Activities in Caribbean Islands
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FEATURED
St Lucia Rainforest Walk
4 hours (Departs St Lucia)
by Viator
lt;pgt;An excellent excursion for nature lovers! St. Lucia possesses a topography and ecology of stunning beauty, matched by no other location in the Caribbean.…Not LP reviewed
from USD$47.99 - All activities
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Queen Elizabeth II Botanic Park Cayman Island
3 hours (Departs Georgetown, Cayman Islands)
by Viator
lt;pgt;Escape the bustle of George Town and join a friendly and knowledgeable tour guide for a ride through quaint colonial Bodden Town, Cayman's first capital,…Not LP reviewed
from USD$40.00 -
Barbados Beach Day with Boat Trip and Shipwreck Snorkel Adventure
6 hours (Departs Barbados, Barbados)
by Viator
Enjoy the beautiful white-sand beaches and turquoise-blue water of the Caribbean Sea on a beach day and snorkel adventure in Barbados! Relax on the pristine…Not LP reviewed
from USD$59.99 -
Damian’s Adventure Tours
Damian’s Adventure Tours offers mountain biking locally, as well as hiking, snorkeling and overnight camping trips.
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Fun Rental
Quad rentals (US$55 per day) and trips to Los Haitises (US$58).
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Goshen Wilderness Resort
A sign outside this lakeside ‘ wilderness resort, 6km east of Walkerswood, happily proclaims: ‘You catch it, we cook it.’ Its prime attraction is 42 large ponds stocked with tilapia just waiting for you to yank them out of the water. Attractions include an aviary, a petting zoo, volleyball, paddleboats and kayaks, nature trails and horseback rides (per hour US$40). A one-hour ATV tour of the plantation and nearby hills costs US$45; there’s a longer tour to Spanish Bridge and a lovely swimming spot on the White River (US$80). A fishing package (adult/child US$21/14) includes a drink, tackle and a guide. The chef will prepare your fish with bammy (pancake-shaped…
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Aquaworld Marina Chapelín
Aquaworld Marina Chapelín organizes Varadero's nautical highlight in the popularity stakes: the Seafari Cayo Blanco, a seven-hour sojourn (CUC$75) from Marina Chapelín to nearby Cayo Blanco and its idyllic beach. The trip includes an open bar, lobster lunch, two snorkeling stops, live music and hotel transfers. There's also a shorter CUC$45 catamaran tour with snorkeling, open bar and a chicken lunch. The Fiesta en el Cayo is a sunset cruise (CUC$41) to Cayo Blanco with dinner, music and more free-flowing rum at the key.
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Iguana Mama
Iguana Mama, the leading adventure-sports tour operator on the north coast, is in a class of its own. Its specialties are mountain biking (easy to insanely difficult, US$65) and cascading. It is the only operator that takes you to the 27th waterfall at Damajagua (US$85), and it has pioneered a new cascading tour to Ciguapa Falls, which only Iguana Mama offers. There’s also a variety of hiking trips, including a half-day walk (US$45) into the hills behind Cabarete (Parque Nacional El Choco), and a full-day trip to Mount Isabel de Torres (US$80), just outside Puerto Plata. Its Pico Duarte trek is expensive, but handy if you want transportation to and from Cabarete (per…
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CORALations
Two of Culebra's most isolated beaches - Resaca and Brava - are nesting sites for the endangered leatherback sea turtle, the largest living sea turtle in the world. The nesting season runs April through early June and each year small groups of volunteers are recruited by the US Fish & Wildlife Refuge to oversee the delicate egg-laying process.
Volunteers meet at sunset before traveling out to the beaches where they are required to count eggs, measure turtles, and document the event for environmental records. At the same time, participants are able to witness one of nature's most transfixing and timeless events in stunning close-up. Volunteer postings are understandably…
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Seafari Cayo Blanco
One of Varadero's most popular cruises is the Seafari Cayo Blanco to - you've guessed it - Cayo Blanco. This trip includes the dolphin show at the Delfinario, open bar, lunch on Cayo Blanco, two snorkeling stops, live music and hotel transfers. This trip comes with a free sunset cruise that can be carried over to the following day if desired. Several readers have reported that these trips were the highlight of their stay.
There are cheaper catamaran tours that are less heavily promoted, but still great fun, with the same excellent snorkeling. Try the stripped-down tour that has no music and dancing, and a chicken, rather than seafood lunch. There's also a two-hour guided…
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Island Ventures
You can reach Isla Caja de Muertos through Island Ventures. The name - which translates to Coffin Island - seems cribbed from the script from a swashbuckling adventure flick, but the big lizards here run a lazy show, trotting across dusty, cacti-lined trails and over the mangrove marsh. The morbid moniker itself even has a tame origin; it's thought to have come from an 18th-century French author's observation that the island's silhouette looked like a body in a casket.
