Best Places to Visit in The Caribbean
What are the best places to visit in the Caribbean? You will find them here. Or do you mean the West Indies? Also, you may wish to visit our other island specific posts: Barbados and Curacao & Bonaire.
Getting to The Caribbean Islands
Getting to most of the larger islands can be accomplished by commercial flights and cruise ships. Cruises leave from a number of cities in Florida and other locations in the Gulf of Mexico. Cruise Critic is a great resource for booking a cruise. See Cruise Critic for Cruise information and bookings.
In some cases, you may need to take a ferry or a small plane from a neighboring island (see our post Other Transport Options. Pictured above is a miniature version of the famous Sacre-Coure Cathedral on the Island of Martinique, three ladies we met and a picture of a flower and the marina on the Island of Grenada, and the famous Mount Gay Distillery on the Island of Barbados.
The West Indies
The West Indies include islands in the North and Western borders of the Caribbean Sea, plus the Bahamas. These Islands were discovered by Christopher Columbus and the other explorers who were searching for a new route from Europe to India; hence, the term, West Indies. These islands have both a wild Atlantic side and a calm Caribbean side. The larger Islands, Cuba, Haiti/The Dominican Republic and Puerto Rico are more in the center of the Caribbean Sea.
The Best Places to Visit in the Caribbean -Flags and Umbrellas
The islanders are proud of their independence and like to display colorful representations in their flags and in their artwork. The umbrella display in San Juan, Puerto Rico is a beautiful example of their creativity.
The largest Island is Cuba. Other large, and well-known islands, include Haiti/Dominican Republic, Puerto Rico, Hispaniola, Jamaica, Trinidad and Tobago.
Some countries are made up of many individual islands, cays and reefs. This includes the Bahamas the US and British Virgin Islands, Antigua and Barbados (where I am as I’m writing this article). There are a number of factors that provide somewhat of a common culture among the islands, the most obvious is the history of slavery on the plantations throughout the various islands. One thing we noticed is that there is a tremendous friendly welcoming culture across islands, as evidenced by the following pictures.
Political Relationships
The islands have a mix of different political relationships. Antigua & Barbuda, The Bahamas, Barbados, Cuba, Dominica, Dominican Republic, Granada, Haiti, Jamaica, St. Kitts & Nevis, and Trinidad & Tobago are all independent. France still controls four islands: Guadeloupe, Martinique, St. Barthelemy and St, Martin, although each has a strong amount of independence.
The Dutch control the ABC Islands, Aruba, Bonaire and Curaçao. They also control Sint Maarten, that Island being shared with the French.
The British control the BVI (British Virgin Islands), The Cayman Islands, and Turks & Caicos. The US controls Puerto Rico and the US Virgin Islands.
In general, the independent Islands seem to struggle economically more than the other islands. This appears to be a result of continued foreign investment. The European countries and the United States tend to offer greater support to those countries. This is most true in the socialistic parent countries (France and The Netherlands) as they provide a stronger social net. However, the British and US colonies, also appear better off economically than the independents.
The Best Places to Visit in the Caribbean – Individual Country Experiences
Robin and I have been traveling to The Caribbean for more than forty years. We have visited most of the Islands. Cuba is the biggest exception. We hope to make a mission trip with our church in the next year or so.
What struck us as extreme poverty in many of the countries years ago, particularly in some of the West Indian Countries, has actually improved quite a bit. Of course, this is not true in all countries, particularly Haiti and Cuba. But many of the countries have made noticeable improvements. The biggest challenges the countries face is recovering from hurricanes, volcanos or earthquakes, and more recently recovering from the Covid pandemic.
Unique Caribbean Experiences
