Every island sells the same blue water. These are the days worth booking.
Which catamaran anchors long enough to actually swim. What the buggy run to the water cave costs out of Punta Cana. Whether Dunn’s River earns a morning when the Blue Hole sits forty minutes further on. Reviews of every tour you can book across the islands.
★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0Captain Bob Speed Boat, Snorkeling, Beach Tour & Lunch St Maartenfrom $139
- Dominican RepublicSaona crossings, buggy tracks, Santo Domingofrom $13
- Puerto RicoEl Yunque, Old San Juan, three glowing baysfrom $21
- JamaicaWaterfalls, river rafts, the north coastfrom $10
- ArubaNatural pool, UTV country, sunset sailsfrom $13
Four mornings people fly in for.
The bookings a first Caribbean trip tends to hang off, on four different islands. What each one costs, and what the travellers who took it say.
01The turtle morningSan Juan Guided Snorkel With Turtles Tour and VideosMasks on by nine in San Juan bay, green turtles grazing the grass beds under the old city wall.
02The Saona crossingCatamaran Boat to Saona Island with Buffet LunchCatamaran out of Punta Cana, lunch on the sand, a stop in the waist-deep natural pool on the way back.
03The Cayman sandbarStingray City Experience Plus Two Snorkeling Stops on Grand CaymanChest-deep water in the middle of the North Sound, where the southern rays come to the boat rather than the other way round.
04The rainforest dayTop Rated El Yunque Rainforest & Waterslide – SmallGroup TourEl Yunque in a small group, waterslide included, an hour out of San Juan and back by dinner.
Choose the island first. The day out follows from there.
Almost everything here is reached by hull, so the real question is which coast you wake up on. Six islands with the deepest choice, and the day each one is known for.
In the Caribbean the good day starts at a jetty.
Boat days outnumber everything else on these islands by a wide margin. Four kinds of day on the water, what it costs to board each one, and what you get for it.
The most booked days out in the Caribbean.
All the reviews →The tours more travellers take than anything else across the islands, and what earns each of them the slot.
1
San Juan Guided Snorkel With Turtles Tour and Videos
Enter the Caribbean from Escambrón Beach for a 1 to 1.5-hour guided snorkel with a certified instructor. You’ll get gear, a safety lesson, help matched to your swimming ability, and a GoPro video. Turtles are often seen, but currents and weather can change the route. Ages 8 and up.
From · $42
Read our review →
2
Top Rated El Yunque Rainforest & Waterslide – SmallGroup Tour
from $45
3
Adventure Bundle: Monkeyland, Ziplines & Buggies Punta Cana
4
Ultimate Island Jeep Safari with Natural Pool, Baby Beach & Lunch
from $130
5
Aruba UTV, ATV Adventure to Secret Beach and Cave Pool
6
Night Kayak – Condado City Lights Tour
from $75
7
Wild Side UTV Tour: Explore the Northern treasure
8
Catamaran Boat to Saona Island with Buffet Lunch
from $82
9
Bites of Nassau Food and Walking Tour
from $99
Inland: buggy tracks, waterfalls and cave pools.
Every island keeps a second day in reserve, the one after the beach. Dune buggies through Dominican cane country, waterslides and rope swings in the Puerto Rican rainforest, a flooded cave pool in the Aruban outback and zip lines strung over the tree line.
- 1ThrillSeekers: Aruba UTV Tour & Cliff Jump at Natural Pool
- 2El Yunque Rainforest: Waterslides, Waterfalls and Rope Swingfrom $25
- 3Punta Cana Zipline Adventure with Buggies and Horseback Ridingfrom $100
- 4Half-Day Adventure 4×4 ATV, Water Cave and Dominican Culturefrom $64
The Dominican Republic runs two holidays at once.
Punta Cana is all-inclusive sand and a catamaran queue for Saona. Forty minutes inland the same island turns into cane-field buggy tracks, flooded caves and monkey country, and Santo Domingo is a full day of the oldest colonial streets in the Americas.
- 1Full-Day Santo Domingo City Tour from Punta Canafrom $95
- 24×4 Dominican Adventure with Chocolate and Coffee Tastingfrom $59
- 3Half-Day Buggy Tour to Water Cave and Macao Beachfrom $54
Puerto Rico puts a rainforest twenty-five miles from a walled city.
El Yunque before lunch, the blue cobbles of Old San Juan after it, and a paddle into a bay that flashes when you drag a hand through it once the sun is gone. Nothing on this island is far from anything else, which is why so many people never leave it.
Every Puerto Rico day out →
Jamaica’s north coast is one long chain of waterfalls.
Dunn’s River climbs six hundred feet from the beach in a human chain. Forty minutes east the Blue Hole drops into jungle with a rope swing over it. The Martha Brae carries a bamboo raft for ninety minutes with nothing whatever to do, and the Rastafari communities sit in the hills behind Montego Bay.
