question about the Caribbean islands

[jks9103]

Which islands would you recommend doing an island tour of (1/2 day or full day), and which islands would you recommend doing a water activity on? We are going to St Thomas, St Martin, Antigua (already have Eli's Eco Tour booked), St Lucia and Barbados in April 2008.

[freddiebud]

You could do a tour of St. Thomas and spend some time at the beach or shopping. St. Lucia is a fun beach island with very friendly folks. In St Martin, be sure to explore both sides - Dutch and French - and you can do this on your own. Just hire a taxi to get you to the other side. Barbados I did a tour and it was great. Covered alot of miles and sights.

[wrp96]

In St. Lucia, I recommend a tour with Cosol www.cosol-tour.com Very friendly, very knowledgeable. Takes you all over. Drive-in volcano, botanical garden, waterfall, banana plantation, beach, a rum factory if you want, etc.

[CPT Trips]

Eli's is a good choice on Antigua! We are planning on Cosol on St. Lucia, it's our first trip there.

St. Thomas is, for us a water port - over to St. John, just a beach and shopping day or perhaps a sail and snorkel. We've enjoyed them all. Before TSA came up with the stupid no liquid policy or when cruising out of NYC, this is a great place to do your duty free liquor shopping!

St. Martin - we usually beach it but did share a taxi for an island tour on one trip.

Barbados - snorkelled with the turtles. It was a unique experience that we would do again.

[ajkcruising]

We are travelling with our autistic daugther (5),,, I checked the ones at RCI and feel like going for the basic ones they offer in St. Kitts, Barbados and St. Lucia,, the only thing I don't like is the beach time of 3 hours.

 

Would I be able to get more beach time if we do it with locals? How far are the beaches on these islands from the pier?

 

What do u recomend for Martinique? They only offer scuba/beach ad I don't feel like paying for scuba when only one of us can do it as the other parent must remain with our child,,, and taking turns is not a fun thing.

 

Thanks

 

 

AJ

[LostAgain]

In St Martin, be sure to explore both sides - Dutch and French - and you can do this on your own. Just hire a taxi to get you to the other side. /quote]

We took public buses. It was great to be traveling with the locals. Very inexpensive, too. People were very helpful in directing to a bus stop, etc.

[freddiebud]

In St Martin, be sure to explore both sides - Dutch and French - and you can do this on your own. Just hire a taxi to get you to the other side. /quote]

We took public buses. It was great to be traveling with the locals. Very inexpensive, too. People were very helpful in directing to a bus stop, etc.

 

I LOVE taking public buses! Unfortunately, on that trip, I was with a very nervous nelly. Now I travel with DH who knows that every trip involves at least one ride on a bus.

[LostAgain]

I LOVE taking public buses! Unfortunately, on that trip, I was with a very nervous nelly. Now I travel with DH who knows that every trip involves at least one ride on a bus.

 

I love taking public buses, too. We have so many stories to tell of people we've met, seeing people carry small farm animals on a bus, etc., etc. We did get slightly lost in St Martin but that was our own stupidity -- we didn't make sure we understood the bus driver before climbing on. No harm done -- ew got to see yet another town, then we just took a bus back to where we started and tried again. I'm sure we provided a chuckle to the locals.

[cb at sea]

If going to the beach is what you want, DON'T do it through an excursion! Buses and cabs are plentiful--it's easy to do it on your own, at your own pace.

You should really get a guidebook of the islands--either a bookstore or the library have them. Then, you can read up on your ports and know where to go, and what to do! RESEARCH makes a vacation more enjoyable, since you won't be going into things "blindly"!