ScubaTexas:
I'm interested in getting opinions on what Caribbean island meets all of the following criteria:
1. Great beaches (white or close to it sand with little wave action);
2. Good diving; and
3. Some top side activities for non dive days and for the non divers in our group.
Prior to Ivan, I would have put Grand Cayman at or near the top of the list but with the damage from Ivan it seems like I'll have to put off visiting Grand Cayman again until late next year.
Cayman was probably a good choice, I expect it will be somewhat recovered by next summer or earlier. Probably meets all your requirements. Great diving, SMB is a nice long strip of white sand beach and there's enough shops/other distractions to keep you entertained - Turtle farm etc. Pricey though, good thing there's about 500 banks - with ATM's.
Although the diving is GREAT in Bonaire, there's no beach to speak of, unless you call the little man-made one in front of the Plaza a beach. Everything else is ironshore and coral rubble all along the west coast. And all the other non-dive activities can be done in 1/2 day, the donkey preserve, Slagbaai park and the flamingo/salt pans. Excellent if you're a windsurfer though. No stores except for a little strip of them downtown and it's pretty quiet there. And there's a slight crime problem there that gets mentioned fairly often, although we didn't see anything unusual this summer. Heed the warnings about not leaving
anything in the car if you do go there, the kids will break the windows just to look.
What about the Bahamas? On Nassau you've got Shark diving with Cove's - and others - plus other great wreck/reef dives. There's some beautiful, shallow reefs great for photography a quick boat ride away also. Some cattleboat dive operations though, depending on the season. The water is crystal clear, cruising in we could see the animal life on the reefs 60' down. There's Atlantis to poke around on a non-dive day. Downtown, touring the fort, some shopping in Nassau and there's a beautiful white sand locals beach south of Nassau(ask the tour van operators) And if you wanted to you could pop over to Freeport and do the Dolphin dives with Unexso. Grand Bahama has the nicest white sand beaches, a lot like the Florida Gulfcoast beaches. There's also a casino there and a touristy sort of "International Market". And sportfishing out of Lucaya.
I've also seen some really good things about the U.S. Virgin Islands - St. Thomas/St. Croix. Although I've read the diving is not as outstanding as some other places, it's still supposed to be really excellent in some areas with lots of other spectacular natural scenery as well. And there's some other shopping/tourist type things on both islands, although more so on St. Thomas I'd assume. Good thing too is no hassle with passports/exchange rates since it's a US territory.
BVI as suggested previously is a quiet georgeous place, but for us it was too pricey, both getting there and staying. I've heard Virgin Gorda is spectacular.
