Your fave/least fave Caribbean island and why?!

[Blossom4538]

Hi all,

Looking for those who’ve visited the Caribbean pls!

Where is your favourite place or where were you disappointed with and why?

Thank you x

Been to St Lucia, Martinique, St Kitts, Nevis, Barbados, St Vincent but Tobago was the best by far.

Mystique doesn’t hold much mystique then?! Crime in the BVI is not largely targeted at tourists or crime across the Caribbean? If it’s the latter then the Foreign Office advice page on Jamaica makes some interesting (& contradictory) reading!

Also, would suggest tourism in certain islands hasn't collapsed despite high crime rates as tourists are either visiting family or sat in large AI fortresses the majority of the time doing the very occasional & very selected group excursion. The kind of AI fortress Bubbles you were extorting people to get out of!

I would not go to Jamaica in the first place. I said where I would go and I stand by that.

I love the Caribbean and have been to a few places. I love Cuba and have been a few times ( am biased though as I have a Cuban family connection). It has changed in the last few years and is becoming more like any other tourist destination. I preferred it when it was rough and ready ( chicken restaurant where chicken was off the menu! Don’t worry, we’ll find you one!).
Antigua is beautiful.
I loved Margarita but I don’t think it’s a tourist destination any more.
Loved St Lucia. Very relaxed, no hassle.
Been to Dom Rep a few times and it feels a bit Costa Blanca of late. Too many cheap deals.
If Mexico counts, fabulous but busy, busy, busy.
Jamaica was the only place I felt hassled for trade and constant offering of drugs on the beach.
Barbados is my next destination- can’t wait.

I do think that where posters have not visited an island but purely stayed in a large AI hotel without going out, are perhaps not best placed to offer advice on an island. Sometimes people can believe an island to be a bit lary andstick together. Most people we know branch out. Unless you have had a car, called in at various places and had a good mooch about, it is a bit difficult to know what floats your boat and what does not. If people want AI, that is up to them.

I am quite happy to admit I have been very fortunate in what I have been able to do in the Carribbean, but I do not see that makes my views on islands unworthy and be termed as "swanning about" in a derogatory fashion. Great to be able to swan, I say!

Loved Tobago - really easy to explore on your own.

Wouldn't go back to Jamaica as it just didn't feel safe.

Barbados is too touristy for me.

...However, we did procure some memorably excellent weed in Jamaica.

Loved Antigua and Dutch Antilles. Did not like Barbados.

Cool! But don’t talk nonsense about ‘knowing’ the Caribbean when you’re actually being highly selective and seeing what you want to see. Or asking people ‘what on earth do they think is going to happen to them?’ on islands with high crime rates, quite clearly ‘everyone is safe’ is a load of twaddle & people are right in certain locations to have genuine concerns and stay put in AI’s, whether you consider that boring or not. Or have a pop at people visiting islands from cruise ships as not really having seen a place having been in a cruise ship bubble when actually your own experience of certain areas is based purely on pulling in for a couple of hours in a yacht. Hardly more authentic! I notice from another thread you’re doing a cruise in the next 12 months to somewhere - I assume you will be making no comments on any threads relating to that country as you will recognise you have no actual real knowledge?

Loved St. Martins, St Thomas, and the Virgin Islands (all of Them).
Jamaica is ok but not yet a love of mine.

Disliked The Dom rep. as pp said above, it is like a dated Costa Blanca. Very boring and a copy of Spain.

Would love to visit Antigua, Anguilla, Aruba, Toboago, St. Vincent, Grenada, and more of the Virgin Islands. Basically the lot!

Jamaica - Port Antonio (goblin villas or gee jam), Treasure Beach (jakes) or Negril - not the cruise ship places :) It's amazing and has a rich culture to explore as well as beaches.

I've been to several mentioned here but my least favourite is Dominican Republic and wouldn't go back I think.

St Lucia is lovely, still very unspoilt compared to many others. I didn't feel unsafe there. Barbados and Antiqua also lovely but It depends what you're looking for.

