We booked a shore excursion for the island tour however it didn’t leave until 12pm so we decided to take a taxi to downtown Phillipsburg and do some shopping. It so much reminded me of Mexico…very run down…very dirty…and it smelled bad. During our visit downtown there were some VERY persistent people either asking if I wanted my hair braided or if I wanted to look at a time share, etc…it got so annoying we decided to leave Phillipsburg early and return to the ship! We did find a few bargains for gifts…a bottle of nail polish that changes color in the sun and a t-shirt that also changes color in the sun for our daughter whom we left home with Grandma! Getting back to the ship we decided to walk…of which it probably took us 30 min and it was probably about a mile or so. Not too bad actually and we saved the taxi fare to get back. If we had known the ship was so close to downtown we would have walked there too instead of using a taxi for 3.00. Our shore excursion was awesome! The tour operator was very knowledgeable and answered all of our questions. The tour took us to the Dutch and French side and dropped us off at the flea market on the French side to shop. We found A LOT of good bargains there too! Plus I got fresh squeezed pineapple juice from a juice stand nearby! YUM I would highly recommend that tour if you want to see both the French and Dutch side of the island and learn about their differences. I didn’t know they each have their own driver’s licenses too! We arrived back for about an hour more of shopping of which we did at the port shops instead and we sat outside and just drank a few daiquiris and took in the beautiful scenery.