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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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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7 cool things to see/do on Saba

  Richie Diesterheft Never heard of it? You´re far from alone – last year just 5,700 flights – by one of the Caribbean´s lowest arrivals figures – landed on its third smallest island (just five square miles/13 sq. kilometers sitting on an dormant volcano Mount Scenery, with a population of just under 2,000). But those in the know realize that the self-styled "unspoiled queen," part of the Caribbean Netherlands (along with Bonaire and Sint Eustatius, aka Statia) and first settled in the 1640s,…

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Started by David Paul Appell
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  • Max Pesling February 3, 2023 at 9:27am
    The Caribbean Journal recently surveyed the this year's top hotel/resort openings: https://www.caribjournal.com/2023/01/01/caribbean-hotels-new-hot-co...
    15 Hot New Caribbean Hotels to Visit in 2023 - Caribbean Journal
    We’ve gathered a list of the new Caribbean hotels we’re excited about in 2023, with some that just opened their doors and others coming soon.
  • Jordan Simon January 8, 2023 at 12:05pm
    Carnival season is around the corner, and veteran Caribbean writer Bob Curley lists eight of the islands' top celebrations: https://www.10best.com/interests/festivals-events/eight-caribbean-c...
    The Caribbean's top carnivals you can't miss
    People flock to the Caribbean to swim among colorful marine life in crystal-blue water; yet, the most vibrant colors can be found on land during carn…
  • José Balido November 8, 2022 at 12:21pm
    Several months ago Le Monde's English-language edition ran a report detailing how the Dominican tourism industry is finally focusing on the dark side of mass tourism in the country, now seen as potentially strangling the goose that lays the golden egg with threats like sargassum brown algae; drinking water shortages; illegal garbage dumps; and seawater pollution/overwarming: https://www.lemonde.fr/en/environment/article/2022/07/27/dominican-...
    Dominican Republic awakens to mass tourism's environmental damage
    The nation's tourism industry is finally beginning to take responsibility for damage to its ecosystems, which are now also posing a threat to profits.
    • Hal Peat > José Balido November 8, 2022 at 8:04pm
      Jose, this was of great interest to me at the moment since I was in the D.R. just this August and still presently producing work from that trip. While I was only in the Santo Domingo area on this occasion, what's described in this link doesn't surprise me too much - I had a general impression in walking the streets that the urban infrastructure might be potentially fragile in the event of extreme weather or daily degradation, and as far as the offshore aquatic access, not very good even in good times. Sporadic electric outages also happened even in the short space of time I was on island. Hopefully, the private and public sectors involved in mass tourism have had enough wake-up calls at this point to take meaningful action on the human and natural environmental fronts. The sargassum challenge has become a wider issue within the region, and probably something which area governments need to collaborate meaningfully on short and long-term solutions.
  • Helen Brown October 5, 2022 at 10:52am
    Too many Caribbean islands succumb to the allure of cruise tourism, but Anguilla is a notable standout, citing its negative environmental impact. Of course, it's easier for them, since they make more from their exclusive, high-end brand of tourism. But commendable nonetheless! https://www.express.co.uk/travel/cruise/1669741/caribbean-cruise-sh...
    Stunning Caribbean island bans cruise ships - 'Not debatable'
    A CARIBBEAN island has said that cruise tourism is not worth the environmental impact. The Government has said it doesn't want to encourage cruise sh…
  • John Kipper September 16, 2022 at 11:35am
    Several months ago, Porthole, a magazine devoted to cruising, ran a piece about what makes St. Kitts particularly special - worth a read! https://porthole.com/what-makes-st-kitts-so-unique/
    What Makes St. Kitts So Unique? | Porthole Cruise and Travel News
    Cruise guests have looked to St. Kitts as one of their favorite destinations to step ashore for an all-inclusive experience.
  • David Paul Appell August 16, 2022 at 12:53pm
    Of course the Caribbean's number-one draw is its beaches and limpid waters, but currently those throughout the region are enduring a rise in a smothering golden algae called sargassum, and it's affecting both health and tourism in various countries: https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2022/8/11/2115737/-Caribbean-Matte...
    Caribbean Matters: A stinky 'golden tide' of Sargassum seaweed strangles the Caribbean
    The environmental threats faced by both island nations in the Caribbean Sea and the mainland Caribbean basin are not limited to just hurricanes. Curr…
  • Jeffrey Kunst August 7, 2022 at 9:26am
    The Miami-based website Caribbean Journal recently featured a cool tiki bar in Kralendijk, opened at the end of 2020 and called Tiki & Co. (https://tikiandco.nl/), which it says is a great example of how Bonaire is expanding beyond diving and snorkeling to also become increasingly known for its hot dining and mixology scene: https://www.caribjournal.com/2022/02/18/caribbean-bonaire-tiki-bar-...
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  • Helen Brown July 19, 2022 at 8:45pm
    A good look at St. Barth in the off season, from TheObserver.com: https://observer.com/2022/07/st-barthelemy-travel-guide-le-toiny-ho...
  • Max Pesling June 5, 2022 at 9:26am
    This past February, the British travel site Wanderlust.co.uk ran a piece called "Discovering the Real Haiti" in which it claims "It seems that, from the (now mostly cleared) rubble, a new Haiti is emerging." Well, we've heard this kind of thing before, but writer Phoebe Smith says that this time evidence includes: "chain hotels are springing up; flights from Latin America are launching, making Haiti a viable add-on to a South or Central American adventure; the diaspora in the USA are beginning to take vacations in the coastal resorts of Côte des Arcadins; and whispers abound of more cruise-ship visits – currently only one boat docks here, and that’s on a local-free private beach." Read about it for yourself: https://www.wanderlust.co.uk/content/discovering-the-real-haiti/
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