But the opportunity for a refreshing, day-long escape from the congestion of Ponce is key, starting with some of the best snorkeling around and plenty of tranquil, if somewhat rocky stretches of beach. Day…
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Seven Mile Beach
Sometimes called Negril Beach, this beach was initially touted on tourism posters as ‘seven miles of nothing but you and the sea.’ But the once-peaceful place that drew all those blissed-out sensualists in the early 1970s is now only a happy memory. As before, topless sunbathers lie half submerged on lounge chairs in the gentle surf, and the sweet smell of ganja smoke still perfumes the breeze, but otherwise the beach has changed in nearly every way. Today it’s a much livelier place with scores of restaurants, bars and nightspots and every conceivable water sport on offer. The swaying palms, clear waters and nearby coral reefs mean that the beach is still beautiful to…
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Club de Golf la Habana
The club lies between Vedado and the airport. Poor signposting makes it hard to find and most taxi drivers get lost looking: ask locals for directions to the golfito or Dilpo Golf Club. Originally titled the Rover's Athletic Club, it was established by a group of British diplomats in the 1920s, and the diplomatic corps is largely the clientele today. There are nine holes with 18 tees to allow 18-hole rounds. Green fees start at CUC$20 for nine holes and CUC$30 for 18 holes, with extra for clubs, cart and caddie. In addition, the club has five tennis courts and a bowling alley. Fidel and Che Guevara played a round here once as a publicity stunt soon after the Cuban missile…
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Victoria Marine
Victoria Marine is Samaná’s most recommended whale-watching outfit. It’s owned and operated by Canadian marine biologist Kim Beddall, who was the first person to recognize the scientific and economic importance of Samaná’s whales, back in 1985. Victoria Marine tours use a large two-deck boat with capacity for 60 people (though most tours have around 40). The skilled captains religiously observe the local boat-to-whale distance and other regulations – most of which Beddall helped create – while on-board guides offer interesting facts and information in five languages over the boat’s sound system. Sodas and water are provided free of charge. Tours leave at 9am and last…
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Accompong Maroon Festival
The traditional Accompong Maroon Festival held each January 6 marks the signing of the 1739 peace treaty between war hero Captain Cudjoe of the Maroons with representatives of the King of England. The provisions of the treaty guaranteed the Maroons significant land holdings and personal freedom. In 2007 more than 15,000 visitors flocked to the small rural village for the festival, which features traditional dancing, drumming, mento bands and a wide variety of tonics and herbs.
The festival culminates with a traditional march to the revered Kindah Tree, where a specially prepared Maroon dish of unsalted and unseasoned pork is consumed with yams, but a loud sound-system…
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La Coca Trail
This popular 1.8-mile hike will take you a little over an hour each way. The trailhead is just up the road past the falls of the same name - just before the Yokahú Tower - and there is a small parking lot here. It's a fairly benign, low-altitude trail following streams through tabonuco forest.
La Coca made its mark on El Yunque history when a US college professor disappeared here for 12 days in 1997, claiming after his rescue that he got off the trail and was lost. The Forest Service, which had enlisted a search party of 60 volunteers and aircraft, was hardly amused. If you follow La Coca to its end, you can go left (east) along Carrillo Trail to the eastern part of the…
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El Yunque Trail
This is the big enchilada for most visitors and takes you to the top of El Yunque (3496ft, 1049m) in 1½ hours or longer. Starting on Rte 191 Km 12.2 opposite the Palo Colorado Visitor's Center, the 2.4 mile trail is mostly paved or maintained gravel as you ascend through cloud forest to the observation deck, which is surrounded by microwave communication towers that transmit to the islands of Culebra and Vieques.
If you want a rock scramble from here, take Los Picachos Trail (0.17 miles) to another old observation tower and feel as if you have crested a tropical Everest. You can return via a different route by descending down the Mt Britton Spur/Mt Britton Trail and…
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Grand Paradise Samaná Dive Center
Grand Paradise Samaná Dive Center is located at the far end of Grand Paradise Samaná’s beach. One-/two-tank dives including all equipment cost US$60/114 (US$5 to US$12 less if you have your own). Four- and six-dive packages bring the rate down to US$48 to US$52 per dive, including gear. Various PADI certification courses can also be arranged. Also on offer are snorkeling trips (US$12), whale-watching tours (US$49), trips to Playa Rincón (US$10), and windsurf and sailboat rental and instruction (US$10 to US$15 per hour), all available to guests and nonguests alike. It’s easy enough to walk to the dive shop here by following the path along the beach from town; resort…
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Barracuda Diving Center
Varadero's top scuba facility is the mega-friendly, multilingual Barracuda Diving Center. Diving costs CUC$50 per dive with equipment, cave diving is CUC$60 and night diving costs CUC$55. Packages of multiple dives work out cheaper. Barracuda conducts introductory resort courses for CUC$70, and ACUC (American Canadian Underwater Certifications) courses starting at CUC$220, plus many advanced courses. Snorkeling with guide is CUC$30. A brand new recompression facility is on site and there's also a training pool, resident doctor and popular seafood restaurant on the premises, Barracuda Grill. Barracuda has a daily capacity for 70 divers in three 12m boats.
