Question Most versatile Caribbean destination?

[MidOH]

Maybe Id recommend Dominica instead.

But its for hardened travelers, not wimps. Youre literally in a national geographic magazine. If you want to be indiana jones for a week, Dominica is the place to be. Awesome rain forest, thats cool in the winter, and ok in the summer. Great hiking, get a tour guide though. Bumpington is who we used. Dont touch a motor vehicle. Their taxi are cheap, and smart.

Locals are freindly and awesome. Theyll apologize for the rain and clouds during the winter, but rain and clouds are priceless to a guy from Ohio. Any cool day in the Caribbean is a real treat for me. So having cold high altitude rain forest, is priceless. I dont think theres comfortable temp rainforests anywhere else, like Dominica.

Camolflage clothing is illegal. You will be walking back to your hotel naked. Women need to cover up in town. Like shorts and a t shirt, you cant go shopping in a bikini like other islands. Common sense stuff.

For sure take the tour that swims through the set from Pirates of the Caribbean 2. Its two cliffs close together in the rain forest, with fresh water river between them. Where the actors were getting pelted by arrows.

Diving is meh, but still, its diving. Youll need rock boots. Do not bring full foot fins!

St. Croix is awesomly scenic. Way easier. Snorkeling is so awesome that the diving has got to be good.

St. Thomas ruled. Megans bay beach is the best swim in the entire world. Bring your fins and snorkel. Go out past the buoys. Freediven in about 13 feet of water. Neat little reefs. Tons of schools. Turtles and rays every day. Pick some flowers off the trees and offer them to the iguanas on the ground. Rms Rhone might be the coolest shipwreck around. Caribbean Divers Inc. (IIRC) took us there.

 

[Divin'Papaw]

@Cheizz

Sounds like you are looking for a bit of a Fantasy Island. I probably dated myself with that, but you've laid out some tough requirements.

Have you looked at Costa Rica? Not an island, but it might tick most if not all of your boxes.

Dominican republic is great, if your #1 goal is to relax. Or eat.

I stayed at a nearby resort, walked over to Sea Pro for diving.

If youre looking for activities every day, its a bit weak. Diving is meh. But hey, its diving. Flying in was easy. Fine dining is dirt cheap. Best cigars in the world. Snorkeling was ok. I dont think anything I did there was awesome. But did get some rest.

Downside to the Dominican Republic: The customs girl is 15. With a chip on her shoulder. Absolute worthless person. If she burst into flames, I wouldnt even piss on her. And she's the gatekeeper for the whole island. Really made their country look bad. When she asks where youre going, just hand her your itenerary with all addresses written down. Because addresses there make no sense, and even though theres only 2 resorts on the whole island, nobody has ever heard of them, because they arent very smart.

Bus ride from airport to destination is slow. Taxi's lack gps. So your drivers cant find jack squat. Generally, everyone is incompetent. Be prepared to walk around locally for dining.

Dive shops, and restaraunts were the only people on the ball and professional. It was amatuer hour, with every single other person on the island.

Clearly they won't be hiring you to write for their tourism bureau! Hilarious review.

 

[rick00001967]

have you looked at st maarten? or perhaps a combo of st maarten and saba?

 

[MidOH]

@Cheizz



Clearly they won't be hiring you to write for their tourism bureau! Hilarious review.

Keep in mind, im just one guy, with one review. Your mileage may vary.

Im considering going back. If I can make it from the airport to my destination without teaching a bus driver to drive, and avoid choke slamming anyone in customs, it could be a better experience.

And the NY women........fun.


OP might be better on Key West. Rent a house. Use a taxi to get to it. Walk to everything. Just make sure that everyone gets on a boat every morning. Sail Tours, dive, snork, fishing, sunset cruise, jet ski past the point, dont care which. Just get off the island every morn. Thats the key to key west.

Unfortunately Ft. Jackson State park is closed, zillions of illegals took it over. Not sure what has happened there. Great backpacking camping trip, or at least it was. If they ruin one of my favorite locations, ill hate them for the rest of my life.

Migrants flow into the Keys; Fort Jefferson to close

Federal authorities have been busy on New Year's Day interdicting migrants, and the sheer number of migrants in one day has led to the National Park Service to close Fort

www.keysnews.com

 

[noserider]

I am researching possible dive destinations for a 10-12 day trip in May or June (2024 or 2025). Most likely, both divers and non-divers will join this trip.

So: which Caribbean island is the best option regarding the following must-haves:

1. Lots of wrecks and other (man-made) 'structures' (swim-throughs, canyons, walls) at recreational depths (<40m), not just reefs
2. Interesting landscape on land, i.e. volcano, jungle, mountains - not those flat, scrubby wind-swept planes with a palm tree every few miles
3. Interesting things to do (not just beach-going or ATV rides)

Shore diving that people can do on their own is a plus, but not a must-have.

Any suggestions in terms of destination? And even dive operations you can recommend?

