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[lostdolphin]

Hi Everyone,

A girl friend and I are planning taking a trip this next March. We are talking about heading down to an island in the caribbean or somewhere like that. I have looked a lot online and I keep coming back to wanting to go to Barbados. I'm just looking for info on Barbados or any others suggestions for other islands. I would appreciate all the advice you have, good or bad. If you have any suggestions for good places for us to try out let me know. Thanks a ton!!
Heather

[starlagurl]

Ohhhhhhhhh my. I LOVE LOVE LOVE Saba. It's a tiny volcanic island near St. Martin, which is not that far from Barbados.

[mmbcross]

Hi. Next march 2008? Wow...you plan well ahead of time!

That's a pretty general question. Every island in the Caribbean is fabulous, so you have a choice of hundreds. In order to whittle it down a bit, what are you looking for? Diving; beaches; traditions; nature; casinos and night life; English, Spanish or French speaking population; something inexpensive or money is no object; fine food; spicy food; big islands or small islands? Tell me what turns you on, and I'll suggest an island that will probably appeal to you.

Barbados is a great choice. It's a small island, probably one of the most expensive and up-market of all and in many ways the most "English" of the islands. It is clean and well run. Wonderful food, all-inclusives are discouraged, so the restaurant scene is outstanding. Great beaches on the East coast. Good variety of hotels. Airfare will probably be quite high.

Here's the official website:
http://www.barbados.org/

Here's our Travelpod website with comments from our travellers:
http://www.travelpod.com/blogs/0/Barbados.html

Here's the Trip Advisor Barbados site with reviews of most of the hotels, from five stars to no stars.
http://www.tripadvisor.com/Tourism-g147262...-Vacations.html

Look forward to hearing more details. At least there is plenty of time to find your perfect island.

I you want to get away from it all, and I mean that, Saba is the place. Problem...it has no beaches at all, but is a great hiking and diving destination.
Cheers

[starlagurl]

Yeah, I probably should've said that... no beaches on Saba, but the sand that you can find is BLACK...that's amazing in itself...

Hiking is awesome, I climbed to the top of the island and there is a rainforest up there!

Martin is lucky he lives in Florida and can make cheapy Caribbean trips whenever he wants.

[lostdolphin]

Yeah that was kind of general. What I want is to learn to scuba dive and surf, surfing more than scuba diving. We want to snorkel too. She is interested in hiking. We kind of want to do a lot of different things. I would love to swim/play with dolphins again. I basically just like to wander and get the feel for things with out an agenda or plan. Money is sort of an issue, so something cheaper would be best I suppose. If any one has suggestions of things to do or try somewhere that would be cool. I am just trying to get some ideas

[starlagurl]

Ohhhhh OK so Saba is out...it's also kind of expensive.

I don't know where you can surf, but you can scuba dive pretty much everywhere around there I'm pretty sure.

St. Martin was really cheap when I was there last year.

[troispistoles]

Surf is going down in March! Best time is December-January...

Dominica is one of my favorite island! It is beautiful, people are nice, good partying, you can do the amazing hike to the boiling lake, falls, diving (but it was quite expensive... 120$).

I would sell you the British Virgin Islands as I live there, but hotels are quite expensive. Maybe 100$ a night if you look well?

Diving is great, quite cheap to get your certification (maybe 350$ for 10 dives toward your certification, including the last dive at the Rhone, a shipwreck).

Let me know if you are interested to go to the BVI, I can arrange stuff for you. I probably won't be living there next year... but I know many people!

Cheers

[starlagurl]

Is there surfing in St. Martin?

Where are you heading off to trois?

[mmbcross]

If money is in the cards, the cheapest island is Santo Domingo, and it's BIG.
Here is the Government Tourist site:
http://www.godominicanrepublic.com/

You have probably heard that this is the island of all-inclusives. That's true, but there are still lots of other independent properties around and good prices. Samana is the place I would go to.
Dig through some of these Samana blogs
http://www.travelpod.com/cgi-bin/keyword2....ican%20republic
and look at this Samana website
http://www.samana.net/sn-english.html

There are an awful lot of islands in the Caribbean!

[kitkatgo]

Martin,

What do you think about Puerto Rico? I know they surf on the North part of the island. They have the rain forest where there is some cool hiking, beautiful waterfalls. The beaches are pretty. You can kayak to the biobays to see the dinoflagelletes. Not sure about dolphins.

Anyway, we had fun in Puerto Rico last summer. But that is the only Caribbean island I have been too.

[mmbcross]

I think Puerto Rico is a wonderful destination. It has everything from great beaches. lively San Juan, mountain retreats with cute guest houses in the coffee plantations.

Closest in character to Puerto Rico is Dominican Republic, and it's cheaper too. But if you are looking for a bit of adventure, steer clear of the all-inclusives.

Scenery-wise, some of the islands a a bit of a let-down, but they make up for it with fabulous beaches and/or great diving/snorkeling. Bahamas, Turks and Caicos, Cayman, Anguilla, Bonaire.

Guadalupe, Martinique, St Barts and St. Martin are great islands, but all are expensive as they use Euros).

St. Lucia is spectacular, as is Grenada, St. Vincent and Tobago (less developed).

Dominica and Saba are beautiful natural islands with great hiking but poor beaches.

Antigua and Barbuda has a bit of everything, outstanding beaches and fair scenery and historical sites.

Could go on for ever. St. Kitts, Nevis, Monserrat, Jamaica, Cuba (off limits for us I'm afraid), the ABC Islands, Margarita and Los Roques, San Andres and Providencia. The list goes on.

Cheers
Martin

[kris]

Yeah that was kind of general. What I want is to learn to scuba dive and surf, surfing more than scuba diving. We want to snorkel too. She is interested in hiking. We kind of want to do a lot of different things. I would love to swim/play with dolphins again. I basically just like to wander and get the feel for things with out an agenda or plan. Money is sort of an issue, so something cheaper would be best I suppose. If any one has suggestions of things to do or try somewhere that would be cool. I am just trying to get some ideas

for barbados you could try zeds surf adventures ..i went down there but never got round to surf there.. yoiu can find cheap accomodations in the gap for around 35usd a night and then catch the bus down to suilver sands, where its based, pretty cheaply because quickly looking his rooms go for 150usd.. theres also bathsheeba which is one of the caribbean islands top surf spots..

you could do it also in jamaica.. staying at jamnesia ...theres diving over in negril, and you could play with dolphins and stingrays at dolphin cove in ocho rios..

im not there yet, but you could consider costa rica, as it has great surfing and scuba diving, i just spoke to a traveller who came up from there who had dolphins swim and follow him whilst diving down there

[mmbcross]

To my knowledge there is no surfing in Jamaica, but the suggestion for Costa Rica is brilliant. Just take a look at this web site to make your mouth water: http://www.surf-costarica.com/

Surprisingly enough, Guatemala: http://www.surfinguatemala.com/main.php

And of course all up the Pacific coast of Mexico. http://www.surfinginmexico.com/

Keep in mind that the Pacific coast is good for surf, but not for diving. The water is too rough and there are no reefs. Diving would be on the Caribbean coast. That's the advantage of the islands, as you have diving and surfing quite close to each other.