Favorite/Least Favorite Caribbean Island?

I'm trying to determine where we should aim to go on our next cruise. However, there's so many options, I just can't decide!

So, in your experience, what was your favorite place? Your least favorite?

I know everyone has different agendas when cruising, ie shopping, water sports, etc., so if you want to just give your overall favorite/least favorite, that will work fine. Thanks for any help!

Most favorite was St Bart's. Pretty little island. Easy to get around and many lovely beaches.

Least favorite is Jamaica. Beautiful island, but the people there just wear me out with the constant hassling.

Different category as a private island, but HAL's Half Moon Cay would rank at the top for us.

Love to snorkel, and found the best we have experienced off St. John.

We really enjoyed the U.S. and British Virgin Islands area.

We enjoy Curacao, Bonaire, Dominica, and St. Thomas enough to keep visiting them. Dominica is wildly beautiful and Curacao is a UNESCO Heritage site. They are opposites, with Dominica being undeveloped and Curacao very developed (with beautiful buildings.)

Like- Dominica, St John, Aruba, Grand Cayman

Dislike-Barbados, Like like the island of Jamaica but will have to say no because of the crime.

I would have to say that we have loved every island we have visited with the exception of Jamaica. I could do with out the locals following you around trying to sell you drugs, men, women or a combination package!:D Seriously, it was pretty bad. But with that said, we did enjoy our tour and felt safe on the tour, but would not go it alone.

I would rate the islands we have visited....

1. St. Thomas/St. John

2. Martinique

3. Barbados

4. St. Martin/St. Maarten

5. Grand Cayman

6. Cozumel

7. Jamaica

8. Bahamas

Many factors go into in personal preference. For example, a particular excursion can mean the difference between enjoying an island or not. The only island on the list that we really didn't care for was the Bahamas. We will avoid this port when looking into a cruise itinerary.

The best thing to do is try them all! :D

Definitely Roatan, Honduras. We are snorkelers and can't find anything better! It is amazing...a real jewel.

I agree that Jamicians hounded you with "Lady want a braid?" and "Ganga mon?" but on the plus side I found the craft fair had great prices and the Dunns River Falls excursion served great rum punch after the climb.

The worst was MARTINIQUE! :eek: I hated Martinique. We would stay on the ship next time if its on the itinerary. We found the people were rude and bothered by the cruise passengers. Waste flowed down the side of the streets and everything was over priced.

Still love he US Virgin islands and Barbados for the Island atmosphere.

St Marteen not that pretty but lots of things to do and nice people.

Aruba and Grand Cayman over priced too.

Cozumel to much mariachi music which took away from the "island experience".

Just an opinion. A bad island is still better that a good day at work:D

Nobody seems to have mentioned Grenada yet it is one of the most beautiful islands in the Caribbean.

Here are the ones I have been to, in order from favorite to least favorite:

Grand Cayman

Barbados

Cozumel

St. Thomas

Dominica

Puerto Rico

Calica/Costa Maya

St. Maarten

Martinique

Jamaica

Looking forward to adding Nassau, Grand Turk, and Half Moon Cay to my list this summer.

No matter whether a Caribbean Island is high on my list, I have a great time at all of them!

ehough,

I have been to many of the islands. In general, to qualify my answers, I like to hike and enjoy the less developed islands best. My long-time friend and cruise companion is a diver and also likes the less developed islands.

Favorites for both of us include Tobago, Dominica, Grenada, St. Kitts, St. Lucia, and Trinidad. We also like Barbados because of the natural beauty there; ditto Roatan. I enjoyed St. Johns and she likes St. Thomas. St. Maarten was okay. I thought Martinique was beautiful, but found the people were not friendly. Isla Margarita [Venezuela] had some lovely spots but the people were not friendly and there was a lot of political talk about their government by our tourguide there. Jamaica was beautiful and we thoroughly enjoyed our tour to Bob Marley's home. Curacao is beautiful too. I even enjoyed Aruba, but my friend doesn't like it so well.

Addendum: I left out Grand Cayman, I guess because I have been there so many times and dislike it. My diver friend also dislikes it---diving is overrated there compared to other places to dive, she says. For us, Grand Cayman is another sea day and one we thoroughly enjoy with most of the others off the ship!

That tops my list of places to avoid. Martinique was a real disappointment as was Jamaica but every island has the beach and street vendor problems.

My favorites are STT and STM for beaches and shopping and food. I'm not excited about the private islands as they are all the same, same food, activities, junk stands and the ships staff. Nothing new or different.

Cozumel!!!! Paradise Beach.- Favorite

Costa Maya- Least favorite so far but could have been due to the short port times.

Beauty is in the eye of the beholder

Cost is relative

Comfort - I will explain

The comfort I seek on a cruise is not only physical but mental - it includes the ability to relax and enjoy the surroundings.

If I have to have my radar up then my mind is not relaxing. I'm not talking about DOING something that requires mental alertness for your safety- like swimming with sharks. I'm talking about several ports of call that I have visited that your radar should never be shut down.

Good to bad:

Coco Cay

Half Moon Cay

Key West

St Thomas

Costa Maya - the village of Majahual or the tours are very safe but armed guards and fenced areas due make you wonder about the safety outside.

Santo Tomas - Undeveloped but very friendly

Belize - the bandits in the mountains have -for now -stayed away

Nassau - especially at Night

Tortola - Garbage on the shore where they expected you to swim, wrecked cars littered on the road side, houses intentionally left in state of incomplete construction to avoid excess taxation.

(This does not include a trip to St Johns or Virgin Gorda, which I believe is the best and only reason for going there. )

But to show you that things could be worse, our guide and others that we met had moved to Tortola to get away from Jamaica.

