Which Caribbean island in November

[Porky28]

We're a coupel in our 30s looking to book a week's holiday in November to the Caribbean. These are our preferences

-direct flight from UK
-We'd prefer not to go to a classic all inclusive big hotel resort. We don't mind being in a popular area provided there are smaller hotels and places nearby to walk/eat/drink etc.
-Moderate budget
-ideally we'd like somewhere to relax for 3-4 days and then have a few cultural day trips

St Lucia (Soufriere) tops the list at the moment but as it's jungly/humid I'm worried about bugs and insects (hate them!) also, the taxi/amenities side of things looks very expensive. I've only been to Barbados when I was a teenager but I remember enjoying it!

Any recommendations would be great please 😊

I dont know what a moderate budget means but we’ve stayed at the sandpiper in the St James Bay Area of Barbados and that it was heaven. A smallish family run hotel, we ate out in the evenings.

ime they all have bugs, especially at sunset/evening. If they like to eat you take DEET.

Aruba

We went St Lucia earlier this year. We went to Sandals La Toc, which is AI but it’s certainly not big. There is free daily transport to the other 2 Sandals resorts. Loads of activities and excursions to do and the diving was good plus all waters-ports are included. You can go to the Hotel Chocolat factory, mud baths, zip lining in the rain forest, hiking the Pitons…I don’t think I saw any bugs at all.

We also love Barbados.

November can be rainy, so research the weather. ST Lucia’s beaches are not the best. Barbados west coast is reliable and there’s lots to do and see, good bus services etc.

Havana. Cuba is a very lovely, interesting place and Havana gives you beach and city vibes .

Ohh we're going there this August/September. So excited and really nervous as it's our first Caribbean island. Do you have any recommendations? Hopefully the weather is nice as it's outside the hurricane zone 🤞🏻

Helpful replies thank you. Moderate budget meaning not basic accommo but not 5*. I'd say we're prepared to spend £250-£300pn on a hotel to Inc breakfast and free cancellation.

@Soufriereat the Sandals resorts, were they busy and did you get hassled/bothered etc on beaches? I think bugs seem more prevalent in the higher/mountain locations

I recommend Antigua - have been several times and loved it. We did stay in a villa in Jolly Harbour, but there are loads of lovely hotels all over the island. If you do go, you must go on a day trip to neighbouring Barbuda - a beautiful island with pink sand!

We did a south Caribbean cruise earlier this year. Our favourite was Antigua followed by Bonaire.

St Lucia and Antigua are both lovely and a little bit wild did not get beach hassled once. Barbados I do like of course but it’s a lot more developed and you do get the odd beach hustle. We go to drop for a week though so might have slightly different requirements

We went to Negril in Jamaica at Easter with our tween/teen age kids. We stayed at Footeprints hotel, which was really nice, approx £300/night for B&B. Most of the guests were adults and all the marketing is to adults but they do accept kids. Breakfast was decidedly average, but rooms were lovely. Skylark next door is a very good choice if you don't want a pool, and honestly the pool at Footeprints is small and very shallow, but my kids enjoyed it still. From these 2 hotels you have all the AI resorts to the right and all the smaller B&B places with lots of options to suit smaller budgets to the left. You can easily potter out down the beach to get food at lunch, for dinner you can walk to places that are close or use Uber to go further once it's dark. We went up to the cliffs using Uber a couple of times, it worked well. We tend to go to different places each holiday, but it is somewhere I would be happy to go back to if it fitted our plans.

@Porky28 I'm going to Grenada at the end of October and staying in a beautiful (on the website!) Airbnb. It's a lovely island with lots to see. I'm going with an old school friend and we've hired a car.