We decided to stay in Westpunt which is the more rural part of the island but known to have the most beautiful beaches. There are two really popular tourist beaches on the opposite side of the island so we took the girls down there to see what it was like. We first went downtown to walk the bridge and have some lunch followed by ice cream of course.

Once we filled their bellies we drove to the first tourist beach area called Jan Thiel. The girls were sleeping in the car, Will and I took one look and said ummm let’s give the other one a go. It was packed with cars, tourists, banners, and everything commercial that didn’t exist where we were staying.

Next we drove to Mambo beach b/c i read they had a bouncy climb type thing for the kids in the middle of the ocean so i figured the girls would love it. We pulled in to an enormous parking lot (unlike the dirt lots by where we were staying) and they had a directory for the beach and restaurants and all the stores lining the beach. Sophie’s first comment was “Um, that’s weird, you have to pay to sit at the beach”. hahahaha. CR kid.

Anyway, once we got inside there was techno music, big beds (that you could rent), and the ocean was cut off by big rocks to create a separate floating space (bc the water wasn’t already like a beautiful pool- aka so unnecessary). The beach was crowded with people in rows and felt like a beach in Miami. We didnt say anything and stayed so Sophie could go climb and have fun on the play thingy in the ocean. Sophie swam out, spent 5 minutes climbing on to the bouncy thing, found out she needed a bracelet, swam back and said “This beach is too crazy and crowded. I like the other beaches were it is nice and calm. Plus, my sister can’t go on the bouncy thing. Can we go back to the calmer beach and snorkel?”. Wohoooo! Coolest kid as always. She is such a mermaid.

Downtown and the floating bridge

Mambo beach for the 15 minutes we were there

Actually after looking at the pictures, this is prob a beach in florida on a really, really slow day. I think we all are a bit spoiled with isolated, private beaches b/c this felt chaotic. haha.

Here is the beach we went to instead 🙂

and then of course, Bath time!