Things to Do in Caribbean

Rio Bueno is a small village located 32 miles (51.5 kilometers) east of Montego Bay on the island of Jamaica. The Rio Bueno Harbour is the deepest harbor in Jamaica and the site where Columbus is believed to have first touched land in Jamaica. Visitors to Jamaica flock to this small fishing community to experience one of the most exhilarating excursions on the island: adventures along the Rio Bueno River. The river is situated in a beautiful tropical setting and movie buffs may recognize it as the location of the classic 1964 film, A High Wind in Jamaica, starring Anthony Quinn and James Coburn.

Visitors to the village of Rio Bueno can tour the ruins of a fort that dates to the 18th century and several historic buildings and churches that overlook the Caribbean Sea. The main attraction in Rio Bueno, however, is the Rio Bueno River, a favorite destination for kayaking, rafting, tubing and river boarding. The swift currents of the river make for an adrenaline-pumping adventure that’s exciting yet tame enough to bring the entire family. Cool off with a refreshing dip in the pools, relax on the river bank and admire the spectacular jungle scenery and natural beauty of the region.

The Rio Bueno River eventually spills out into the Caribbean Sea where visitors can spend the afternoon sunbathing on the beach and swimming in the warm waters of Bengal Bay in Jamaica. Rio Bueno can be easily reached from Montego Bay, Falmouth and Ocho Rios. Taxis are readily available, and another great way to see the region is on shore excursions. Rio Bueno can be visited year-round, though the winter months are generally the most popular and crowded time to visit the island of Jamaica. Visitors looking to escape the crowds should head for the nearby resort at Runaway Bay.

The Port Lucaya Marketplace is considered to be the commercial hub of Grand Bahama. With over 80 boutiques, restaurants, and bars, the outdoor market turns shopping, dining, and entertainment into a wonderful experience. As opposed to your typical indoor mall or strip mall, the Bahaman climate makes the marketplace a wonderful place to be. 

Centered around Count Basie Square, there is always nighttime entertainment including dancing, music, and street performers. There are tons of family-friendly activities for kiddies, including horse-drawn carriage rides, hair braiding, dance and music lessons, and much more. 

How to Get to Oranjestad 

If you’re looking for an off-the-beaten track beach on Curacao, but don’t want sacrifice on amenities, try Playa Lagun. This protected beach within a deep cove flanked on either side by sheer cliffs is near the northern end of the island, far enough from Willemstad that you can avoid the cruise crowds, and with a small beachfront restaurant that does double duty as a dive shop. Playa Lagun is also well known as one of the best spots for diving and snorkeling from the shore, and you can get scuba tanks or snorkel gear from the dive shop to explore the nearby reefs. And there are plenty of picnic tables where you can relax and have lunch after a morning of swimming, snorkeling and sunbathing.

Puerto Seco is a long white-sand beach stretching off to palm trees in the distance, lapped by calm shallow water.

A beach hub for families, it's lined with snack bars and vendors hiring boats and skis. A waterslide and playground for the kids adds to the fun.

There are changing facilities at the beach, thatch huts for shade, food vendors and snorkel hire.

Step back in time to Tobago’s colonial plantation era at the Richmond Great House, one of the oldest surviving plantation houses on the island. The original plantation dates back to 1766, and it fell into various states of disrepair over the intervening centuries. Today the restored estate house has an international art collection, with ornate wooden and brass from Africa and Asia. The house sits proudly atop a hill surrounded by fruit trees, offering enviable views of the surrounding jungle and the whitecaps of the windswept Atlantic. 

Like its neighbor Nevis, St. Kitts is a Caribbean haven in the Leeward Islands. Miami is around 2,100km (1,300 miles) away, and nearby islands include St. Barts and Antigua. You’ll dock at Port Zante in the historic capital, Basseterre, towards the island’s southern tip. The port’s sparkling-new facilities include restaurants and boutiques, jewelry shops, souvenirs and a duty-free plaza.

How to Get to Basseterre
Downtown Basseterre is just a 15-minute stroll away from Port Zante. If you take a taxi, agree on the fare upfront as cabs don’t tend to be metered. Minibuses also takes passengers downtown. If you’re driving, keep a lookout for goats, cows and other wildlife that might wander into your path. St. Kitts’ tourism operations are based at the port, a good spot to pick up maps and island information.

One Day in St. Kitts
The French and the British have both left their mark on St. Kitts, and a stream of pirates and slave traders visited over the centuries. Today the island offers cruise passengers a taste of colonial history, rainforest scenery and snorkel adventures in the Eastern Caribbean. To get your bearings, a Discover St. Kitts shore excursion tour takes in the capital’s Independence Square, the Romney Manor batik factory and gorgeous Caribbean beaches. There’s time for shopping or a visit to Brimstone Hill Fortress on a panoramic island tour.