Barbados OP we love it, has to be the west coast, it really is very beautiful. Stay away from the South coast.
We always go back there because we feel safe and tbh I don’t find it overtly touristy.
We didn’t feel particularly safe in St Lucia and we basically stayed around our hotel, although it is very lush and pretty.

Loved:
Grenada - friendly, beautiful and with enough tourist infrastructure to be easy without feeling commercial.
Aruba - very built up and Americanised in areas but a great vibe and very safe.
Bonaire - quiet, low key, very friendly with great bars and restaurants and amazing snorkelling/diving

Didn’t like;
Barbados- beautiful beaches but lacked personality and felt oddly ‘un-Caribbean’
St Barts - just didn’t feel Caribbean to me. Very expensive and food quite European, yachts of celebs in harbour etc. Felt like the south of France.

Liked pretty much everywhere else. If travelling with kids Jamaica is amazing, so much to see and do.

Loved Isle De Saintes but felt really unsafe in Dominica. I'm in the minority but really didn't like Tobago.

DH was violently ill in the Dominican Republic. Wouldn't go back.
Loved St Lucia, very lush but very mountainous and got dreadfully travel sick driving about.

Been to and have family living in and from St Kitts and St Vincent.
Been to Antigua, Barbados, Martinique, Dominica, St Maarten, St Lucia, Trinidad and Tobago, Tortola, Grenada and isla margarita.

Loved Antigua (had some of the best food of my life there), St Kitts, St Maarten on both sides, Dominica and Martinique.

The only one I really didn't like was St Vincent.

As I say as I have family from the islands and still some family living there we have always gone off of the tourist areas.

I live in the Cayman Islands so I'm biased - breathtaking seven mile beach, great lifestyle, low crime rate.

Yes petty crime, gangs, and domestic violence here is disgusting and insidious. But you can walk the streets and never feel your personal safety is threatened.

I hate Cuba but I was 6 months pregnant at the time.

No island is perfect, all have their faults but I'm lucky to live in this region where my kids are safe.

Love Grenada, Barbados, Grenadine islands, Martinique

Not so keen on trinadad,Tobago or St. Lucia. Didn't feel particularly safe. Never done an AI or resort so that may be why. St'Lucia clearly has a big drug and alcohol problem. Lots of hassle from local men.

I'm from SVG 🇻🇨, so glad to see so much love for the Grenadines.

I love this travel blog. www.goatsontheroad.com/category/blogs/grenada/

I haven't experienced Grenada in anything like this level of detail but I do think it's a lovely island and I've always found everyone incredibly friendly whenever we've visited.

I have vistied many islands over the last 40 plus years. Including many mentioned here. A few have been visited by yacht. Many people visit the BVIs this way. They don't have roads very much! I have stayed on many others and have travelled around whilst there. Such a shame such nitpicking it going on. The BVIs are great though!

We’ve visited Antigua, Grenada, Barbados, St Lucia and Tobago and have enjoyed them all. Antigua, Barbados and St Lucia we’ve stayed AI - in all we’ve hired a car for the duration of the holiday.

We like AI - I have teens and the buffet breakfasts, afternoon teas, soft drinks and endless water sports tick many boxes for us. We have however always chosen our resorts carefully to match best to us. We always hire a car for the whole holiday and spend as much or more time out of the resort as in.

We’ve had great times on all the islands and I’ve felt safe in them all. In all the islands I’ve found the beach sellers to be lovely- a polite no thank you if you’re not interested and they leave you alone.

St Lucia has really wiggly roads and isn’t perhaps best for those who get travel sick.

A favourite? Hard to say- we went to Barbados last year very last minute and it probably wouldn’t have been a choice if we had more availability to fit with our very specific dates - dh declared it was going to be flat and boring. BUT we had the most amazing time - the people were so friendly and the island had some fantastic natural beauty, great out of the way restaurants and fab beaches. Dh had to admit pretty quickly that he had been wrong!

I think anything less than a three month stay and you're basically a tourist, hardly immersed in the culture. I don't see any difference in the views of someone who has landed for the day from a cruise ship, an AI guest or a DIY traveller. We all experience the islands in our own way. If you engage with local people you will find out more in a short conversation over a few beers than by sitting on a yacht, or a beach, that's for sure.