What a Caribbean day out actually costs.
Every tour on the site, grouped by price. The distance between a thirty-dollar snorkel stop and a three-hundred-dollar charter is mostly the size of the boat and how many people share it.
Snorkel stops, old-town walks, waterfall entries and the short harbour runs.
The standard island day: catamaran to a cay, buggy circuit, rainforest and falls.
Private charters, small-group sails and the once-a-trip splurge.
Three Caribbean days that happen nowhere else.
Warm water and white sand run from Cancun to Zanzibar. Pigs that swim out to meet a boat, a bay that lights up when you disturb it, and a sandbar where wild rays crowd the ladder do not.
The Swimming Pigs
Nobody agrees on how the pigs reached Big Major Cay. They swim out to the boats because the boats bring food, and they are large, quick and entirely unbothered by anyone. Day trips run from Nassau by plane and boat, or from Staniel Cay in about twenty minutes, usually with a turtle stop and a sandbar thrown in.
- 13 Islands Tour, Snorkel, Pig Beach, Turtles & Lunch★★★★★★★★★★ 4.3 · 2,585 traveller reviews
- 2Swimming Pigs and Private Beach Club Escape★★★★★★★★★★ 4.5 · 1,238 traveller reviews
- 3Sandy Toes The Original Rose Island and Swimming Pigs Tour★★★★★★★★★★ 4.5 · 1,232 traveller reviews
The Glowing Bays
Three bays on this island hold enough dinoflagellates that the water flashes blue when it is disturbed, and Mosquito Bay on Vieques is the brightest reading anywhere on earth. Trips go by kayak or electric boat and are booked around the moon: a bright one washes the whole effect out, so the dark nights sell first.
- 1Bio Bay Kayak Tour in Fajardo★★★★★★★★★★ 4.5 · 1,762 traveller reviews
- 2Puerto Rico Bio Bay Kayak Adventure Tour★★★★★★★★★★ 4.5 · 1,581 traveller reviews
- 3Bio Bay Kayak Tour in Fajardo★★★★★★★★★★ 4.5 · 1,438 traveller reviews
Stingray City
A sandbar in the middle of the North Sound, chest deep and miles from land, where southern stingrays have met fishing boats for generations. You stand on the bottom and they come to you. Cruise mornings are shoulder to shoulder, so the afternoon departures are the quiet ones.
- 1Stingray City Experience Plus Two Snorkeling Stops on Grand Cayman★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · 1,477 traveller reviews
- 2Starfish Point, Stingray City & Coral Garden (3-Stop Adventure)★★★★★★★★★★ 4.5 · 1,168 traveller reviews
- 3Stingray City and Starfish Experience with Coral Reef Snorkeling★★★★★★★★★★ 4.5 · 924 traveller reviews
Four Caribbean bookings that will not wait.
Most of these islands can be arranged from a bar stool the night before. These four run on ferry timetables, moon phases and cruise-ship calendars that take no interest at all in when your flight lands.
- 01Bio Bay Kayak Tour in FajardoThe bays are booked around the moon. The dark nights either side of a new moon go first, and a full moon washes the glow out completely.
- 02Swimming Pigs and Private Beach Club EscapeExuma day trips run on a fixed flight-and-boat schedule out of Nassau with a hard cap on seats. Miss it and there is no second departure.
- 03Catamaran Boat to Saona Island with Buffet LunchSaona runs one crossing a day and the catamarans fill through the winter. Book it before you decide which day of the week it belongs on.
- 04Jamaica Dunn’s River Falls Party Cruise with SnorkelingDunn’s River caps how many climb at once and the cruise mornings take the early slots. What is left is the middle of the day, in full sun.
June to November: what still runs when the forecast turns.
The wet half of the year brings short heavy afternoon rain far more often than it brings a storm. Boats move to the morning and the afternoon goes inland. Distilleries, cacao estates, coffee farms, cave pools and colonial streets all read better wet than dry, and the prices come down with the crowds.
Island by island
By kind of day: boat, buggy, waterfall or rum shop
Two weeks, two islands: the run most people make first.
Santo Domingo
El Yunque
The bio baysThe newest Caribbean tour reviews.
The rest of the recent arrivals →
Half Day Puerto Plata City Tour and Monkey Home Visit
Read our review →
Damajagua Waterfalls Private Tour with Lunch
Read our review →
VIP Fascinating Boat Ride & Snorkeling at Sosua Bay
Read our review →
Double Thrill Experience: ATV or Dune Buggy & Zipline
Read our review →
Full Day Tour to the Blue Lagoon and 7 Different Destinations
Read our review →
ATV 4 wheel from Amber Cove & Taino bay port silver Cruise port
Read our review →
Excursion in Damajagua’s 7 Waterfalls
Read our review →