Barbados hits all your marks, bar shore diving. Lots of European and Canadians tourists favourite island in the Caribbean and not as many Americans as other Caribbean islands. However it is expensive and seems very expensive at the moment. Good Operator is Barbados Blue but lots of others that are good. Been going there for 15 years + and one of the few places in the world we are happy to go back to time and again, normally go every 18 months or so. Make sure you get a car to make the most of the island

Grenada would also be on my list

 

[drrich2]

1. Lots of wrecks and other (man-made) 'structures' (swim-throughs, canyons, walls) at recreational depths (<40m), not just reefs
2. Interesting landscape on land, i.e. volcano, jungle, mountains - not those flat, scrubby wind-swept planes with a palm tree every few miles
3. Interesting things to do (not just beach-going or ATV rides)

A lot has changed topside since my 2017 trip, but you can get a look at St. Croix here - St. Croix Research Report Aug. 2017 - Trip Report - St. Croix Research Report Aug. 2017

Not the greatest Caribbean diving (compared to Little Cayman of the outer atolls region of Belize), but I enjoyed it. The shallow Butler Bay wrecks was a nice dive; I don't know what other wrecks, if any, it was, but Frederiksted Pier is nice. My report comes some other things you can do topside. It's laid back and has a range of terrain.

Jungle and volcano says St. Lucia to me, but I haven't heard of wreck diving there. It's a cruise ship destination so it's got excursions. Enjoyed a jungle hike.

Dominica has a rep. for lush topside, but a socioeconomically poor island. Never been; I keep some links handy in case I want to research it in more depth.

Discussions of Dominica -

Dominica…everything I should know but don’t - http://www.scubaboard.com/forums/gr...minica-everything-i-should-know-but-dont.html
I was surprised by how nice the diving was in Dominica. Excellent! - http://www.scubaboard.com/forums/le...rised-how-nice-diving-dominica-excellent.html
Dominica Recommendations? - http://www.scubaboard.com/forums/lesser-antilles/494111-dominica-recommendations.html
No Diving Dominica? - No diving Dominica?
Dominica: Travel Report (k4kafka’s August 2022 report) - Trip Report - Dominica: Travel Report

Haven't dove Dominican Republic. Diving the Bayahibe region using the Scuba Fun dive op. has been recommended by others. Here's a link I keep handy - Bayahibe 2015 Trip Report - Bayahibe 2015 Trip Report Wife and I did a topside ATV excursion out of the Samana area on a cruise stop. I recall friendly people, lush green jungle, a good time...but Samana's not the area for diving.

Saba is known for mountains and rain forest, but is probably too 'sleepy' for you guys.

Grand Cayman has a lot going for it, but what I saw of it looked rather flat to me, no volcanos. Plenty of topside activities, and it's got some wrecks (e.g.: Doc Poulson, Kittiwake, the Oro Verde).

 

[drrich2]

Sticking in my mind for some reason, one destination I've visited but not dove, that doesn't seem to be a big name dive destination but has diving (including wreck diving - here's a site that goes into it) but has a pretty beautiful topside and various things to do (we visited Romney Manor grounds and Fairview Great House) - is St. Kitts. A little quick Googling suggests it's got a volcano - and people apparently hike there.

It's fairly mountainous looking, but not to an extreme. Vegetation looks to vary from sparse to lush, depending on where you are. It's a cruise ship stop, so they have topside excursions.

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Oh, this might be a bit of a long shot, but did you consider St. Thomas? It's a major cruise ship port, has many topside destination, I hear it's got good beaches, the diving I did (4 dives) was shallow (maybe 40 feet to the bottom?), decent viz. (maybe 50 feet?), not sure about wrecks (one site was the Navy Barges), it's another of those 'not the best in the Caribbean, but can be fun' diving places, and you could take a ferry to St. Johns and/or to St. Croix. Admiralty Dive Center (been a long time, but I really liked them) has a page showing 4 wreck diving sites.

Note: Someone else mentioned Grenada. I've never been. I recall it being praised, wreck diving discussed, and noted to have an attractive topside. I don't know why we don't see more trip reports for it. It's a volcanic island. Scuba Diver Magazine lists several wrecks. If you go, please post us a trip report with photos, including topside.

 

[MidOH]

Who mentioned Grenada? I forgot that place existed.

Researching it now, sounds like a place I want to try, when we can freely travel again. Pricing is good. Flights seem normal. Looks like plenty of non diving stuff to do.

 

[Doc]

Wherever or whatever you finally pick in the Caribbean, do some LSD, no, a lot of LSD, it should improve the overall effect & experience.

You did not specify “great diving”. Did you want that? How about “big fish”?

(Is Jurassic Park in the DR? That could work. Check Trip Advisor)

Post a trip report.

 

[d^2b]

Sticking in my mind for some reason, one destination I've visited but not dove, that doesn't seem to be a big name dive destination but has diving (including wreck diving - here's a site that goes into it) but has a pretty beautiful topside and various things to do (we visited Romney Manor grounds and Fairview Great House) - is St. Kitts. A little quick Googling suggests it's got a volcano - and people apparently hike there.

People have mentioned St. Maarten, St. Kitts and (I think) Saba. Explorer Ventures runs a liveaboard from St. Maarten that hits those islands, so you can probably find information about the diving by looking for trip reports from the Caribbean Explorer. It's been too long for me to reliably report, but I did go on that boat 20 years ago or so and enjoyed it.