If you plan to stay at one of those mega-sized all-inclusive resorts where no one bothers to leave the property except to return to the airport, it doesn鈥檛 matter which island you鈥檙e on. The limbo contests, nightly magician acts, and rum drinks at the tiki bar will all be about the same. But if you want an authentic cultural experience with a dose of adventure added in, read further. These three islands offer the best bargains for a Caribbean getaway.听

Grenada

This lush, leaf-shaped island in the far southern Caribbean fell off the American radar screen shortly after U.S. forces invaded it in 1983 to topple the Marxist government there. Today it quietly thrives as a spice producer and affordable getaway for adventure-minded people lured not only by the long, empty soap-flake white beaches, but also its forested inland volcanic peaks.

Bask: Morne Rogue Beach is smaller, more placid, and less crowded than its big sister to the north, Grand Anse Beach, but just as picturesque.

Explore: Take the two-hour Seven Sisters Falls hike past, you guessed it, seven waterfalls through the rainforest of Grand Etang National Park.

Stay: You鈥檒l get ocean views, a down-home atmosphere, and rates that start at $99 a night at the bed and breakfast in the fishing village of Gouyave on the island鈥檚 western shore.听

St. Thomas, U.S. Virgin Islands

Yes, St. Thomas is the Caribbean鈥檚 cruise ship magnet, and its capital, Charlotte Amalie, can be overrun with tourists, but don鈥檛 be scared away. The island is cheaper to visit than St. Croix and St. John, and can offer the same seclusion and wealth of natural beauty if you know where to look.

Bask: The palm-shaded pearl sands of crescent-shaped Lindquist Beach on the island鈥檚 east coast is accessed by an unmarked dirt road, leaving it blissfully quiet for those few who know of its existence.

Explore: Paddle among the mangrove islands in Inner Mangrove Lagoon and hike Cas Cay island during a three-hour kayak tour with 听($79).

Stay: The nine-room, garden-ringed on Blackbeard鈥檚 Hill peers down at Charlotte Amalie and the water (from $90).

Curacao

The finger-shaped former Dutch colony off the Venezuelan coast enjoys a relatively strong economy thanks to the oil and finance trades, so it鈥檚 not reliant on the overdevelopment of pricey, exclusive resorts to bring in big dollars. The result is a crowded capital city of Willemstad, but quiet, cozy and friendly outdoor escapes along its quiet shoreline.

Bask: Curacao鈥檚 best beach escape is actually on an uninhabited spit of sand called Klein Curacao, about 15 miles off the coast. Almost as dazzling as its bleached, sugary sands is the snorkeling in its clear blue waters. Several outfitters will ferry you there, including ($105 per person).

Stay: The palm-fringed on the western tip of the island is a five-minute walk to Forti Beach, a quiet sandy strip shared by fishermen and the occasional swimmer or sunbather. Its 12 studios and apartments encircle a broad swimming pool, and the restaurant serves traditional local dishes like papaya stew (rooms from $80).

The post What Are The Cheapest Caribbean Islands? appeared first on 国产吃瓜黑料 Online.

ONE LAZY AFTERNOON
, toodling through the magazine rack of my neighborhood bookstore, I stumble upon an intriguing postage-stamp-size classified ad in the back of a yachting rag shelved close to the floor. It reads, “Chocolate delivery vessel, crew needed.” A Web site elaborates: “Prana, the chocolate ship, is a 36-foot wooden ketch that sails chocolate that I make in Grenada to other Grenadine Islands and farther Caribbean islands, too.”

The Grenada Chocolate Company, it turns out, is a tiny producer of two kinds of choco-late bar (71 percent and 60 percent cocoa) on the lush, 12-by-21-mile island at the bottom of the Caribbean. It retails primarily in Grenada, New York, San Francisco, and London. The dreamer who placed the ad and founded the co-op, 42-year-old U.S. expat Mott Green, occasionally sails chocolate himself because, apparently, it’s easier to air-freight bars around the world than it is to find reliable, temperature-controlled shipping to islands just 15 miles away.

Hoo-ha! In my catalog of life’s happy accidents, today’s bit of luck will surely rank high, I predict.

I fantasize about a sweet escape, puttering around dockside markets, doing lazy business, and sponsoring the grandpas playing poker under gumbo trees. I’ll snorkel every morning but never sunburn, and soon share a chocolate bar, Lady and the Tramp style, with a woman who is a cross between a swimsuit model and my kindergarten teacher.

Indeed, the dreams become so vivid and large that they overshadow a gradual, very Caribbean unfurling of reality. When I first e-mail Mott, he cryptically puts off my solicitations. A few months later comes a crushing blow. The “ketch project,” he writes, has been “delegated” to a local named Hope. Pressed, Mott confesses he sold the rotting boat.

For those I’ve seduced with my fantasy, including Sam, a ponytailed 34-year-old buddy who lives on a boat in Key West, this is no reason to let the dream die. Together we hatch a new plan. We’ll charter our own boat, convince Mott to sell us the chocolate wholesale, and keep the goods cool by … well, we’ll sort out that detail in Grenada.

Eleven days later, Sam and I rendezvous in the airport in Puerto Rico.

“It’ll all work out, mon,” he promises.

“Yeah,” I sputter, fully aware that we still have no plan to keep the bars from morphing into hot chocolate. And there’s another teensy problem: We’ll be undocumented workers in Grenada, smugglers in neighboring St. Vincent.

THE GRENADA Chocolate Company looks like a kid’s playhouse鈥攁 pastel two-story home high in the island’s rainforest interior, surrounded by banana leaves swaying in the trade winds. When we arrive at three o’clock in the afternoon, Mott, bedheaded and unfresh from a nap but impressed we’ve persevered, shows us around in his boxers.

His factory is one of the few in the world that grows its own cocoa. While roughly 70 percent of the chocolate sold in the U.S. is made by just five companies, which buy beans already roasted by other companies, a small number of artisanal makers roast their own beans (“bean-to-bar”). At GCC, the beans are freshly harvested and roasted on the island. Mott calls this “tree-to-bar” and believes the thundering brownie flavor is the direct expression of the island’s mulchy soil鈥攖he terroir, in winespeak. The snobs agree. At London’s Academy of Chocolate’s 2008 awards, the co-op tied French powerhouse Valrhona for best organic dark-chocolate bar.

Mott, it turns out, is a great guy, if a little Motty鈥攑assionately scattered. A Staten Island native, he dropped out of college, and then American society, ending up a few years later living in a bamboo hut on a nutmeg farm in the Grenadian bush. When prices for Grenada’s amazing cocoa began declining, in the mid-nineties, he decided to start the co-op.

Together with his partners, Oregonian Doug Browne and local Edmond Brown, he spent three years learning the finicky process of chocolate making鈥攖he roasting, shelling, crushing, refining, mixing, and tempering that transforms pulpy fruit into hot liquor and, finally, creamy bars. A lifelong tinkerer, he built whatever small-batch machinery they couldn’t rustle up from European auctions or dusty Jamaican basements. It’s a tidy operation, partly solar-powered and employing just 14 Grenadians and Mott. But it’s profitable, selling about 2,000 organic bars a week.

At the end of the informational tour, it’s business time. Mott’s eyes widen when I place our $1,000 order. But I’ve done the math, and I figure if we buy a grand’s worth for the standard wholesale price of eight Eastern Caribbean dollars (US$3) per bar and sell them to shops for EC$12 (US$4.50) and to individuals for EC$16 (US$6), then we can earn at least 650 greenbacks, enough to cover our on-water costs for the week.

“How are you going to keep it from melting?” Mott asks.

Our two ideas now sound a little impractical: (1) Find a 50-gallon drum, fill it with dirt, and then bury the bars inside鈥攁 sort of portable root cellar. (2) Eat them. I mumble something incoherent about coolers, and then gaze toward the sky, where ashen rain clouds have dropped the temp to around 70 degrees, the threshold of solid chocolate. Ten minutes later, 348 bars are snugly loaded into a large TV box, and Mott is waving goodbye, yelling his only instructions: “Sell ’em for as much as you want. Tell me how it goes!”

TRAVEL UPGRADES are usually nice, like a Creamsicle at the gates of hell, but as we discover with Horizon Yacht Charters, they can also totally save your hide. A previous charterer ran the monohull we’d reserved onto a reef, so owner Jacqui has upgraded us to a lavish 38-foot catamaran, with something that Sam has never seen in his 30 years of sailing: two refrigerators! We stack away the 87 pounds of bars like so much gold bullion, snugly filling both fridges, as if they’d come with stickers: PERFECTLY FITS 348 4-OZ CHOCOLATE BARS.

I place the probe of my chicken-roasting thermometer in one of the fridges. This connects to a digital display I’ve mounted beside the cockpit instruments. “Sixty degrees and holding!” I yell to Sam, who’s cracking a beer.

We motor-sail 30 miles into the wind to sleepy Tyrell Bay, on the island of Carriacou.

Our plan is salty simple: The first two days we’ll sail north 80 miles to the island of Bequia, then zigzag back through the sprinkle of islands between Bequia and Grenada, selling chocolate in towns as big as a couple thousand and on isolated palm planters with no more than a fisherman’s shack. In between, we’ll enjoy some glory sailing, the 15-knot winds blowing out of the east allowing us to hot-rod south, the boat knifing through the swell, cockpit fully shaded by the awning, few if any other white triangles in sight.

We hit terra firma feeling鈥攁nd looking鈥攇ood. We carry a soft-sided, Windex-blue briefcase cooler from home and wear matching T-shirts emblazoned with the colorful GCC logo, which Mott’s distributor in New York, a dreadlocked Italian Rasta nicknamed Pastrami, helped us create.

Our semi-legit appearances notwithstanding, our reception at La ‘Qua Supermarket is less than enthusiastic. Miss Diana, the large owner of the dimly lit store, wants only milk chocolate.

I pull out a sample bar and let her admire the hand-drawn label of plump cocoa pods before peeling it back to reveal the rapidly melting bar itself. She chews slowly.

“What da deal you do?” she asks.

I tell her our prices as a gaggle of older men draped on a picnic table pass the sample around. Then she produces an Oh Henry! and rattles through a lot of quick, complicated math to show that our dark chocolate鈥�blech鈥攊s far more expensive per ounce than her nougaty, milky-yummy Oh Henry!

Sam turns to an old man sampling away: “What do you think?”

“Is pure, good for da heart,” he says, waving the sample at Miss Diana.

She shakes her head in mock disgust, as if to say You can always count on the stupidity of men, and buys a dozen.

Ka-ching!

Throughout the day, Sam and I perfect our hokey good-cop/bad-cop routine鈥擨 talk money, Sam gushes sweetness鈥攁nd the women store owners continue to put us through the wringer, my favorite being Miss Phyllis: “Dis a sample? I don’t like chocolate.” But really, on Carriacou, the chocolate sells itself. Miss Phyllis buys seven dozen.

THE FOLLOWING MORNING, we depart under clouds of meringue on a single tack for Bequia, jamming north-northeast at six knots. In addition to being browner and lower than Grenada, these hillocks belong to our new host country, St. Vincent.

Closing in on the turquoise waters of Bequia, Sam finds St. Vinnie’s blue-yellow-and-green “courtesy flag” in the duffel of supplies provided by the charter company, but he fumbles as he tries to hoist it. We stare, mute, as it flutters away on the breeze.

IN 2004, PARADISE WAS PUMMELED. Late December’s tsunami in the Indian Ocean, caused by a 9.15-magnitude underwater earthquake west of Sumatra, destroyed beach resorts in Thailand, Sri Lanka, and the Maldives. More than 230,000 people perished—thousands of travelers among them—and hotels, restaurants, and other businesses were ruined along with the beaches. Earlier, in August and September of that year, four major hurricanes crushed the Caribbean community, racking up more than $6 billion in damages across the region. In both Southeast Asia and the Caribbean, many of the affected towns and provinces depend on tourism for their livelihood, so once the survivors were accounted for and the dead were buried, reconstruction and rebooking quickly became the top priority. But just how do resort areas bounce back from such devastation? To answer this question, we checked in on two disaster-struck islands: Phuket, off the western coast of Thailand, and Grenada, one of the southernmost islands in the Caribbean.

Before the tsunami, Phuket was one of the most popular beach destinations in Southeast Asia, generating more than two billion tourist dollars in 2004. On the day of the disaster, December 26, 2004, three giant waves slammed into Phuket’s beaches, flooding hotels, uprooting trees and debris, and killing almost 300 people—with more than twice that number still unaccounted for. While the disaster was horrific, the lingering perceptions of the devastation have also proven detrimental: Due to extensive media coverage of the most severely hit areas in the Indian Ocean region, most people assume that the entire 30-mile-long island was leveled; in fact, only 12 percent of Phuket’s rooms were damaged by the disaster. Still, tourism in Phuket has dropped 65 percent, and in the first half of 2005 the island lost more than $1 billion in tourism revenue.

In the Caribbean, no island suffered more than Grenada, traditionally considered south of the hurricane belt. Ivan, the first major hurricane in recorded history to have formed below ten degrees latitude in the Atlantic Basin, struck on the afternoon of September 7, 2004, with winds of at least 111 miles per hour. Its eye passed just south of the red-roofed harbor town of St. George’s, ripping apart nearly everything in its path. Thirty-nine people were killed, and 90 percent of the island’s houses were damaged. The tourism industry, still recovering after lean post-9/11 years, was upended. Total damage came to nearly $1 billion, more than 200 percent of the country’s gross domestic product.

After both tragic events, aid poured in from around the globe. The United States, England, China, India, Trinidad and Tobago, and Cuba donated $58 million to Grenada. While the Thai government has refused monetary aid, more than $27 million has entered the country through post-disaster relief efforts. Now the two islands, victims of very different catastrophes, are gearing up for the high season facing equally different situations: Grenada, despite being slapped by Hurricane Emily this past July, has recovered further than anyone would have expected and anticipates a good winter season; Phuket, on the other hand, has been open for business for months, but no one’s biting. Take a look at how these islands are faring and remember this: The best way you can help is to book a plane ticket and go.

Case Study: Phuket, Thailand

Ready and Waiting

HARDEST HIT IN PHUKET was Kamala, a beachfront village on the west side of the island. By the time the third wave struck the enclave, many residents had escaped up the hill behind the village. After the chaos and shock of the first few weeks, survivors displayed characteristic Thai fortitude and began to rebuild from the rubble, anticipating the return of the tourists. One store owner handpainted a sign and hung it in front of his store: even tsunami cannot beat us. we make the best homemade pizza. But nobody came to eat.

More than 95 percent of Phuket is up and running again. Not only have the beaches been cleared of debris, but many are wider—by as much as 30 feet in some spots. Restaurants and bars have been cleaned and remodeled, and shops have been restocked with everything from sarongs to sequined handbags. The only thing missing now is the tourists. One day last April at the Terrace, a popular seaside restaurant, three musicians played the pan flute, xylophone, and lute, but there was only one couple dining in a room that seats 60. 国产吃瓜黑料, there were no bumper-to-bumper backups of cars, motorbikes, or bright-red minivan taxis headed to the beaches, because the seasides were deserted. As of August, hotel occupancy was down 65 percent from last year.

