This fabled sea, covering more than a million square miles and 7,000 islands with diverse languages, cultures, and ecosystems, has become probably the planet's premier vacation playground. Here it's all about its regional issues and allures. And yes, the (Plus) means we're including the Bahamas and Bermuda along with the Caribbean coasts of Colombia, Costa Rica, French Guiana, Guatemala, Guayana, Honduras, Nicaragua, Suriname, and Panama.

For other individual island forums, check out Anguilla, Antigua and Barbuda, Aruba, Barbados, Bonaire, the British Virgin Islands, the Cayman Islands, Cuba, Curaçao, Dominican Republic, Guadeloupe, Haiti, Jamaica, Martinique, Montserrat, Puerto Rico, Saba, Statia (St. Eustatius), St. Barth, St. Kitts and Nevis, St. Maarten/Martin, St. Vincent and the Grenadines, Trinidad and Tobago, Turks and Caicos, and the U.S. Virgin Islands.

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5 highlights of Dutch Sint Maarten

Dave Senior Taking up 40 percent of the island of St. Martin and with a population of around 58,000, this territory of the Kingdom of the Netherlands packs a whole lot of fun, flavor, and personality into a petite package. Whereas French St. Martin leans elegant and relaxed, the multicultural, largely English-speaking Dutch side offers its share of quiet corners, but also a livelier menu of casinos, nightlife, beach bars, waterfront dining – along some of the most photographed aircraft landings…

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Started by Helen Brown
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Chilling on Tortola and Jost Van Dyke in the British Virgin Islands

  Victor Block My husband Victor and I are travel writers. Which means when we get to a destination, we explore every aspect, constantly seeking out stories. Until we got to Tortola, capital of the British Virgin Islands, with a population around 15,000. That didn’t happen. And it was almost like — dare I say the word? — a vacation. But let’s back up a bit. We are a lot older than our last trip here 30 years ago when my husband had the temerity to actually hazard driving. To put the roads in…

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Started by Tripatini
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Rum and much more in Barbados

  Victor Block Most travelers know that most Caribbean islands are soaked in rum, but Barbados goes the rest one better because here, locals say, is where rum was discovered. In capital Bridgetown one early-17th-century day, the story goes, a tavern owner was searching for an empty shipping barrel when he inadvertently stumbled across one filled with a concoction worth selling -- a barrel of sugar cane fermented over time. Well, Mr. Rumball -- the tavern owner -- knew a good thing when he…

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Started by Tripatini
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  • David Paul Appell June 4, 2010 at 9:53pm
    Just came across this from the Jamaica Observer about the impact the bad stuff going down in Kingston on tourism across the Caribbean. Do you agree with this assessment?

    "Jamaica unrest said creating problem for regional tourism

    LAST week's deadly unrest in Jamaica's capital of Kingston has created a major public relations crisis for the Caribbean, St Lucia's Tourism Minister Allan Chastanet has said.

    Chastanet, a former chairman of the Caribbean Tourism Organisation (CTO), told the Caribbean Media Corporation (CMC) that the region's tourism product is suffering from the television pictures of burning buildings, soldiers engaging gunmen in street battles and coffins containing bodies being splashed across the globe.

    He said when visitors speak of coming to the Caribbean for a vacation, Jamaica is among the first countries that come to mind.

    Chastanet said tourists view the Caribbean as a group of countries that are connected and 'there are some people that are not able to differentiate one island from another'."
  • iMadinina 4 iPhone April 28, 2010 at 1:55am
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yZBVFnzdG1Y
  • Steven Fox March 3, 2010 at 10:12pm
    Tony,
    Could you take a look at a collaboration that we are doing with Cap Maison on St. Lucia? If so I'll forward over the details and press release..
    Steve
  • Jordan Simon March 3, 2010 at 9:49pm
    Thanks for the shoutout. In fact it's a companion piece of sorts to a post I did a couple of weeks ago: http://travel.aol.com/travel-ideas/galleries/direct-flight-caribbea...

    Allie, I wish I could, too, but the word-count restrictions are intense -- and while my editors do a fine job, inevitably some details, factual to evocative, are lost in the cutting and rearranging....
  • Allie McCoy March 3, 2010 at 8:11pm
    Jordan Simon writes well and seems to know these islands well, but I wish he had included names and phone numbers for the hotels.
  • José Balido March 3, 2010 at 6:32pm
    Check out member Jordan Simon's excellent round-up of wallet-friendly Caribbean isles on AOL. Makes me want to start packing!!
  • David Paul Appell March 1, 2010 at 8:57pm
    Tripatini would like to congratulate member Steve Bennett on the launch of his fascinating new web site, www.UncommonCaribbean.com. Check it out!
  • José Balido February 11, 2010 at 4:51pm
    CTO Forecasts Growth in 2010

    By Robert Kelly, eTN | Feb 10, 2010

    The Caribbean Tourism Organization (CTO) is forecasting a rebound in visitor arrivals in 2010 with moderate growth expected for the region on the heels of positive indicators from the fourth quarter of 2009.

    Keep reading...
  • José Balido January 20, 2010 at 10:30pm
    Howdy folks,
    We have a very timely and provocative topic going in the Cruising group which I think you may wish to weigh in on. Just click here to put in your two cents' worth.
  • David Paul Appell January 20, 2010 at 10:03pm
    Last night I attended a French St. Martin dinner, presentation and mini-trade fair in Miami Beach. Great product, great people -- and famous artist Sir Roland Richardson was there, too! Anyone have any recent thoughts/observations on the island to share?
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