Any Suggestions????

[cabanachick]

Anyone have any suggestions for hiking excursions on the Southern Caribbean itinerary (Serenade of the Seas)??? My husband was looking at the Barbados rainforest hike/cave excursion, but after a review from another poster, I think we should consider some others. Any help will be greatly appreciated. Thanks!!

[bUU]

My wife and I are avid hikers and have several hiking excursions planned.

 

First, we're going to "wing it" for St. Thomas, and do our own hiking on St. John.

 

St. Maarten was a bust. We tried everything we could think of to set ourselves up a decent hike up Pic Paradis, but to no avail. We'll probably stay aboard ship.

 

In Antigua we're actually doing a kayaking excursion, that includes a significant amount of hiking (which is the reason we chose it instead of Eli's, which seemed more for the scenery and less for the physical activity).

 

In Barbados we're doing that Rainforest Hike and Cave Excursion. I've only heard good things about it, so if you could direct me to the review you read I'd appreciate it. I do know that the Harrison Cave stuff isn't for us -- it's not a hike, it's basically a ride. Bleh.

 

In St. Lucia we were going to do the Soody Nature Hike, but shied away from it because a good amount of time is taken up with a long drive. So now we're doing the Interactive Rain Forest and River Hike. It is a heck of a lot more expensive, but supposedly a smaller group, and doesn't involve the long drive.

 

It's a bit of a shame y'all are on Serenade two weeks before us, because we'd love to find other folks to hike with. I think if we knew other avid hikers on-board, we may have aimed to do a bit more stuff ourselves, saved a bit of money, avoided a bit of crowding, and probably had better hikes. I'd sure love to hear your experiences when you get back, in the week before our cruise.

[cabanachick]

Thanks for the info. I'll look into all of those. I'm not sure how to attach a link to another posting, but I asked a question about that excursion earlier today in a posting titled "Has anyone tried this excursion." The hike sounds great, but the poster said that the caves have bats and bugs and water and you have to repel in and out of them. She also mentioned that it is completely dark in the caves other than the light from your hardhat. Bats and bugs in the dark scare me a little.

[bUU]

Yeah, bats and bugs aren't my favorites either, and my wife tends to read the threads I post in, so on reading this she'll probably have second thoughts about the excursion too.

 

Luckily, we have our own hiking light, so one of us, at least, would have a secondary source of illumination.

 

Let me know if you're thinking of doing a hike on your own on St. John (St. Thomas). I'll have two hiking guides sometime next week and I'll be glad to answer any questions that they may have the answers to.

[plannermom]

the interactive rain forest hike was definitely worth the money. i think it was my kids favorite tour of the trip. the group size was small, right about 20 people. it was a long drive but the tour guides pointed out things along the way.