Birthdays and Celebrations

The evening, not the journeys

A birthday here usually has three parts: dinner somewhere good, somewhere after, and getting everyone home.

Booked as separate journeys, that is three points at which something can go wrong and one person in the group spending the evening on their phone instead of at the table.

Booked as an evening, it is one driver who has the plan, knows where you are going next, and is outside when you come out.

What we need to know

The number of people and where they are staying, because that decides the vehicle and the pickup order.

Where dinner is and what time the table is for. We will tell you honestly how long the drive takes and when we should collect you — Grand Case from the Dutch side is 35 minutes and the bridge can add twenty.

Whether there is a second stop, and roughly when the evening ends. Roughly is fine.

Where people go

Grand Case for the dinner itself, which is the best eating on the island and the hardest place to park after seven.

The casinos, mostly in Maho and Philipsburg, which are the natural second stop and run late.

Maho for a proper late one, where the bars go on after everywhere else has stopped.

Simpson Bay if you would rather everything were close together and the evening shorter.

Surprises

If it is a surprise, tell us. We will not mention it at the pickup, and we will not announce where we are going in front of the person it is for.

It sounds obvious. It is also the sort of thing that gets ruined by a driver being helpful.

Larger groups

Beyond one vehicle it becomes a coordination job rather than a booking, and we treat it as one — a schedule, one person holding it, one invoice. See groups and celebrations.

An evening that works

Collected from the villa or hotels at seven. Dinner in Grand Case at half past seven, dropped at the door on a street where the parking filled an hour ago.

Out around ten, when the kitchens are winding down and the evening is deciding what it wants to be. On to a casino in Maho or Philipsburg, or to the Maho bars if the group would rather dance than gamble.

Home whenever it ends, in one vehicle, with a driver who knows which gate.

The whole thing is three journeys and about six hours. Booked as separate fares it is three points of failure and one person managing them; booked as an evening it is one number and nobody watching the clock.

Anniversaries and quieter evenings

Not every celebration is a group of twelve.

For an anniversary dinner the useful things are smaller: dropped at the door, collected when you are ready, and the sunset timed properly — Grand Case faces west and the sun goes down quickly here, so a table at six and a pickup at half past five is a better evening than arriving in the dark.

See a sunset drive if you want to make an event of that part.

What it costs

Per vehicle for the evening, waiting included, whatever the party size and however many stops. Agreed before you book, and it does not move because the evening ran late.

The metered alternative charges per person above two passengers, and rises after ten at night. For a group of eight that difference is not marginal — see the full tariff and do the sum.