Phuket’s tourism board has responded by working with local businesses to woo visitors with two-for-one deals, extra meals included in the price of a hotel room, and lower airfares. In addition, the Thai government has teamed with Thai Airways International and others to promote its “Best Offer”—three days and two nights at any of 11 different resorts for as little as $80. The Trisara, a brand-new five-star resort on the Andaman Sea, is offering villas—complete with a 30-foot infinity pool, 37-inch plasma TV, and a yacht available for charter—for nearly 20 percent off. Meanwhile, Amanpuri Phuket and Mom Tri’s Villa Royale hotels have cut their prices by 50 percent.

Still, the island is like a ghost town—literally. Much of the 60 percent decline in visitors from other Asian nations is a result of Chinese and other nationalities’ cultural and religious beliefs that the spirits of the missing are still roaming the beaches. (More than 3,000 people remain unaccounted for across the region.) To win these tourists back, a highly publicized series of events is planned, culminating on December 26, 2005, the first anniversary of the tsunami. Monks and priests of all religions will “free” the departed souls and give permission for visitors to return to southern Thailand.

Tourists are also concerned about safety, should another tsunami occur. The Tourism Authority of Thailand is developing what it calls the “Safer Beach” concept, a plan that includes the construction of a “Memorial Gateways” wall in a heavily touristed area of Phuket, to serve as a permanent memorial to those who lost their lives while, in concept, slowing down any advancing floodwaters. The Thai government also developed a Tsunami Early Warning System, which has been operational since late May and is monitored 24 hours a day. (It was successfully put to the test in July, when it detected a 7.3-magnitude quake more than 400 miles from the island.)

Holidaygoers and merrymakers may not have returned en masse to Phuket yet, but judging by the locals’ speed in rebuilding after the disaster and the government’s concerted effort to shore up the tourism industry, not even the tsunami will keep the Thais down. A T-shirt that has cropped up in markets across the island underscores that resilience. On the back is a list of trials the region has faced in recent years: a post-9/11 bomb alert, worldwide panic over SARS, mass bird-flu hysteria, and now the tsunami devastation; the front of the shirt reads still alive.

Beyond Phuket

Across the Indian Ocean region, communities are still recovering from the 2004 tsunami

DESPITE THE TRAGEDY IN PHUKET, the island fared better than other Indian Ocean destinations鈥攑laces like the nearby Thai island of Koh Phi Phi; the Maldives; and Galle, Matara, and Yala, in Sri Lanka. “When I arrived in Galle in April,” says Alexander Souri, owner of Massachusetts-based outfitter Relief Riders International, “beachfront resorts were still rubble, just plaster and brick on the ground.” Images like that, coupled with fear of another tsunami, have sent tourist numbers plummeting across the region.

Koh Phi Phi suffered extensive hotel damage, including the loss of 1,400 rooms, and is projected to give up $90 million in tourist revenue in 2005. In the Maldives, the tsunami flooded the heavily touristed atolls of Mulaku and North and South Male, destroying hotels and restaurants. By mid-August 2005, the country was estimated to have lost $250 million tourist dollars since the disaster. Sri Lanka’s burgeoning coastal tourism industry suffered as well, losing $42 million through the first half of 2005.

Thanks to locals’ perseverance and foreign aid (the U.S. government has pledged nearly $1 billion in support, with private donations topping $1.2 billion), many of the nations that were underwater just nine months ago are speeding forward with the reconstruction process. The damaged hotels gracing the southern beaches of Sri Lanka are 67 percent up and running, and those in the Maldives are 87 percent in service. And though Koh Phi Phi is still in the early stages of rebuilding, American outfitter Big Five 国产吃瓜黑料 Travel is offering day trips to explore the island’s limestone cliffs by boat.

The governments of the affected areas are gearing up, too. Last spring, the Maldives’ Tourism Promotion Board began spreading the word about the archipelago to travel agents and tour operators across Asia. They also sent delegations to parts of Europe in hopes of regenerating foreign interest in the islands. Thailand has aggressively pursued the airlines, setting up deals with Thai Airways International, Bangkok Airways, and Orient Thai Airlines to reduce fares and bundle flights with discounted stays at resorts. And in September, Sri Lanka launched a $4 million advertising campaign to lure European travelers back to its beaches and highlands for the upcoming high season.

“The attitude should not be 鈥楲ook how terrible it was.’ The attitude should be 鈥楲ook how far the area has come to recover,’ ” says Ashish Sanghrajka, Big Five’s VP of sales and partner relations. “There’s still lots of great things to see and do there.”

Case Study: St. George’s, Grenada

Full Speed Ahead

NEW GROWTH: St. George’s is flourishing, thanks to a resolve to “build back better”

HURRICANE IVAN gave an unfathomable shock to a nation whose unofficial motto is “God is a Grenadian.” It had been just shy of half a century since the last serious hurricane struck Grenada, and even as Ivan was bearing down, few residents sensed real danger. “We were so naive,” says Lawrence Lambert, managing director of the Flamboyant Hotel, which sits on a hill above the southern end of Grand Anse, Grenada’s celebrated two-mile stretch of white-sand beach. “I thought maybe some doors might blow in.”

In fact, the Flamboyant, like so many other buildings, was pounded, losing its main restaurant and all of its roofs. Ivan was so good at dismantling roofs, locals started referring to the storm as Hurricane Roofus. Very few buildings were erected with hurricane survival in mind; analysts now say that $4 metal hurricane straps, which help keep a roof fastened to the top of an exterior wall, would have greatly reduced the islandwide structural damage.

Now—despite all this destruction and despair—Grenada is bouncing back, at a pace no one could have imagined in those initial grim post-hurricane days. After the first dazed month, insurance claims began getting settled; construction materials made their way to the island; teams of workers put in countless hours of hard, hot labor; red tape was cut through; and the government mandate to “build back better” began to seem possible. By the end of this year, 94 percent of the island’s nearly 1,600 hotel rooms will be available to guests. Among them, the rebuilt Spice Island Beach Resort, on Grand Anse, will reopen as a five-star hotel. A few hotels never closed: the candy-colored cottages of Bel Air Plantation, which were built to Florida hurricane standards by American owners in 2003, and down-but-not-out True Blue Bay Resort, which provided lodging and meals to an endless procession of insurance adjusters and embassy personnel in the months following the storm. The last major hotel to reopen, LaSource, will welcome guests beginning sometime in 2006.

Of course, the island still bears Ivan’s scars. Some are obvious, like the many houses—especially the more rural ones—sheltered by blue tarps. Some are less obvious, like the thatched umbrellas at the understatedly chic Laluna resort, put up on the beach to replace shade trees lost to the storm. Tourism is rebounding: In August, the island was expecting around 15,000 visitors, a return to almost 90 percent of last year’s pre-Ivan numbers. Meanwhile, the future of the nutmeg industry—which accounted for about half of Grenada’s agricultural-export earnings and supplied a third of all nutmeg worldwide—remains uncertain, as almost all of the island’s nutmeg trees were destroyed.

Challenges notwithstanding, visitors to Grenada this winter will find a heartfelt welcome from a nation that knows how crucial the return of tourists is to its economy—and its battered psyche. They’ll also find beaches that are clean and inviting. The reefs and wrecks off Point Salines are still great dive spots. The Morne Fendue Plantation House, high in the hills of Saint Patrick’s Parish, is still serving its astonishing soursop ice cream. And the nutmeg-dusted rum punches at True Blue Bay Resort’s rebuilt waterfront bar are as sweet—and as potent—as ever.

The post After the Storm appeared first on 国产吃瓜黑料 Online.

On October 2, Team 国产吃瓜黑料 Philosophy, which comprises Graham Charles, 39, a photographer and adventurer, and Marcus Waters, 39, a human resource manager, both from Christchurch; and Mark Jones, 41, an outdoor leadership instructor from Auckland, will attempt the first circumnavigation of South Georgia Island by sea kayak. The stakes for failure—or even death—are high and the team could take as long as six weeks to complete their journey.

Made infamous by Sir Ernest Shackleton’s two-year expedition, South Georgia is an icy, barren isle 100 miles long and 20 miles wide, inhabited by ferocious fur seals and located in the “furious fifties,” approximately 1,100 miles east of Tierra del Fuego, the hair-raising southern tip of South America. In 1916, Shackleton’s ship, Endurance, drifted for ten months in pack ice off Antarctica’s Caird Coast before it succumbed to the elements. The crew took refuge on Elephant Island while Shackleton, along with five other crew members, sailed the whaleboat James Caird some 800 miles to King Haakon Bay on South Georgia, where Shackleton, Tom Crean, and Frank Worsely then traversed the island to Stromness Station. The entire crew was eventually rescued.

The biggest challenge in 国产吃瓜黑料 Philosophy’s quest for the unclaimed coast isn’t the mileage, it’s the weather. “We can paddle in 25 or 35 mile-an-hour winds, but it’s rare that the wind in South Georgia gentles on a nice 30 knot (35 mile-an-hour) breeze,” says Charles. “It’s like creeping up on the enemy. When the weather’s facing away, we can go. But as soon as the weather turns around and looks, we have to be twiddling our thumbs and looking innocently like we’re not trying to do anything.” On a previous visit to South Georgia, Charles had experienced wind gusts over 100 miles per hour.

The three men are no strangers to firsts, merciless conditions, or each other. Waters and Charles have known each other since age 13, when they spent endless hours on the ropes course at New Zealand’s Outward Bound School, where Waters’ father was deputy director. Jones, Waters, and Charles have all worked for The Sir Edmund Hillary Outdoor Pursuits Centre, the pre-eminent outdoor education center in New Zealand. Aside from highly-refined technical skills, each contributes a unique expertise to an expedition: Charles as the visionary, Waters as the “details freak,” and Jones, says Charles, as the “Kiwi bloke who’s really good at fixing stuff with a piece of number eight wire and duct tape.”

In January and February 2001, the team paddled 500 unsupported miles from Hope Bay at the northern tip of the Antarctic Peninsula to beyond the Antarctic Circle in the south, the longest stretch ever paddled in Antarctica. In January 2003, they faced 300 miles worth of Tierra del Fuego gales down the Beagle Channel to the Pacific Ocean before pioneering a new route through the Darwin Cordillera into Argentina.

When compared to the Antarctic Peninsula expedition, Graeme Dingle, a noted Kiwi explorer and author of “Dingle: Discovering the Sense in 国产吃瓜黑料,” (to be released by Craig Potton Publishing in October) says the South Georgia Island attempt is much more dangerous. “The wind, the currents, and the size of the sea are considerable,” he said. “You need a mix of very good technical skills, you need a bit of luck on your side, and I also think you need a kind of strength that these guys have together. The bond between them is quite awesome.”

The team, however, is quick to dispel the idea that this is just a sea kayaking expedition: it’s about a purist’s definition of a classic adventure. “This is the romantic exploration-era kind of thing where it’s day after day of ugliness, hard work and crucial decisions that could change the course of your life or the expedition,” Charles said. “It’s not about sea kayaking, it’s about rolling the dice with intuition and prudent judgment. A kayak just happens to be our mode of transportation.”

Technology has changed since the days of Shackleton, but even 国产吃瓜黑料 Philosophy’s reinforced, custom-designed Kevlar kayaks will not guarantee protection from harm. The team’s prepared for the worst. They’ll stow a month’s worth of fuel and vacuum-packed food, as well as mountaineering equipment in case an emergency evacuation on the island is necessary.

Two teams, one in 1991 and another in 1996, have previously attempted to circle South Georgia. Both failed. Team 国产吃瓜黑料 Philosophy, though, isn’t the only squad out for bragging rights this year. Operation South Georgia, a British-Israeli team under the leadership of veteran sea kayaker Pete Bray, who in 2001 was the first person to paddle solo and unsupported across the North Atlantic, hope to be under way November 12.

Pete and his teammates are inspired by adventure and a “South Georgia circumnavigation is one of the last remaining challenges in the sea kayaking world,” said Jim Rowlinson, Operation South Georgia project manager.

Team 国产吃瓜黑料 Philosophy chose to depart earlier, October 2 to be exact, after their research indicated that the half-ton, carnivorous fur seals that dominate the island come mating season will be on the island’s northern end in early November. “Our plan is to go counterclockwise starting from the northeast side,” Charles said. “We’re hoping to beat the seals rush hour ashore. When they weigh half a ton and are pumped up on hormones, they want to charge everything in their little territory zone.” The presence of the seals also poses another problem—fewer places for the team to camp ashore.

Since there are no search and rescue services within 1,000 miles of the island, both teams are required by British law to be accompanied by a support vessel to help in the event of an emergency. Charles’ team will have support aboard their emergency vessel to help gather footage for the documentary the team is producing about their attempt.

In the end, it will come down to the unpredictable and more than a little skill. “There are so many unknowns for us,” Charles said. “But we don’t go out there ignorantly. We research as much as we can, but no matter how much research we do, there are so many unanswered questions. And that’s the beauty.”

Check in with 国产吃瓜黑料 Online for updates on the Team 国产吃瓜黑料 Philosophy’s progress in the coming weeks. The team will also post daily dispatches of their expedition on their Web site, .

The Shatter-Proof Skeleton

Bone Cuisine

High-impact exercise is one way to maintain bone density, but it may not sustain the calcium levels you need for the long term. In a 1995 study of college basketball players at the University of Memphis, researcher Robert Klesges’s bone-density scans revealed significant mineral loss in the athletes during their four-month season. To find out why, his scientists literally wrung out the jerseys after a practice. “Our analysis showed huge expenditures of sodium,” says Klesges, “which we expected, and surprising amounts of calcium, which we didn’t.”

The next season, to counteract the mineral flush, Klesges advised the players to supplement their diets with up to 2,000 milligrams of calcium per day, administered by stirring inexpensive calcium lactate into an energy drink. That season, “bone loss was virtually eliminated,” he says. For five years, the team continued to add calcium to their drinks, with the same results.

His findings, published in The Journal of the American Medical Association in 1996, exposed a common shortfall in the American diet: too little calcium. “Most people don’t even come close to the recommended daily allowance of 1,200 milligrams,” says Klesges, “but that amount is still not enough for an athlete exercising over an hour each day.” Nearly ten years later, most sports drinks still don’t contain enough calcium for Klesges. “Without a demand for it, manufacturers simply aren’t going to add the mineral’s cost to their products,” he says.

So how much calcium should you be getting? For most, anything over 2,000 milligrams is overkill; 1,200 a day is plenty for a recreational athlete, says Klesges, and you can meet your needs through milk, dairy products, calcium-fortified orange juice, and tofu. Each serving contains about 200 to 300 milligrams of calcium. Going on a long workout? Nab an additional 200 milligrams of the stuff for every hour beyond the first.

