Explore the Caribbean

CUBA

With its time-stood-still Spanish colonial cities and towns, vintage American Cadillacs, absorbing revolutionary history, ubiquitous live music, and the world’s best cigars, Cuba is the Caribbean’s most stimulating country. Cubans are very welcoming. Consider staying in their homes (casas particulares) or eating in their houses in private restaurants (paladares).

Best for Live music

Home to Havana, Trinidad, Valle de Viñales

Experience Dance and opera in Havana’s Gran Teatro

CAYMAN ISLANDS

With abundant marine life and excellent diving schools, one of the main reasons to visit the Cayman Islands is to explore underwater. On land, Grand Cayman has a cosmopolitan, Floridian resort feel. Little Cayman and Cayman Brac are much smaller, unspoiled getaways.

Best for Diving

Home to Bloody Bay Wall and USS Kittiwake dive sites, Seven Mile Beach

Experience The underwater world in an Atlantis submarine

TURKS AND CAICOS

The islands of the Turks and Caicos are a beach-lover’s nirvana. Many of the strands are truly exceptional, with powder-soft, blindingly white sand bordered by a turquoise ocean. Providenciales is where most visitors stay, by famous Grace Bay beach. On other sleepier islands, you may have miles of sands virtually to yourself. Farther attractions include fantastic diving, whale-watching, and bird spotting, along with soaking up the atmosphere in quaint and historic Grand Turk.

Best for Beaches and diving

Home to Providenciales, Grace Bay, Grand Turk

Experience Observing flocks of flamingos and other birdlife on North, Middle, and South Caicos

THE BAHAMAS

The islands of The Bahamas offer the full range of vacation experiences. New Providence, home to the capital Nassau, and Paradise Island have high-rise hotels, shopping malls, and casinos. In marked contrast are the Out Islands, characterized by deserted, unforgettable, and sometimes pink-tinged beaches and peaceful little communities. Within the Out Islands there is enormous variety, from chic and quaint Harbour Island to rugged, nature-oriented Andros. Throughout the archipelago, fishing and diving are major draws.

Best for Beaches and island hopping

Home to Exuma Cays Land and Sea Park, Lucayan National Park

Experience Sport-fishing in the Gulf Stream’s waters off Bimini

JAMAICA

For many visitors, Jamaica is all about beaches and all-inclusive hotels – the concept was invented here – but it offers so much more. From hip beach bars and Bob Marley tours to beautiful mountain scenery, waterfalls to climb and rivers to raft along, rainforests to zip line over, and plantation houses to visit. Outside of the resorts, in some areas – notably parts of Kingston and Montego Bay – safety can be an issue so it is best to stick to escorted tours.

Best for Lively nightlife and music scene

Home to Bob Marley Museum, Blue Mountain Park, Cockpit Country

Experience A serene trip on a bamboo raft down the Rio Grande or the Martha Brae rivers

DOMINICAN REPUBLIC

The Dominican Republic offers relaxing stay-put breaks in the numerous large and luxurious hotels that line the beaches at Punta Cana. But the country offers very different faces. From the bohemian watersports mecca of Cabarete and the mountainous center, where activities such as whitewater rafting are popular, to the atmospheric cobbled streets and handsome mansions of Zona Colonial in Santo Domingo.

Best for Beaches and Spanish colonial architecture

Home to Santo Domingo, Catedral Primada de América

Experience A round of golf at the country’s many beautifully designed courses

HAITI

Haiti may be economically impoverished, but culturally it is incredibly rich. Traveling around here is more demanding than anywhere else in the Caribbean, but the rewards are massive – from mysterious vodou ceremonies to heady markets in cast-iron halls, gingerbread mansions, vivid Haitian art, and taptap buses decorated like circus caravans. Topping the list of memorable sights has to be La Citadelle, a colossal mountaintop fortress that is a fitting monument against a return to slavery.

Best for Culture and adventure

Home to Port-au-Prince, Parc National Historique: Citadelle Laferrière & Palais Sans Souci

Experience A vodou ceremony, its rituals and trance-induced dances

PUERTO RICO

Though Puerto Rico has an American infrastructure, the vibe is Hispanic/Caribbean, with Spanish the first language, and rum-based cocktails the order of the day. San Juan offers a wonderful old town to explore, and nightlife as lively as you can cope with. Rent a car and tour beyond the capital, allowing time to relax on beaches, surf in Rincón, hike in El Yunque tropical rainforest, and take in sights such as the impressive Camuy Caves.

Best for Nightlife, food, and colonial fortresses

Home to Old San Juan, San Juan National Historic Site, Ponce

Experience Kayaking after dark on Vieques’ bioluminescent Mosquito Bay

VIRGIN ISLANDS

The U.S. Virgin Islands are very different from each other. St. Thomas is a much-visited cruise-ship stop-over, half of St. John is an extremely scenic national park, while the islands’ Danish heritage is clearly visible on sleepy St. Croix. The British Virgin Islands are quieter and more exclusive, and above all, a yachter’s playground. Days afloat generally involve an isolated beach for a snorkel and picnic lunch, then rum punches at sunset at one of the many beach bars.

