Caribbean travel guide

The main islands

Click on the links below to read about individual islands. We have
summarised the main islands and island groups, indicated what they are best
for, and given pointers on when to consider visiting. Bear in mind that the
advice on when to go, above, applies across the Caribbean.

Anguilla

Antigua
Barbados
British
Virgin Islands
Cayman
Islands
Cuba
Dominican
Republic
Dutch
Caribbean
French
Caribbean
Grenada
Jamaica
Nevis
St
Kitts
St
Lucia
St
Vincent and the Grenadines
Trinidad
and Tobago
Turks
and Caicos

Other islands

With its mountainous interior covered in dense rainforest, Dominica is
the best Caribbean island for nature holidays. Hiking trails lead to
waterfalls, lakes and lookout points for birdwatching, and the best places
to stay are eco-oriented guesthouses. Book with MotMot Travel.

The US commonwealth of Puerto Rico is a fascinating mix of American and
Hispanic cultures. It’s a good choice for a touring-plus-beach holiday.
Sightseeing highlights include Old San Juan (a Unesco World Heritage Site),
El Yunque subtropical rainforest, the vast Camuy Caves, and Ponce, rich in
colonial and Art Nouveau architecture. Book with Western
Oriental.

The Bahamas offers the full gamut of holiday experiences. New
Providence, home to the capital Nassau, and Paradise Island have high-rise
hotels, shopping malls and casinos, while the sleepy, getaway Out Islands
offer deserted, pink-tinged beaches. Throughout the archipelago, big-game
fishing and snorkelling/diving are major draws. Book with Bahamas Flavour.

Montserrat is dominated by the active Soufrière Hills volcano. Its
eruption in 1995 blanketed Plymouth, the former capital, in ash, and much of
the island is still an exclusion zone. You can visit volcano viewing points,
including a scientific observatory. Other attractions include birdwatching
and diving. Book with Tropic Breeze.

The US Virgin Islands comprise three very different islands. St Thomas
is loud and lively cruise-ship territory. St John, much of which is a
national park, is more peaceful and undeveloped, with pristine beaches and
comfy camping options. On St Croix, a major attraction is the Danish
colonial architecture in the capital Christansted. Book with visitusvi.com.

Booking advice

Flights

Below is a summary of direct flights from the UK to the Caribbean for winter
2013/2014 and summer 2014. Some services listed are seasonal, and some
involve a brief stop en route at another island – for example, British
Airways’ flights to the Dominican Republic go via Antigua. Though you don’t
need to leave the plane, this arrangement can add at least an hour to the
overall journey time, so before booking check if the service is non-stop or
not.

Antigua – British Airways (ba.com),
Thomas Cook (flythomascook.com),
Virgin Atlantic (virgin-atlantic.com)
Aruba – Thomson (thomson.co.uk/flights)

Bahamas – BA
Barbados – BA, Thomas Cook, Thomson, Virgin
Cuba – Thomas Cook, Thomson, Virgin
Dominican Republic – BA, Thomas Cook, Thomson
Grand Cayman – BA
Grenada – BA, Virgin
Jamaica – BA, Thomas Cook, Thomson, Virgin
St Lucia – BA, Thomas Cook, Virgin
St Kitts – BA
Tobago – BA, Monarch (monarch.co.uk),
Virgin
Trinidad – BA, Caribbean Airlines (caribbean-airlines.com)

Turks and Caicos – BA

To get to the Dutch Caribbean, also consider flying KLM (klm.co.uk)
via Amsterdam, and to the French Caribbean with Air France (airfrance.co.uk)
via Paris.

To reach some lesser islands, and for multi-centre trips, you need to take an
inter-island flight. Liat (liat.com)
is the main, but not always reliable, carrier. There are a number of other
small, regional airlines – tour operators can advise about options.
Inter-island flights are not cheap, so to keep costs down choose an island
to which you can fly direct.

In terms of transatlantic fares, in the irregular but frequent sales offered
by BA and Virgin, economy tickets to the Caribbean start at around £500-£600
return, depending on the island. For travel at peak times such as school
holiday periods, you may well have to pay several hundred pounds more.
Seat-only fares with the charter airlines – Monarch, Thomas Cook and Thomson
– can be lower than with the scheduled carriers, particularly for
last-minute bookings.

It’s well worth contacting a good flight specialist such as Trailfinders (trailfinders.com)
or DialAflight (dialaflight.com)
to help find best fares and most convenient routes.

Tour operators

Booking a package to the Caribbean is likely to work out cheaper than going
independently, and you’ll have back up should things wrong (think
hurricanes). Most Caribbean hotels can be booked with at least several, and
sometimes many, tour operators, so shop around: package prices can vary a
lot, and deals at hotels such as seven nights for the price of five are
rarely unique to a particular operator.

Tour operators specialising in the Caribbean

Bahamas Flavour (0870 066 9975; www.bahamasflavour.co.uk
; Captivating Cuba (01438 310099; captivatingcuba.com);
Caribbean Fun Travel (01604 882929; caribbeanfuntravel.co.uk);
Caribtours (020 7751 0660; caribtours.co.uk);
Complete Caribbean (01423 531031; www.completecaribbean.co.uk)
; Cuba Direct (020 7148 3042; cubadirect.co.uk);
Discover Jamaica (020 7078 7518; discoverjamaica.co.uk);
Journey Latin America (020 3603 8763; journeylatinamerica.co.uk)
Cuba; Just Grenada (01373 814214; justgrenada.co.uk)
Also specialises in Barbados, Bequia, St Kitts and Nevis, St Lucia and
Tobago; Motmot Travel (01327 830918; motmottravel.com)
Nature-oriented holidays; Onyx Travel (0118 947 2830; onyxtravel.co.uk);
Sandals (0800 022 3030; sandals.co.uk)
Simply St Lucia (01732 811043; simplystluciaholidays.co.uk);
Tropic Breeze (01752 880880; tropicbreeze.co.uk).