Bill Holland follows this advice religiously. He still rides as much as ever, but now he also rotates in thrice-weekly four-mile runs, plus three trips to the weight room each week, and he takes 1,200 milligrams of calcium a day. Since his first bone scan, in 2001, he’s reversed his bone loss and seen 1 to 2 percent increases in density each year.

“Someday,” says Holland, “I might have average-strength bones again.”

Beyond Grenada

The 2004 Caribbean hurricane season was one of the most destructive in recent history

THOUGH HURRICANES ARE A FACT OF LIFE in the Caribbean, no one was prepared for the massive destruction and loss of life the islands experienced in 2004. There were six major hurricanes in the Atlantic Basin (defined as Category 3 or higher on the Saffir-Simpson scale of hurricane strength, with winds topping 111 miles an hour). This was twice the annual average, and four of them slammed the Caribbean. The cost to the region was more than $6 billion, according to the UN Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean.

In August, Hurricane Charley hit Cuba and Jamaica, killing five people. Three and a half weeks later, Hurricane Ivan struck Grenada. Ivan then intensified to a Category 5 storm (winds over 155 mph) and pounded Grand Cayman, washing over the island and causing severe damage to homes and hotels, many of which couldn’t reopen until this fall. Ivan generated the largest ocean waves ever recorded—upwards of 90 feet—before knocking out the monitoring buoys; post-storm computer models put the waves at up to 130 feet. Ivan also struck parts of Jamaica, killing 17 people, racking up nearly $600 million in damage, wiping out many of Negril’s waterfront bars, and forcing hotels to close for several months of repair work. Days later, Hurricane Jeanne and the massive flooding that followed killed 2,700 people in Haiti and 23 in the neighboring Dominican Republic. Jeanne also brought floods and wind damage to Grand Bahama and Abaco, which had been hit hard by Hurricane Frances a few weeks earlier.

In mid-August, with the hurricane season already off to a record start, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) was forecasting 18 to 21 tropical storms in 2005. Of those, NOAA said, nine to eleven could become hurricanes, and five to seven could end up as major storms. The season officially runs from June 1 to November 30, with the peak between late August and early October. This grim outlook reflects a continuation of increased storm activity that began in 1995, when shifts in atmospheric and oceanic flow patterns resulted in warmer Atlantic water. Forecasters say this pattern may continue for at least another decade, if historical cycles repeat themselves.

As the 2005 season began, NOAA added seven weather-data-buoy stations in the Caribbean, the Gulf of Mexico, and the Atlantic, to fill some gaps in its data-monitoring map. It also launched a Web page called Storm Tracker, which provides advisories and tracking maps. Still, international agencies continue to call for better early-notification systems. “I’ve warned the world that it is not going to get better; it is going to become worse,” said UN Emergency Relief Coordinator Jan Egeland last June, at a workshop on disaster preparedness. “We owe it to the people to prepare them.”

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Sea World
Punta Caracol Acqua Lodge, Isla Col贸n
Tranquilo is the operative word at Punta Caracol, located just off serene Isla Col贸n, 75 minutes by puddle jumper and boat from Panama City, via Bocas del Toro. Sheltered by the surrounding archipelago and mainland Panama, the resort’s six two-story cabanas with thatch roofs are suspended over the water on wooden stilts, spiraling out from a walkway to face Almirante Bay.
THE GOOD LIFE: Each solar-powered bungalow has native-hardwood floors and an open-air bedroom upstairs with a canopied king-size bed. As for eats, you won’t find fresher seafood: The open-air restaurant-cum-lounge gets regular deliveries from fishermen cruising by with lobster and red snapper.
SPORTS ON-SITE: Swim, snorkel, or paddle along a mile of coral-reef coastline.
BEYOND THE SAND: Surf at Bluff Beach, on the far side of Isla Col贸n. THE FINE PRINT: American Airlines (800-433-7300, ) flies from Miami to Panama City for about $350 round-trip; Aeroperlas (011-507-315-7500, ) flies to Bocas del Toro for $116. Double-occupancy rates at Punta Caracol (011-507-612-1088, ) from December 16 to May 15 start at $325, including breakfast and dinner.—Bonnie Tsui

Minimalist Heaven
Laluna, Grenada
There’s only one house rule at this tiny, tony anti-resort: Make yourself at home. At Laluna, on the southwestern coast of Grenada, we felt so at home, we thought we were home—that is, if home were a stylish, thatch-roofed cabana notched into a hillside above an empty crescent of Caribbean beach. In our dreams.
THE GOOD LIFE: Indonesian teak-chic meets spare Italian elegance in Laluna’s 16 simple, elegant one- and two-bedroom cottages—painted in cheerful shades of pumpkin, lapis, teal, and plum. In the breezy restaurant, Italian chef Benedetto La Fiura cooks up Carib-Continental dishes like callaloo soup, an island specialty made from the spinach-like leaves of dasheen (a tuber) and coconut milk.
SPORTS ON-SITE: Guests with sailing experience can take out a Hobie Cat, or borrow a sea kayak for the easy cruise to neighboring Morne Rouge Bay.
BEYOND THE SAND: Head inland and upward to hike Grand 脡tang Forest Reserve, a 3,800-acre tract of rainforest along the island’s jungly spine.
THE FINE PRINT: American Eagle (800-433-7300, ) flies to Grenada from San Juan, Puerto Rico (round-trip from Chicago, from $515). From December 20 to April 13, rates at Laluna (473-439-0001, ) start at $610 per night.—Katie Arnold

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To zero in on the most idyllic resorts this side of paradise, we dispatched a crack squad of writers to the Caribbean. They came back with a hit list of places where creature comforts and adventure are not mutually exclusive. Now it’s your turn.

By Katie Arnold

By Janine Sieja

By Randy Wayne White

By Hampton Sides

By Bonnie Tsui

By Grant Davis

By Sally Schumaier

By Mike Grudowski

By Karen Karbo

By Lisa Anne Auerbach

PLUS:
Swimming in Mosquito Bay, sailing the Grenadines, climbing 10,000-foot Pico Duarte, and five other don’t-miss dream outings.

Laluna

A minimalist’s idea of maximum bliss

Caribbean Resort, Grenada

Caribe, anyone? Laluna’s mod seaside lounge overlooking Portici Bay.

ON OUR THIRD MORNING IN GRENADA, we roasted the Chicken. Then we did what any sensible traveler in the Caribbean would do: We beelined it back to Laluna, a sublime refuge tucked into a hidden bay on the island’s southwest coast, and made straight for the sea. We were ridiculously filthy, splattered with mud from a three-hour mountain-bike ride with Chicken—a wiry, calf-strong Grenadian guide who’s such a fanatic cyclist, he’d already pedaled 25 miles before breakfast. (No wonder we beat him up the hills.) Salty but clean, we retired to the private plunge pool on our cottage’s wide wooden deck, taking in the uninterrupted view of Portici Bay. Time to debate the next move: Grab a book and sprawl across the teak settee on the veranda, wander down to the open-air lounge for a cold Caribe and a game of backgammon, loll poolside on a chaise, or have a massage? There’s only one house rule at this tiny, tony anti-resort: Make yourself at home. After three days, we felt so at home, we thought we were home—that is, if home were a stylish, thatch-roofed cabana notched into a hillside above an empty crescent of Caribbean beach. In our dreams.

The Good Life // Designed in 2001 by Gabriella Giuntoli, the Italian architect for Giorgio Armani’s villa on an island off Sicily, Laluna has a pared-down, natural aesthetic: Indonesian teak-chic meets spare Italian elegance. All 16 one- and two-bedroom concrete cottages—painted in cheerful shades of pumpkin, lapis, teal, and plum—are well-appointed but unfussy: Balinese four-poster beds draped with sheer muslin panels, earth-colored floors covered with sea-grass rugs, open-air bathrooms with mod metal fixtures. The same soothing mix of wood, cane, cotton, and thatch prevails in the resort’s beachfront courtyard. On one end is the breezy restaurant, where Italian chef Benedetto La Fiura cooks up Carib-Continental dishes like callaloo soup (an island specialty made from dasheen, a tuber with spinachlike leaves, and nutmeg) and mushroom risotto. On the other is the open-air lounge, with a fully stocked bar and comfy Indonesian daybeds with plump throw pillows, and low tables that double as footrests. Between the two is pure R&R: a sleek square pool with a perfect curve of beach beyond.

Jaw Dropper // Swinging the cottage’s mahogany-and-glass doors wide open at night and being lulled to sleep by the wind in the bougainvillea and the gentle rolling of waves below.

Sports on-Site // There’s no set agenda at Laluna, but there’s plenty to do. Guests with sailing experience can take out one of two Hobie Cats, as well as single and double sea kayaks, for the easy cruise to Morne Rouge Bay, the next cove over. There’s a small stash of snorkeling equipment available (keep an eye out for yellow-and-black-striped sergeant majors near the rocky points at either end of the beach) and Specialized mountain bikes for tooling around.

Beyond the Sand // Fight the urge to cocoon at Laluna and head inland and upward to Grand 脡tang Forest Reserve, a 3,800-acre tract of rainforest at 2,350 feet, along the island’s jungly spine. We spent a day in the charming company of 64-year-old Telfor Bedeau, known to all as the father of Grenada hiking. He led us on a four-hour ramble around Lake Grand ƒtang, a rogue crater left over from the island’s volcanic past, and along an overgrown tunnel of a trail to a series of five waterfalls (popularly, if erroneously, dubbed the Seven Sisters) and up a hidden path to a bonus cascade called Honeymoon Falls (half-day hikes, $20 per person; 473-442-6200). At A&E Tours, Chicken guides half-day, full-day, and multi-day mountain-bike rides along the coast or through the reserve (our three-hour pedal from the harbor capital of St. George’s over the serpentine, near-vertical Grenville Vale Road cost $25 per person, including bike rental; 473-435-1444, ).

The Fine Print // American Eagle (800-433-7300; ) flies the two and a half hours to Grenada daily from San Juan, Puerto Rico (round-trip from Chicago, about $785); Air Jamaica (800-523-5585; ) flies nonstop from New York’s JFK four days a week (about $400). From December 20 to April 13, rates at Laluna (473-439-0001, ) start at $530 per night, double occupancy, including water activities and bikes (the price drops to $290 in summer). A modified meal plan (breakfast and dinner) is $65 per person per day. Henry’s Safari Tours can take care of your on-island transportation and guiding needs (473-444-5313, ).

The Hermitage

Frangipani breezes, volcano view

THE SOUNDTRACK TO NEVIS, a volcanic bit of emerald-green pointing skyward in the West Indies, lacks a badass steel-drum reggae riff. Nevis, blessedly, is not that Caribbean. Its rhythms require closer attention: nocturnal, chirping bell frogs and murmuring trade winds that rustle the coconut palms and spread the sweetness of frangipani across 50 square miles of overgrown hills and dignified former sugarcane plantations. The most charming of these mansions, the Hermitage, is perched 800 feet above sea level on the southern flanks of dormant-for-now 3,232-foot Nevis Peak. The 15 gingerbread cottages and 340-year-old British colonial lodge are embellished with pastel-shuttered windows and four-poster canopy beds. Despite this dollhouse decor, you won’t feel embarrassed to take your lunch of grilled-flying-fish salad on the veranda after a muddy five-hour hike up the volcano. Just hose yourself off in the front yard first. The Good Life // Amiable American transplants Richard and Maureen Lupinacci bought the Hermitage 33 years ago. Its Great House, reputed to be the oldest wooden building in the Caribbean, is where guests dine by candlelight or sidle over to the bar for rum punch at cocktail hour. (The free-flowing mixture of dark Cavalier rum, syrup, lemon juice, and a dash of cinnamon is part of why the refined Hermitage vibe never crosses over into stuffiness.) Most of the cottages are restored originals—whitewashed, light-filled retreats furnished with regional antiques. All have hammock-equipped balconies for horizontal views of Nevis Peak and the white clouds that usually shroud its summit. The three-acre grounds are dotted with citrus, mango, and cashew trees, and have two pools and a tennis court.

Jaw Dropper // Roam trails crisscrossing the Gingerland District on one of the lodge’s 16 thoroughbreds, or charge up Saddle Hill to an old lookout used by British admiral Horatio Nelson in the 1780s.

Sports on-Site // Explore the terraced gardens of lilies, ginger, and hibiscus or take the ten-minute shuttle to four-mile Pinney’s Beach, the loveliest of Nevis’s sandy stretches. Just a quarter-mile from the inn is the trailhead for the mile-long climb to the summit of Nevis Peak (contact Top to Bottom; $35 per person; 869-469-9080).

Beyond the Sand // A wild donkey—an odd trail obstacle—brayed his displeasure as I pedaled the sea-grape-lined singletrack of Tower Hill. Windsurf ‘n’ Mountain Bike Nevis (869-469-9682, , ) offers half-day rides from $40, including use of a Trek front-suspension bike. At Oualie Beach, on the island’s northwestern coast, let marine biologist Barbara Whitman introduce you to four-eyed butterfly fish, goat fish, flame coral, and pink sea anemones. Under the Sea (869-469-1291, ) charges $40 for a three-hour snorkel, including gear.

The Fine Print // American Airlines (800-433-7300, ) is the only major U.S. carrier serving Nevis. The daily flight from San Juan, Puerto Rico, takes an hour and 15 minutes (round-trip airfare from New York City costs about $725; from Denver, about $980). From December 15 to April 15, rates at the Hermitage (800-682-4025, ) start at $325 for a double, including a full breakfast (low-season rates from $170).

Anse Chastanet

This is jungle luxe

Caribbean Resort, St. Lucia

Petit Piton looms as Anse Chastanet’s yacht heads out for a day at sea.

Caribbean Resort, St. Lucia

Walls optional: a hillside villa at Anse Chastanet

MY FIRST DAWN on St. Lucia, a big teardrop of an island wedged between Martinique and St. Vincent in the Lesser Antilles, was disappointing. I’d flown in on the dark of the moon and arrived at Anse Chastanet, a 600-acre resort perched on the rugged southwestern shore, too late to see anything but a macrodome of stars. The next morning, I awoke to warblers singing in the cedars and the scent of begonia shifting in the trade wind. My villa-size room, I realized, barely had walls. Wait, it gets worse. Below was a bay so clear, the coral shimmered like a field of wildflowers. Twin peaks spired out of the forest. The rockier one, 2,461-foot Petit Piton, was unavoidably phallic. Gros Piton, at 2,619 feet, was more rounded and feminine. I looked from the Pitons to the beach, then at my empty bed. What a blunder! Here I was in the most achingly romantic setting in all my years … and I was alone.

The Good Life // I didn’t feel weepy for long. The resort has a five-star list of activities to match the cuisine (spiced-carrot-and-coconut soup, grilled dorado, mango trifle), an attentive 250-person staff (serving no more than 100 guests), and pleasantly esoteric options at the Kai Belt茅 spa. (Try a wosh cho hot-stone massage.) Trou au Diable, a thatch-roofed bistro, sits on a half-mile of secluded beach, while the Piton Restaurant is set among the 49 villas up the hill. My Hillside Deluxe room, with its louvered doors and green heartwood furniture, was like a tree house built by Swiss castaways. Very rich Swiss castaways. But considering the absence of phones or TVs, they didn’t seem to mind being stranded on St. Lucia.