Best for Sailing vacations for all levels of ability

Home to St. John, St. Croix, Tortola

Experience Snorkeling in The Baths on Virgin Gorda, where volcanic boulders form natural pools

Go To: Virgin Islands i

ANGUILLA

This little island makes a fair claim to having the Caribbean’s finest beaches. There are over 30 of them, many with white sand so talcum-powder soft you sink in up to your ankles. With no mass-market tourism, beaches are generally uncrowded or empty. Other draws are luxury hotels, modernist villas, and gourmet restaurants. While Anguilla attracts its fair share of celebrities, the atmosphere is low-key and laid-back.

Best for Beaches and fine dining restaurants

Home to Shoal Bay East, Heritage Collection Museum

Experience Snorkeling off the beaches and uninhabited offshore cays

ST. MARTIN/SINT MAARTEN

The two sides of St. Martin/Sint Maarten feel very different from each other. The Dutch half is more developed and busier, particularly in the peak-season when passengers disembark from cruise ships at Philipsburg to visit the duty-free shops and casinos. The French half is more chic, and known for its gourmet restaurants and unspoiled beaches. Blink and you can miss crossing the border between the two sides.

Best for Beaches, watersports, and restaurants

Home to Philipsburg, Baie Orientale, Grand Case

Experience The Flying Dutchman, the world’s steepest zip line at Rainforest Adventures, Sint Maarten

SABA AND ST. EUSTATIUS

Part of the Dutch Caribbean, tiny and little-known Saba (pronounced saybah) and St. Eustatius (often called Statia) are off-the-map, escapist territories. Don’t come looking for conventional, relax-on-the-beach Caribbean vacations. Instead, you should visit for brilliant hiking up and around the islands’ forested and volcanic peaks, for the profusion of superb, little-explored dive sites, for fascinating histories, and complete and utter tranquility. Accommodation takes the forms of small hotels, inns, and lodges.

Best for Hiking and diving

Home to Mount Scenery, The Quill, Saba National Marine Park

Experience Hiking into The Quill, the rainforest-filled crater of a dormant volcano

ST. KITTS AND NEVIS

With fascinating colonial-era sights and dramatic, rainforested peaks to climb, St. Kitts and Nevis offer lots to explore as well as inviting beaches. With cruise ships visiting regularly and several large resort hotels, St. Kitts is the busier of the two islands, and generally more developed for tourism. Little Nevis is an immensely beautiful, sleepy backwater with a clutch of atmospheric plantation inns, which you should visit for a meal or two even if you’re not staying.

Best for Colonial heritage and slow-paced island lifestyle

Home to Brimstone Hill Fortress, Charlestown, Nevis Plantation Inns

Experience Relaxing in luxury in splendidly restored plantation inns

ANTIGUA, BARBUDA, AND MONTSERRAT

Antigua is a beach destination par excellence. Many strands have blinding white sand, and there is supposedly one for every day of the year. The island is also a major center for yachting events. Antigua is light on sights, the exception being Nelson’s Dockyard, a working Georgian naval harbor. The much quieter sister island of Barbuda has arguably even better beaches and is a bird-watcher’s paradise, while the chief reason to visit Montserrat is to see its magnificent volcano.

Best for Beaches and watersports

Home to English Harbour and Nelson’s Dockyard, Codrington Lagoon

Experience The Sunday Barbecue party at Shirley Heights Lookout, with live bands and magical sunsets

ST. BARTHELEMY

This ritzy little French outpost is a tropical version of the Côte d’Azur, but with better beaches. St. Barths is as sophisticated – and expensive – as the Caribbean gets. Luxury, small-scale hotels, a plethora of lavish villas up in the hills, and massive yachts in Gustavia port (where the super rich stay) set the scene, as do gourmet restaurants with delicacies imported from the motherland in Europe, and see-and-be-seen beach bars and clubs.

Best for Dining and beaches

Home to Gustavia

Experience Shopping – or at least browsing – in the many designer boutiques in Gustavia

GUADELOUPE

Part of the French West Indies, Guadeloupe has a stronger Afro-Caribbean feel than France’s other territories in the region. The two very different halves of the “mainland” offer a bit of everything, from white-sand beaches, busy resorts, and the powerful Memorial ACTe museum on slavery on Grande-Terre, to rainforests, plunging waterfalls, and a towering, climbable volcano on Basse-Terre. Make day or overnight trips to the offshore islands, the prettiest of which is Terre-de-Haut.

Best for Hiking and island-hopping

Home to Parc National de la Guadeloupe, Terre-de-Haut

Experience Trekking up to the summit of steaming volcano La Soufrière

MARTINIQUE

Martinique is a sophisticated island with a Gallic cachet and Creole spirit, fused together in great French Creole food, plenty of rum, and the distinctive French Antillean rhythms of zouk and beguine. The fashionable shops on the streets of the capital, Fort-de-France, wouldn’t look out of place in Paris. You can expect white-sand beaches in the south, and hiking and sightseeing in the rainforested and mountainous north, including the town of Saint-Pierre, rebuilt after the devastating 1902 earthquake.

