Question about Caribbean ports - no replies on Caribbean board

[cangelmd]

I've had this question up on the Caribbean board for a week with no responses - not enough traffic, so I thought I would as you good folk.

 

I'm planning a Caribbean cruise for Nov,  "southern/eastern". The trip is DH, another couple, very good friends we travel with a lot and me - we are all fairly active early 60s.

We are considering day pass beach places, all inclusive. What we like in a beach - comfy chairs, DEEP shade a must (have to be able to move chairs to follow the shade), GOOD view, drinks included. Shallow water would be a plus. Beach toys, snorkelling, massages, etc are less important, OK, but less important.

Big turn-off would be vendors and a breakwater that would obscure the view.

 

We live close to some of the most beautiful beaches in the world, and spend 2 weeks there every fall, so we are quite picky about beaches and will likely only do one beach day and spend the other days hiking, exploring, maybe a snorkelling trip.

 

So given the itinerary below, which island would be most likely to have the kind of beach I am describing? A specific resort recommendation would be great, but I know there are many good threads about resorts on each island and I can research those, I'm looking for more of a general island rec to speed up the process.

 

Antigua, Barbados, St. Lucia, St. Kitts, St Maarten

Thanks in advance for any thoughts

[NBliving]

We've been to all of those islands except St. Kitts.  The most beautiful beach island IMO is St. Maarten, then Barbados, then Antigua.  In St. Maarten we have rented a car and drove to a few beaches, we didn't snorkel and some beaches didn't have facilities.  Last year in St. Maarten we took a cab to Orient Beach and got chairs at Bikini Bar (not sure of the name) We have not snorkeled in St. Maarten. We snorkeled at the Boatyard in Barbados - they take you out by boat a little ways to a shipwreck.  We were able to get a front row set of beach chairs and umbrellas.  In Antigua we went to a beach that was also beautiful, I don't remember the name unfortunately or if we had chairs though. We just took a cab. St. Lucia is more rainforests than beaches, but we did a biplane tour and didn't explore the beaches so I could be wrong.

[cangelmd]

Thanks NBliving. I'm really hoping that St Maarten has recovered enough by late Nov that we will be able to do the food tour, but if not, that may be the beach stop. Someone IRL had told me that St M had some of the best beaches in the Carib. is it one of the islands where one side doesn't have breakwaters? Usually the non-ocean side is calmer and breakwaters aren't built for swimming?

[Xport]

Most often, TripAdvisor--parent company to Cruise Critic [okay to mention here]--has far more information with tons of reviews relative to inquiries such as yours...  I'm an avid traveler and, after looking at Celebrity's offerings, TripAdvisor is my "go to" website for deciding what I want to do and, as appropriate, where/with whom I want to do it...

[39august]

St. Lucia is a beautiful island where I suggest a tour. Barbados has beautiful beaches. St. Martin still looked pretty rough in Sept. Many go to the Marriott on St. Kitts for a beach day. I've been to other beaches there and don't care for them, not enough shade, brown sand, monkeys, etc. Antigua has many beautiful beaches and resorts that will rent day passes to cruisers. That would be my top beach recommendation. 

[erniesband]

Try Ti Kaye on St. Lucia, we've been doing the day pass there for many years. 

https://tikaye.com/rates-packages/resort-passes/day-pass/

[Lisamarie18]

We had a great time at BeachLimerz in Antigua and at Divi Little Bay Resort in St. Martin

[CruisersTimesThree]

We were in Barbados last month and through several recommendations on our roll call we went to Harbor Lights.  It wound up being our favorite day out of all the ports we were in on a 12 night cruise.  The beach was gorgeous, nice bar area and great food which we ordered right from our lounge chairs and had delivered. There were also different water activities available for fees (turtle snorkel, wave runners, etc)

They have a website where you can pre-book your loungers and umbrellas and I highly recommend doing that. When we came out of the taxi, those who didn’t prebook had to wait on line to pay for rentals and were taken to chairs that were 3-4 rows back off the beachfront. There was a separate line for those who booked and paid online and we were quickly escorted to the first row along the beach.  I was very happy to have known this beforehand and we fully enjoyed our day there.

