Introduction

In 2016, for over three months from mid-May to mid-August, we island hopped through the big sweeping arc of islands that is the archipelago of the Caribbean. We started in the south, in the Dutch islands of Aruba and Curaçao and finished a quarter of a year later in the north, in Jamaica and Cuba. In total we visited twenty one states and territories.

The trip had everything: great beaches and snorkelling (of course), friendly locals everywhere we went, spectacular waterfalls and forests, compelling and often dark history, good food, lots of reggae music and local rum. What more could you want?

We wrote many posts during the trip. Click here to see a list of those.

mural, bob marley museum, kingston, jamaica

But, at this time, when COVID -19 still makes international travel virtually impossible we decided to revisit this trip via producing some posts with our favourite shots. We’ve divided this project into three parts: Southern Caribbean, Central Caribbean, and Northern Caribbean. The overall order follows the sequence in which we visited the islands.

In December 2020 we published the first part – Southern Caribbean. In February 2021 it was part two – Central Caribbean. Here we present the final part - Northern Caribbean which covers British Virgin Islands, US Virgin Islands, Puerto Rico, Dominican Republic, Turks and Caicos Islands, Jamaica, and Cuba. We hope you find it interesting.

British Virgin Islands (BVI)

Road Town

Tortola is the largest and main island of BVI, which includes the capital, Road Town. It’s a pleasant place to wander with its colourful buildings.

Cruise Ships

Pre-COVID BVI and the neighbouring US Virgin Islands (USVI) were very popular cruise ship destinations. This is the harbour at Road Town.

Beach Life

The Virgin Islands are blessed with many great beaches. This is Lambert Beach on Tortola.

Feeding Frenzy

One morning on Lambert beach it was a glorious sunny day, clear blue water and not another soul on the beach. But it was crowded however, with hundreds of seabirds, pelicans, white terns, and others. There was a mass of small fish close to shore and the dive bombing was fast and furious.

The Baths on Virgin Gorda

The island of Virgin Gorda is known for its ''lifestyles of the rich and famous” of some of its residents, which include Morgan Freeman and Richard Branson. It is renowned for its beaches, snorkelling and diving with The Baths being a spot that attracts most visitors to VG.

US Virgin Islands (USVI)

Charlotte Amarlie

The main island of USVI is St Thomas, which is also home to the capital Charlotte Amarlie.

Cruz Bay

The island of St John is arguably the star of the USVI show as it is home to the Virgin Islands National Park, the pleasant town of Cruz Bay, and lots of excellent beaches.

Caneel Hill Trail

This trail is in the Virgin Islands National Park on St Johns.

Honeymoon Bay

This is one of many beautiful, white sand beaches in USVI. This is on St Johns.

Public Transport USVI Style

These unusual buses are a regular sight in USVI. This one is on St Thomas.

Puerto Rico

Colourful Buildings Old San Juan

Puerto Rico’s capital, San Juan is a big city. Greater San Juan is around 1.3 million people. The star of the show is Old San Juan the historical centre of the city.

View of Battlements and El Morro from San Cristobal

San Juan played a critical role in the Spanish colonial period from 1493 until the US took control of PR after the 1898 Spanish-American War. Consequently, Old San Juan is full of historical significance. It has two massive forts – El Morro and San Cristobal.

Pigeon Spotting

The Parque de los Palomas in Old San Juan is the place to go for pigeon spotting.

Old San Juan Walls

Old San Juan is a walled city and a walk beside the walls is a worthwhile exercise.

Cruise Ship Central

San Juan has the busiest cruise port in the Caribbean receiving over 2 million visitors a year.

El Yunque

El Yunque National Forest is a 28,000 acre area of tropical rainforest in the East of Puerto Rico an hour or so from San Juan. It’s a very popular day trip destination for cruise ship passengers.

VERY popular

Isla Caja de Muerto (Coffin Island)

To get that Caribbean sea and salt feeling in our hair one Sunday we headed for Isla Caja de Muerto (Coffin Island). This is a small island which is a 1.5 hour ferry ride from Puerto Rico’s second city, Ponce. It is called Coffin Island because of its shape, not for more sinister reasons.

