8 Day Eastern Caribbean Must Dos

[TNGirlMom]

My husband and I are taking our first kid free trip in almost 4 years. What are the must dos on an 8 Day Eastern Caribbean cruise? Are there any excursion groups outside of Carnival you recommend using? The ports of call are St. Maarten, St. Kitts, San Juan, and Grand Turk. We'll be on the Conquest in March and loved our last trip we took on the Conquest 5 years ago.

[dani85bri06]

This is our itinerary on the Magic next August! We are planning beach, Margaritaville, and Jacks Shack in Grand Turk! Other than that I would love to find suggestions for the other ports as well! St. Kitts I am really at a loss as to what we should do...was thinking of doing the zip line excursion. St. Maartin we are thinking of doing the horse back riding. Then San Juan just getting off and venturing around on our own. See the forts, eat some good food, and do some shopping!!

[Staceyface1]

I love to just spend the day at the beach/Margaritaville in GT. There isn’t much to see unless you like zip lining. I have also heard that renting a golf cart is fun and then just exploring the island on your own time.

 

 

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[schazzy]

We'll be on the same itinerary next year, we've been to Grand Turk before, we did a tour and shopped, this time I think we'll do the Jack's Shack and/or Margaritaville thing. All the other ports are new to us and we are still trying to decide what we will do. I'm pretty sure we are settled on exploring Old San Juan and definitely making a stop at Chocobar Cortés. As for the rest, I too am interested in others suggestions. :)

[Fergus]

This is our itinerary on the Magic next August! We are planning beach, Margaritaville, and Jacks Shack in Grand Turk! Other than that I would love to find suggestions for the other ports as well! St. Kitts I am really at a loss as to what we should do...was thinking of doing the zip line excursion. St. Maartin we are thinking of doing the horse back riding. Then San Juan just getting off and venturing around on our own. See the forts, eat some good food, and do some shopping!!

 

We are planning similar activities for these ports in December. In St. Kitts, our first time there, we like the looks of Thenford Gray's tours - more info in the POC boards. In St. Maarten, I think we're going to schedule something through the ship, just because of road conditions/traffic that we've seen mentioned a lot.

[vache]

We did this itinerary last December on the Sunshine and also in 2015. Grand Turk is always a beach day for us with free chairs and wifi. St Maarten we did a see&sea tour through carnival it was nice. St Kitts we took a city tour from the port with the locals and we just had a bad experience with our driver but others had a great time with different drivers. San Juan we done the city tour, Forts and now mostly we hop and eat (where the locals eat). No matter what you do it will be great and 8 days cruises are amazing!

[Buckett]

In St. Maarten I can recommend Bernard's Tours, I've used him twice and been very happy. I found him through reviews in the POC (Ports of Call) boards. Check it out, lots of great info over there! :D

[tmg698]

In May we went to the same ports on the Sunshine. In St. Kitts (now one of my favorite ports) we did the 4x4 Safari and Beach Tour (Carnival Tour) this was a lot of fun one of the best Carnival tours we have taken. We saw a lot of the island and spent an hour at a beach.

[bibbysnow]

This is our itinerary on the Magic next August! We are planning beach, Margaritaville, and Jacks Shack in Grand Turk! Other than that I would love to find suggestions for the other ports as well! St. Kitts I am really at a loss as to what we should do...was thinking of doing the zip line excursion. St. Maartin we are thinking of doing the horse back riding. Then San Juan just getting off and venturing around on our own. See the forts, eat some good food, and do some shopping!!

 

There is a free Hop On Hop Off Trolley in San Juan.

[dani85bri06]

There is a free Hop On Hop Off Trolley in San Juan.

 

 

 

Thank you for the info! We will definitely be using that! [emoji1]

 

 

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[OkieRican]

Yes use the trolley in San Juan. You can walk anywhere! Check out the little huts and stands for local foods. Every thing is right there off the pier! I can't wait to go back home.

[77sue]

We were on the conquest in March. We went on a carnival excursion of best of st. Maarten. It was probably our best excursion ever. You get a tour all over the island and can see the devistation of the island. Our tour guide was a native of the Dutch side and told us all about living on the island. I would highly recommend.

[AmberTeka]

we will be on the Sunshine in December visiting those ports.

 

I read on the excursion page about a small open air railroad that circled the Island in St. Kitts. Some of the reviews were bad. Warned of a shaky bridge the train crossed. Other reviews said it was great. Has anyone taken that excursion?

 

I wonder if they rebuilt the Mall of the West Indies. I always went to the French Perfume, cologne, etc. shop and bought Christmas presents. Mostly for myself. I loved that place. PLUS they had a lovely , clean RR in the Mall ( really just one big building). It cost a dollar and was well worth it.

[bibbysnow]

We are planning similar activities for these ports in December. In St. Kitts, our first time there, we like the looks of Thenford Gray's tours - more info in the POC boards. In St. Maarten, I think we're going to schedule something through the ship, just because of road conditions/traffic that we've seen mentioned a lot.

We did the Thenford Gray your and loved it!!

[ProgRockCruiser]

This is our itinerary on the Magic next August! We are planning beach, Margaritaville, and Jacks Shack in Grand Turk! Other than that I would love to find suggestions for the other ports as well! St. Kitts I am really at a loss as to what we should do...was thinking of doing the zip line excursion. St. Maartin we are thinking of doing the horse back riding. Then San Juan just getting off and venturing around on our own. See the forts, eat some good food, and do some shopping!!

We are booked on the Sunshine in Dec for an 8-day to those ports, and those are exactly the activities we have planned: Zip lining in St Kitts, horseback riding in St Maarten, Beach in Grand Turk, and explore the forts and old town (and food) in San Juan.

 

They all tick boxes for us, and should be enjoyable based on the reviews we have read. I'm sure you'll have fun too!

[2wheelin]

Last Nov in St Kitts did an island tour with Javin and his monkey, Peaches, at Myislandstours@gmail.com. Small group of nine in his open air truck toured the island. Included a hike in the rainforest, lunch, snorkeling for those who wanted, and a ton of information about the island. Was a fantastic tour for a very reasonable price.

Would highly recommend. He also takes lots of pictures that he posts online for you.

[Liverpoollovely]

My husband and I are taking our first kid free trip in almost 4 years. What are the must dos on an 8 Day Eastern Caribbean cruise? Are there any excursion groups outside of Carnival you recommend using? The ports of call are St. Maarten, St. Kitts, San Juan, and Grand Turk. We'll be on the Conquest in March and loved our last trip we took on the Conquest 5 years ago.

 

St Kitts book an excursion! ... we went with Annie she gave an amazing tour of the island ... her site is annie's Caribbean tours dot com ... she is highly rated on trip advisor this is why we booked her and she did not disappoint.

 

San Juan is just a lovely port to explore, walk around, go to the forts I have got some lovely pictures throughout San Juan

 

St Maarten is a bit of a shoppers paradise, we tend to bar hop and shop :) that way my dad is happy with the bar hopping and my sister and I are happy shopping haha

 

Grand Turk is ... more of a beach type rest up ... if you can get a poolside cabana I would go for it, they are nice air conditioned and private. they come with poolside service but that is about it for perks my dad appreciates it though as he is not one for the sun and he falls asleep on a sofa in the air conditioned cabana :)