[cheeseclan]

You can also check out the site resort for a day.  They have some good all inclusive day pass packages.

[mickey89]

You can try the Rendezvous Hotel on St Lucia, its very near the cruise terminal on Vigie Beach.  The hotel is one of the best on the island. They don't advertise on the Day pass websites, you need to email the hotel - costs US$105/pp Angus@theromanticholiday.com

[mickey89]

5 hours ago, CruisersTimesThree said:

We were in Barbados last month and through several recommendations on our roll call we went to Harbor Lights.  It wound up being our favorite day out of all the ports we were in on a 12 night cruise.  The beach was gorgeous, nice bar area and great food which we ordered right from our lounge chairs and had delivered. There were also different water activities available for fees (turtle snorkel, wave runners, etc)

They have a website where you can pre-book your loungers and umbrellas and I highly recommend doing that. When we came out of the taxi, those who didn’t prebook had to wait on line to pay for rentals and were taken to chairs that were 3-4 rows back off the beachfront. There was a separate line for those who booked and paid online and we were quickly escorted to the first row along the beach.  I was very happy to have known this beforehand and we fully enjoyed our day there.

Harbour Lights is a Bar on Brownes Beach on Carlisle Bay which is the most beautiful bay on Barbados just a stones throw away from Bridgetown town centre. It's a $5 taxi ride to this beach from the cruise terminal.

There are many bars along the bay, the most famous is the Boatyard next door is Lobsters Alive then it's Harbour Lights.  The best by far is Lobsters Alive but they have limited loungers so you will need to get there early. Next best is Harbour Lights then the Boatyard.    Lobsters Alive charge $15 for a 2 loungers and umbrella whilst the Boatyard charge $40 - your choice.

[cangelmd]

Thanks to everyone who applied. I am also using Trip Advisor, but I appreciate the personal touch of peoples' experiences on CC.

I'm going to print this out and use to help our decision making. THANKS!!!

[fragilek]

I have actually holidayed on some of these islands and  for postcard beaches it would be Barbados  for a stunning view it would be St Lucia.  I visited both these islands on a cruise again in February only a few months out of a 7 month stay hospital getting treatment for leukemia, therefore, shade was a very important factor for me, I would have had to leave if I could not stay in the shade - After my treatment sun is an absolute no no for me.  I managed fine in both st lucia and barbados.   

 

In St lucia we visited the Marigot beach club (1st image is looking at it from rd above . the nest 3 are this years cruise stop at it)- this is a strange one - not the best beach ever -its small  but nice and shallow and wow the view is to die. Its also peaceful  and is a easy 20 min boat ride from the pier.  It has several nice restaurants of differing price ranges.

 

In barbados you wont go wrong with any beach bar/resort on the west coast (last 2 photos were from west coast barbados last 2017 (ie before I needed  to check for shade).  check out mullins shade is available here , or reeds bay (shade here is under trees but wow what a beach) I will look up some others later.

[fragilek]

Forgot to add I avoid the beaches near the port in barbados - they are a bit touristy an not a patch (to me) on the ones on the west coast

[sun bum]

No one mentioned Sugar Beach in St Lucia. It's nestled between the Pitons. It's where Matt Damon renewed his wedding vows. If you take an excursion it should take you to a black sand beach, Marigot Bay and then to Sugar Beach,also known as Jalouise Beach.

[markf]

In St Lucia  I would avoid  Reduit  beach--the  cab may want  to  take  you there, and then the  fun begins  with people  taking advantage  of  you. Obviously  the cab gets a cut  of the proceeds

Chairs  were old 10  years ago, as  were the umbrellas--then they thought they would control us  by telling us when they would call a  cab for  us-'

I am on vacation and they want to tell me when to leave etc  !!  

[Luvcrusn]

We love Carambola Beach Club in St. Kitts. Although it's not all inclusive we email ahead to reserve beach chairs and umbrellas ($10 each, pay when you get there). There's a lovely bar and restaurant and nice facilities.  It's about a 10 minute cab ride and easy to get a ride back. They have a good website to check out to see if it meets your likes. There were no venders to be seen the last time we were there.