Best for Restaurants and visiting rum distilleries

Home to Saint-Pierre, Fort-de-France, Route de la Trace

Experience Diving around the wrecks of sunken ships off Saint-Pierre

DOMINICA

With a towering, mountainous interior covered in dense rainforest, high-drop waterfalls, thermal springs, and a boiling lake, Dominica is the Jurassic Park of the Caribbean. Hike along trails, bathe under the waterfalls, tube down rivers, snorkel over geothermal springs, and go whale-watching. Stay in delightful, nature-oriented guesthouses; hummingbirds may join you over breakfast. While large cruise ships include Dominica on their itineraries, it is easy to escape from their crowds.

Best for Hikes and waterfalls

Home to Morne Trois Pitons National Park, Kalinago Territory

Experience The eerie volcanic landscape of the Valley of Desolation and the Boiling Lake

Saint Lucia

With its Pitons, a pair of pointy green volcanic cones rising skywards out of the ocean, and mountains blanketed in rainforest, Saint Lucia is one of the most dramatic-looking Caribbean islands. If you’re feeling active, you can trek, ride zip lines or an aerial trolley through the jungle, and climb a Piton. Alternatively, if you’re seeking romance and relaxation, Saint Lucia is the Caribbean’s honeymoon capital. Some hotels offer secluded cottages with private plunge pools and bathrooms with outdoor showers.

Best for Romantic hotels, dramatic scenery

Home to The Pitons, Sulphur Springs Park, Marigot Bay, Pigeon Island National Landmark

Experience A catamaran cruise along the spectacular west coast

ST. VINCENT AND THE GRENADINES

St. Vincent and the Grenadines all offer very different experiences. You can loll around on exclusive private islands occupied by a single hotel such as Petit St. Vincent and Palm Island, or kick back on glamorous Mustique, famously loved by British royals and celebrities. Bequia, by contrast, is a wonderfully welcoming and sociable place, with enticing bars and restaurants dotted along pretty Admiralty Bay. Mountainous and lush St. Vincent will appeal to those seeking active adventures.

Best for Escapism, off-the-beaten-path vacations

Home to Tobago Cays, La Soufrière volcano, Bequia

Experience Island-hopping under sail around the Grenadines archipelago

GRENADA

Grenada is a delightfully easy-going and pretty island. It is blessed with some gorgeous soft-sand beaches, particularly in the southwest corner where tourism is concentrated. Even here development is low-rise and fairly unobtrusive. St. George’s, the historic capital, is one of the Caribbean’s most picturesque ports, while the mountainous and forested interior, where you might spot a monkey or two, is a big draw for hikers. Sightseeing is low-key, revolving around stops at atmospheric chocolate, nutmeg, and rum factories.

Best for Beaches and lush scenery

Home to St. George’s, Grand Anse Beach, Grand Étang Forest Reserve

Experience Snorkeling over or diving around the unique Underwater Sculpture Park

BARBADOS

Barbados is indisputably glamorous, particularly on the Platinum Coast where ritzy hotels, villas, and restaurants back on to a string of beaches. But that is only one face of the island. Head to the interior’s rolling cane fields to discover elegant plantation houses and lush tropical gardens. Shoot the breeze with friendly Bajans over a drink or two in one of the many rum shops dotted all over the island.

Best for British colonial history and gourmet dining

Home to St. Nicholas Abbey, Garrison Historic Area, Bathsheba

Experience Oistins Fish Fry, a lively weekly street party with great food, dancing, and music

TRINIDAD AND TOBAGO

Trinidad is suited to independent, adventurous-minded visitors. Its capital, Port of Spain, holds the Caribbean’s most colorful and wildest carnival, and there is world-class bird-watching, especially in the rainforest of the Northern Range. Much smaller Tobago has lovely beaches and fishing villages, and is perfect for a relaxed beach vacation. It’s also great for nature lovers, boasting the Western hemisphere’s oldest protected forest, a large avian population, and excellent diving.

Best for Bird-watching and seeing turtles hatch

Home to Port of Spain, Asa Wright Nature Centre, Tobago Forest Reserve

Experience Red-billed tropicbirds and boobies soaring at the seabird sanctuary in Little Tobago

ARUBA, CURAÇAO, AND BONAIRE

These three islands form part of the Dutch Caribbean. Curaçao’s cosmopolitan capital, Willemstad, has a historic downtown and a harbor surrounded by pastel-colored gabled buildings – think Amsterdam meets Latin America. Aruba, the smallest but most developed island, offers upscale resort hotels, casinos, excellent beaches, and first-rate windsurfing and kite-surfing. Quiet Bonaire has a coastline entirely protected by a marine park, and is known for its superb diving.