Grateful for opinions on the best holiday destination (island) in the Caribbean?

Question

Don't want to fly around the world to be stuck in a resort hotel and limited to lying on the beach - prefer something to do and something to see. Grateful for any advice or recommendations.

Answer 1

Saint Vincent and the Grenadines.

But then I'm biased,

Vincy's Rule!

You have white sandy beaches, black sandy beaches, red sandy beaches. You have rocky pools, a volcano, forests, jungles, pine forests, parrots, swimming, scuba and a beautiful people.

Answer 2

I will have to say St.Kitts/ Nevis. Why go to one island when you can enjoy your time in two? I recommend staying in St.Kitts the Marriot Hotel, and taking the half an hour boat ride to the sister island of Nevis and spending some time at the Four Season Resorts.

There is always something to do. In the summer there is Music Festival and in December/January there is Carnival. The people are friendly, the food is great. Try Jong if you want the best Roti. Or if you rather try something more exotic you can find black pudding and Goat water in almost any local restaurants on the weekends.

Overall, the island still has this natural beauty to it. It is not over developed with fancy American stores. The only fast food is KFC, which makes it a great vacation esp if you are tired of your kids constantly wanted Mc Donalds and you know that it is so unhealthy for them.

If you go, you can take a tour to the rainforest and the volcano. I used Kriss Tours, he is really knowledgeable and friendly. You can go scuba diving, deep sea fishing, explore the Black Rocks, which are remains from a previous volcanic eruption, there are also places you can visit which still has natural carvings made from the early settlers, the Caribs and Arawaks. There is also Brimstone Hill, which is a days vacation all by itself.

Nevis is just as great, a little bit more famous for it is known to have its occasional celebrities vacationing at Four Seasons Resort. I learned of this island from watching the Bold and the Beautiful. They did some filming there and everything looked so natural, green and peaceful. There is also the natural hot springs in Nevis which stems from its sister island of St.Kitts volcanic veins giving heat to the local springs. Truly remarkable.

My only complaint is that I went in December and I was not warned of the over whelming amount of mosquitoes. Which they assured me were not common in that month. Make sure you carry "Off", or some other type of mosquito bite prevention.

Enjoy your vacation, which ever island you choose.

Answer 3

I lived on St Kitts for a long time, and also worked on cruises up and down the Caribbean. St Kitts was the best for me, but you should realise that the Caribbean, for a visitor, really IS a beach. There is not a lot of night life in the small friendly islands. This is part of the life style of essentially rural societies. If you go to more touristy places, like St Martin or Aruba or Jamaica you will find miles of jewelry shops and maybe a club med or something, Puerto Rico has discos and stuff, but perhaps you should be thinking not of an island, but the Caribbean coast of Mexico.

Answer 4

Well as someone recommended earlier, Dominica is the nature isle! What is cool about St. Vincent is that they have quite a few smaller islands called "The Grenadines" that you can explore by ferry or chartered yacht, depending on your budget. I really like Tobago, beacuase they have the Buccoo coral reef, to which many glass-bottomed boats go everyday. Her sister isle of Trinidad is just a short plane or boatride away, and there you will find lots of ecotours. If you can get there in time for the turtle watching season, around March to June, you can plan your trip around that, but keep in mind that Tobago's beaches are prettier i.e. : the water is that pretty caribbean turquoise, whereas trinidad's only swimmable beach is Las Cuevas Beach (in my opinion) ... Barbados is very nice for beaches and shopping..they also have many well-preserved old colonial buildings and there is a nice surfing scene on the east coast...the west coast has lots of gorgeous beaches and exclusive hotels...what works best in my opinion is going onto flickr and looking at other ppls pictures and then making a decision about where to go! Good luck!

Answer 5

I'd have to say Jamaica where there is a lot to see and do, including the Blue Mountains, the south coast, the area around Port Royal (if you like pirate history), Spanish architecture on the east coast, Kingston which is the birthplace of reggae music, and much in between.

Trinidad is good if you like birding, nature hikes in virgin rainforest and remote beaches. There aren't any "resort hotels" in Trinidad; there are some lovely, laid-back (and not cheap) places to stay, though the transport infrastructure there is virtually non-existent and it will take you a half a day to get there from Port of Spain.

Dominica is also good for nature hikes, but there are no resort hotels there except for one in Rouseau (the capital) which is like in the middle of the city; the beaches are also black (volcanic) and the roads are the worst in the Caribbean outside of Haiti. World-class diving but only a couple of operators. You can snorkel in Champagne Lake, which is pretty cool. Dominica is extremely poor; not as poor as Haiti, but I think they run a close second. The cruise ships dock in Rouseau for about an hour a week, and I can recall most of the passengers looked out from the deck and were too afraid to disembark (either that, or they could see from a distance there are no shops except those selling basic provisions).

