Loved Ambergris Cayes, but where next?

[cheezeburgernfries]

We absolutely loved the Ambergris Cayes. We stayed in San Pedro at Victoria House and really enjoyed our week. The hotel was luxurious, beautiful and close to everything. The dive shop scheduled all our day trips (Lamanai, SCUBA, snorkel, fishing, boating, etc) and every trip was amazing. The food, music, people, and sites were fabulous.

We are returning to VH in Dec, but we don't know where to go for the trip after that.

We want to dive in crystal clear water with good visibility, walk on white sandy beaches, snorkel, fish, boat and enjoy Caribbean/Latin food and music. We really liked the laid back attitude and island feel.

We liked VH because it was a small, luxurious hotel that was very personal and treated us like royalty. Also, there weren't many kids. The last place that I want to stay is anywhere with a ton of kids, or a swim up bar. I do not want an all inclusive hotel. I am looking for a small, boutique hotel.

From this trip report, where would you suggest we go next?

Thanks!

 

[HenrikBP]

Diving, food and general feel doesn't get much better than Little Cayman. I've stayed at Little Cayman Beach Resort and loved it - but it's all-inclusive. There are some B&B style places on Little Cayman as well. Probably not as luxurious as VH (we had drinks there ... wow), but nice enough for my wallet. Of course there's not much else to do on Little Cayman than dive and relax. One or two restaurants - that's it.

Henrik

 

[diversteve]

Two that may meet most/all your criteria:

The Grace Bay area on Provo, (Providenciales) Turks & Caicos. One of the top 10 best beaches in the world. Mostly pricey accommodations and expensive since everthing is imported. Although after reviewing Victoria House pricing you may not think so. Some good restaurants, shopping, a small casino and some bars/clubs. Lots of watersports options also. It's what I think of when I think sleepy Caribbean island but there's some development going on nearby and a couple of AI's.

The water is phenomenally clear - diving out at French Cay is among the best I've done in the past 5 years. Turtles, Sharks, Stingrays, on every dive. It's a longer day boat ride from Provo but there's also very good diving just off Provo's NW Point and at West Caicos. Provo is a direct flight from JFK on either JetBlue or AA. Grand Turk is supposed to be good also and a lot smaller. Cruise ships go there. IDK much else about it.

Virgin Gorda in the British Virgin Islands might be another option. Excellent beaches, some only accessible by boat. The famous Baths, good restaurants, a few clubs. Rock Cafe is excellent. And the Willy T floating bar is a lot of fun if you're in the area - IIRC it's off Norman Island.

A couple of the resorts (Biras Creek is one) discourage kids by having 1BR suites only. Others encourage kids (Magens Bay) Little Dix Bay resort is on one of the nicest private beaches I've ever seen. There's snorkeling with turtles there and DiveBVI for your diving. They really do valet diving, we gave them our gear on arrival and never touched it again after showing them how we liked it setup until we picked it up Friday night - cleaned.

Little Dix will take you to a private boat accessible only beach - setup lunch and leave - you're the only ones there. Most everyone goes to the Beach BBQ at Leverick Bay resort on Friday night, tourists, locals, etc. It's a low-population, low-key island - very popular sailing destination. Unless it's changed in the last couple of years there's not much crime either. Our villa didn't even have outside door locks.

It's a little harder to get to - fly into St. Thomas and then fast ferry over. You can do that in 1/2 day - one of the ferry ports is 5mins. by cab from STT airport. Google BVI ferry schedule for all your options. There's also a small (Cessna) charter air service from San Juan PR.

There's good diving at many of the smaller islands nearby. The Dogs, Salt, Ginger, Cooper Islands etc. Sometimes you can go out to Anegada also - it's a marine reserve that you can dive. The Rhone (The Deep was filmed there) is the signature wreck off Salt Island. Mostly shallower diving in the 60-80' range. So is the visibility. Lots of diversity as the Atlantic meets the Caribbean in the channel. Warm water in summer - t-shirt for me.