Southern Caribbean Excursions

[mysticdream]

We will be stopping at the following ports on our Serenade of the Seas cruise in December: St. Thomas, St. Maarten, Antigua, St.Lucia, Barbados. Which of these islands are better for us to just tour around ourselves and on which islands would you recommend excursions. There will be 2 adults and 2 girls (one loves to shop, one hates it!) We like to keep busy! Any excursion recommendations would be greatly appreciated. One of the girls is only 11 so there are several ship excursions that she cannot go on.

 

Thanks for your help.

[wrp96]

In St. Lucia, I highly recommend doing an island tour with Cosol (www.cosol-tours.com). He'll take you all over the island, feed you, and the tour ends up at a beach or he will take you snorkeling.

 

In Barbados, I recommend the Silvermoon I catamaran (http://oceanadventures.bb/) Great excursion, snorkeling plus swimming with the turtles and you aren't crowded like the ship's excursions.

 

In St. Thomas, if you want to go to a beach, I recommend taking a taxi to Red Hook and then the ferry over to St. John and then a taxi to Trunk Bay. The ship will offer a tour, but if you do it on your own it will cost about the same and you will get to spend more time at Trunk Bay.

[lovemylab]

I've been to St. Martin and St. Thomas and both can be done on your own.

 

In St. Thomas we took a taxi on our own to Magen's Bay and then did some shopping in the afternoon.

 

In St. Martin we took an excursion offered through the ship (Explorer Cruise & Grand Island Tour). It was a tour of St. Martin by land and then we took a boat around Simpson's Bay. There was also time in Marigot for shopping. Rum punch and non-alcoholic punch were offered onboard. After the tour you were either taken back to the ship or dropped off in downtown Phillipsburg. I loved this excursion and highly recommend it.

 

For shopping, I preferred St. Martin over St. Thomas.

[cruzobsessed]

another vote for the SILVERMOON!!!

[KillaFee]

I'm glad I stumbled upon this thread because I'll be on the Serenade on January 20th and I'm also in the process of planning our excursions.

St. Martin Rhino Riders was probably the best excursion I've ever been on!

Laura

[Sue L]

St Maarten I would reccomend the America's cup regatta, you actually get to be part of the crew and race against another boat. It was one of the greatest tours we have taken in 10 cruises.

[erniesband]

This is really a great itinerary for your whole family, including 2 girls with very different tastes ;) . St. Thomas and St. Maarten are both really good for shopping, and both offer opportunities that will leave you time for both shopping and something else. You may want to consider doing the zip line tour in St. Maarten - Serenade offers this in the morning, and then you can shop, or go to the beach in the afternoon. Nearly any of the islands, with the exception of St. Lucia, can be explored fairly easily on your own. A great way to spend the day on St. Thomas is actually to go over to St. John for the day - that island is about 75% national park, has great beaches and snorkeling, hiking, and is lovely. Our all-time favorite excursion is on Antigua - Eli's EcoTour. It's a full day on Eli's boat, Adventure Antigua, and you go snorkeling, climb a limestone formation in the middle of the water, Hell's Gate, hike on Bird Island, get a great tour of Antigua's off shore islands and coastline, and get a lot of interesting stories and anecdotes about Antigua, it's history, ecology, etc. They serve a great home-made lunch at Bird Island, and refreshments throughout the day. It's an excursion both you and the girls will enjoy. The website is http://www.adventureantigua.com. This is really not like any other excursion you'll find on any other island. I'd recommend you check to see if he has availability pretty quickly - he tends to book up.

 

St. Lucia is probably the prettiest island on the itinerary - like something out of South Pacific, and there are several good ship excursions that let you see the highlights, or booking a trip with someone like Cosol or Frank. We used Frank a couple of years ago and really enjoyed the day.

 

Jodi

[Sheffie]

I agree with Wrona and Jodi!

 

Check out my photos in my signature for pictures of those excursions.

 

You will love this ship and this itinerary!

[texancruzer]

We too did this itinerary....

 

St. Thomas - ferry to St. John and Trunk Bay snorkle.... on our own. Very easy to do. Make sure to have a burger at Woody's !! MMMMM

St. Maarten - we rented a jeep and explored the whole island - had a blast !!!!!

Antigua - rented a car and explored the whole island - also had a blast !!!

St. Lucia - heard driving here was a little challenging.... did RCI "Land & Sea to Soufriere" Was a long day but very good excursion (and we don't usually like to do ships excursions....too crowded etc.)

Barbados - we did private tour (4 of us) with Cameron Reid (www.scenicbarbados.com) he is awesome..... knows everything about island and loves to show his island off..... he will customize your tour to your interests.... highly recommend him !

[OPSoccermom]

We had great excursions on our Serenade cruise:

 

St Thomas: half of us shopped while the half did the "BOB"s and went parasailing. They made arrangements at the peir in Havensight.

 

St Maartin: America's Cup Regatta. Absolutely wonderful!

 

Antigua: We made arrangements with a private driver to go to a beach (Miller's). He came back to pick us up at a pre-arranged time. A nice refreshing day.

 

St Lucia: We arranged for our own boat charter on Fred's Leisure. recommended by some folks on our roll call that had been there before. We shared the boat with another family we met on our roll call. A very nice full day excursion with snorkeling, sunning, kids jumping from the top of the boat, lots of food and drink, and a great view of what I think is my favorite island. Make sure you see Marigot Bay - where they filmed Dr Doolittle.

 

Barbados: We chartered our own catamaran, The Heatwave, for the day. Found it through the website for The Boatyard. Went swimming with turtles, snorkeling, had a great lunch, and a full, open bar.

 

You will love this cruise. Serenade and this great itinerary make for a really special cruise.

[ajbrath8077]

my fiance is from barbados and one year we did a Safari Tour. It was the BEST!!! Highly recommend if for anyone visiting the island.

http://www.adventurelandbarbados.com/

http://www.barbados.org/tours/barbados_adventure_tours.htm

[VTSnorkeler]

St. Thomas - went to Trunk Bay on St John. I wouldn't recommend it, it just eats up too much of your day for the taxis and ferry to and fro in my opinion. Plus you'll have shell out extra cash for the transportation. We've been to St Thomas a few times and prefer either Coki or Megans.

 

St. Martin(een) - Shopping in the AM and then Orient Beach. Lazed around drinking beer and playing in the huge waves. A great day.

 

Antigua - Eli. There is no alternative.

 

Barbados - Silver Moon - see comments in posts above worth the extra $$

 

St Lucia - Dive Fair Helen. Good operation, SLOW boat.

 

You need that last sea day to rest up on this itinerary... enjoy!

[BuyReallyLow]

Another vote for Cosol in St. Lucia. It is a beautiful island that is best seen with a guide - he is fantastic!

 

Be sure to ask him what a Tornado is!