Best shopping?

[chaswill]

We will be cruising to the western caribbean and DW wants to know where the best shopping wil be...ports include, Roatan, Belize, Cozumel and Cayman Islands. Any suggestions? Thanks

[Host Caroline]

This isn't really a "shopping" itinerary IMHO... Cayman is very very expensive - no bargains here.. Coz has nice silver and artwork in some of the higher end stores and woodcarvings in Belize but East and Southern Caribbean are the big shopping stops!

[blue_water]

Caroline is correct in that this is not your typical duty-free shopping as on STT and SXM. But you definitely have some very good shopping opportunities on this itinerary because there are items that are unique to some islands.

 

For Grand Cayman you can find beautiful necklaces and bracelets with the black coral used in them that the Caymans are known for. There are many stores downtown selling this. There is one store affiliated with an artist that has some exquisite rings and other jewelry that are gorgeous. The black coral in most stores is very inexpensive and everyone buys something. Obviously the more rare items are going to be much pricier. Also jewelry with stingrays is a popular item there because Grand Cayman is associated with the stingray city reef feeding.

 

For Roatan we pre-booked a tour guide because we wanted to see both West End and West Bay. In West End there are numerous small shops along the dirt road lining the beach that sell the Honduran Lenca pottery. This is very nicely handcrafted pottery with a unique history and you can find some excellent examples in WE. We took a water taxi from WE to WB and enjoyed lunch and drinks at the Bananarama.

 

We didn't shop Belize because we were in the water but we did buy some beautiful hand-carved wood bowls from a vendor who motored all the way out to the island reef we were snorkeling. Gorgeous stuff.

 

Cozumel we drove last Sept to see the rest of the island then shopped a bit. You can get good deals on a lot of "stuff" in San Miguel, but we were looking for some distinctive (good quality) silver items and we left empty-handed. Not to say there aren't a few shops with good quality, they just didn't have what we were looking for. There are some very nice stores selling nice artwork and silver products as Caroline said, but there is also an abundance of cheap silver jewelry to be found in the majority of the stalls.

 

Check each destination forum on TA (tripadvisor.com), CC's sister site. You will get some specific store recommendations there from folks who live there.

[mrobstad]

We will be cruising to the western caribbean and DW wants to know where the best shopping wil be...ports include, Roatan, Belize, Cozumel and Cayman Islands. Any suggestions? Thanks

 

Roatan=none...............Cozumel=good Mexican silver, blankets etc. Caymen=higher end, can't quite remember............Belize=never been.

[chaswill]

Thanks Blue Water for the input...very helpful.

[Keith1010]

I would say Cozumel. You can pick up some reasonably priced items.

 

Cayman is on the price side.

 

Eastern Caribbean is better for shopping.

 

Keith