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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  • Tripatini August 27, 2010 at 6:24pm
    Please CLICK HERE to help a Tripatino with a question on a three Caribbean islands. Thanks!
  • David Lawrence August 25, 2010 at 1:25am
    I'm with Ed and Rebecca. Don't know what all the fuss is about.
  • Rebecca Thompson August 25, 2010 at 12:43am
    Answering Ed, both Barbados and Grenada are safe islands to visit in the Caribbean. I live in Grenada and have travelled many times alone in Barbados by hire car, just like Grenada I'll stop ask for directions safe and sound. My car broke down there in the middle of the night, I was travelling with a female friend. We had no probelm getting a 'push' from a chivalrous bus driver. Just take the normal precautions you would at home, don't leave your stuff lying around and lock up your car when you leave it. Otherwise in these 2 English speaking islands you'll make friends and feel at home.
  • Ed Wetschler August 24, 2010 at 6:46pm
    The Barbados hotel-tourism association is campaigning to ramp up safety and security in the tourism sector. Truth is, I've never viewed Barbados as a country where I needed to worry much about that sort of thing. Comments?
  • Tony King August 17, 2010 at 8:49pm
    Excellent question from Northeast News. I think all the islands would be affected, especially in this post-recession era - but perhaps not equally. I suppose it will also depend on whether the Cruise Ships will be allowed in or not. I think St. Thomas would be on the hurt list. Maybe overall vacation costs would come down too. Nice thought.
  • Northeast News August 17, 2010 at 8:37pm
    Travel Restrictions to Cuba Easing?

    A few days ago the Miami Herald reported, ""The Obama administration will soon ease some restrictions on US travel to Cuba and other sanctions following Havana's promise to free political prisoners, according to growing but unconfirmed reports."
    I wonder: Which other Caribbean islands would be hurt the most if the U.S. eased travel to Cuba?
  • David Lawrence August 11, 2010 at 4:47pm
    It doesn't make the hotel ungreen but the whole trip on balance uses more energy and makes more co2 and so on than if the trip didn't happen.

    I'll still go to the Carribbean especially whenever I get a chance to go sailing there but on balance its greener to sail near home.
  • Patricia Borns August 11, 2010 at 4:30pm
    Anil, you are so right, it's an outlook. Some Caribbean countries have had more of a green culture than others, growing food at home, cross-ventillation instead of AC, wonderful soil, etc., now gone or disappearing. Little steps like St. Croix growing food are heartening, though.
  • Michaela Karger August 11, 2010 at 4:26pm
    May I ask David, what you mean by "too much cleaning" and "luring kids away from traditional lives"? Can GREEN be the exact same everywhere in the world, be it a hotel in Denmark, Africa, China or the Caribbean? Don't people fly to London from different parts of the world as well as they do to the Caribbean? Does it make a hotel 'ungreen' if the traveler comes by plane?
  • Anil August 11, 2010 at 4:04pm
    You just cant be GREEN overnight. One can implement energy saving strategies and start encouraging local produce, but GREEN it aint. I always thought being GREEN was an outlook to life.
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