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Manfred’s Jamaican Mountain Bike Tours
Based at Apple Valley Park, Manfred’s Jamaican Mountain Bike Tours offers week-long tours of the south coast each week in January and February, with daily excursions geared to moderate riders. A support vehicle is provided. Over the week, you’ll pedal 18km to 42km each day through glorious south-coast scenery to some of the region’s most notable attractions, including YS Falls, Treasure Beach, Oxford Cave, Appleton Rum Estate and the Black River mangroves. Trips are offered in midwinter only and the cost excludes airfare but includes transfers, gratuity and accommodations. You can rent a bike (US$25/100 per day/week).
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UniversiTUR SA
The largest organization offering study visits for foreigners is UniversiTUR SA. UniversiTUR arranges regular study and working holidays at any of Cuba’s universities and at many higher education or research institutes. Its most popular programs are intensive courses in Spanish language and Cuban culture at Universidad de La Habana. UniversiTUR has 17 branch offices at various universities throughout Cuba, all providing the same services, though prices vary. While US students can study anywhere in the country, they must arrange study programs for the provinces (except Havana or Matanzas) through Havanatur.
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Legends of Puerto Rico
Debbie Molina-Ramos is a well-respected guide for Legends of Puerto Rico, whose wildly popular ‘Night Tales in Old San Juan’ tour books up pretty fast. She also does ‘Legends of San Juan’ (from $30 to $35 per person) and many others, including a coffee plantation tour, an eating and drinking tour, and tours to El Yunque. Bus trips are available, as are special discounts for families with children (and child-friendly tours, too), as well as wheelchair-accessible tours (advance booking required). Aside from English and Spanish, tours can be arranged in German, French and Italian.
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Ferries Del Caribe
Mayagüez is Puerto Rico’s gateway to the Dominican Republic, at least by sea. Ferries Del Caribe, on the docks of Mayagüez north of the tuna canneries, offers the serious ‘off-island’ adventure across the Pasaje de la Mona. Its massive M/S Caribbean Express sails every other day across the Pasaje de la Mona for Santo Domingo in the Dominican Republic (a 12-hour trip). On board you will find a restaurant, cafeteria, bar, casino and disco, as well as conference rooms, private cabins, a sauna and a Jacuzzi. There is room for 250 cars along with 1125 passengers.
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San Cristóbal Hiking Tour
The best way to visit Cañón de San Cristóbal is to plan ahead, make reservations and join an organized trek with San Cristóbal Hiking Tour run by local historian and geographer Samuel Oliveras Ortiz. Trips run on weekends and holidays and vary from a three-to-four-hour basic tour to a five-to-six-hour adrenalin-junkie fest with rock climbing and rappelling.
Wear secure shoes and appropriate clothing that you can take off at the canyon floor, where temperatures can be more than 10°F warmer than up on the brink. Of course, you will need water and maybe some energy bars to get you back up the canyon wall.
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Mountain Valley Rafting
Mountain Valley Rafting, headquartered at Lethe Estate, offers tranquil one-hour river trips on the Great River from Lethe. You’re piloted 3km downstream aboard long, narrow bamboo rafts poled by an expert rafter, who waxes poetic about the birds, flora and fauna as you glide along. Trips cost US$80 for two passengers (children under 12 are half price), including lunch and transfers. For an extra US$15 per person, you’ll get lunch, a plantation tour and a fresh piña colada at the end of the excursion. If you show up under your own steam, you’ll pay US$40 for the raft trip alone.
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Rockfort Mineral Baths
Providing respite from the urban environment, these baths, 5km east of downtown Kingston, are fed by a cold spring that made its first appearance following the earthquake of 1907. There’s a large public pool – a rarity in Kingston – and 11 private pools of varying sizes, all with whirlpools and wheelchair access. The slightly saline and radioactive water is said to have therapeutic properties. One hour is the maximum allowed in a bath. There’s a cafeteria and juice bar, plus changing rooms and lockers. Massage is offered.
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