What is it like going to the Caribbean?

Anyone have any advice for excursions in the Caribbean? Not sure where and what to do?! First time!

Zoryana ❤️

Look thru the ones offered by your cruise line to get an idea what is available.

Join the Roll Call for your cruise. There you can meet others sailing with you.

Also read about each port and you can get a lot of information from the Caribbean Ports Of Call Boards located at:

https://boards.cruisecritic.com/forumdisplay.php?s=&daysprune=-1&f=587

Keith

Go to the link Keith posted, it'll have more information about the ports you're going to. We can't really give you advise without knowing where you're going. You can also check TripAdvisor for information on the ports you're going to.

Go to your local library and check out a guidebook on the Caribbean. It will show you all about each country, points of interest, beaches, shopping, food/drink, transportation, etc.

The Caribbean is a very easy DIY sort of day...few things require pricey excursions, depending on what interests you! And, unlike other parts of the world, there will be folks just off the docks offering last minute excursions, if you still don't know what you want to do! The more you know about your ports, the better time you can have, and the cheaper you can do it!

Anyone have any advice for excursions in the Caribbean? Not sure where and what to do?! First time!

You have the world at your fingertips with the Internet. You don't need to get a library guide book - I did that once and never even opened it. The Internet is instant and up to date. Use a web-based search engine (I like Yahoo) and type in your ports, one at a time. You will get hundreds of hits on what to do, weather, beaches, transportation, etc.

And yes, please use the Caribbean Ports of Call boards - you don't have to even post, you can just read through the threads and make your notes. The questions have all been asked before; you just need to spend some time researching it out.

Have fun.

The Caribbean often gets separated into eastern, western, and southern itineraries. The southern itineraries are longer cruises or leave from Puerto Rico because they take longer to get to. I personally haven’t been on a southern itinerary so can’t make a recommendation.

As a huge generalization; the eastern ports tend to be all about the beaches. A lot of these ports are safe to explore on your own.

IMO, the western ports offer a broader range of inland activities. From Cozumel and mainland Mexico you can get to ruins. Belize has cave tubing. Jamaica has Dunn’s river falls. Of course you can go to beautiful beaches here, but the best beaches in the Caribbean I’ve seen are on the eastern islands.

What we do is start with an idea of when we want to cruise and pick 1 or 2 islands we want to go to based on things we’ve read online. Without knowing you, it’s hard to recommend things but can tell you some of the favorite things we have done (these aren’t in order)

1. Sting ray city in grand cayman

2. The baths at virgin Gorda (accessed via ferry from Tortola)

3. Circumnavigation boat tour of Antigua

4. Cave tubing from Belize city

There’s a cruise search I love where you can choose when you go, where you go, where you leave from, etc. If you google cruise search engines and look for a website that could be abbreviated with VTG, you’ll find it. Then you can narrow down to a handful of cruises in your price range that go where you want to go.

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Go to your local library and check out a guidebook on the Caribbean. It will show you all about each country, points of interest, beaches, shopping, food/drink, transportation, etc.

 

The Caribbean is a very easy DIY sort of day...few things require pricey excursions, depending on what interests you! And, unlike other parts of the world, there will be folks just off the docks offering last minute excursions, if you still don't know what you want to do! The more you know about your ports, the better time you can have, and the cheaper you can do it!

Yes, mainly very cheap and easy (and fun :)) to DIY.

I've just posted on another thread a précis of DIY using local vans hired on-spec at the port.

https://boards.cruisecritic.co.uk/showthread.php?t=2615197

JB :)