Jaw Dropper // Tucking into a plate of locally raised lamb and fresh snapper cooked under the stars by chef Jon Bentham on an antique cane-sugar pot the size of a kettledrum.

Sports on-Site // Anse Chastanet is famous for spectacular diving; there’s a Platinum/PADI Scuba and Water Sports Center, and boats ferry you out to several world-class dive sites along the Pinnacles reef. But I chose to explore a lesser-known offering: 12 miles of mountain-bike trails winding through the ruins of a 19th-century French sugarcane-and-cocoa plantation next door. Full disclosure: I expected crappy equipment but a fun ride. What I got was a first-class trail system partially designed by NORBA phenom Tinker Juarez and my choice of 50 Cannondale F800s, all fitted with hydraulic shocks and brakes. The ride, over rolling jungle paths, was excellent—I broke a sweat but still had time to stop and pick wild avocados, bananas, and guavas.

Beyond the Sand // Ever bagged a Piton? Me neither. The climbs are notoriously steep and muddy, but if you’re game, the front desk recommends a guide named Meneau Herman ($50 a person for the day). For the rest of us, there are ample opportunities to explore St. Lucia via horse or sea kayak. On my last day, I hit the water with Xavier Vernantius, the head kayak guide. Born on St. Lucia, Xavier, 33, knew all the secret caves to explore. As we paddled around a rocky outcropping called Fairyland, the view of the Pitons in the distance left me speechless. “I grew up here, and I still find them beautiful,” Xavier said.

The Fine Print // US Airways (800-622-1015, ) flies to St. Lucia from New York City for about $700, from Chicago for $760. From December 20 to April 7, a double at Anse Chastanet (758-459-7000, ) costs $455 per night, including breakfast and dinner ($220 per night in the off-season, not including meals). The spa and scuba diving are extra.

Tiamo Resorts

Check your Blackberry at the door and get way, way offline

THE MOST IMPRESSIVE thing about Tiamo is how unimpressive it is. Even as my sea taxi pulled up to the unassuming scallop of beach on the southern half of Andros, I still couldn’t see the resort that was right in front of me. Once ashore, I had to wade through thickets of sea grapes and gumbo-limbo trees to find the central lodge—an unpretentious wooden structure with screened porches and a corrugated metal roof. Was this the place? The sleepy Brazilian jazz seeping out the front door said yes. Hacked out of the Bahamian bush and opened in 2001 by Mike and Petagay Hartman, Tiamo is a fascinating—and so far successful—experiment to test whether assiduous eco-consciousness can coexist with rustic luxury. The ethos here is part Gilligan’s Island, part Buckminster Fuller. With only 11 open-air bungalows, powered by the sun and outfitted with compost toilets, everything is small-scale, low-impact, phosphate-free, and relentlessly off the grid. Accessible only by boat or seaplane, the resort sits on 12 acres of pristine beach along an inland waterway, surrounded by 125 acres of preserved wilderness. There are no air conditioners, no TVs, none of the whirs and bleeps of the digital age. Nope, at Tiamo, messages are delivered strictly by iguanagram. The Good Life // By day, watch a heron or one of the resident iguanas trundle by your screened porch. At night, the hemp curtains billow in the breeze. The bright-green-and-yellow louvered shutters, exposed copper pipes, and bare-metal faucet levers are sleekly utilitarian. My solar-heated beach-rock shower looked out on a mighty specimen of local cactus known as—I kid you not—the Bahamian dildo. The lodge has the same casual vibe. Browse for dog-eared paperbacks and board games in the library; dine on sesame seared tuna and mahi-mahi with mango beurre blanc at the large communal table; or simply fritter the evening away at the rattan bar, clutching a mind-warming Petagay Punch as a local “rake-and-scrape” band sings you back to bed.




Jaw Dropper // A spectacular network of “blue holes” riddle the limestone bedrock all over southern Andros. Kayak out to the Crack, a fabulously deep gash in the seafloor where two temperature zones collide in a thermocline, and snorkel or dive the nutrient-rich broth alongside hosts of wrasse, lobster, sea cucumbers, and freakishly large angelfish.

Sports on-Site // Tiamo is not a destination for hyperactive folks who expect a brisk regimen of “activities.” Basically, Mike shows up at breakfast and says, “What do you want to do today?” Choose between swimming, bonefishing, kayaking, snorkeling, scuba diving, bushwhacking, or my new favorite sport, extreme hammocking. Hikes (led by Shona Paterson, the on-staff marine biologist) are free, as are snorkel trips to the blue holes. There’s a modest fleet of trimarans and sea kayaks at the ready. But the most elaborate activity is … horseshoes. Somehow, that says it all.

Beyond the Sand // Andros boasts some of the finest bonefishing in the world, and Mike can easily hook you up with a guide ($350 per boat for a full day; each boat holds two anglers). Ask for Captain Jolly Boy, a corpulent former bar owner turned Baptist preacher who stalks “the gray ghost” with all the biblical fervor of Ahab. “I feel you, Mr. Bones!” Jolly Boy whispers as he poles the flats. For divers, the Andros Barrier Reef, one of the world’s largest contiguous reefs, lies less than a mile offshore; its sheer wall, home to thousands of species of fish, drops nearly 6,000 feet into the Tongue of the Ocean. Scuba excursions motor out daily, but you must be PADI-certified ($100 for a one-tank dive, $145 for two tanks).

The Fine Print // Delta (800-241-4141, ) and American Airlines (800-433-7300, ) fly to Nassau from L.A. and New York for $600 or less. From there, make the 20-minute hop with Western Air (242-377-2222, ) to Andros; flights are about $100 round-trip. The bungalows at Tiamo (242-357-2489, ) cost $275 per person, double occupancy ($360 per person, single occupancy) year-round; rates include everything but your bar tab, bonefishing, and scuba diving. The resort is closed August 1 through September 30.

Punta Caracol Acqua Lodge

The lullaby of lapping waves

Caribbean Resort, Isla Colon, Panama

The H20 cure: cabanas on stilts at Punta Caracol

TRANQUILO IS THE OPERATIVE WORD at Punta Caracol, located just off the serenely beautiful island of Isla Col贸n, an hour’s flight by puddle jumper from Panama City and a 15-minute boat ride from the small town of Bocas del Toro. Sheltered by the surrounding archipelago and, about three miles away, mainland Panama, the resort’s six two-story thatch-roofed cabanas are suspended over the water on wooden stilts, spiraling out from a long central walkway to face Almirante Bay. Each solar-powered duplex has its own private terrace and deck, and the sound of lapping water lulls you to sleep. This vision of calm luxury perched at the edge of the world is just what founder and Barcelona native Jos茅-Lu铆s Bordas had in mind when he designed Punta Caracol in 1997 as his final project for business school. At dusk on my first evening, I’d already showered and dressed for dinner, yet I couldn’t help heeding the call of bath-temperature, cerulean water. In record time, I changed back into my swimsuit and threw myself—with a war whoop—off the back deck. It’s the kind of place where glittering-green tropical fish jump up to meet you in rapid-fire succession and bioluminescent plankton are the only lights shimmering offshore after sunset. Every detail of the resort, from hand-woven hanging textiles to fresh papaya and pineapple-covered panqueques at breakfast, is well executed by Bordas’s competent local staff. At the end of my four-day idyll, I could tell him honestly, “Es mi idea del para铆so, tambi茅n.” The Good Life // Each bungalow has native-hardwood floors and French doors that open to the bay, as well as wooden lounge chairs and woven floor mats. Bathrooms are lined with clay tiles with a lime-green-and-pl谩tano-yellow trim—brightly Caribbean without being gaudy. Upstairs, the open-air bedroom has a canopied king-size bed with natural-cotton drapes that double as mosquito nets, but you won’t need them; the cool breezes off the water at night are enough to blow pesky insects away. As for eats, you won’t find fresher seafood: The open-air restaurant-cum-lounge—also on stilts over the water— gets regular deliveries from local fishermen cruising by with just-caught lobster and red snapper, weighed with a portable scale brought out from behind the bar. A must-have: grilled lobster with tomatoes stuffed with rice, fish, and vegetables. (Chase it down with a warm, sweet pineapple slice glazed with caramelized sugar.)

Jaw Dropper // While you’re dining alfresco on flame-grilled shrimp, you can watch dolphins, pelicans, and parrot fish trolling for dinner on the reef below.

Sports on-Site // Swim, snorkel, or paddle in clear, calm Caribbean water along a mile of coral-reef coastline; there’s no beach at Punta Caracol, but your cabana’s private dock is just as enticing. It’s an easy paddle inland, via cayuco (traditional wooden canoe), to Isla Col贸n’s mangrove swamps—home to howler and white-face monkeys and the unbelievably slow-moving two-toed sloth, or oso perezoso (“lazy bear”).

Beyond the Sand // Pilar Bordas, the miracle-working sister of Jos茅-Lu铆s, can arrange outdoor activities on demand: surfing at Bluff Beach, on the far side of Isla Col贸n; mountain-biking across the center of the island; scuba-diving with queen angelfish near San Cr’stobal Island, four miles away (two-tank dives with Starfleet Scuba, $50; 011-507-757-9630, ). Hire a guide for the 40-minute boat ride to Bastimentos Island National Marine Park, where you can hike through sugarcane to Red Frog Beach ($30 per person).

The Fine Print // American Airlines (800-433-7300, ) flies direct from Miami to Panama City for about $300 round-trip. From there, Aeroperlas (011-507-315-7500, ) has two flights daily to Bocas del Toro for $116 round-trip. The Centers for Disease Control recommends a yellow-fever vaccination and the antimalarial drug chloroquine for travel to the Bocos del Toro region. Double-occupancy rates at Punta Caracol in high season (December 16 to May 15) start at $265, including breakfast, dinner, airport transfers, and use of cayucos and snorkel equipment (from $215, off-season; 011-507-612-1088, ).

Bitter End Yacht Club

Fat sails in the sunset

Caribbean Resort, Virgin Gorda, BVI

Even type A’s need some downtime: the Bitter End

Caribbean Resort, Virgin Gorda, BVI

The North Pier deck at Virgin Gorda’s Bitter End Yacht Club

THE BITTER END, ON THE REMOTE NORTHEASTERN TIP of Virgin Gorda, is a sprawling community of people with one thing on their minds: boating. In addition to the club’s 78 rooms, freshwater swimming pool, and teakwood Clubhouse restaurant, there’s a marina with charter-boat service, a dive shop, a market, a pub, and 70 boat moorings. All the action takes place offshore, specifically in the protected waters of three-square-mile North Sound, with the club’s flotilla of 100-plus vessels, ranging from sea kayaks and windsurfers to Hobie Cats and 30-foot oceangoing yachts. This is no mellow-rum-drinks-on-your-private-beach kind of resort: It’s a playground for Type A’s in topsiders.

The Good Life // The best rooms are the 48 cottages set on a steep hillside, with wraparound decks and views of Eustacia Reef (30 air-conditioned suites climb the sunset side of the hill). Meals (think surf-and-turf) are served under the blue canopies of the Clubhouse.

Jaw Dropper // The staff at the BEYC remembers everyone. It had been two years since my last visit, yet when I walked to breakfast, watersports staffers greeted me by my first name.

Sports on-Site // Thanks to warm water and 15- to 20-knot winds, North Sound is the perfect place to hone your tacks and jibes. Private sailing lessons for beginners cost $25 per hour, and advanced sailing sessions run $50 per class. Use of all the small boats is included in your stay, as are snorkeling trips to nearby reefs. Two-tank dives cost $85, all equipment except wetsuit included, and deep-sea fishing for blue marlin runs $275 a day.

Beyond the Sand // The 30-minute hike to the top of 1,359-foot Gorda Peak offers a commanding view of the entire Virgin Islands region. Don’t miss a trip to the famous Baths, a jumbled collection of giant boulders and knee-deep tide pools.

The Fine Print // Round-trip airfare on American Airlines (800-433-7300, ) from New York to Tortola’s Beef Island Airport is $525. From January 5 to April 30, the five-night Admiral’s Package at the BEYC ($2,925 to $3,850; 800-872-2392, ) includes three meals a day for two (low season, $2,150 to $2,625). The annual Pro-Am Regatta ($2,940) takes place the first week of November.

Maroma Resort & Spa

A mystical hideaway on the Mayan Riviera

Caribbean Resort, Yucatan, Mexico

Your palapa or mine? Get a massage or just toll in the sun on Playa Maroma.

EVER SINCE ARCHITECT Jos茅 Luis Moreno followed a machete-beaten path through 200 acres of tropical jungle, in 1976, to build this exclusive beachfront resort, Maroma has been deliberately hard to find—tucked off an unmarked gravel road, 20 miles south of Canc煤n. On my first evening, I followed the flickering lights of a thousand candles along a maze of stone walkways, wandering through gardens of orchids and palm trees until I found myself on a narrow crescent of fine white sand: a heavenly border between jungle and sea.

The Good Life // Designed simply, the 64 rooms in ten low-lying, white-stucco buildings are an elegant mix of saltillo tile, handwoven rugs and bedspreads, mahogany beams, and bamboo shutters. Dine on fresh grilled snapper at the cavernous El Sol restaurant or on the beach-view terrace. Jaw Dropper // The world’s second-longest barrier reef, which runs 450 miles from Canc煤n to Honduras and teems with coral and fish, is just 200 yards offshore.

Sports on-Site // At the beach kiosk, set up snorkeling and reef-diving trips, sea-kayaking excursions, and day sailing on a 27-foot catamaran ($15 to $120 per person). On land, mountain-bike through 250 acres of protected jungle. Spa offerings include a two-hour Maya steam bath and cleansing ceremony ($90), yoga classes, and nine types of massage ($50 to $120).

Beyond the Sand // The Yucat谩n is cratered with more than 700 cenotes—limestone sinkholes that offer otherworldly snorkeling, diving, and rappelling opportunities. The resort can arrange a trip 40 miles south to Dos Ojos cenote for $90.

The Fine Print // Continental Airlines (800-523-3273, ) flies from Houston to Canc煤n for $400 round-trip; American Airlines (800-433-7300, ) flies nonstop from New York for about $700. Double-occupancy rates at Maroma (866-454-9351, ) start at $400 in high season (November 14 to December 18 and January 4 to May 15) and $340 in low season.