J

I'm with "rjscott" who said St. Bart's was the favorite and Jamaica, least favorite. Once was more than enough for Jamaica; I've been three times to St. Bart's -- once via day boat from St. Maarten when ship docked there.

I'm trying to determine where we should aim to go on our next cruise. However, there's so many options, I just can't decide!

 

So, in your experience, what was your favorite place? Your least favorite?

 

I know everyone has different agendas when cruising, ie shopping, water sports, etc., so if you want to just give your overall favorite/least favorite, that will work fine. Thanks for any help!

Cozumel!!!! Paradise Beach.- Favorite

 

Costa Maya- Least favorite so far but could have been due to the short port times.

I agree about Cozumel & Paradise Beach! Can't wait to go back again. Always something to do in Cozumel.

My least favorite port was Belize.

So far I've enjoyed Curacao and St Barts the most: Curacao for its interesting architecture and shopping, St Barts for its pure beauty and elegance (and shopping of a different sort). When I cruise, I like to visit lots of places to figure out where I'd like to return for a landstay. Both of these place qualify - in fact, I'm planning a 10-night visit to St Barts at the end of 2007 in place of my usual year-end Caribbean cruise.

My least favorite: Nassau because I've been there too many times already. Most of the other islands I've visited on cruises I wouldn't visit again, just because there are so many other wonderful places to see.

To the poster who wrote about houses that where not completed to avoid taxation - you may see it differently!!! We were told in many of these islands your average family cannot go to a bank and get a loan for construction. These folks have to scrimp and save to buy the property, then often have very little left over to do the actual build. Housing construction is completed in stages as the people have the money to do so, on some islands the average home takes up to 7 years to build, and most of these families are living with relatives or in cramped rented quarters until the build is almost complete.

Palmtre2-

I do not disagree with your understanding that housing is very costly and it takes a long time to finish the homes.

But it does not make my observation any less valid. I noticed the incomplete construction on so many homes and wondered if it had to do with taxes. The guide we had confirmed my guess.

You may have also noticed that the more well off had cows in the yard, the less well off had goats off and the least well off had chickens. The efforts to avoid taxes supports the lack of good economic development and is the reflection of the poor political governence.

It's hard to pick out a favorite and least favorite - so I will just list in the order of islands (and other cruiseship stops not necesssarily islands) I would most want to go back to (or have been back to):

Turks and Caicos

Virgin Gorda

St Bart's

St Martin

St. Kitt's

Roatan

Costa Maya (actually on the mainland)

Mayan Riviera (the port is Calica)

Tortola

Guatemala (also not an island)

Belize (not an island)

St Croix

Grenada

Guadeloupe

Martinique

Antigua

Domincan Republic

Cuba

Cozumel

Barbados

Grand Cayman

Isla Margarita

Jamaica

St Thomas

Nassau - probably actually the only one I am just not interested in going back to - although I would love to go to the Bahamas out islands.

I would have to say my least favorites are Jamaica and Puerto Rico.

I had really awful experiences on both islands. Find them to be over americanized, hussle/bussle and too much haggling, and too much violent crime and drugs.

I lived in St Vincent for nearly 6 years and it is one of the most beautiful places on the earth. Untouched, no tourists, kind people, beautiful.

I also really loved Aruba and Bequia

I look forward to adding Dominica and Grenada to my list this October.

(Hitting an 11 day southern exotic this October)

So far I loved St. John the best and can't wait to go back.

Also loved Half Moon Cay and Anegada in the BVI.

If I never saw Nassau again I would be happy.

Caribbean ports we have visited with our ratings. We love to dive and experience the beauty of nature. We love to meet people from different cultures.

Saba – 10 Pristine island – world class diving

Dominica – 10 Gorgeous island – great rainforest/waterfalls – great diving

St John – 9 Beautiful unspoiled island – 2/3 National park

St Croix – 8 Lots of good everything – way underrated

Grenada – 8 – Very pretty island/beaches – good diving

Grand Cayman – 8 Pretty beaches – great diving (have to go with right people)

Sint Eustatius (Statia) – 8 Untouched island – cool volcano – great diving

St. Kitt's – 7 Very pretty island – great diving in the north (hard to get to)

St Lucia – 7 Beautiful island – good diving – some crime

Cozumel – 7 Nice beaches – still very good diving but too many people

Aruba – 7 Great beaches – just OK diving

St. Martin/Sint Maarten – 7 Neat culture – poor diving

Puerto Rico – 6 Lots to do – nice beaches – very poor diving

Antigua – 6 Pretty island with plenty to see – so-so diving

Barbados – 6 Good all-around island – decent diving – safety in question

Key West – 6 Cool history/main area vibe – no longer any good diving

Eluthera, Bahamas (Princess Cays) – 6 Pretty - secluded

New Providence Island, Bahamas (Nassau) – 5 All around stuff good – exciting shark dives

Grand Bahama Island, Bahamas (Freeport) – 5 Pretty island with good diving

St Thomas – 4 Nice island that’s too crowded – so-so diving

Costa Maya – 4 Interesting outside the fences – unspoiled diving if you can find it

Caracas (La Guaira), Venezuela – 3 Very third world – safety a concern

Jamaica – 3 Beautiful island with heavy pressure from people – crime big here – fish all gone

Mike of:

Mike & Leesa From Texas

6/11 Carnival Destiny Southern Caribbean Cruise

Big Red Boat 1994 - Infiniti 2001 - Rhaspody 2002 - Sea Princess 2002 - Grand Princess 2003 - Carnival Spirit 2003