Grenada, St Lucia, Antigua, St Marteen

I need some help with these four ports (Grenada, St Lucia, Antigua, St Marteen) and the boards for some of these ports are excruciatingly slow.

How would you rank them favorite to least? Which would you skip? Favorite thing you did at the port?

We're on an 11 night cruise in January and these 4 ports I know the least about and am the least excited about. Help?

Just curious.....why would you consider skipping any of these ports? If you have never been, I highly encourage you to at least disembark and experience the local flavor. Asking perfect strangers to rate their experiences best to worst would give you many different subjective results. My likes might be your dislikes vice versa.

Antigua has the best beaches!! Take a taxi to Dickenson Bay beach...you won't be disappointed!

St. Lucia, great tours available and a beautiful island[emoji106]

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And there you have 2 different answers, with one referring to beaches and one to tourrs...

When I can’t find anything on here I go to Tripadvis@r.

Personally was not a fan of St. Maarten until we did a 2 week timeshare there and really got to explore. Loved it!

I would only stay on the ship in a port I had been to several times, after I had exhausted all the possibilities. Even Nassau, which we have stayed on ship before, was again interesting when we cruised with DD and her boyfriend and visited a brewery that he was wanting to see...

I agree with kopiko about the beaches in Antigua. We went to Valley Church beach and it’s the best one we’ve ever been to.

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Grenada, St Lucia, Antigua, St Marteen

We liked all these ports, but frankly, St. Marteen the least.

Grenada and St. Lucia were very scenic and seemed more authentically Caribbean. Antigua had a lot of history and some great scenery as well.

Be sure and go to the thermal springs in St. Lucia.http://www.soufrierefoundation.org/discover/attractions/sulphur_springs_park/

Antigua has the best beaches

I can highly recommend Cosol Tours in ST Lucia. Google it, see if it catches your eye.

love the Dutch side of st maarten. I could watch the planes land at maho beach for hours.

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We used Lawrence of Antigua. We did a full island tour and spent four hours at Church Beach. Great day! In St Lucia we did the Spencer Ambrose land and Sea. . If you go that route be sure to be in time. We were five minutes early and we had to run down the street to catch up with them as they had already left. Otherwise it was excellent

We like St. Maarten the best, then Antigua, followed by St. Lucia and Grenada.

St Lucia is a beautiful island!

We've used Serenity Tours there twice, and have just reserved for a third day with them this fall.

They offer regular tours, but I think their real strong point is customizing to anything that is of special interest to *you*.

Plus they then avoid doing the same things, seeing the same places when you return.

They can also time things so that you aren't "there" when the big bus tours are.

They can take you by car, have a motor or sail boat waiting, go to a quiet beach, sample local food... you name it, or ask them for suggestions and go from there....

GC

Love them all. St. Lucia has exquisite botanic gardens if they haven’t been destroyed by last few hurricanes, Antigua, as others haves said, amazing beaches and St. Maarten - Maho Beach for hours - especially when idiots disobey the rules and suffer the consequences of jet propulsion backlash or whatever. :o

Thanks folks. It really helps to hear what others have done as it give me something to investigate.

No one ever says much about Grenada. I wonder if that is because not as many cruise stops there or what. I'm also concerned about the rebuilding of St Maarten. We were supposed to go there on a cruise when the hurricane hit. I've read a bit and still not sure if you can get all the way around the island or not. Sad.

Thanks again.

Thanks folks. It really helps to hear what others have done as it give me something to investigate.

 

 

 

No one ever says much about Grenada. I wonder if that is because not as many cruise stops there or what. I'm also concerned about the rebuilding of St Maarten. We were supposed to go there on a cruise when the hurricane hit. I've read a bit and still not sure if you can get all the way around the island or not. Sad.

 

 

 

Thanks again.

We went on a great tour in Grenada. I can’t remember the name of the company but I can find it for you. They took us to a cocoa bean plantation and a rum distillery among other things. The only problem with it was that my wife got terrorized by some kind of insects. By the time we got back to the ship she was covered in bug bites. The next day we were in St. Kitts and the only thing we were able to do there was search the port area for calamine lotion. She was miserable!

Just curious.....why would you consider skipping any of these ports? If you have never been, I highly encourage you to at least disembark and experience the local flavor. Asking perfect strangers to rate their experiences best to worst would give you many different subjective results. My likes might be your dislikes vice versa.

Believe it or not I can understand, depending on the age of the cruiser and mobility. Though I can only remember once not getting off when visiting a port for the first time, I know, if the cruise is very port intensive and there are mobility issues guests do, sometimes, choose not to disembark.

Even though we have been to St. Marteen several times both land and sea I would have to say, it is not my favorite island. After the damage due to hurricanes last fall I have to wonder what condition it is in? We would love to see Granada, was hoping it would be on our Feb cruise but it is not. The other 2 islands you mentioned both deserve to be seen. We did have a very bad experience in St Lucia, but that had to do with a few natives and no the island overall. I know are anxious to visit there again.

I have never cruised to these islands but have spent a week at all 4. Below is my rating from top to bottom and a reason or two why:

#1. St Lucia: I felt over all this is the most complete island. It is beautiful with rain forest in the middle, beautiful beaches, mountains(especially the Pitons). And there are so many different types of adventures/excursions to be had

#2. Antigua: Again a very beautiful island with great beaches, waterfalls, history etc...

#3. Grenada: This is the spice island. Lot's of interesting tours on plantations, history of spices, rum and more rum

#4. St Marteen: Most commercial in my opinion but does have some great shopping

If you are on a cruise with all 4 of these islands it is a great itinerary. I would encourage you to research on tripadvisor and elsewhere to find private or semi private guides. I've use private guides on the first 3 islands and you probably can get a private cheaper then the cruise excursions and tailor your day and a much cheaper price.

Have a great trip.