Caneel Bay

The true-blue classic

WITHOUT A DOUBT, ST. JOHN’S alluring natural charms get star billing at Caneel Bay. Frigate birds, as angular as pterodactyls, soar over no fewer than seven stunningly pristine on-site strands, from vest-pocket hideaways like Paradise Beach, which you can have all to yourself, to Caneel Beach, shaded by coconut palms and sea grapes and sprawled out in front of the resort’s main lobby. Some 170 manicured acres are cordoned off from the rest of the island—and the rest of the world, it seems—by a trio of 800-foot-high forested ridges. Philanthropist and conservationist Laurance Rockefeller founded Caneel Bay in the fifties, and the place still feels like a summer camp for blue bloods. There’s no shortage of diversions—day trips to the British Virgins, guided shoreline hikes, couples yoga at the resort’s Self Centre. But most of the clientele seem to be seeking stillness and seclusion rather than pampering. Rooms contain no phones, TVs, radios, or even alarm clocks. Management, for its part, tries mightily to preserve an old-money sense of decorum: Collars for gents, please, even on the tennis courts, and evening resort wear for ladies. Expect to see plenty of newlyweds, espadrille-shod martini sippers, and the occasional jackass: Wild donkeys sometimes roam past just in time for cocktails.

The Good Life // Architecture keeps a low profile here. Low-slung rows of 166 guest rooms—done up in dark wood, Indonesian wicker, and botanical prints—are scattered around the property in clusters of a dozen or so and linked by winding footpaths. As a rule, the food in the four dining rooms is tasty if not particularly innovative; standouts include the steaks, aged and tender, the breakfast buffet served on an open-air terrace overlooking Caneel Beach, and the 265-bottle wine list at the Turtle Bay Estate House.

Jaw Dropper // Request one of 20 rooms along Scott Beach. After you’ve spent hours snorkeling with hubcap-size hawksbill turtles, your private deck offers a front-row seat for virtuoso sunsets that give way to the lights of St. Thomas, four miles across the sound.

Sports on-Site // Aside from the 11 tennis courts, built into a terraced hillside, a compact fitness center, and a small pool near the courts, most action takes place on the coral formations a hundred yards from the waterline. Use of snorkel gear—plus a generous selection of sailboards, kayaks, and small sailboats—is complimentary.

Beyond the Sand // Two-thirds of St. John’s 20 square miles fall within Virgin Islands National Park. Sample them by renting a jeep (from $65 a day at Sun-n-Sand Car Rentals, available at Caneel Bay from 9 to 10 a.m. daily) and heading for the Reef Bay Trail, at 2.4 miles the longest of the park’s 20 hikes. Other options include half- and full-day sails to some of St. John’s excellent anchorages, and sea-kayak excursions to offshore cays ($60 to $70 per person through Caneel Bay).

The Fine Print // Most major U.S. airlines fly direct to St. Thomas from various East Coast cities (about $550 round-trip from New York); Caneel Bay guests go by ferry to the resort. From December 17 to March 15, rates at Caneel Bay (340-776-6111, ) start at $450, double occupancy ($300 in low season).

Turtle Inn

The Godfather’s eco-resort

I SIT AT THE DESK OF TURTLE INN’S VILLA ONE, staring through wooden shutters at the Caribbean, hoping for some Maya magic. Turtle Inn is owned by Francis Ford Coppola, and he was here, on the southern coast of Belize, working at this very desk, only a few weeks ago. I’m a huge fan of Mr. Francis (as he’s called by the people who work here). I love the Godfather trilogy, but what I really love is Villa One’s outdoor garden shower, designed by the auteur himself, surrounded by a high wall built by Maya stonemasons and illuminated with Balinese lanterns. I also love the Italian-for-the-tropics cuisine—white pizza topped with garlic and arugula grown from Sicilian seeds in Turtle Inn’s garden, soup made from local lobster—served in the snazzy open-air restaurant. A few nights at the inn, I thought, and maybe I’d absorb some of the creative mojo.

The Good Life // The 18 bungalows, all steps from the beach, are built in the style of traditional Balinese thatched huts, with large screened decks, ample living spaces, and ornate carved doors imported from Bali. The lovely Belizean wait staff (one soft-spoken boy responds to requests with “Don’t worry; I gotcha”) wear white linen shirts and sarongs. Marie Sharp’s Belizean Heat Habanero Pepper Sauce is on every table, the perfect addition to the spaghetti carbonara. All proof that here at the Turtle Inn, the weird fusion of Balinese- Belizean-Coppola culture actually works. Jaw Dropper // The inn is located near the end of Placencia Peninsula—a 16-mile noodle of land with the Placencia Lagoon on one side and the sea on the other. At the Turtle Inn dive shop, on the lagoon, an American crocodile named Jeff has taken up residency near the boat dock. He’s not housebroken, but he’ll pose for pictures.

Sports on-Site // The thatch-roofed bar is about 20 yards from every bungalow, on the ocean’s edge, which allows for a pleasant daily routine: Snorkel a bit, collapse on your chaise, order Turtle Juice (a house specialty made with coconut rum), kayak a mile or so up to Rum Point and back, collapse on your chaise, snorkel, Turtle Juice, rinse, repeat. Some of Belize’s finest beaches—narrow, sandy, palm-fringed—grace the peninsula. When you feel in need of an outing, beach-cruiser bikes are available for riding into the tiny Creole village of Placencia, a mile down the road. Or, from the inn’s dive shop, head out to Belize’s barrier reef—prime location for diving or saltwater fly-fishing. The rub is that it’s an hourlong speedboat ride on sometimes choppy waters. But once out there, it’s not unusual to see spotted rays or even nurse sharks cruising along a 2,000-foot wall, or for anglers to hook bonefish, tarpon, or snook.

Beyond the Sand // Turtle Inn is a great base for venturing into the jungle. The front desk can arrange day trips to Cockscomb Basin Wildlife Sanctuary (the world’s first jaguar reserve) and a number of large Maya ruins. Monkey River is 45 minutes to the south by boat, through mangrove estuaries that are home to manatees. While cruising upriver, you’ll encounter tiger herons, gargantuan butterflies, six-foot iguanas, and howler monkeys.

The Fine Print // American Airlines (800-433-7300, ) flies to Belize City for about $500 round-trip from both Miami and Dallas. From there, it’s a 35-minute flight on Maya Island Air ($140 round-trip; 800-225-6732, ) to the Placencia airstrip. From January 4 to April 30 (excluding the week of Easter), seafront cottages at Turtle Inn (800-746-3743, ) are $300 per night, double occupancy, including Continental breakfast and use of bikes and sea kayaks (from $200 per night in low season).

Jake’s

How does it feel to be one of the beautiful people?

Caribbean Resort, Jamaica

You can almost see the Pelican Bar from here: a cottage at Jake’s

“IF WE DON’T ENCOURAGE GUESTS to leave the property, they wouldn’t,” says owner Jason Henzell. He ought to know. Ten years ago, Henzell, 34, and his mother, Sally, opened a small restaurant on six acres overlooking Calabash Bay and named it after a local parrot. A small guest house followed, and each year, as the Henzells’ gospel of sophisticated laziness spreads beyond the fishing village of Treasure Beach (pop. 600), on Jamaica’s southwestern shore, more rooms are added. Which only makes it easier to give in to inertia. Lounging under the acacia trees next to the tiled saltwater pool, a pair of still-pale English thirty-somethings allow that they’ve been devouring books from the well-stocked library for four days. They reel with shock when my boyfriend and I start naming off the places we’ve been (Great Pedro Bluff! Black River fruit market!) and the things we’ve seen (dolphins! crocodiles!) and eaten (grilled conch! jerk crab!) in just two days. Soon, they wobble off on mountain bikes, determined to find out what they’ve been missing.

The Good Life // From modest wooden cabins with funky mosaic bathtubs to bright adobe bungalows topped with open-air rooftop chill zones, the 15 cottages at Jake’s are a m茅lange of Moroccan style and iconoclastic tiling—all sans TVs or phones but avec CD players. (The bar has a stellar music collection for your listening pleasure.) Lucky us, our pink palace came with a wooden porch overlooking the surf and an outdoor shower with claw-foot tub, plus swanky Aveda potions. There are two chow houses: Jake’s, the poolside bistro, where the coffee’s delivered fresh daily by a woman who roasts it over a wood fire; and Jack Sprat’s, a beachfront joint where Fabulous (yep, that’s his name) serves up jerk crab and coconut ice cream, and a DJ spins dance-hall reggae into the wee hours.

Jaw Dropper // A pilgrimage to Shirley Genus’s wooden zareba—basically a hut with a sauna—is required. Strip down next to a steaming terra-cotta pot filled with a healing soup of organically grown lemongrass and other herbs, then sweat like the dickens. Afterward, let Shirley hit all the pressure points ($30 for steam bath, $60 for massage; book through Jake’s).

Sports on-Site // Sea-kayak or snorkel through the rocky maze that hugs the beach. (Kayaks are free; snorkel gear can be rented at the bar for $10 a day.) Or hire a local to take you out fishing for snapper, jack, kingfish, and grouper; trips can be arranged at the front desk ($35 an hour per person).

Beyond the Sand // One day, on our way to ogle crocodiles along the Black River, 16 miles northwest, our boat chugged past the Pelican Bar, a tiny shack on a lick of sand. Our captain shouted out a lunch order to Floyd, the owner, and on the way back we parked, waded ashore, and dug into $6 plates of steamed fish, grilled onions, doughy white bread, and bottles of Red Stripe ($35 per person for Black River boat tours; book through Jake’s).

The Fine Print // Air Jamaica (800-523-5585; ) flies round-trip to Montego Bay from New York for about $600, from L.A. for $800. From December 19 to April 20, a double-occupancy room at Jake’s (877-526-2428, ) costs $95 to $395, meals not included ($75 to $325 in low season).

The Essential Eight

Had enough paradise? Add some intensity to your Caribbean life list.

Kayak the Exuma Cays Exuma Cays Land and Sea Park, in the Bahamas, spans 176 square miles of reeftop emerald water that laps the marine caves and white-sand beaches of hundreds of undeveloped limestone islands. Shallow, calm seas are perfect for paddling, snorkeling, and swimming. Do all three on a nine-day trip with Ecosummer Expeditions. ($1,695; 800-465-8884, )

Climb Pico Duarte More travelers each year are tackling the Caribbean’s tallest peak. At 10,414 feet, the rocky summit of Pico Duarte rises up from the tropical lowlands of Armando Bermudez National Park, along the Dominican Republic’s Cordillera Central. Iguana Mama runs a three-day, 29-mile mule trek to the top. ($450; 800-849-4720, )

Hike to Boiling Lake Deep in the heart of Dominica, hot magma warms the rocks and pushes volcanic gas through vents to keep one of the world’s largest boiling lakes at an eerie, gray simmer. Getting there requires a muddy three-hour rainforest slog on seldom-signed paths. Reserve a guide through Ken’s Hinterland 国产吃瓜黑料 Tours. ($40; 767-448-4850, ) Swim in Mosquito Bay Every night, a bright concentration of bioluminescent organisms lights up Mosquito Bay, on the south side of Vieques, just east of Puerto Rico. Paddle 15 minutes from shore with Blue Caribe Kayaks, then jump overboard for a glow-in-the-dark swim. ($23; 787-741-2522, )

Sail the Grenadines The unspoiled Grenadines—30 small islands, 24 of them uninhabited, from St. Vincent to Union Island—have long been favorite waters of the yachting elite. Now you can sail them without chartering an entire boat: Reserve one of five cabins aboard Setanta Travel’s 56-foot luxury catamarans for a seven-day cruise. ($3,990 per week per cabin, double occupancy; 784-528-6022, )

Dive the Bloody Bay Wall Just off Little Cayman’s north shore, the seafloor takes a half-mile-deep plunge along Bloody Bay Wall, where you’re sure to spy huge eagle rays and hawksbill turtles. Paradise Divers offers two-tank boat dives. ($80; 877-322-9626, )

Kitesurf Aruba Plan a pilgrimage to Aruba’s arid eastern shore, where 80-degree water and consistent winds make Boca Grandi the ultimate surf zone for seasoned kiters. Vela’s Dare2Fly offers a three-day introductory course in calmer waters ($350; 800-223-5443, ).

Fish the Sian Ka’an Biosphere Reserve In the protected white-sand flats on the south side of 90-square-mile Ascensi—n Bay, in the Yucat谩n, bonefish run wild. Sign on for a week of guided fishing, eating, and lodging at the funky, thatched cabanas of Cuzan Bonefish Flats. ($1,999 per person, double occupancy; 011-52-983-83-403-58, )

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Staniel Cay, Exumas, Bahamas
[Staniel Cay Yacht Club]
Midway through the 150-mile-long Exumas chain is Staniel Cay, reachable by puddle-jumper from Nassau and Fort Lauderdale or by private boat. Here the jade-colored ocean laps at the stilts supporting the seven sunset-facing cottages of the Staniel Cay Yacht Club. Spend a day snorkeling with stingrays near Thunderball Cave and a night sipping the SCYC rum punch in the clubhouse.
Perks: Use of a Boston Whaler, golf carts, sea kayaks, and snorkel gear, plus three meals a day
Rates: $173 per person per night November 20-September 9, $162 in low season
Contact: 242-355-2024,

Treasure Beach, Jamaica
[Jake’s Resort]
The star-studded Jake’s Resort—part of the super-chic Island Outpost group marketed by Island Records’ Chris Blackwell—is an intimate jumble of 15 rustic cottages that meld Moroccan architectural accents with a Caribbean flair, set on the south coast near Treasure Beach. Lounge by the saltwater pool and you might glimpse Bono.
Perks: Cannondale mountain bikes, sea kayaks, deep-sea fishing gear, a yoga room, and computers with Internet access. Every room has a CD player and thumping reggae.
Rates: Cottages, $105-$275 per night in low season, $115-$295 in high season (December 19-April 15)
Contact: 876-965-3000,

Anegada, British Virgin Islands
[Anegada Reef Hotel]
Leave the chaos of modern life behind for this quiet, 20-room harborside hotel—the only one on 11-mile-long, three-mile-wide Anegada. Most guests come here solely to relax, read, and romp in the quiet surf. The gracious owner, Lawrence Wheatley, will make you feel at home with his well-stocked library of paperback novels and mysteries.
Perks: Three meals a day including a nightly beach barbecue, use of snorkel gear, and the chance to yuck it up with the yachting crowd
Rates: Garden- and ocean-view doubles, $215-$250 per night in low season, $250-$275 in high season (December 15-April 30)
Contact: 284-495-8002,

Saba, Netherlands Antilles [El Momo Cottages]
These seven gingerbread-style “eco-funky” cottages in the Netherlands Antilles are tucked deep into the verdant hillside, with big wooden decks and a turquoise-blue swimming pool bordered by hibiscus plants. And everything is run by the sun—solar power, solar showers, plus composting toilets. Saba National Marine Park’s volcanic tunnels draw scuba divers from around the world.
Perks: Hammocks, a swimming pool, and tropical gardens
Rates: Doubles with shared bath, $50 per night; doubles with private bath, $60, or a private bathroom and kitchen, $90
Contact: 001-599-41-62265,