[WonderMan3]

5 hours ago, sun bum said:

No one mentioned Sugar Beach in St Lucia. It's nestled between the Pitons. It's where Matt Damon renewed his wedding vows. If you take an excursion it should take you to a black sand beach, Marigot Bay and then to Sugar Beach,also known as Jalouise Beach.

 

Spencer Ambrose tours offers an excursion to Sugar/Jalousie Beach by boat. They seem to offer the most time there versus other tour operators. I think we had around 4 hours of beach time IIRC. We did that excursion 2 years ago and it was definitely the nicest beach we’ve been to on St. Lucia. Once at the beach you can rent big comfy beach chairs from the Sugar Beach Resort ($50pp) which have plenty of shade. It was pricey but worth it. It is possible that the resort offers day passes directly but to get to the resort from the cruise port would require a very long taxi ride which would be expensive.

 

We have also done the Bay Gardens Resort in St. Lucia via Resort For A Day. They had a very nice beach and great service.

 

On St. Kitts I would recommend the Park Hyatt through Resort For A Day. Pricey but very luxurious. We were just there in January.

 

On Barbados we always enjoy Boatyard Beach Club but it’s not luxury and can be loud and vendors are an annoyance. The beach though is one of my favorites in the Caribbean. Beautiful blue water and soft white sand with mild waves. Harbor Lights is further down that same beach and sounds less hectic than Boatyard.

 

On Antigua there are lots of beautiful beaches we have tried through various excursions but have yet to find a nice day pass resort situation. We did the Jolly Harbor Resort in January and it was disappointing. (Poor service, lousy food, noisy despite the beach being beautiful) so I would not recommend it.

 

Here are links to some of my Live threads that include photos from visits to some of the beaches I mentioned above:

 

https://boards.cruisecritic.com/topic/2360860-live-from-eclipse-penthouse-suite-jan-22nd-14-nights/

 

https://boards.cruisecritic.com/topic/2619334-live-from-summit-1519-12nt-lesser-antilles-caribbean-penthouse/

 

[lola2013]

Make that two votes for Carambola in St. Kitts.  That has become our go to beach when we visit the island.  $4/pp cab ride to the resort, and the cabbie will return for you whatever time you request.  When we were there last year, most of the beach bars to the left of the resort as you face the ocean (sorry, I am directionally challenged) were closed due to one of the major hotels buying up the land with the intention of building a resort there.  I've since learned that the deal fell through so all is well.   Like Luvcrsn mentioned, we reserve chairs/umbrellas before we sail.  We also love the beach massages offered.  Nothing like it.

[cangelmd]

On 4/25/2019 at 5:30 PM, fragilek said:

I have actually holidayed on some of these islands and  for postcard beaches it would be Barbados  for a stunning view it would be St Lucia.  I visited both these islands on a cruise again in February only a few months out of a 7 month stay hospital getting treatment for leukemia, therefore, shade was a very important factor for me, I would have had to leave if I could not stay in the shade - After my treatment sun is an absolute no no for me.  I managed fine in both st lucia and barbados.   

 

In St lucia we visited the Marigot beach club (1st image is looking at it from rd above . the nest 3 are this years cruise stop at it)- this is a strange one - not the best beach ever -its small  but nice and shallow and wow the view is to die. Its also peaceful  and is a easy 20 min boat ride from the pier.  It has several nice restaurants of differing price ranges.

 

In barbados you wont go wrong with any beach bar/resort on the west coast (last 2 photos were from west coast barbados last 2017 (ie before I needed  to check for shade).  check out mullins shade is available here , or reeds bay (shade here is under trees but wow what a beach) I will look up some others later.

Thank you for the lovely pictures, those are a great help! Pictures show what is hard to tell. Any other shady beaches you can remember would be welcome.

My need for shade is health related too, I pray that you remain in remission and have lots more cruises ahead.