assure you.
If you have further St. Barths questions try sbhonline.com

We used to always fly over & sail back to Sint Maarten. The sail back was smooth.

Marigot isn't that far from the airport, perhaps 15 or 20 minutes at the most. And anyone can survive even the worst ferry trip if they want to. Just take dramamine immediately upon landing and use sea-bands as well.

Now, the real question is whether it's worth it to you to endure a perhaps uncomfortable ferry trip or if it's better to just take a deep breath and fly. Only you can decide that.

I can't imagine in my wildest dreams that it would be too cool to swim in an unheated pool anywhere in the Caribbean in July. If anything, the water might be too warm for your taste.

Let me chime in -

There are only two ways to get to St. Barths: 1) Fly (from St. Martin it's only about a 10 minute flight) on a small plane and 2) take the ferry.

Flying is generally the easiest but it does involve a "interesting" drop in elevation after the plane crosses the mountain on approacvh to the St. Barth's airport (something akin to a roler coaster). For what it is worth my 87 YO mother thought it was one of the most exciting things she's ever done and wanted to do it again.

The ferry ride TO St. Barths can be rough so as Doug_S says if you are prone to seasickness take some dramamine.

Since those are your ONLY choices YOU have to decide which works best for you. No one can give you any guarantees when it comes to YOUR phobias.

Regarding unheated pools - you should know that very few pools in the Caribbean are heated. You don't say when you are travelling but generally speaking pool water temperatures on St. Barth's will probably be in the low 80's F. during winter months and in the high 80's F. to low 90's F. during the summer months.

There used to be flights out of the airport near Marigot to St. Barths. Do they exist any more?

The airport on the Dutch side is actually marginally closer to Marigot than the airport in Grand Case.