Things to Do in Caribbean

Even though it’s just minutes away from pulsing Bávaro Beach, Cocotal Golf and Country Club has a relaxed, casual, and laidback feel away from the coastal crowds. Part of the Melia resort complex, Cocotal is an inland course with wide, approachable fairways, and is comprised of three different nine-hole courses designed by Jose “Pepe” Gancedo—a 6-time Spanish champion. Built in 2000, the course is lined by colorful bougainvillea, coconut palms and homes, which are part of the surrounding country club community where many local business staff have homes away from the beach scene.

Coki is St. Thomas’s party beach, thronged with families, revelers and beach vendors.

Snorkelers and divers love Coki’s underwater clarity and sea creatures. Beach day-trippers enjoy the sand, sunshine and wandering vendors of drinks and snacks, souvenirs, sunscreen and hair-braiding.

Coki Beach is quite a scene, lively and fun rather than quiet and laid-back. Beach lounges and thatch umbrellas can be hired, along with all kinds of water sports equipment, from jet skis to snorkel gear.

The fish are used to people at this popular beach, and have even been known to eat from your hand (BYO dog biscuits).

The volcanic hot springs of Boiling Lake lie at the end of a 7-mile (11 km) hiking trail in World Heritage Site Morne Trois Pitons National Park. The hot springs here are the second largest in the world.

You need to hire an official guide to do the day-long hike to Boiling Lake, which takes you up and down the park’s forested highlands. It’s a demanding and physically challenging trek, but one that’s well worth it – as much for the destination as the rewarding views along the way. The trail is well-maintained and one of the best ways to experience the Caribbean’s rainforest, with plenty of tropical birds and other rare species to be spotted. The walk also leads through a volcanic area with a stream passing through it known as the Valley of Desolation, where the air becomes steamy and moist and is filled with sulphuric vapours and gases.

Formed from a flooded volcanic fumarole, the crater is filled with grey-blue water shrouded in mist. Look past the whirling mass of steam and you’ll see the lake’s bubbling water surrounded by steep cliffs. This huge bubbling hot springs lake sees temperatures reach almost 200 degrees Fahrenheit, and is most often seen with a cloud of vapour rising dramatically from it.

The best time of year to do the hike is in the drier season from March to May.

Guarding the wild Atlantic waters surrounding Grand Turk’s northern tip, the Cockburn Town Lighthouse is a historic National Trust-listed structure, built in Britain in 1852.

Known as the Grand Turk Light, the cast-iron lighthouse was shipped in pieces and constructed on the island’s northern tip, in an effort to reduce the scarily large number of ships wrecked on the island’s west coast reef.

Over the years, the lighthouse has been lit by whale oil, kerosene and electricity, and its light still shines today. You can see the original Fresnel lens proudly on display in the Turks & Caicos National Museum in Cockburn Town.

The lighthouse is a popular spot for whale-watching in February/March, and for picnics year-round. It’s thought that Christopher Columbus made landfall near here in 1492.

By daylight, Fajardo's bioluminescent lagoon appears just as scenic as any other bay on the tropical Puerto Rican coastline. But come nightfall, the Laguna Grande bio bay glows fluorescent with every movement and splash, thanks to the presence of microscopic plankton that thrive in the shallow Caribbean waters. Read on to learn how to take your own memorable Bio Bay tour.

The Basics

Bio bay tours allow visitors the chance to set the water aglow and create a trail of light with every stroke of a kayak paddle. To see the bioluminescence, night trips are offered around the cycles of the moon, with ideal timing on the darkest nights. These guided kayak tours are available departing from San Juan or Luquillo, which is only nine miles (15 kilometers) away. It’s common to couple kayaking with an afternoon nature walk to La Mina Falls in the nearby El Yunque National Forest.

What to Expect When Visiting the Bioluminescent Bay

Bio bay kayaking trips frequently set out in the early evening around sunset, launching from Las Croabas with a tour guide or instructor. These kayak tours travel through a dense collection of mangrove trees under a total canopy of darkness, and once you’re out of the mangrove tunnel, the stars above provide the only light by which to view the glowing waters, where the tips of your paddles will slowly begin to glow as they strike the liquid surface. There’s no swimming in the bay during this popular Puerto Rico vacation activity, but it’s easy to pass your hand through the water over the side of your kayak.

How to Get There

Laguna Grande is located in the Las Cabezas de San Juan Nature Reserve just off the shores of Fajardo, about 40 miles (65 kilometers) or an hour’s drive east of Old San Juan, a major tour departure point.

Why Does the Bio Bay Glow?

Although the glowing water often gives visitors a magical feeling, this spectacular natural wonder is actually caused by pyrodinium bahamense, single-celled organisms that glow when disturbed. The bay is surrounded by red mangrove trees, native to the surrounding El Yunque rainforest, that provide vitamin B12 to the marine plankton and create the perfect environment for their survival. There are only a handful of places in the world where this natural phenomenon is consistently found, two others of which are also on Puerto Rico, the Island of Enchantment: at Mosquito Bay on Vieques Island and the bay at La Parguera. 

The Turks & Caicos capital and seat of government, Cockburn Town is a bougainvillea-fringed, laidback tropical beauty with shabby-chic colonial buildings and dusty unpaved streets.

Cockburn’s major highlight is the National Museum, full to the brim with shipwreck flotsam, tools and artifacts formed from shells, and displays on the island’s original Lucayan people. Don’t miss the collection of washed-up bottles and the poignant messages contained inside.

More recent exhibits focus on the impact of NASA’s Space Program, including displays on the night sky and the personal memories of astronaut John Glenn, who splashed down just offshore in 1962, the first American to orbit the earth.

The museum itself is housed in the whitewashed and red-roofed Guinep House, a historic colonial building constructed almost 200 years ago from the salvaged timber of shipwrecks.

The island’s superb beaches aren’t far away, along with coral-reef diving from the island’s west coast. Guarding the waters north of town is the historic National Trust-listed lighthouse, built in Britain in 1852. The lighthouse is a popular spot for whale-watching in February/March.