Can youse guys give me your takes concerning places to eat, beaches, and general cool stuff on the following islands…
Tortola
St. Lucia
St. Marteen
Barbados
Grenada
Curacao
Aruba
Any advice would be most appreciated. Unpleasant places? Let me know.
Thanks.
What do you want to do when you are there? what is most important? Do you want to rent a villa, stay in a luxury resort or do you need just a room?
Do you need good restaurants, nightlife, Scuba, snorkeling, hiking or just a good beach?
Some of the islands you mentioned are difficult to get to and/or very expensive, some are not depending on where you will fly out of?
Heading down to the Caribbean on Friday so maybe I can help if you provide a little more info.
George
Barbados - Stayed at several places here…one shit ass time share across a main road from public beaches…every 2 minutes of laying on that beach I was offered weed…not that I care, but it’s hard to relax when you are constantly on guard and deflecting the salesmen. Then moved over to The Crane…excellent place…google it for great pics that do not disappoint. Would go back, but only to the Crane.
Aruba…it was fun once, but it is very “Americanized” and overrun with New Englanders! I heard more Boston/New York accents here than native! 
Did seem/feel very safe though. Ate at Madame Jeanett’s not bad, but not awesome
St. Marteen
Dutch side not so nice but with plenty to do.
French side, I stay in Grand Case. Great town, fantastic dining options, two wonderful beaches where I stay. It’s a dead end road so no traffic. Most room recently renovated with many 1 and 2 bedroom options. A 20 minute drive brings you to town if you want nightlife or a great French super market, in the other direction 20 minutes brings you to Orient beach, with a brand new US supermarket on the way, for bigger beach activity options.
Truth is i don’t really travel much though. One or two trips to the market, walk into town for dinner. It makes for a particularly restful vacation.
Let me know if you have any specific questions about the island.
Tortola- beautiful island, with not much to do there other than sail and dive. Must fly into St. Thomas and either catch small hop over or boat. The BVI is fairly expensive. I spent time there on a sail boat, but just staying there in a hotel for a week, might get a bit slow.
St. Lucia - Great island. I prefer the northwest part of the island myself. Better hotels, restaurants, etc. The beach is very nice there. Great diving down around the Pitons in the middle western side of the island. Hotels are there, but you are isolated. Dive boats leave from the main northern city to the piton area everyday except Sunday. Everything pretty much closes down on Sunday.The south end of the island is nice also. Most of the places are more island type than the typical northern ones. A great wide trip is to rent a car and drive around the entire island. The western end is extremely hilly with grades of over 20%, and, of course, you are driving on the wrond side of the road. The eastern side (windward) is mostly flat, but makes a pretty drive. International airports are located at both ends of the island. My recommendation would be to decide which end you want to stay at and fly into that airport. Nice island, lots of things to do!
Curacoa - A beautiful island, part of the ABC Dutch islands. The main town is very lovely to walk around with great restaurants and lots to see. Island is fairly slow otherwise, with some nice diving/snorkeling. Can be a very good very laid back trip.
If you are going to Tortola skip it and go to Virgin Gorda. You can get to Tortola through Puerto RIco. Virgin Gorda is tough to get to, best off flying a Caribbean charter plane from Puerto Rico, not to expensive it is worth it.
Look at St John. Wonderful island 3/4 of which is National Park very outdoorsy 2 resorts mainly villas for rent bestoff beach snorkelling in the Carib
St Lucia is beautiful, great resorts
I would go to Anguilla before St Maarten or Barbados very upscale.
Grand Cayman is a very easy island I would go here before Aruba.
I have not yet been to the Greneda Curacao or Bonaire trying to figure it out, great diving but very expensive to fly in to.
GH
+1 on Virgin Gorda. Check out the Bitter End Y.C. & resort.
Thank you everyone for taking the time to write.
Bumping this thread from about a year ago. Celebrating our 5 year anniversary in May and considering Caribbean for a short (4-night) get away.
Priorities are: luxury resort - once we get there, most likely will not leave. Reasonable variety of on-site dining options (preferably that allow BYO). Easily accessible from the airport. Beach is important - pool not so much.
Am considering: Tortuga Bay (Dominican Republic) and Regent Palms (Turks and Caicos) right now. Any thoughts on those or suggestions on other ideas?
If you can get to St Thomas direct from Boston the Ritz is great. Great service, pool nice beach and some activities if you want to. Probably 30 min from the airport and the Ritz will arrange transport.
As you only have a short time i would not go anywhere where would you have to connect as it would waste too much time.
GH
St Lucia - beautiful island, lot’s of stuff to do, very safe feeling, friendly people, resorts are nice, snorkeling is excellent
St Kitt’s & Nevis - both are beautiful, but not much to do on Nevis, if you like quiet, stay at the 4 seasons there, St Kitt’s is a quiet island too, but there is more to do, Marriott is very nice resort
Aruba - lots of fun stuff to do, you can be as busy as want to be, I recommend going on the land rover tour, it’s crazy fun
Mayan Riviera - great beaches, fantastic snorkeling on the reef, lots to do, but not going back any time soon until they sort out the drug violence
D.R. - loads of stuff to do, great beaches, a bit more of “party” crowd, but fun
We are heading to Barbados this summer, so can report back after then.
Have been to the Mayan Riviera a few times most recently in July with young kids. Safety was never an issue. Felt safer there than on some Caribbean Islands.
Mark - I think you will like Barbados bluest water I have ever seen and some great snorkelling and diving make sure you dive or snorkel the marine park with all the ship wrecks.
George
Tortuga Bay is great in terms of luxury, beach, golf and pretty much not having to leave at all once you arrive. Airport is a 10 minute ride away. Food ranges from good to edible. Have never BYO’ed but I can’t see why it couldn’t be done.
If you’re considering the Punta Cana area (where Tortuga Bay is), I’d suggest looking into some options here:
http://capcana.com/site/index.php/en/resorts-a-hotels
Little bit of everything
I did the regent palms in t&c for our honeymoon, highly recommended. Plus it’s a very quick flight from the east coast/Miami.
thanks George. We can’t wait I go!
If the Mayan Riviera is a possibility, my wife and I had a great trip to the El Dorado Maroma on Maroma beach. Small resort, all inclusive, good food/drinks, adults only. It was easy to get beds on the beach, etc.
I was really impressed with the beach at the Barcelo’s in the Mayan Riviera.
It’s basically the gold standard for the all inclusives in the area (2 miles long with a nice reef to make it family friendly)
Worth the extra $$$ for the Palace. Wines are a downer, but they do not skimp on the booze. Most is top shelf.
Jorge
We just bought a week at at Cap Cana Villa at a charity auction. Looks amazing. Too bad I don’t golf as it’s right on the 6th hole of what is supposedly a great course
Jordan, when will you be there? We’re going down probably the first week of April. We’ll be staying near the Punta Cana golf course though.
not til 2013 unfortunately. mostly likely in february. already have a cruise booked for this march, so no time this year.