Travel Guide

Solo travel in the Caribbean works best on Puerto Rico, Barbados, Curacao, Aruba, the USVI and Cayman — walkable, bus-linked, Level 1 advisories. The real cost is the single supplement.

Tropical golden hour runs 30-45 minutes, not an hour. Shoot Eagle Beach, Grote Knip, The Baths, Pink Sands and Trunk Bay at dawn — and check drone rules island by island.

The Caribbean's best beach hikes: Dominica's 115-mile Waitukubuli Trail, St. John's Reef Bay and Ram Head, Martinique's Trace des Caps and Middle Caicos' Crossing Place Trail.

The best Caribbean markets: Castries (St Lucia), Marigot (St Martin), St George’s spice market (Grenada) and Willemstad’s Floating Market. Go before 9am, bring cash, skip conch and coral.

Packing for the Caribbean: reef-safe sunscreen (required in the USVI, Bonaire and Aruba), no camouflage clothing, a universal plug adapter for 110V-240V, and DEET repellent.

The Caribbean beaches that actually face the sunset: Seven Mile Beach (Grand Cayman), Eagle Beach (Aruba), Negril’s West End, Ffryes, Playa Kalki, Sugar Beach and Paynes Bay.

The Caribbean beach bars worth the trip: Soggy Dollar on Jost Van Dyke, Floyd's Pelican Bar off Jamaica, Sunshine's on Nevis, Nippers, Sunset Bar and Foxy's. Bring cash.

Four Caribbean ferry chains work without a plane: the Virgin Islands from $25, Guadeloupe to St. Lucia on L’Express des Îles, the Grenadines, and St. Maarten to Anguilla in 20 minutes.

Caribbean wellness retreats ranked: BodyHoliday St. Lucia includes a daily treatment, COMO Parrot Cay and Six Senses La Sagesse run the deepest programmes, Sivananda Bahamas is the budget pick.

The Caribbean's historical beaches worth a detour: Salt River Bay on St. Croix, Long Bay on San Salvador, Port Royal, Playa Girón, English Harbour, Pigeon Island and Holetown.

Caribbean beach weddings cost about $500–$600 per guest in 2026. Barbados and the Dominican Republic have no residency wait; Jamaica and the Bahamas need ~24 hours.

The cheapest Caribbean beach resorts in 2026 are in the Dominican Republic, Curaçao and Puerto Rico — all-inclusive rates run $130–$250 per person a night, meals and drinks included.

Sailing the Caribbean peaks December to April. The best stops: the BVI’s Baths and Jost Van Dyke, the Grenadines’ Tobago Cays, and Antigua’s Nelson’s Dockyard.

Turks and Caicos has no official nude beaches — public nudity is illegal. Grace Bay and Taylor Bay are textile; the honest options are near-empty North Caicos sands or a short flight to Saint Martin.

The best child-friendly Caribbean beaches: Grace Bay in Turks and Caicos has the calmest water, Aruba the most reliable weather, and the Bahamas the biggest water park.

Eat Caribbean cuisine by the shore: bake and shark at Maracas Beach, flying fish at Oistins, jerk at Boston Bay, Anegada lobster, Bahamian conch and Puerto Rican lechón.

The best time to visit Caribbean beaches is mid-December to April — dry, calm, seaweed-free. For deals, try May–June or November; skip the Sept–Oct hurricane peak and summer sargassum.

The best Caribbean adventure sports by beach: shore diving in Bonaire, kitesurfing at Cabarete, surfing Rincon and the Soup Bowl, and stingray snorkeling at Grand Cayman.