Dominican Republic, Dominica, Grenadines, Grenada

Cabarete Bay, Dominican Republic
[Hotel Albatross]
An eight-minute walk from Cabarete Bay, the whitewashed walls of the 35-room Hotel Albatross look stark against a backdrop of tropical foliage. Even on a balmy night, the wicker-furnished rooms get cooled by ceiling fans and trade winds. Grab a sailboard from the nearby Wind Center and catch some air on Cabarete Bay or rent one of the center’s longboards and head 15 minutes west to surf the right break at Playa Encuentro.
Perks: Windsurfing equipment (longboards for a nominal fee) and lunch
Rates: Doubles, $626 for seven nights in low season, $696 in high season (December 15-April 15)
Contact: Vela Windsurf Resorts, 800-223-5443,

Trafalgar Falls, Dominica
[Papillote Wilderness Retreat]
This seven-room jungle lodge on the island’s southwestern end sits in the middle of a rainforest bursting with bougainvillea and banana trees; many of the rooms are detailed with plant-themed frescoes. A 15-minute hike from the retreat will take you to the roaring 275-foot Trafalgar Falls.
Perks: Two refreshing waterfalls and three warm mineral pools are located on the property and are available to guests at any hour.
Rates: Doubles, $95 per night year-round; the seven-night 国产吃瓜黑料 Package, $1,200 per person, includes meals, whale watches, guided snorkeling trips, and hikes.
Contact: 767-448-2287,

Carriacou, Grenadines
[Caribbee Inn]
At the northern end of Carriacou, on a forested ridge overlooking Sparrow Bay, the sweet smell of frangipani wafts into the seven guest rooms, each with its own four-poster bed and patio. This boutique hotel is reminiscent of a colonial plantation house and comes with four free-flying blue-and-yellow macaws, wild iguanas, and land turtles.
Perks: A private cove offers guests some of the best snorkeling on the island; pristine Anse la Roche beach, part of High North National Park, is a 20-minute walk away.
Rates: Doubles, $150 per night in low season, $200 in high season (December 15-April 15)
Contact: 473-443-7380,

La Sagesse Bay, Grenada
La Sagesse Nature Centre]
Sitting on 67 acres of farmland, the five-room English-style manor and two beachfront cottages nuzzle up against La Sagesse Bay on the east side of the island. With lots of windows and welcoming verandas, the rooms are open to the salty air. Order a papaya-and-passion-fruit smoothie and a fresh grilled tuna sandwich at the open-air restaurant and have a picnic on the bay.
Perks: Snorkeling equipment and sea kayaks as well as guided hiking trips
Rates: Doubles, $80-$100 per night in low season, $120-$160 in high season (December 15-April 15)
Contact: 473-444-6458,

Cayman Islands, Tobago, Antigua, Puerto Rico

Cayman Brac, Cayman Islands
[Brac Reef Beach Resort]
On the western side of the island, the Brac Reef is replete with vacation amenities: a spa, a sandy beach, 40 air-conditioned rooms, the Reef Divers II dive shop, and the ubiquitous tiki bar. Rooms are motel-like, but with the lure of diving to a frigate 110 feet below the surface, guests are rarely indoors at all.
Perks: Tennis courts, a swimming pool and Jacuzzi, a fitness center, and bikes
Rates: A seven-night package with 17 dives and two daily buffets is $902 per person (November 1-December 20, holidays excluded); a three-night package for non-divers, buffets included, is $416 in low season and $483 in high season (December 14-April 19)
Contact: 800-594-0843,

Culloden Bay, Tobago
[Footprints Eco Resort]
With thatch roofs, rough-hewn teak walls, and elevated walkways, the seven au naturel casitas at Footprints are tucked slightly back from Culloden Bay. After dining on Trinidad Gulf shrimp in the resort’s Cocoa House Restaurant, relax in the hammock strung up on your private deck overlooking the bay.
Perks: Hike the 62-acre property, then dip into Tobago’s only saltwater swimming pool.
Rates: Doubles, $95 per night in low season, $115 in high season (December 15-April 15); the seven-night Explorer Package includes daily snorkel tours, hikes to waterfalls, and breakfast, for $650 per person.
Contact: 800-814-1396,

Freeman’s Bay, Antigua
[Galleon Beach]
Situated on Freeman’s Bay on the southern tip of Antigua, six one- to four-bedroom cottages fully equipped with kitchens and spacious decks face a stunning white-sand beach, while the backyard brims with tropical vegetation. The infinity pool, flush with the horizon, overlooks a bay dotted with sailboats and windsurfers.
Perks: Windsurfing, snorkeling, and sea-kayaking equipment, plus sailboats and two tennis courts
Rates: One-bedroom cottages start at $140 per night in low season, $225 in high season (December 7-April 26)
Contact: 268-460-1024,

Culebra, Puerto Rico
[Tamarindo Estates]
Twelve bright-yellow cottages with kitchenettes and decks dot the private 60-acre estate on the western side of Culebra, a tiny island east of Puerto Rico, and overlook the pristine Luis Pe–a Marine Reserve. Swim with green and hawksbill turtles at Tamarindo’s private reef or build sand castles at nearby Flamenco Beach.
Perks: Guests get a rental car with their stay, and blissful isolation.
Rates: Doubles, $160 per night in low season (two-night minimum stay), $215 in high season (December 15-April 30)
Contact: 787-742-3343,

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Best Surfing Waves

BATHSHEBA, BARBADOS: Soupbowl, a reef break with a powerful right on the island’s undeveloped east coast, has been hosting wintertime surfing competitions for 20 years, but thanks to an Atlantic exposure, good waves can be found year-round. The Soupbowl scene heats up in November, when the Independence Pro (celebrating Barbados’s 1966 break from Britain) draws surfers hoping for southwest winds and deep barrels. Kelly Slater won last year. For details, contact the Barbados Surfing Association (246-228-5117, ).

HALEIWA, OAHU, HAWAII: Its exposure to huge swells makes Oahu’s North Shore (a.k.a. the Seven Mile Miracle) the most epic surf magnet in the universe. Winter storms generate rolling monsters made famous at spots like Pipeline and Sunset Beach, but beginners can enjoy Chuns Reef and Puaena Point, where weaker currents and a softer bottom make for a gentler entr茅e to the sport. For lessons ($65 for a three-hour group lesson) and rentals ($24-$30 per day) contact the Surf-N-Sea shop (808-637-7873, ).
PUERTO ESCONDIDO, MEXICO: The “Mexican Pipeline” is a legendary beach break with left- and right-hand tubes at Zicatela Beach. In March, the Central Surf Longboard Invitational is held here, kicking off the summer season of big southern swells. If the Pipeline’s too gnarly for you, walk a bit farther south to La Punta, where you’ll often find an easier point breaking left—a slower, rounder learner’s wave. For classes, check in with the Central Surf Shop ($50 per two-hour lesson and $10-$12 for all-day board rentals; 011-52-954-582-2285, ).

Best Hipster Hangouts

JAKE’S JAMAICA: Eclectic Jake’s, part of the super-chic Island Outpost group (owned by Island Records’ Chris Blackwell), is an intimate jumble of adobe buildings脗鈥攁ccented by a thumping reggae soundtrack脗鈥攁top a south-coast cliff near Treasure Beach’s dark sands. Denizens of cool are many here脗鈥攜ou could bump into Bono in the mosaic-tiled saltwater pool if you’re not lazing about in Seapuss, Sweetlip, or one of the 11 other brightly painted gingerbread cottages done up with island paintings. Be sure to try Jake’s pumpkin soup at the restaurant (doubles from $95; 800-688-7678.

HOTEL DESEO, MEXICO: Pack the Gucci shades脗鈥攖his “hotel and lounge” on Playa del Carmen’s Fifth Avenue places a heavy emphasis on the lounge part of the equation. Note the Euro-tinged accents wafting through the air as bronzed gods and goddesses sun away last night’s party on daybeds lining the upstairs deck. Grab a cerveza at the bar, then hop in the outdoor Jacuzzi. The 15 elegantly sparse guest rooms脗鈥攇rooviest on the Mayan Riviera脗鈥攆eature marble toilets and clawfoot tubs (doubles from $118; 011-52-984-879-3620, ).

LALUNA, GRENADA: Sixteen airy villas脗鈥攅ach with a Balinese four-poster bed and an expansive private deck that includes a plunge pool脗鈥攃over a hillside above Laluna’s secluded beach. Welcome to an Italian-owned and -designed enclave of fabulousness near Morne Rouge. When you’re not diving or kayaking, sample the fresh Mediterranean pasta in the beachside restaurant and keep an eye peeled for former megamodel Jerry Hall (doubles from $270; 473-439-0001, ).

Best Beaches

SECRET BEACH, KAUAI, HAWAII: At the base of 150-foot cliffs west of Kilauea, this two-mile stretch of gold-glowing sand draws its name from its remote location (and the presence of nude sunbathers). To get in on the Secret, you have to drive two miles west from Kilauea to Kalihiwai, go a half-mile down a muddy road to the trailhead, then walk five minutes on a rocky path. Once you’re there, you’ll want to comb the beach and lounge around, but it’s best not to swim: From October to May, swells can be quite large, and currents are always strong. The folks at Kayak Kauai are knowledgeable and can help with directions (800-437-3507, ).

SANDY CAY, BRITISH VIRGIN ISLANDS: This uninhabited 14-acre nirvana southeast of Jost Van Dyke can be reached only by boaters, namely yachties, but its crystalline waters and gleaming white sand make it well worth chartering a ride yourself. Daytrippers are welcome to anchor on the island, owned by Laurance Rockefeller, and bask on his beach or hike the 20 minutes it takes to circle Sandy Cay or venture up the trail through its interior. Call Caribbean Connection for charters (284-494-3623).
ST. JOSEPH PENINSULA STATE PARK, PORT ST. JOE, FLORIDA: Rated America’s best beach by Dr. Beach himself (Stephen Leatherman, a coastal geologist who assesses the health of the nation’s sandy stretches), the 2,516-acre park is bounded by St. Joe Bay and the Gulf of Mexico, with 14 miles of coastline. Highlights include snowy sand dunes, wildlife (this is a primo spot for spotting hawks and monarch butterflies), and the bliss of seeing nary another soul (campsites, $15 per night; 800-326-3521 for reservations, 850-227-1327 for information).

Best Eco-Lodges

LODGE AT PICO BONITO, HONDURAS: The 8,000-foot peak of Pico Bonito sets the backdrop for this 200-acre nature resort close to the Caribbean coast, where 21 cabins (constructed from hurricane-felled timber) are tucked among a grove of cacao and coffee trees. A poolside bar serves fresh grapefruit juice straight from the orchards on the property, while a restaurant with an outdoor patio offers Meso-American cuisine. Pico Bonito National Park is next door, and the Class II-IV Cangrejal River flows nearby. For a less frothy adventure, paddle a canoe through the mangroves of Cuero y Salado Park, near La Ceiba. Watch for 275 species of birds, including the long-tailed manakin, as well as jaguars, kinkajous, and monkeys (doubles from $155; 888-428-0221, ).

EXOTICA, DOMINICA: The lodge’s eight wooden cottages overlooking the sea on the slopes of 3,683-foot Morne Anglais have a genuine eco-pedigree—they’re run by the president of the Caribbean Conservation Society, Athie Martin. The units have tropical-hardwood verandas, pine-paneled living rooms, and fully equipped kitchens with gas stoves and solar-heated water. Guests can prepare their own meals with fresh-picked produce from an adjoining organic farm or dine at the lodge’s caf茅. Aside from soaking in the get-back-to-the-land vibe, there are diversions: Wander old hunting trails through forests looking for bananaquit birds, hike an hour up to Middleham Falls near Cochrane, or go play in the sea (doubles from $140; 767-448-8839, ).

HOTELITO DESCONOCIDO, MEXICO: Here’s proof that a stay at an eco-resort doesn’t have to be an exercise in austerity. Sixty miles south of Puerto Vallarta on the Pacific coast, Desconocido is as plush as environmentally oriented accommodations come: Think Mexican fishing village meets luxury safari camp. Palafitos (wood-floored bungalows with palapa roofs) are set up on stilts around a stunning lagoon and a 100-acre beach reserve where sea turtles nest from June to January. Use the lodge’s equipment to windsurf, or take a horseback ride along the beach, then head back to one of the 30 rustic-chic guest rooms, which feature canopied beds, open-air showers, and embroidered linens—but no electricity. Solar energy powers the resort, and countless candles provide soft lighting (doubles from $215; 800-851-1143, ).

TIAMO RESORTS, SOUTH ANDROS, BAHAMAS: Sea kayaking, sailing, diving, snorkeling, and a quiet beach are all a coconut’s throw away from Tiamo’s lodge and eight bungalows on stilts with views over South Bight’s teal waters. The resort is supremely eco-friendly—it’s solar-powered and uses composting toilets; guests are asked to pack out their plastic goods for recycling. Bring your fly rods—bonefish are abundant in the flats right out the front door. Afterward, head to the main lodge for Chef Jared’s seared tuna with red-pepper-and-mango sauce (doubles from $205; 800-201-4356, ).

KANANTIK, BELIZE: Situated on 300 private acres (with an airstrip) in southern Belize, Kanantik Reef and Jungle Resort redefines “isolated”: The only neighbors are the jaguars and toucans that haunt the Cockscomb Basin Wildlife Sanctuary, four miles south, and the whale sharks that migrate offshore. Ancient Mayan building traditions have been updated to 21st-century cush in the 25 spacious caba帽as that line the palm-fringed beach, where you can launch a sea kayak. You can also dive, fish for bill- and bonefish, sail one of the resort’s Hobie Cats, or tour the temples at Xunantunich ruins, near the Guatemalan border. Refuel with the restaurant’s Creole-Mediterranean fare (doubles from $265; 800-965-9689, ).

Best Dive Destinations

Into the Caribbean’s clear blue wonders

DRIFT DIVING LITTLE CAYMAN’S BLOODY BAY WALL MARINE PARK: Bloody Bay is a notch every diver wants to carve into his or her weight belt, with good reason—gliding over the edge of a mile-deep vertical drop as the wall disappears into the depths of the Caribbean Sea is an unbeatable thrill. Orange and brown sponges jut from all directions, and sea turtles, spotted eagle rays, and groupers swim about. Three-night packages, including lodging, meals, and diving, start at $645 at the clubby Little Cayman Beach Resort (800-327-3835, ).

VIEWING WHALE SHARKS OFF UTILA, HONDURAS: Your best bet for encountering 25- to 40-foot whale sharks, the largest fish in the sea (don’t worry, they eat plankton, not humans), is to sign up with Princeton, N.J.-based Shark Research Institute. During a weeklong visit at their field station at Utila Lodge, on one of the Bay Islands off Honduras in the Caribbean Sea, you’ll learn how to find the mammoth spotted creatures, dive with them, and help researchers with population studies. Seven-night packages, including lodging, meals, and diving, cost $1,150 per person (609-921-3522, ).

