Southern Caribbean Ports

[susiemcc]

Is it possible to go exploring on foot from most of the Ports in the Southern Caribbean - going on our first cruise and thinking of dong a few RCI excursions but was wondering if it is ok to wander around on foot without booking excursions . ::confused:

[NorbertsNiece]

Hi,

 

Can you post the ports of call you are looking at please.......

[39august]

I suggest you go to the Ports of Call boards and open the links for each of your ports. You will find a wealth of information there.

[susiemcc]

St Croix, St Maarten, Antigua,St Lucia, Barbados, St Thom as Aruba St Kitts Curacao.

[chadbeck]

Sure you can. Depending on the port there may not be much were it is docked. I often take a cab to go hiking or walk around a town in a different area.

[Ken076]

St Croix, St Maarten, Antigua,St Lucia, Barbados, St Thom as Aruba St Kitts Curacao.

 

In Curacao consider a self-guided walking tour of Willemstad: Art, Craft, Cuisine, and Market Route Map (pdf 4.13 MB) -and- http://www.guidetocaribbeanvacations.com/curacao/Willemstad1.htm.

 

In Aruba "Bully" does an excellent island tour (customized to your itinerary) for $45 per hour for the Van (up to 5 passengers) - his suggested 3-hour tour is pretty comprehensive.

 

ken

[lv2bcruzin]

Simple answer for all those ports is yes. All of them have something within walking distance to do. As far as excursions go, there is almost always vendors near the terminal offering something to do. Just be careful who you choose if you go that route.

[NorbertsNiece]

St Kitts : I have toured with Royston and on another visit taken RCCL excursion to Nevis

St Maarten : I have toured with Bernard

St Lucia : booked the aerial tram independently

Antigua : toured with Gordon

Barbados : Calabazza Catamaran whole day and snorkel with turtles

St Thomas : Palm Passage and took a tour from town which can be walked to

Aruba : 4 x 4 ATV on a previous trip to the one in the blog in sig below where all the above are described in detail. Town is right by the port.

Curacao : You can walk to town easily from the port.

[austinlw]

There are also other options in between exploring on foot around the port and taking a ship shore excursion. If you do some online research about the islands you are visiting you may find specific places you want to see that are not within walking distance, but easy and not too expensive to visit by bus or cab. For instance, on Antigua we took a bus to Jolly Beach (one of the most beautiful beaches I have ever been to), spent about 4 hours there, and got a cab back. Even if we took a cab both ways it would have been cheaper than a shore excursion. Taking a cab to Carlisle Bay (or walking like we did, about 1 1/2 miles) is a good inexpensive option for Barbados. On St Kitts we took a cab to and from Carambola Beach Club on South Friars Beach and had a very nice day there, also at less expense overall than a shore excursion.

 

All that being said, just note that when you do things on your own you want to make sure to get your transportation back to the ship in PLENTY of time before departure because there is often traffic on Caribbean islands and the ship is likely to leave you if you're not aboard on time - they don't wait. The advantage of a ship shore excursion is that the ship will wait if you are on one of their excursions that is late getting back. You're paying (sometimes dearly) for that bit of extra insurance. That's why we never try to go to more than 1 or 2 places when we venture out on our own.

[erniesband]

Is it possible to go exploring on foot from most of the Ports in the Southern Caribbean - going on our first cruise and thinking of dong a few RCI excursions but was wondering if it is ok to wander around on foot without booking excursions . ::confused:

 

St Croix, St Maarten, Antigua,St Lucia, Barbados, St Thom as Aruba St Kitts Curacao.

 

The simple answer is yes you can go exploring on foot but you'll miss a whole lot of good stuff if that's all you do. Most ports are set up with very "convenient" shopping right at the port and that's about all.

 

Here's some things we've done over the years and would recommend:

 

St Croix - Virgin Kayaking on the Salt River - http://www.virginkayaktours.com

Cane Bay for snorkeling

A trip into Christianstad for it's history

Rainbow Beach really close to the pier

You can see most of Fredrickstad in an hour

 

St Martin - shoppers paradise Front Street in Phillipsburg

Orient Beach

Maho Beach

Bernard's Tour comes highly recommended

 

Antigua - For water adventures any of the tours by Adventure Antigua - http://www.adventureantigua.com

For history a tour that goes to Nelson's Dockyard, Shirley Heights, etc.

 

St Lucia - this island is best seen with an all day tour like Cosol, Mystic Man and others offer, It's a natural paradise. Ziplining is very popular here. If you want a great beach day with good snorkeling look into a day package with Island Divers at Ti Kaye resort. http://www.tikaye.com

 

Barbados - most popular thing is swimming with the turtles, go with

Calabaza - http://www.calabazasailingcruises.com or

Silvermoon - silvermoonbarbados.com

If you like chocolate there's a small factory that gives tours

http://www.agapey.com

For history Glory Tours has some interesting tours

 

St Thomas - another shopping paradise, for a relaxing day book a daysail or head over to St John and the better beaches.

