What are your Favorite Beaches?

[Retchiefcruiser]

We are on the Fascination in May .... Six ports in six days! So, what are the best beaches in St Thomas, Antigua, Barbados, St Lucia, St Kitts and St Marten .... looking for recommendations for parts of every port day! :cool:

[nicnic96]

This one I can help with. In St. Thomas, we love Lindqvist Beach, although part of what we liked was that it was nearly unpopulated when we were there last (about 4 years ago) and I believe that is no longer the case. We rented a car but my wife was very stressed about me driving on the other side of the road (I nearly hit a tour bus head on, so she was right to worry:D).

 

Antiqua's Valley Church Beach is my wife's second favorite of all time (our favorite is Half Moon Cay). We actually walked to the public bus station (not for everyone). We rented a jet ski from a local and had a blast.

 

We walked from the cruise port to Barbados Brownes Beach. It's not our favorite, but nice. We then snorkeled from the shore and saw turtles but because of the choppiness we didn't make it out to the shipwrecks.

 

We also walked to Viggie Beach in St. Lucia. This is a bit of a walk around the airport and there are parts with no sidewalk, but it's popularity is growing. The water wasn't coral blue and the sand wasn't sugar white, but it was still nice and we had the beach (next to Rendezvous) to ourself. Apparently they've added a boardwalk and some vending down by the airport terminal.

 

St. Maarten we took the public bus to Maho and watched the planes take off and land. I haven't been there since the hurricane and it sounds like it's changed, but we enjoyed the experience. The surf can be rough and the beach is steep. This time we plan to stick around near the port and enjoy Great Bay Beach.

 

We are visiting St. Kitts for the first time in Sept. We are planning to take a cab to Carambola.

[Micahs Grandad]

St Thomas we like going to St John.

 

St Martin have not been to Orient beach in a few years but liked it.

[kcdancerkc]

Besides here go to TripAdvisor.

St Kitts

We wanted to lounge on a black sand beach so we went to the ship wreck bar, very one of a kind! Make sure you wear water shoes

Also carambola beach club is close by and cool!

 

Never met a beach on Caribbean islands we didn’t like! :cool:

[jordanaire]

ORIENT BEACH in St. Martin

 

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[biker@sea]

Sapphire beach.:cool:

[Sky616]

We love the Boatyard Beach Club on Barbados. Not sure what the beach is called. It's only like a 7 to 8 minute ride from the ship though.

 

St. Maarten we love Orient Beach but with the hurricane destroying it not sure when that will be back to what it was. Maho Beach also for the planes overhead.

 

St. Thomas we like Magen's Bay or Coki Beach. We also ferry over to St. John to go to Trunk Bay.

[idraconis]

Half Moon Cay.

[cb at sea]

St John in St. Thomas...it's worth the trip to the other island. The water is so clear and "body temp", that you have a surreal feeling...you can't see or feel the water, but you're buoyant.....and the scenery is stellar!

[George C]

We always go to orient beach in st marten, my other favorite is trunk bay in St. John which is a ferry ride from St. Thomas

[Nebr.cruiser]

My all time favorite was the beach on Water Island in St. Thomas--maybe called Honeymoon Beach? However, when we were there it was almost deserted. I believe that now cruise ships take people over on tours, so that heavenly feeling of your own private beach is gone.

[skrufy]

Our favorite beach is Trunk Bay, St. John. Then Megan’s Bay, St. Thomas, Orient Beach, St. Marteen, and Half Moon Cay.

[marco]

1st: Trunk Bay on St John. 2nd would be Horseshoe Bay in Bermuda.

[ra2145]

How easy is it to get a taxi to and from the cruise port to the beaches. Is an excursion a better choice?

 

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[Nebr.cruiser]

How easy is it to get a taxi to and from the cruise port to the beaches. Is an excursion a better choice?

 

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It just depends on the beach. Some you can even walk to, some take a taxi or shuttle, a few work better as an excursion.

 

Unless it is within walking distance, we usually pick up a taxi at the port--agree on the price beforehand--if we just want to spend the day at a beach. Some tours will show you around the area and drop you at a beach and then pick you up.

 

In most cases it is not necessary to take a cruise ship tour.

[pghsteelerfan]

Besides here go to TripAdvisor.

St Kitts

We wanted to lounge on a black sand beach so we went to the ship wreck bar, very one of a kind! Make sure you wear water shoes

Also carambola beach club is close by and cool!

 

Never met a beach on Caribbean islands we didn’t like! :cool:

 

Shipwreck was our favorite too and we loved that black sand/beautiful water..unfortunately they were forced to close down at the end of February. There were a couple of other, very small beach bars also forced to close by landowner for development of resorts. Apparently Carambola owns their land, so they will remain open. This was on social media (followed Shipwreck's page) and on the St. Kitts boards here in Cruise Critic (under Port of Call; Caribbean).

 

If not interested in Carambola, there are two other beaches in St. Kitts that generally have calmer water for swimming, Cockleshell Beach and Frigate Bay. There is another that the Marriott is on (day passes), but it's on the Atlantic, so the water can be much rougher there.

 

Attaching the other links: https://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=2592548

 

This article was sent to me, by email, from someone I know who works for Marriott's Headquarters: http://news.marriott.com/2018/02/ritz-carlton-slated-debut-st-kitts/

 

To the OP...love this itinerary and did it on Valor (2013) and again on Liberty (2015)...would love to have the bonus port (Antigua) instead of the sea day. :) This is our favorite itinerary and lots of beautiful beaches. I'm attaching link to the Ports of Call section (under "Caribbean"). Many have different things they look for in beaches so it's kind of hard to recommend since many offer different features. But this was very helpful to us when planning our cruises to the same ports. You can look up each island you'll visit for a lot more details. https://boards.cruisecritic.com/forumdisplay.php?f=587

Edited April 3, 2018 by pghsteelerfan

[pghsteelerfan]

Ooops..double post.

[rkacruiser]

Trunk Bay on St. John is my most memorable Caribbean beach experience. But, I understand St. John was badly affected during the recent hurricane season. I'd do some research before your cruise to make certain that "all is as well as it can be" before making the effort to travel from St. Thomas to St. John/