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Please share your favorite Southern Caribbean excursions

Nieuwcruiser

By Nieuwcruiser,
in Royal Caribbean International

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RCCLMaven

RCCLMaven

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In St Maarten, the best excursion is the America's Cup Regatta. You sail on 12 metre racing boats (one of them even won the America's Cup). It is a thrill of a lifetime and something you will never forget. No experience is necessary.

 

In St Thomas, you may want an excursion to St John's. They have some great beaches and coral to view.

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MGilly

MGilly

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In Aruba, there will be several people standing on the dock, waiting to take you on a tour of the island. We happened upon a woman named Jessica who drove our minibus tour, and she was terrific! I think she charges $10 per person, and the tour lasted about 2 1/2 or 3 hours. We learned a LOT about the island, and we never laughed so much on any tour we've ever taken! She was very knowledgeable AND had a great sense of humor. The whole minibus-load of tourists loved her. We're going back in December, and I'll be looking to take her tour again!

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nerak

nerak

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In Aruba and Curasao, we rented a car. We had been to Aruba for week a few years ago and knew what we wanted to see. If you do this, the roads are not marked well. We went to the Natural Bridge (now gone), the Arawak (sp?) rock formations, the National park, the California dunes and lighthouse...along with a beach to swim. We did miss Baby Beach, but we had been there before. Curasao, we drove all over the place...we found a great place to swim, just us as it was also a place to head out to dive...aboslutely beautiful. We also found a National Park...there were two close together. This one was only $5.00 for all of us to get into. Boca's Pistol was amazing (blowhole) and there was a small natural bridge and cave at the water side. Not much else at the park. At St. Thomas we loved going over to St John...just take the ferry and watch your times. We have also done the BOBs. At St John we went to Cinnamon Beach...even the ride to it was great. St Martin...we have just stayed at the closest beach to swim and have also went to the other side of the island to Bikini Beach...right by the nude beach. Bikini Beach was very pretty and very busy. Travel by van and it is much cheaper than taxi we found out the hard way. Of course we did some shopping at all of the ports.

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TC Cruiser

TC Cruiser

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On Aruba, snorkeling over the sunken ship, not the excursion to the small island. Many people rave about the jeep tours, although I've never done one. If you have a group of people you can take a city bus to the Palm Beach hotels and rent a hotel room together. This will allow you to spend the day on their beach and use the pools.

 

For Curacao, the swim with the dolphins excursion is supposed to be fabulous, assuming you can afford it. We watched this from above while on the Curacao highlights tour (avoid this unless you want to spend money to see gift shops and a boring museum).

 

Take a taxi to Orient Beach in St. Martin. Just stay clear of the AARP nude beach.

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julesbeara

julesbeara

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Depending on which itinerary you have.

 

The snorkeling/catarman ride in Antigua is good also. The aquarium in Curacao is great. Take a taxi from the dock to save a few dollars. You can feed sharks there. The island tour/catamaran ride in St. Lucia was great. Took a air conditioned bus across the island (visisted the sulfur beds which are a dormant volcano), had St. Lucian food for lunch (provided) and took a catarmaran ride back up the island coast during the afternoon. Sapphire Beach in St. Thomas is nice, as is Divi Little Bay in St. Maarten. Enjoy.

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daveky

daveky

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Anyone have anything else to offer in reference to Curacao?

 

We did the 2 1/2 hour sail and snorkel. Was pleasantly surprised as to the number of fish we saw and how relaxing it was. There were hugh blue parrot fish among others. Nothing really spectacular about this excursion, just a nice pleasant outing. As you can see from my cruise list, sort have been there and done that, so sometimes just pick something nice and easy and fun.

 

Dave

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OCruisers

OCruisers

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We did the 2 1/2 hour sail and snorkel. Was pleasantly surprised as to the number of fish we saw and how relaxing it was. There were hugh blue parrot fish among others. Nothing really spectacular about this excursion, just a nice pleasant outing. As you can see from my cruise list, sort have been there and done that, so sometimes just pick something nice and easy and fun.

 

Dave

 

Just have to "DITTO" Dave on this excursion. Wow! We did it thinking it would be a "so-so" and easy excursion. It was so much better than expected! Tons of colorful fish!

 

Happy Sailing! OCruisers :D

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atlcple2

atlcple2

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St. Martin - Rent a Jeep Wrangler for the day for $65. The island has one main road that goes around the entire island. We did it a few weeks ago when we were there and it was the BEST time ever in St. Martin (our 3rd time there)!!! We started in Phillipsburg and went up the East coast passing the beaches and stayed a few hours in Orient and then drove over the north part and through Grand Case, Merigot and then down on the west coast on the Dutch side. Beautiful drive and not much more than taking a taxi to and from Orient. Loved it!

 

Barbados - if you go there, rent a taxi for the time that you are there. We did that last year and our driver was actually employed by the port authority and drove a taxi on his days off. He took us to all the historic places (The George Washington House, First Christian Church, Beaches, shopping). He stayed with our things in the taxi while we shopped...even introduced us to his brother!!! ; ) I think we paid him $80 american money for 3 hours (that equals $160 Barbados currency). He seemed happy and we had a great time.

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hilltopfamily

hilltopfamily

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St. Martin - Rent a Jeep Wrangler for the day for $65. The island has one main road that goes around the entire island. We did it a few weeks ago when we were there and it was the BEST time ever in St. Martin (our 3rd time there)!!! We started in Phillipsburg and went up the East coast passing the beaches and stayed a few hours in Orient and then drove over the north part and through Grand Case, Merigot and then down on the west coast on the Dutch side. Beautiful drive and not much more than taking a taxi to and from Orient. Loved it!

 

A couple questions please! There are 5 in our group, so I think renting a vehicle will be more cost effective than paying taxi fares over to Marigot & Orient Baie so I'm really thinking about doing this, either with the jeep or a regular passenger car. Did you make rental arrangements prior to the cruise, or simply as you got off the ship that very day? If that is how you did it, how difficult/easy was that? Were the rental people helpful in providing information on roads/maps and places to obtain gas? How expensive (gas prices) to fill with gas, as I'm guessing you had to fill it back up prior to returning it? Thanks for any info you can give on this subject. :)

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OceanCruise Great Review Rare

OceanCruise

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In St. Thomas you can easily book a day sail on your own or go to St. John. Another idea would be to take a taxi to the Ritz Carlton resort which is lovely. In St. Martin there is an excursion that goes to Orient beach and includes a tour and BBQ lunch (did this on Celebrity but looks similar on RCI). Have you checked out the port of call boards? You canget a lot of specific ideas there.

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