I really liked Grenada, and St George is a pretty capital city. It's getting to be a bit of a foodie haven; Gary Rhodes has a restaurant there; some friends of mine went and said it was pretty good, but I have been to some other restaurants there including Pirates Cove in Grand Anse which were simply divine and not too expensive. My husband dived the Bianca C while I relaxed.

Tobago has a rainforest and great diving but they're not really geared up to that kind of tourism. In fact, when people call Tobago the "Robinson Crusoe Island" they aren't exaggerating. Sundays are really dead 'cause most of the population are evangelical Christians. I have been to Tobago 3 times and find they are much less friendly than people in Trinidad.

I quite enjoyed Martinique - that is the mainland. Obviously it is very French, but topographically a lot like St Lucia. I was fortunate enough to take part in the big regatta when I was there (which takes place at the beginning of August).

I also really enjoyed Curacao, which is Dutch. I can't say there's a lot to do if you're not a diver (if you are, you'll love it), but the architecture is wonderful and the capital Willemstaad is very quaint, built on two sides of a sea inlet. You hop a free ferry from one side to the other. They have a seaquarium there which is OK if you like that kind of thing. Curacao attracts a lot of yachty types and casual sailors, especially around Spanish Harbor. If you want a change of pace you can hop on a prop plane to Bonaire which is a desert island. Hotels can be quite expensive; we stayed in a beach bungalow that cost $70 a day called Limestone Holiday Cottages. Really nice, clean, private beach, good rental cars (driving in Curacao is a breeze). The local language is Papiamento, but everybody seems to speak Spanish, Dutch and English in addition. They have a lot of good museums there (including a museum for Curacao liquor!), and (I think it's the) oldest synagogue in the Western Hemisphere which I believe dates back to the 1600s (we didn't visit it, but I read it in a tourist guide when I was there).

The French and Dutch islands seem to be the safest to me, but I have not visited Antigua, and was only in St Lucia and Barbados on brief stop-overs.

Answer 6

Dominica (Not to be confused with The Dominican Republic) is known as 'the nature isle' and is totally unspoilt by tourism because it is so mountainous they haven't built an airstrip for large airliners. If you decide to go there you will find it more than equals New Zealand for adventure and fantastic scenery. There is a great walk to Middleham falls through the rainforest which is amazing. You can swim in the pool below the falls if you have the courage to climb down and dive in. Swim right into the fall itself-very refreshing. Have a look on a search engine. You will find plenty to see and do. Another trip would be a visit to 'The boiling lake' a volcanic outlet.

Answer 7

Massive question! Couple of suggestions:- Cyprus - Fig Tree Bay, Protaras. Fly into Larnaca. Beautiful beach, with safe, crystal clear sea. Has a 'strip' with plenty of bars and restaurants - but not along the front - only one or two there. For 'culture' you need to do tours, if you don't want to hire a car. Majorca - Sa Coma. Beautiful beach, with safe, clear sea. Loads of bars and restaurants, both along the promenade and also set back from the front. Again, for 'culture' you can book a couple of tours. Sharm El Sheikh - if you go, then be careful what hotel you choose. Many of the beaches have coral very close to the shore, making bathing dangerous - many have small jetties/piers so you can go out past the coral into the deeper water, to swim.

Answer 8

Just want to add a bit on the part on Curacao somewhere above there.
There are a couple of national parks, hiking trails, Curacao Sea Aquarion (which has a Sea Lion encounter and a Dolphin encounter on site), the Curacao Ostrich Farm (largest outside of Africa), Hato caves (pretty and with some indian paintings), great food at places like Plasa, Janchi's and Parke Shete Boka.
Even if you don't really want to just sit on a beach, look up these beaches if U go there, Jeremi, Porto Marie, Kas Abou, Playa Forti, Kenepa Grandi and Kenepa Chiki.

And please don't forget the Kura Hulanda Museum.

http://www.curacao.com
http://www.kurahulanda.com/04a_museum_info.html
http://www.curacao-sea-aquarium.com/
http://www.ostrichfarm.net/

Answer 9

US Virgin Islands.St John. Rent a villa with a pool and hot tub. Rent a jeep and explore this beautiful Island. take a ferry to St Thomas to shop duty free. Take a boat excursion to the British Virgin Islands. So much to enjoy in St John. Wonderful restaurants, scenery, beaches to enjoy. You will not be bored.
Driving is on the left in St John.

Happy travels.

Answer 10

2 years ago we went to cancun, last year we went to aruba. if you are going for beach, i might suggest where we stayed. the tamarijn. it is right on the beach, all inclusive. as a matter of fact, the room we stayed in, we had a ground floor with a patio. walked out from the patio about 1o feet, crossed a boardwalk which was about 3 feet, and another 30 feet and we were in the water.

here is a link
www.tamarijnaruba.com

you can also go to www.aruba.com and check out all of the stuff to see and do there.