First time to Carribean

[AliasGraced]

Thinking of a winter holiday in the Caribbean. No idea where to start , when to go and where. I don’t fancy Jamaica or Barbados, would prefer a smaller less commercialised island with low crime. Could anyone advise on how to find good deals, which island to choose etc? Thinking post or pre Xmas .

And they were all vile, and/or aggressive 🙄

Out of the Carribean islands I've been to my favourite is St Lucia. I also loved Barbados, which isn't as touristy as you'd expect. I liked Antigua and stayed out of the main town which was overrun when the cruise ships were in. The DR was OK but there was a lot of poverty compared to the other islands.

No obviously not all of them were but I have to say the vast majority are.

I'm St. Lucian and have also been to a lot of the other islands in the lesser Antilles if not all of them and I have to say besides St. Lucia, Dominica was the next best place I had visited! Cannot wait to go back to the Caribbean! I haven't been to the Greater Antilles so can't speak about them

I’ve been to Dominican Republic and Martinique. Liked both but felt less safe in Dominican Republic but found Martinique beautiful and really loved it there. Relatively low crime too.

Antigua, St Lucia and Turks and Caicos are our favourite.

This post is embarrassing. How insulting to Jamaicans. There is good and bad everywhere in the world. In the times we’ve been to Jamaica, they actually complain about Americans being rude and treating them like shit. Every time we’ve been, my DH has made friends with the guys behind the bar (female and male) and we sit there for ages talking about culture, English football teams etc. It’s a wonderful place with wonderful people, every Jamaican I’ve ever met has been friendly, treated us like family and I’ve never met a rude one. Hotels we’ve stayed in have also banned tipping (which I think is wrong), they will literally get sacked if caught taking tips. Like every single place in the world, you will get bad people. I encounter rudeness every day in London. Have seen some horrific violence in our very own capital.

Oh give the virtue signalling a rest will you! So its ok to insult Americans but can’t say anything bad about Jamaicans? Give it a rest will you!

I don't think you understand what virtue signalling is...

St Lucia is very mountainous. Got very travel sick going anywhere there.
DH was dreadfully ill in Dom Rep. That was 20 years ago, presume standards have improved but wouldn’t go back.

Went to Antigua this year and Curacao last year. Both great but very different. A lot of mosquitos.

Did you feel safe?

Reading with interest 😊
OP, where did you book in the end?