DIVING THE SHORES OF BONAIRE: The shore-diving capital of the world has outstanding dive sites just duck walks from the beach. (Salt and Old Town piers are favorite spots.) The strictly regulated Bonaire Marine Park surrounds the island—a 111-square-mile Dutch outpost off the Venezuelan coast—and protects its coral, sea turtles, and fish. Buddy Dive Resort (866-462-8339, ) offers eight-day, seven-night packages, including rental car and six days of unlimited air fills, starting at $965 per person.

DIVING PINNACLES IN SABA MARINE PARK: Saba—a five-square-mile mountainous outcrop in the Netherlands Antilles—is legendary for its underwater pinnacles and seamounts, including Third Encounter and Twilight Zone. Covered in red and orange fans and sponges, they rise from the floor of the Caribbean Sea to within 85 feet of the surface, and are frequented by six varieties of shark. Sea Saba Advanced Dive Center (800-883-7222, ) offers three-day, six-dive packages starting at $399 per person at the eco-funky El Momo Cottages.

Best Archaeological Sites

TIKAL NATIONAL PARK, GUATEMALA: The overused term “lost world” finally feels appropriate when you first glimpse the Mayan ruins of Tikal, once a thriving metropolis of 100,000 people that peaked around a.d. 700. Temple IV, Great Plaza, and South Acropolis, the major ruins in this 143-square-mile park in northern Guatemala, poke out of a mist-shrouded canopy, while toucans flutter, monkeys chatter, and coatimundis cross your path. Visit when the park opens at dawn—trails of vapor rise from the ruins like departing spirits. You’ll find the rustic, backpacker-friendly Jaguar Inn (doubles, $48; 011-502-926-0002, ) near the entrance to the park.

FORT JEFFERSON, DRY TORTUGAS NATIONAL PARK, FLORIDA: The seven islands that make up the Dry Tortugas National Park—70 miles west of Key West—were discovered by Europeans in 1513, when Ponce de L茅on arrived and named them after the sea turtles that fed his sailors. The islands are still known for their marine life, but the ruins of Fort Jefferson, on 16-acre Garden Cay, are the main attraction. Construction on the red-brick fort began in 1846 but was never completed. Reach Garden Cay by seaplane ($179 per person round-trip; Sea Planes of Key West, 800-950-2359, ) or boat ($109 per person; Yankee Fleet, 800-634-0939, ). As you approach it, the six-sided, three-story fort hovers over the Atlantic like a mirage. In 2003, camping will be available on the beach ($3 per person; 305-242-7700, ).
RIVER OF RUINS TRIP THROUGH MEXICO AND GUATEMALA: This Indiana Jones-style river tour of Mayan ruins begins in Palenque, Mexico. You’ll fly to Tikal National Park in Guatemala, and then ride back to Mexico by river on 20- to 80-foot plank boats called lanchas. During your cruise along the Pasion, Petexbatun, and Usumacinta rivers, you’ll frequent 1,500-year-old sites like Aguateca and Yaxchilan, accessible only by hiking. A ten-day trip with Ceiba 国产吃瓜黑料s (800-217-1060, ) costs $2,550 per person.

Best Fishing

Walk this way: stepping into Cuba’s Cayo Largo

BONEFISH脗鈥擫A TORTUGA IN JARDINES DE LA REINA, CUBA: Combine live-aboard and lodge fishing in these pristine flats 40 miles off the island’s southwest coast. A lack of commercial fishing and a dearth of people mean you can cast a fly into waters few others have ever fished. Avalon Fishing and Diving Center is based at a floating lodge脗鈥攖hree large boats with 17 cabins脗鈥攁nd uses a fleet of skiffs for fishing. Expert Cuban guides pole you through shallow water around cays as you cast for the elusive fork-tailed torpedoes. Eight-day trips cost $2,400 (011-39-335-814-9111, ).

TARPON脗鈥擱脙O COLORADO, COSTA RICA: With howler monkeys screeching at you from the trees onshore while a 100-pound tarpon hurls itself out of the R脙颅o Colorado at the end of your line, it’s hard to imagine a more intense fishing spot than here in northeastern Costa Rica. But just keep concentrating and you’ll be reeling in tarpon aplenty at this spawning ground where the river meets the Caribbean Sea. Base yourself at Archie Field’s R脙颅o Colorado Lodge, which offers 18 plain but comfortable rooms on stilts, right on the riverbanks ($380 per person per day, including guides, meals, and boat; 800-243-9777, ).

PERMIT脗鈥擜SCENSI脙鈥淣 BAY, MEXICO: In the heart of the Yucat脙隆n’s Sian Ka’an Biosphere Reserve, a 1,304,688-acre UNESCO World Heritage site, this massive expanse of saltwater flats is one of the world’s best places to catch a permit on a fly. Your odds of hooking a bonefish or a tarpon are pretty good, too脗鈥擜scensi脙鲁n Bay is often called the Grand Slam Capital of the fishing world. Most anglers situate themselves in or near the tiny fishing village of Punta Allen; the best place to stay is a four-bedroom guest house, SeaClusion Villa, five miles from town ($2,500 a week, per person, including transport from Canc脙潞n; 888-829-9420, ).

Best (Affordable) Beachfront Resorts

HOTEL HANA-MAUI, MAUI, HAWAII: When you get a load of the sea crashing practically right into this place, you won’t be surprised that scenes from Fantasy Island were shot on the 66-acre grounds. Sure, there’s tennis on site, hiking in Haleakala National Park, cycling along the winding coastal roads, and snorkeling nearby at Hamoa Beach, but after soaking in the stars and the ocean views from the hot tub on your room’s huge deck, you won’t feel like doing much else. The resort’s 47 plantation-style cottages, all with ocean views (and surrounded by a 4,500-acre ranch), are situated near the little town of Hana on Maui’s east coast. A main dining room, with streamers dangling from the ceiling to diffuse light, serves scrumptious meals with local produce (doubles from $275; 800-321-4262, ).

NUEVA VIDA, MEXICO: This tiny resort’s Swiss Family Robinson-style rooms, with mucho wood and palm thatch, are housed in bungalows built ten feet off the ground to maximize the sultry ocean breezes and gorgeous ocean views. What to do? Tulum’s sweep of white-sand beach and one of the Yucat脙隆n’s most dramatic clusters of Mayan ruins are right outside your door (you can also explore the nearby ruins of Cob脙隆 and Chich脙漏n Itz脙隆)脗鈥攐r let the hotel’s massage therapist noodle you silly. Leave the blow-dryer at home: The sun and wind power the lights and aren’t up to the task of drying your hair (doubles from $65; 011-52-984-877-8512, ).

EDEN ROCK, ST. BART’S: If you want a whiff of Saint-Tropez in the Caribbean, try this red-roofed resort, which crowns a rocky promontory jutting into Baie de St. Jean. You’re more likely to see guests wearing Prada than Patagonia脗鈥攎ost of the 16 rooms cost at least $600 per night脗鈥攂ut the common denominator is a love for the luxe beaches that stretch out below the hotel. The trick: Reserve the Captain’s Cabin at about half the cost of a room. When you tire of snorkeling around the reef surrounding Eden Rock, you can gorge on French cuisine, pamper yourself in the spa, sip fruity cocktails in the beach bar, or laze on the topless beach (cabin rental is $375 per night from January to April and less during the summer and fall; 877-563-7105, ).

WINDMILLS PLANTATION, SALT CAY, TURKS AND CAICOS: On laid-back Salt Cay, you’re in the company of wild donkeys, windmills, and migrating humpback whales; the perfect place to slow yourself down is this eight-room, plantation-style hotel overlooking a 2.5-mile stretch of beach. The hotel has a saltwater pool and snorkeling off the beach; divers can explore the coral walls and the Endymion, an 18th-century wreck, with Salt Cay Divers. At day’s end, repair to rooms whose colorful walls and dark wooden antiques from colonial-era plantations take you back to the days when those donkeys hauled salt from mines to ships bound for distant ports (doubles from $325; 800-822-7715, ).

Best Hikes

PICO DUARTE, DOMINICAN REPUBLIC: Hike from steamy jungle to cool forest on this strenuous 29-mile trek to the top of the Caribbean’s highest peak, Pico Duarte (10,128 feet). Traverse Parque Nacional Armando Berm煤dez, which typically sees fewer than 200 tourists a year, and listen to your guide spin stories around the campfire. On the trail, look out for wild boar and the rare Hispaniola parrot. Iguana Mama’s three-day trip costs $450 (809-571-0908, ).

PARQUE NACIONAL DARI脡N, PANAMA: This 1.2-million-acre UNESCO World Heritage site, stretching almost the entire length of the Colombian border, is home to 6,000-foot mountains, Ember谩 Indians, and 450 species of birds, like macaws and the green-naped tanager. Fly into a renovated gold mining camp (sleeps eight) at Cana, a valley in the Pirre Mountains, for day hikes. The five-mile Pirre Mountain Trail climbs 1,000 feet to a cloudforest camp; the two-day Boca de Cupe Trail is the only way out of the park by land. Ancon Expeditions offers a 14-day Dari茅n Explorer Trek ($2,495; 011-507-269-9415, ).
PU’U KUKUI, MAUI, HAWAII: Each year, 5,788-foot Pu’u Kukui Mountain receives buckets of rain (about 30 feet), but few visitors (about 12). The 8,661-acre nature preserve is owned by the Maui Land and Pineapple Company, which one day a year, in August, helicopters up a dozen hikers (at $1,000 bucks a pop!) for a three-mile tour and lunch, led by the Kapalua Nature Society. The cloudforest hides 12 of Hawaii’s 150 indigenous plant communities and the nearly extinct i’iwi bird. Contact Kapalua Nature Society (800-527-2582, ).

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Island R&R: a sandy spit off the coast of Grenada

Q: How can I book a windsurfing trip to Grenada?

— Marilyn Adam, Redding, California



国产吃瓜黑料 Advisor:

A: No need to book in advance; Grand Anse Beach is littered with dive shops that rent equipment by the hour. An offshore reef keeps breaking waves a good distance from the beach, creating a wide, flat bay with perfect conditions for beginners. If you’re after a wilder ride, head out into the surf or drive your gear to the less protected Atlantic side of the island.

But if windsurfing is your only goal, you should probably pick another island. Other Caribbean surf spots have more reliable conditions this time of year (Grenada’s peak wind season runs from December to early April). My pick would be St. Bart’s, where the long-established Wind and Wave Power (011-590-590-278-257) windsurfing school on Grand Cul de Sac is known for getting first-timers up and riding within 20 minutes of dropping a board on their breezy, shallow lagoon. The eccentric French owner recently rode the wind all the way to St. Martin, a trip that takes 90 minutes if you’re traveling by ferry.

If it must be Grenada, then have a windless day backup plan ready to go. Fortunately, there’s no shortage of outdoor alternatives. World class reef and wreck diving lies off the west coast and around the uninhabited islands between the mainland and Carriacou (Granada’s oft overlooked sibling to the north). Anglers can count on reeling in plenty of marlin and yellowfin tuna. And hiking trails run through the island’s rainforest interior. One of the better known trails in the Grand Etang Forest Reserve passes seven waterfalls on its three-hour path through virgin forest. For other ideas, go to or contact the extremely helpful, outdoors-minded reservations staff at Island Inns ( 877-364-1100).

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Nevis: Uncrowded, Unhurried, Unsung

You have to force the action a bit on Nevis. Oh, there’s everything to do—kayak, snorkel, dive, windsurf—that you’d expect on a lush volcanic knoll in the Caribbean Leewards, but there’s no compulsion to do any of it. Why? With legends of sea beasts and fierce storms lingering in their collective unconscious, most Nevisians are happy to remain onshore. Which is why I felt perfectly authentic the day I toweled off from a morning’s snorkel and spent a few hours in the tiny capital city of Charlestown eating fresh mangoes and watching the St. Kitts ferry come in, the disembarking passengers oblivious to the two large cows strolling through Memorial Square. You can, of course, thwart the prevailing don’t-work-up-a-sweat landlubber mentality at any time and delve into the island’s sugar-sand beaches, secret dive sites, far-out windsurfing, and goat-munched singletrack. And rest assured: Your hammock will still be empty at day’s end.

The Sporting Life
Thirty-six-square-mile Nevis is content to doze beneath the tourist radar. Nevis Peak (3,232 feet) crowns the island—an ascent is a wet grunt, but worth the effort. Go with Linnell Liburd (Sunrise Tours, 869-469-2758) to avoid confusion amid a warren of routes. Nevis’s heritage as a British colony of sugarcane plantations accounts for the grand-manors-turned-hostelries, as well as the network of abandoned roads made to order for fat-tire wanderers. “If you see a trail, follow it,” is Winston Crooke’s advice at Mountain Bike Nevis (869-469-9682). Winston also runs Windsurfing Nevis; sideshore winds at Oualie Beach make it an ideal novice’s venue, but paddle beyond the placid bay and a funnel effect in the two-mile-wide channel between Nevis and St. Kitts creates bump-and-jump stuff not for the faint of heart. Ellis Chaderton runs Scuba Safaris (869-469-9518; www.divenevis.com), the island’s only dive operation. He’s charted 40 different sites, including a favorite called Booby High Shoals, where flotillas of nurse sharks and monstrous lobsters hang out. Two-tank dives cost $80.
The Beach
Oualie Beach, 250 yards of searing white sand, couldn’t be better protected, with headlands at both ends, thousand-foot Round Hill just behind, and the mountainous east end of St. Kitts just across a channel. The water is 81 degrees and virtually all of the island’s water-sports centers are here. For all that, Oualie is perennially serene.

After the Sun Goes Down
Make for Sunshine’s, a sandy shack of dubious but unquestioned legality on Pinney’s Beach that thumps nightly with reggae, blues, and jazz. The gregarious eponymous owner grills the catch of the day along with chicken and ribs, served up with a wicked concoction he calls the Killer Bee (rum being the killer ingredient).

Lay Your Sunburned Head At…
Why choose? Do surf and turf. Golden Rock Plantation Inn lies at the base of Nevis Peak about three miles inland from the windward beaches, at the cusp of the rainforest. Trails lead right out the door into the dense jungle. The stately manor has been converted into a dining room and lounge, and seven stone cottages, scattered about the ambling grounds, have ocean views and private terraces. Be sure to reserve the limestone sugar-mill tower containing an impossibly romantic circular suite. Doubles cost $140-$365 (869-469-3346; ). For surf, head to Oualie Beach Hotel, where 34 gingerbread cottages sit right on the beach. Each has a screened tile-floor terrace with chaise longues and a glorious view of the sunset over St. Kitts. Doubles range from $105-$345 (869-469-9735; ).

Tr猫s Nevis
Listening to LaRue the Parrot squawk, “Pretty bird, what a pretty bird,” as you scarf your cornflakes on Golden Rock’s breakfast terrace; joining a group of urchins playing broomstick cricket in the street; testing the mysterious “goatwater” appetizer at Cla Cha Del on Jones Bay while Pas the bartender Osterizes a mango colada.

The Price of Paradise
Nevis needs Lady Bird Johnson. The roads are lined with trash, much of it courtesy of the goats and wild donkeys that upend flimsy trash cans.

