Southern Caribbean -what's your favorite thing to do?

[kenly777]

Doing the RCI southern Caribbean cruise on the Jewel next month.

 

Tell me what are your favorite things to do in these ports.

 

San Juan, PR , St Thomas, St Kitts, Aruba, Curaçao.

 

Thanks!

[lah66]

This was by far our favorite itinerary of any cruise we have been on! Have a ball!

 

San Juan...definitely touring ElMorro fort and cemetery and walking the cobblestone streets in OSJ.

 

St Thomas..taking the ships excursion to St John; snorkeling Trunk Bay, lunch at the Tap Room microbrewery in Mongoose Junction.

 

St Kitts..tour with Thenford Grey..Brimstone Hill Fortress, Timothy Hill, Romney Manor and Caribelle Batik, snorkeling the double reef at Carambola Resort.

 

Aruba...toured with Bully. Aruba is absolutely breathtaking. We went to some huge stone formations, the Natural Bridge, the Gold smelter ruins, the lighthouse, churches, snorkeling at Boca Catalina Beach.

 

Curacao..toured with Leo Platte..island tour including Curacao distillery, Shete Boca National Park with caves, flamingoes, snorkeling at Playa PortoMari.

 

I would be happy to answer any questions! Lauri

[kenly777]

Thanks for all the great info!

 

How did you book the tours that were not from the ship?

 

There is a jeep tour in Aruba that covers the places you listed. Is that what you did? It looks like a lot of fun!!

 

How about shopping? Did you do that too?

[Seago2]

St. Thomas is probably the easiest port NOT to do an expensive ship's tour. You can take a ferry from Charlotte Amalie or from Red Hook (as you get off the ship there are tons of independent operators who will give you a ride to the ferry in Red Hook for under $10 each- fun ride). The ferry is cheap- you can google it, I forget how much it is. Then when you get to St. John there are taxis and little buses to take you to Trunk Bay or wherever you want to go. Incredibly easy. The main thing is to get out of Charlotte Amalie fast as there can sometimes be 5-7 cruise ships a day there.

 

Aruba is beautiful. Independent operators or ship's tour, up to you. Get out on a catamaran and snorkel or something. Gorgeous!

 

San Juan- walk around old San Juan- FREE!

[Keith1010]

Aruba is very nice and the beaches are beautiful.

 

Keith

[mn_isla_girl]

 

Tell me what are your favorite things to do in these ports.

 

San Juan, PR , St Thomas, St Kitts, Aruba, Curaçao.

 

 

Curacao - Bounty Adventures, lunch sail & snorkel. Best snorkeling of the trip!! I also paid the extra $9 for transportation and they had a cab pick me up from the security booth at the pier. I was the only one on the tour coming from a ship that day, all the other guests were staying on the island. Curacao was the surprise of the trip, I really loved it there and can't wait to back.

 

Aruba - I took the public bus to Eagle beach for the day then did a sunset cruise in the evening, booked the cruise thru the cruiseline. For some reason I wasn't very impressed with Aruba, maybe my expectations were too high. It just wasn't fantastic.

 

St. Kitts - I've been here 3 times.....did Sky Safari Ziplining once, had a great snorkel day with Blue Water Safari on my last trip, and took a cab to a beach once. All things I'd recommend, I love St. Kitts!

 

St. Thomas - been here 3 times too. There's so much to do here you could never get to it all. Magens bay beach is beautiful, Sapphire beach has great snorkeling. Lots of options for catamaran sails. On my next trip I'm venturing over to St. Johns via the Red Hook ferry.

 

San Juan - If you have time I'd recommend El Yunque Rainforest, it's best if you have all day. Are you staying in San Juan overnight? Or is this just a day stop on your itinerary?

 

If you only have the day there are 2 forts right in Old San Juan, San Cristobal and El Morro. It's $3 per person for 1 or $5 per person for both forts.

 

If you are sailing from San Juan on Royal Caribbean you will be docked at the Pan Am pier, you'd need a cab to Old San Juan then. If you are just stopping for the day you will be docked right in Old San Juan and you can walk.

[printingchick]

Doing the RCI southern Caribbean cruise on the Jewel next month.

 

Tell me what are your favorite things to do in these ports.

 

San Juan, PR - Haven't really spent any time in San Juan, but will be doing so for my next cruise. Planning a pre-cruise night stay in Old San Juan and a morning of sight-seeing before embarkation.

 

St Thomas - I like to taxi to Red Hook and take the ferry to St. John. I have a trail map and we love to explore the very undeveloped island.

 

St Kitts - Highlights are pretty spread out. I'd recommend an island tour, with Jim & Rose, Thenford Grey, or one of many others recommended on the port of call boards.

 

Aruba - not a big fan of Aruba, which I realize puts me in the minority. I'll leave this to others to respond.

 

Curaçao - On my one visit there, we taxied over to Hato Caves. It was beautiful and interesting and a nice departure from the more typical cruise excursions. We still had time to go to the downtown area (EASY walking distance to the ship) and see the floating bridge and walk around the marketplace.

 

Thanks!

 

Southern itineraries are my favorites!! Have fun!!

[JustinPlusLauren]

I LOVE the southern itineraries!

 

San Juan, PR - we haven't stopped here as a port before. I stayed in a hotel pre-cruise in San Juan before, but we just walked around the area and stayed at the Hilton hotel grounds. We were too tired after our flight to go....but I would have loved to have walked around Old San Juan! I've also heard amazing things about the bio-luminescent bay, if you're there at night and the right time...

 

St Thomas - We've been here 3 times. Once we did shopping, once we went to Magens Bay for the beach, and once we went to Water Island. I recommend walking around and going into some shops...and if you love beaches, it is easy to get across to Water Island from Crown Bay marina for Honeymoon Beach!

 

St Kitts - never been, want to go there!

 

Aruba - Last cruise, we did a tour to the butterfly farm, the aloe factory, and some rock formations. The rock formations were amazing! And so was the butterfly farm, although I'd been to one in the past and it was similar to that one. But highly recommended! The aloe factory wasn't my thing, it was pretty much a 5 minute tour and then 45 minutes in the shop!

 

Curaçao - We took a tour to the Hato Caves which was awesome! Sooo cool. We also walked around town, went to the floating market, checked out the shops. I would highly recommend the caves!

 

I have tons of pictures, blog posts, and reviews of my travels to the islands here: http://poolieandloolie.blogspot.com

[kenly777]

Seems like many folks' favorite itinerary. So many great things to do. Thanks for your input!