Dominican Republic

Historic Santo Domingo

Santo Domingo was founded in 1496 by Bartholomew Columbus, brother of Christopher Columbus, as the capital of the first Spanish colony in the New World. Historical reminders are throughout the city. The plaque on the right commemorates the 500th anniversary of the founding of the city.

Museo Alcalzar de Colon

This museum was once the residence of Diego Columbus, Christopher’s son.

Plaza España

A pleasant plaza surrounded by a number of historic buildings.

Calle el Conde

The main pedestrian street in central Santo Domingo

Las Terrenas

Las Terrenas is an easy going, relaxed beach town on the north coast. It is well geared for tourism with lots of hotels and guesthouses. There are long strips of fairly clean white sand beaches and some safe swimming.

Al Fresco Dining in Las Terrenas

A fresh fish meal at a quirky little outdoor restaurant in Las Terrenas. Very nice.

Turks and Caicos Islands

A Haven from the Storm

Our flight from The Dominican Republic to Jamaica was diverted to the Turks and Caicos Islands due to a hurricane in the region. It was a one night forced stopover in a hotel across the road from the airport at Providentiales, the main tourist town. Can’t say we saw much. But the hotel did have a nice outside bar.

Caicos Coin Laundry

Proof, if we needed it, that we were in Turks and Caicos.

Dolphins Restaurant and Bar

Our dining choice for the evening – just a stone’s throw from the airport.

Jamaica

Bob Marley Museum

The museum is the house where Bob lived and recorded during the last years of his life. We took a guided tour, which had lots of interesting commentary about Bob's short but colourful life – he died at 36 from a rare cancer and had 12 children, 4 of which were to his wife.

Devon House

Only a short distance from the Bob Marley Museum is Devon House. This grand colonial house was built in 1881 by George Stiebel, Jamaica's first black millionaire.

Mmmm, Icecream

Mention Devon House to any of the local Kingstonians and they'll immediately say “ice cream”. The grounds of Devon House have a range of bakeries, souvenir shops, restaurants, and other shopping possibilities, but the one with the longest queue is the ice cream shop.

Dunn’s River Falls, Ocho Rios

We visited Dunn's River Falls, Jamaica's top grossing "natural" tourist attraction, on the 2016 Jamaican Independence Day Holiday, along with around half of the entire population of Jamaica. It is an unusual attraction to our thinking. A series of waterfall cascades that run down to an ocean beach that vast numbers of people pay to climb from bottom to top.

Ocho Rios Bay Beach

The city of Ocho Rios, Jamaica’s third largest, sits on a nice little bay and the beach is white sand and fairly clean, though the water was a bit silted from run off from the nearby hills. We went on the day after the Independence Day holiday. It was a Sunday, and we think that most of our compatriots from the Fall's climb were now at the beach.

Tug-o-war Time

All part of the Independence Day celebrations which went all weekend.

Doctor’s Cave Beach, Montego Bay

This is a very popular beach at this famous resort town on the northwest coast.

Cuba

Havana

The magnificent crumbling elegance of Havana

Classic Cars

And those classic cars of course

Historic Trinidad

If you want to get a feel for what a Cuban colonial town was like 200 years ago, then Trinidad is the place. It was declared a World Heritage listed UNESCO site in 1988. The wealth of the town was built on the 19th century sugar industry.

Viva la Revolucion

Fidel is everywhere

And so is Che

Viñales

Small, rural, picturesque and slow, that's the town of Viñales, the main jumping off point for the spectacular valley of the same name. With its limestone karst mountain Viñales is like nowhere else in Cuba. It's just two and a half hours from Havana but feels a million miles away from the throb of the city.

Ride ‘em Cowboy

Cruise the valley at a leisurely pace on a trusty steed.

Caving

Yes, Cuba has caves. Cally is sporting this jaunty helmet and lamp in the entrance to the Gran Caverna de Santo Tomas, Viñales.

El Nicho

Cuba is tropical – hot and sweaty. We went to cool off at El Nicho, just out of the city of Cienfuegos.

Conclusion

We loved travelling the Caribbean. We did this by island hopping, using ferries and short plane trips. This was in contrast to most travellers visiting the region who predominantly do so on cruise ships or by sailing in yachts.

We weren’t sure how feasible it would be to island hop in this way and it turned out be pretty straight forward. Once the world recovers from COVID-19, and such travel is feasible again, we’d highly recommend a trip to the Caribbean.