Resources: Nevis’s New York tourism office: 800-582-6208;

Grenada: The Life of Spice

A milk cow tethered to a rusting Air Cubana prop plane, a relic from the Cold War, watches with regal boredom as we spin doughnuts on the old airstrip of Grenada’s long-defunct Pearls Airport. The runway stops at the edge of the deep blue Caribbean Sea, where I toss my last bite of lambi roti (a sort of conch burrito) to a foraging billy goat. I’m exploring Grenada with Anna Magni, an Italian expat who has offered to show me around the island for the day. We’ve just come from soaking in a hot spring up in the lush hills near the village of Bylands, having pulled ourselves away from the seductive sands along the tourist strip of Grande Anse Bay just long enough to hike the primeval mountains dominating the 21-mile-long island. At the hot spring, we met a reefer-puffing Rasta man, who thrust his cutlass at the surrounding jungle and told us, “Jes’ look aroun’ you, mon, dis is Greeen-a-da. You got to park de car, hike into de hills, and you will freak.” Taking his advice, we made our way along a one-and-a-half-mile muddy trail in 3,000-acre Grand Etang Forest Reserve through groves of fruit-heavy nutmeg trees and creaking bamboo to visit the Seven Sisters, a series of tumbling waterfalls east of Grand Etang Lake. Swimming in the rushing water, the scent of nutmeg wafting through the air, we got the Rasta man’s gist, and, well, I freaked.

The Sporting Life
The attractions aren’t all topside here—dive the wreck of the Bianca C, an enormous, 600-foot-long Italian cruise liner sunk in 165 feet of water (Ecodive, 473-444-7777; ), swim among nurse sharks, stingrays, barracuda, and moray eels off the scrubby nearby island of Carriacou (Carriacou Silver Diving Ltd., in Hillsborough, 473-443-7882; ), or watch humpback whales cruise by Grenada between December and April (First Impressions Ltd., 473-440-3678; ). Anna Magni of The Wandering Gecko Marketing and Management Ltd. can arrange any number of hiking and diving itineraries (473-444-2662; ).
The Beach
The sweeping sands of two-mile Grande Anse beach are Grenada’s version of Waikiki. Here you’ll find the majority of sun-damage-seeking visitors. Find more space and ditch your tourist stigma at Bathway Beach, on the island’s northeastern tip, an inviting half-mile, palm-lined strip—but beware of dangerous currents out past the reef.

After the Sun Goes Down
Everyone from cabinet ministers to beach vendors dances a sexy little number known as “wining” (imported from nearby Trinidad) at Fantazia 2001, a popular nightclub at Morne Rouge Beach. Brush up on “jamming”—a move as erotic as you’d care to get in public—in your bedroom mirror before attempting it on the dance floor.

Lay Your Sunburned Head At…
It’s hard to beat La Sagesse Nature Center. The small, secluded hotel is tucked away on the southeast coast above a quiet beach with great snorkeling. Stay in a restored manor house or in either of two cottages with wraparound verandas overlooking the ocean (doubles $75脨0; 473-444-6458; ). Farther afield on the southeast coast is Cabier Vision, a hip, beautifully designed new ten-room guest house, built on a rock overlooking the ocean (doubles $70; 473-444-6013; ).

The Price of Paradise
Check your brakes and practice blowing your horn, because navigating Grenada’s narrow, winding, guardrail-free roads is not for the timid. “Hit Me Easy” and other evocative local nicknames for particularly hairy bends give you an idea of what to expect.

Tr猫s Grenada
Place bets at the Flamboyant Hotel’s Monday-night hermit-crab races; haggle for nutmeg and cloves at the Saturday-morning market in St. George脮s; avoid partying anatomy students from the island’s infamous and very social medical school.

Resources: Grenada Tourist Board, 800-927-9554;

St. John: The Island of Eco-Delights

It’s no surprise that Laurance Rockefeller snapped up most of St. John for his private fiefdom in the 1950s, given the island’s rolling green hills, pristine bays, and Pepsodent-smile-white beaches. What’s surprising—and a boon for the average sun-worshiping schmo like you and me—is that in 1956 he gave 5,000 acres to the National Park Service, which now oversees 7,200 acres of land (about half of the 19-square-mile island) and 5,360 acres of surrounding water. Today, Stanley Selengut, the ecotourism guru who’s developed an enclave of green resorts (Maho Bay, Concordia, Harmony), has replaced Rockefeller as the island’s keeper. Even if you don’t stay in one of his elevated platform tents outfitted with shared bathhouses and recycled everything, you’ll find yourself communing with nature most of the time anyway—hiking, sea kayaking, diving, sailing, and swimming. Although the island is only a short ferry ride from St. Thomas, a cruise-ship mecca the Johnnies would probably love to torpedo, St. John has managed to escape the duty-free-shop/souvenir-stand fate of its buck-churning neighbor.

The Sporting Life
Start high in the hills on one of Virgin Islands National Park’s 22 hiking trails and work your way down to the waves. The scenic Reef Bay Trail (2.2 miles, two hours) descends 957 feet from Centerline Road to the Reef Bay Valley and ends at Genti Bay beach. Reserve a spot on a ranger-guided hike and pay $15 for the boat ride to Cruz Bay; call the Park Service Visitors Center in Cruz Bay (340-776-6201). Arthur Jones will take you sea kayaking to nearby Henley and Lovango Cayes ($75, full day) with his outfit Arawak Expeditions (800-238-8687; ), or to points beyond (some in the British Virgin Islands) on one of his kayaking and camping tours (five days, $995; seven days, $1,195). He also runs a new adventure week with Maho Bay Camps ($1,295 in winter, $1,125 in summer). Sandy West runs six-hour snorkeling trips to Hurricane Hole and other hard-to-reach spots on her 40-foot Lindsey Trawler, the Sadie Sea ($65; 340-776-6421; ). Scuba divers can explore the abundant local waters on both day and night dives with Low Key Watersports, which also offers a three-day PADI certification program ($350; 800-835-7718; ).
The Beach
The snow-white sand of three-quarter-mile-long Trunk Bay, on the island’s northwestern shore, is the most photographed beach on St. John, but it tends to get crowded, thanks to an express shuttle from the ferry dock. Head instead to the north shore, where you’ll find a handful of gorgeous beaches, all part of Virgin Islands National Park. The liveliest is Francis Bay—a great place to spot sea turtles in the shallows, and pelicans, ospreys, yellow-bellied sapsuckers, and banana quits camouflaged by the nearby marsh’s mangroves.

After the Sun Goes Down
Sure, you came here for the peace and quiet, but let’s face it, debating the pros and cons of low-flow showerheads at an eco-resort workshop isn’t nearly as much fun as getting ripped with the local hippies at Skinny Legs—an open-air bar in Coral Bay.

Lay Your Sunburned Head At…
Harmony Studios shares the same stunning location as legendary Maho Bay Camps (Selengut’s original tent-cottage resort). Plus, it has real walls (as opposed to fabric) and you don’t have to share bathrooms. Harmony’s six miniature townhouses, most of which have incredible views of Maho Bay, are solar powered and were built almost entirely of recycled materials (tiles made from crushed lightbulbs, countertops from recycled glass—the works). Each unit has a balcony and a full kitchen (doubles, $110-$210 per night; 340-776-6240; ). For total privacy nothing beats renting a villa. Try Park Isle Villas (340-693-8261; ), on lush Battery Hill overlooking Cruz Bay.

Tr猫s St. John
Getting busted by a park ranger for nude sunbathing at Salomon Bay (St. John’s unofficial nude beach); watching baby sea horses frolic among the mangroves at Hurricane Hole; feeling like a crunchy 脺ber-conservationist after checking into your Maho Bay digs.

The Price of Paradise
Thanks to its blue-blood past, St. John has been de-Caribbeanized—if you want cultural attractions and lively local flavor, go elsewhere.

Resources: U.S. Virgin Islands Tourist Information Board, 800-372-8784;

Tobago: The Tranquility Zone

Hey! Let’s stay up all night and parade through the streets nearly naked to the sound of steel-drum music! Oh, sorry, that’s Trinidad. Tobago, the altogether more serene, and green, sibling of the two-island nation of Trinidad and Tobago, has been environmentally conscientious for so long that it established a forest preserve—the oldest in the Western Hemisphere—ten years before America signed the Declaration of Independence. Peace and quiet is so much the draw on this 21-by-seven-mile island, some two-thirds of it still covered by mountainous rainforest, that it has long served as a morning-after decompression chamber for survivors of Trinidad’s annual pre-Lenten carnival. But Tobago’s unique charms draw their own devotees: serious birders, drift-dive scuba enthusiasts, and Robinson Crusoe-caliber escapees from society. To really fit in, though, you have to master one of the cornerstones of Tobago culture—”liming,” lying back and doing nothing at all.

The Sporting Life
Divers can swim through tunnels and drift along canyons near the north end of the island in search of sharks and elusive rays in the nutrient-rich water that’s pushed along from South America by the Guyana Current. Man Friday Diving (single-tank dive $35; 868-660-4676; ) is on the north end of the island. The best of the excellent island-wide snorkeling is among the coral gardens at Buccoo Reef, Speyside, and Mount Irvine Bay. Rent snorkeling gear at Wild Turtle Dive Safari at Pigeon Point Beach Resort ($14 per day for mask, fins, and snorkel; 868-639-7936; ). For birders, hikers, and mountain bikers, trails run like veins across the rugged spines of the 14,000-acre Tobago Main Ridge Forest Reserve. The 15-mile Gilpin Trace trail will lead you to a couple of 20-foot waterfalls in about 45 minutes. Local naturalist David Rooks offers two-and-a-half-hour hikes for $45 (868-639-4276).

The Beach
Avoid the well-lathered crowds between Pigeon and Crown Points near the biggest concentration of hotels. Instead, make your way to the pure white sand, calm water, and satisfying isolation of Englishman’s Bay, near Parlatuvier, on the north coast. If there is anyone else in sight of your beach towel, you are there on a busy day.

After the Sun Goes Down
On Sunday nights head for Sunday School, the high-decibel street dance that invariably gets cranking in the tiny village of Buccoo. The rest of the week, there is more to Tobago nightlife than listening to the tiny forest creatures. But not much.

Lay Your Sunburned Head At…
At Footprints Eco Resort, ease your environmental conscience on 62 acres of a former sugar and cocoa estate overlooking Culloden Bay. Built of local and recycled materials, its main four-room lodge sits on the ocean, while three thatch-roofed cottages, each with its own solar-heated Jacuzzi, have a bit more privacy back in the trees (doubles $95-$300; 800-814-1396; ).

Tr猫s Tobago
At Jemma’s, in Speyside, try not to fall out of your chair over the view that comes with your dinner—the restaurant is built in a massive sea-almond tree hanging over the water; make points with the locals by amping up your enthusiasm for their beloved goat and crab races.

The Price of Paradise
Adding to the damage, mostly in the form of coral broken by flippers, already done to Buccoo Reef.

Resources: Tourism and Industrial Development Company of Trinidad & Tobago (TIDCO), 868-623-6022;

Cayman Brac: Where Beauty is Skin-Diver Deep

Looking to open an offshore bank account? Book a trip to Grand Cayman. Dock-flat desolation? Little Cayman. But if you want stellar scuba diving, climbable cliffs, ridiculously friendly locals, a smattering of beachfront resorts, and enough Happy Hours to keep you steeped in a week’s worth of perma-grins, head for cigar-shaped Cayman Brac, about 165 miles northwest of Jamaica. This scruffy, hard-baked, 12-by-two-mile isle is not Bali-Hai beautiful, but it does have some pleasantly surprising topography: A cave-pocked limestone spine runs along the middle of the island, rising to 140 feet on its sheer east end; just offshore, teeming spur-and-groove reefs, coral- and sponge-flocked 3,000-foot vertical walls, and vertigo-inducing water clarity combine to produce some of the planet’s best diving.

The Sporting Life
There are 50 or so mostly current-free dive sites around the Brac, with water temperatures hovering between 75 and 85 degrees and visibility usually to 150 feet. Some sites, including the sponge-heavy Radar Reef, just 150 yards off the boat ramp at Stake Bay, can be reached from shore by strong swimmers. Other notable dives: Tarpon Reef, with deep sand gullies, thick staghorn coral, and schools of nearly unspookable giant tarpon; Rock Monster Chimney wall, with several coral-chimney swim-throughs; and an intentionally sunk 300-foot Russian frigate, home now to barracuda, angelfish, jacks, groupers, and giant jewfish. Call Reef Divers (two-tank dive, $80; 800-327-3835; ) or Dive Tiara (two-tank dive, $60脨$90; 800-367-3484; ). Climbers can tackle some 70 bolted routes between 5.8 and 5.12 at seven different locations on the bluff; locals rebolted most routes with titanium glue-ins after stainless-steel bolts began breaking down. There are no climbing outfitters on the island; get detailed climbing-route information from local rock jock John Byrnes, owner of the Bluff View House (970-493-5801; ). Anglers will find bonefish, tarpon, and possibly permit in the flats ($80脨 $150; Munny’s Fishing Service, 345-948-1228); and marlin, tuna, and wahoo out beyond the reef ($350脨$600; Barefoot Watersports Ltd; 345-948-1537).

The Beach
While most of the shoreline is ironstone that will shred your bare feet, there are stretches of sweet sand, especially on the island’s west end, where the Brac’s few resorts are clustered. The best swimming area is in the lagoon at the small public beach on Southeast Bay; it’s protected by a snorkelable coral reef about 50 yards offshore.

After the Sun Goes Down
Head for The Captain’s Table Bar and Restaurant at the west-end beachfront Brac Caribbean Beach Village—just past the 15-foot-high statue of Blackbeard the Pirate—where visitors, divemasters, and expats load up on Coronas and conch fritters.

Lay Your Sunburned Head At…
The Brac Reef Beach Resort (three-night packages with diving cost $528脨$686 per person; 800-327-3835; ), on the island’s westernmost point, has a pool, a sandy beach, 40 air-conditioned rooms, and the ubiquitous yet essential tiki bar; the excellent Reef Divers operation is based here. Climbers head for the two-unit east-end Bluff View House (doubles from $80 per night, with full kitchens; 970-493-5801), within easy walking distance of some of the island’s best climbing routes.

Tr猫s Cayman Brac
Dive as deeply and as frequently as your divemaster and decompression charts will allow. Take an afternoon jeep ride to the east end and be waved at by every human you encounter. The night before you head home, power down several frozen mudslide cocktails at The Captain’s Table, ask the bartender for paint, decorate a piece of driftwood with witty farewell rhymes, and hammer your sign onto the already jammed post by the pool.

The Price of Paradise
Construction of homes for wealthy foreigners has jacked land prices out of reach for most—1.75 acres of prime beachfront can cost as much as $925,000—and has created potential for reef-wrecking runoff, and an overabundance of know-it-all divers with expensive gadgets.

Resources: Cayman Islands Tourist Board (800-346-3313; ). Cayman Brac info:

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