Away from the coast, behind the green mountains fringing Basseterre, St. Kitts is a lushly rainforested island with waterfalls and exotic wildlife, highlighted on a half-day tour. If the call of the crystal-clear water is too tempting to resist, go kayaking and reef snorkeling with tropical fish and sea turtles for a relaxing St. Kitts shore excursion.

Port Information
Cruise lines sailing to St. Kitts include Carnival, Azmara, Celebrity, Seabourn, Norwegian and Princess. Port Zante’s extensive port facilities can handle the world’s largest liners, including the QM2. St. Kitts’ currency is the Eastern Caribbean dollar, but US dollars are just as widely accepted. You’ll find banks with ATMs in central Basseterre. English is spoken with a distinctive Caribbean lilt on St. Kitts.

The eastern part of Willemstad’s downtown historic district is called Punda, which comes from the Dutch word for “point” because this part of the city sits at the end of a promontory at the mouth of St. Anna Bay. First settled in 1634, the area is a picturesque port area packed with pastel-colored colonial architectural. One of the main attractions here is Fort Amsterdam, built in 1635 as a garrison to protect the city, which is used today as the governor’s palace. Another historic site is the Mikve Israel-Emanuel synagogue, which was built in 1732, making it the oldest synagogue in the western hemisphere. Throughout Punda, you’ll find great shopping, art galleries and restaurants, and you can also take a walk across the Queen Emma Bridge, a floating pontoon bridge called the “Swinging Old Lady,” to explore the Otrabanda side of the historic downtown area.

If you like the idea of getting marooned for a day on an idyllic desert island in the Caribbean, join a boat trip to the Prickly Pear Cays. This pair of uninhabited islets sits six miles northwest of Anguilla, boasting exquisite white-sand beaches, and fringing reefs protected as one Anguilla’s marine protected areas. A day here can include snorkeling among the colorful corals and shipwrecks that are scattered around the cays. Then you can swim ashore to spend a lazy afternoon enjoying the sun and sand, along with a lunch of barbecue ribs and cold cocktails from the on-island restaurants.

Trinidad & Tobago’s capital Port of Spain enjoys a superb natural setting at the point where the mountains dip into the Gulf of Paria. One of the pleasures of this buzzing city is realizing that it doesn’t revolve around you, or tourism in general, with tall office buildings proclaiming its importance as a financial hub.

That certainly doesn’t mean there aren’t things to see and do – far from it. Sights include the "Magnificent Seven," a group of fanciful mansions on Queen’s Park Savannah, the more modestly-sized "gingerbread houses," with their intricate woodwork, and the tropical paradise of the Botanical Gardens.

Of course this is also the setting for Trinidad’s world-famous Carnival, with bars and clubs jumping year-round to soca, which, like calypso, was born here. During the day, do as the locals do and head for Independence Square where you’ll get an authentic taste of Trinidad from food stalls serving oysters, fresh fruit, and "doubles," a delicious local delicacy made from chick peas.

Ponce is Puerto Rico’s second city and a complete change of pace from the capital San Juan. Ponce's low key charm speaks louder to architecture buffs than it does to party animals. Starting at the central Plaza Las Delicicas you’ll find two defining landmarks of the city, the twin-towered cathedral and the vivid scarlet and black stripes of the whimsical Parque de Bombas, once a fire station, now a museum of fire-fighting.

In the streets near the square you’ll soon come across the lemon-yellow Teatro La Perla and the delightful candy pink Museum of Architecture. Head north for the Castillo Serrallés, a Spanish Colonial Revival mansion which houses a museum relating to the island’s all-important sugar and rum industries. It’s just one of the imposing residences you’ll see throughout the city.

After all that visual richness cleanse your palate with the tropical Modernism of the highly-recommended Ponce Museum of Art.

The Queen Emma Bridge is a floating pontoon bridge that connects the waterfronts of Willemstad’s historic neighborhoods Punda and Otrobanda. Nicknamed the “Swinging Old Lady,” the Queen Emma Bridge is hinged with two diesel-driven propellers so that it can swing parallel to the shore to allow boat traffic in and out of St. Anna Bay. Built in 1888, the pedestrian-only bridge is a unique and popular attraction on Curacao, with upwards of 15,000 people walking across it every day. On both the Punda and Otrobanda sides of the bridge, you can find cafés and restaurants lining the waterfront, and the bridge area is a popular and picturesque gathering spot at night when the bridge is lit up with twinkling lights.

The Queen Elizabeth II Botanic Park was opened by Her Majesty the Queen in 1994. Since its opening, the park’s central woodland trail has been joined by a lake and wetlands, tropical flower gardens and an iguana habitat.

The Heritage Garden is pretty enough to live in, with a pink traditional cottage, fruit trees and sand garden.

The park’s highlight remains the woodland trail, a 20 minute stroll from wetlands to cactus and mahogany woodlands. Orchids and butterflies can also be spotted in the park.