 

St Kitts - highly recommend a tour by Thenford Grey hits all the highlights

www dot thenfordgrey dot com

If you're looking for something different try Javin's Tour

myislandstours.shutterfly.com

Curacao - Just take a walk into town as ken076 said.

 

Aruba - best thing we ever did here was rent a car and go exploring, have a good map or guide like Frommer's, there's lots of interesting thing to see.

 

As you can see I never do ship excursions and have never had a bad experience with any of these independent operators. Hope this helps some.

[MDSue]

Is it possible to go exploring on foot from most of the Ports in the Southern Caribbean - going on our first cruise and thinking of dong a few RCI excursions but was wondering if it is ok to wander around on foot without booking excursions . ::confused:

 

I say, it depends on where you want to walk around on foot. The port area are generally very safe in the areas where all the tourists shop and wander. Definitely check out the port of calls boards to get familiar with each island and what you might want to do. Just like your local cities and towns, there are safe and not so safe places to wander.

 

In St. Thomas, there is lots of shopping and touristy stuff where the ships dock or you can easily grab a cab to Charlotte Amalie and wander around town on your own. I've always felt perfectly safe, but you will have plenty of people "encouraging" you to come in their store to shop. There are plenty of nice beaches or other scenic spots like Paradise Point that you can go on your own by grabbing a cab. Lots of the cabs are the open air variety where it will cost you $8-10 dollars to get where you are going. The fare to Charlotte Amalieis 3 or 4 dollars.

 

The port area of St. Maarten is very nice and you can grab a water taxi to downtown Philipsburg for $6 round-trip. You can pick up a cab to just about anywhere and travel safely on your own or a group of others going to the same location. I would recommend signing up for one of the recommended tour guides if you want to visit multiple spots (like Orient Beach, Marigot, and Maho Beach (where the planes fly low over the beach)) because taxi fares start to add up if you go individually. But if you just have one destination in mind, just grab a cab. Orient Beach is about $9 each way and cabs are plentiful and run back and forth all day.

 

St. Lucia is absolutely beautiful, but I don't feel very comfortable right outside the main port area. I think this is a good island to do either a private tour that is recommended on these boards or do a ship tour. I personally would not enjoy just walking around the port area here or going off on my own. The island is well worth seeing- the Pitons are a not miss- and make sure you watch from the ship when you sail by in the evening if you don't do a day trip in that direction.

 

Aruba- I feel perefectly comfortable just about anywhere on this island. The port area is nice and there is much to see. I personally love the Palm Beach area of Aruba which you can get to by bus for $2.30 or by cab for $14 each way. Palm Beach has beautiful beaches, tons of water sports, and lots of restaurants and shops- a very nice location. It is not good for snorkelling though.

 

Antigua- one of my favorite islands. The port of St. John is very scenic and there is a huge indoor market wiith tons of vendors. There is a tour booth right as you walk off the dock and they can help you arrange a plan for the day for a reasonable price. A few years ago, we signed up for a $25 three hour tour of the island that took us to Nelson's Dockyard, Shirley Hieghts, and a few other nice stops. We took a van with one other couple- had a great time.

Last year, we asked to go to Vallley Church Beach and were led to a waiting van that took us there for $8 each way.

 

I haven't been to St. Kitts or Curacao yet. I'm going to Curacao next month and everything I've read makes it sound wonderful. The waterfront area near the port look beautiful and I can't wait to see it in person. I think I'm just going to wing it when we get there.

 

The Southerm Caribbean islands are my favorite. You will find plenty to do without spending a ton of money on ship excursions if you just do a little planning ahead of time.

[OCruisers]

St Croix, St Maarten, Antigua,St Lucia, Barbados, St Thom and Aruba St Kitts Curacao.

 

You'll be fine walking around on all of your port stops. Have a great time! :)

 

LuLu

~~~

[Hlitner]

We have probably been to well over 150 Caribbean port calls over many years and have never, ever, done a single excursion. The reason is we simply hate being part of a cattle herd (called an excursion) and paying what is often a ridiculous price for what we can easily do on our own. On most islands, depending on what we want to do for the day, we will either use public transit (such as a bus), walk, or simply rent a car. For example, on the island of Aruba anyone can easily go to the popular beaches (Eagle or Palm) by simply walking a block from the port to the local bus station and taking the bus (about $3 round trip). Once at the beach you can rent chairs and umbrellas, buy your own drinks/lunch and whatever else you please. In fact on that island we will normally go all the way out to Arashi Beach in the morning for snorkeling and then come back to Eagle in the afternoon. There is a lot of good info on the various port boards here on CC, and you can also look at some widely sold travel books (just go to a book store and browse).

 

Hank