For upmarket packages

Caribbean Expressions (01752 878045; expressionsholidays.co.uk);
Carrier (0161 492 1354; carrier.co.uk);
Elegant Resorts (01244 897991; elegantresorts.co.uk);
ITC Classics (01244 355550; itcclassics.co.uk);
Seasons (01244 202000; www.seasons.co.uk);
Western Oriental (020 7666 1234; wandotravel.com).

For a wider price range of packages

British Airways Holidays (0844 493 0758; ba.com);
Golden Holidays (0845 085 8080; goldencaribbean.co.uk);
Hayes Jarvis (01293 738707; hayesandjarvis.co.uk);
Kenwood Travel (020 7749 9220; kenwoodtravel.co.uk);
Kuoni (0844 488 0321; kuoni.co.uk);
Trailfinders (020 7368 1200; trailfinders.com);
Tropical Sky (0843 249 5390; tropicalsky.co.uk);
Virgin Holidays (0844 557 4321; virginholidays.co.uk).

For charter-based packages

Cosmos Holidays (0871 902 5838; cosmos.co.uk);
First Choice (0844 871 1604; firstchoice.co.uk);
Thomas Cook (0844 412 5959; thomascook.com);
Thomson (0871 231 4691; thomson.co.uk).

Activity and adventure specialists

DiveQuest (01254 826322; divequest-travel.com);
Dive Worldwide (0845 130 6980; diveworldwide.com);
Explore (0845 291 4541; explore.co.uk);
Sportif (01273 844919; sportif.travel);
Sunsail (0844 417 2079; sunsail.co.uk).

Acommodation

The Caribbean offers an immensely varied choice of places to stay. Hotels
range from large all-inclusive complexes to intimate, and sometimes
luxurious, beachfront properties and traditional-style plantation inns. Turn
to tour operators to book these, or for hotel-only bookings, consider The
Caribbean Hotel Company (01244 355435; thecaribbeanhotelcompany.co.uk),
which offers a large selection of hotels on many islands, and prices that
include transfers.

Many islands also have lots of small, inexpensive hotels and guesthouses that
do not feature in most tour operators’ portfolios. Find them on tourist
board websites, and on charmingescapescollection.com
for Anguilla, intimatehotelsbarbados.com,
and jewelsofthebvi.com for the British Virgin Islands.

Staying in locals’ homes is also possible on some islands, such as Cuba (see cubacasas.net)
and Grenada (see homestaysgrenada.com).

Villas can be rented on many islands, and smarter ones come with a housekeeper
and sometimes other staff. Caribbean villa specialists include CV Travel
(020 7401 1099; cvtravel.co.uk),
Prestbury Worldwide Resorts (01625 858158; prestburyworldwideresorts.co.uk)
and Wimco (0870 850 1144; wimco.com).
For direct bookings (often cheaper), turn to homeaway.co.uk,
which features thousands of villas and apartments across the region, many
with useful reviews from previous guests. A good option for families is
renting a villa or apartment in a hotel, giving you spacious accommodation
combined with facilities such as restaurants and watersports; tour operators
offer the best of these properties.

Cruise

For several reasons, the Caribbean is the world’s premier holiday spot for
cruising. The weather is generally hot and sunny. You can visit half-a-dozen
islands in a week – extensive, DIY island hopping in the Caribbean is not
that easy or cheap, making a cruise definitely the best way to see a lot of
the region in one go. On-shore activities are enormously varied, ranging
from sightseeing in colonial cities to zip-lining over rainforests, climbing
up waterfalls, snorkelling with stingrays and trying out all sorts of other
watersports. Or you can just chill on a beach – several cruise lines include
in their itineraries a stop at their own, private tropical island. The
choice of non-cultural excursions makes Caribbean cruising an ideal option
for families.

As for possible downsides, Caribbean cruising itineraries usually visit a port
a day, so there’s often little daytime at sea relaxing. Cruise-ship
passengers can swamp the ports they visit. And, while independent exploring
is easy on stops on Mediterranean cruises, in the Caribbean transport is
usually required to reach key sights, and a large proportion of passengers
sign up to organised excursions.

There are three cruising areas in the region: the Eastern Caribbean, typically
including Puerto Rico, the Virgin Islands and, for Florida departures, the
Bahamas; the western Caribbean, taking in the Cayman Islands, Jamaica and
Mexico; and the Southern Caribbean, visiting southerly Windward Islands and
the Dutch Antilles.

Cruise-and-stay packages are worth considering. Many cruises set off from
Florida, but Barbados is also an important embarkation point. There are also
good-value repositioning cruises in the spring and autumn, crossing the
Atlantic by sea one way, flying the other.

You can cruise in the Caribbean year round. The weather is best
December-April, the peak season, though ports are busiest then, and prices
are lower at other times of year. If you go in the hurricane season
(especially September and October), there is a chance that your ship will
have to change its itinerary to avoid storms. Visit telegraph.co.uk/travel/cruises
for more details.

More information

telegraph.co.uk/caribbean;
caribbean.co.uk has
links to the tourist board websites of all the Caribbean countries.