Best Caribbean Islands

I will say it plainly: if you ask me which single island I would send most travellers to, it is Aruba. Not because it is the flashiest or the most exotic but because it delivers consistently, regardless of who you are.

Aruba sits just 17 miles off the coast of Venezuela, which puts it completely outside the hurricane belt. That means two things: the weather is almost always perfect, think 82°F with constant trade winds and about 20 inches of rain per year, and you can visit virtually any time of year without worrying about storms cancelling your trip.

When I first drove down Palm Beach on a Tuesday afternoon in January, I remember thinking I had accidentally stumbled into a postcard. The water was this impossible shade of blue green, the sand was powder white, and the trade winds were doing exactly what they are supposed to do keeping everything just cool enough to be comfortable despite the heat. Eagle Beach, just south of the main resort strip, consistently ranks among the best beaches in the Caribbean — wide, quiet, with sea turtles nesting right there on the shore during season.

If you want the single most beautiful stretch of sand in the entire Caribbean — and I would argue in the entire world — Grace Bay Beach in Turks and Caicos is your answer. I have stood on beaches on six continents. Grace Bay is in a category of its own.

The water is this crystalline, electric turquoise that does not look real. You wade in expecting it to be different up close — it is not. It is exactly that colour, and it stays that warm, and the sand stays that white all the way out to where it drops off into deeper blue. The first time I walked out into that water I genuinely stopped and stood there for a full minute just to take it in.

Here is my honest confession: Curacao took me by surprise. I did not have high expectations before my first visit and I left completely obsessed.

Willemstad, the capital, is unlike any other city in the Caribbean. The Dutch colonial architecture is painted in vivid candy colours — yellow, pink, orange, aquamarine. The buildings line the waterfront of the natural harbour, the Handelskade, and the floating pontoon bridge connects the two halves of the city. I walked that bridge at sunset and it was one of the genuinely prettiest urban moments I have had anywhere in the world.

Roatan does not get the hype it deserves. It is the largest of Honduras's Bay Islands, sitting right on the Mesoamerican Barrier Reef — the second largest coral reef system in the world, stretching 700 miles from Mexico to Honduras. What that means for you practically: world class diving and snorkelling within swimming distance of the shore.

I have done some of the most memorable dives of my life here. The reef wall at West Bay drops to over 100 feet, covered in brain corals and sea fans, with sea turtles drifting past with complete indifference to you. The visibility regularly exceeds 100 feet.

Cozumel sits 12 miles off the coast of Playa del Carmen and I keep coming back for one reason: the reef. The Palancar Reef, part of the Mesoamerican system, is one of the most famous dive and snorkel sites in the world and it absolutely lives up to its reputation.

I have taken snorkel trips here where I spent four hours floating over coral gardens so dense and colourful they make you forget where you are. The water temperature is warm, the current is gentle enough for beginners on most sites, and the marine life — queen angelfish, spotted eagle rays, nurse sharks resting on the sand — is reliable and abundant.

Grenada is called the Spice Isle and the moment you land you understand why. The air actually smells different here — nutmeg and cinnamon and something I can only describe as green and tropical. It is an island that engages all your senses before you have even left the airport.

What I love most about Grenada is that it has not sold its soul to mass tourism. Grand Anse Beach is one of the best beaches in the Caribbean — two miles of pale sand and warm clear water — but you will share it with locals having picnics on Sunday afternoons, not just resort guests. That mix feels rare and precious to me now, after visiting islands where the authentic Caribbean has been almost entirely erased.

There are 50 islands in the US Virgin Islands but most visitors split their time between three: St. Thomas (the most commercial), St. John (the most beautiful), and St. Croix (the most local and under-visited). Each one is completely different from the others.

St. John, a 20 minute ferry ride from St. Thomas, is one of the most stunning places I have visited anywhere in the world. Two thirds of the island is protected as a national park. The hiking trails through the forest lead to beaches — Trunk Bay, Cinnamon Bay, Maho Bay — that are extraordinary. Trunk Bay's underwater snorkel trail is one of the most beginner friendly snorkelling experiences in the entire Caribbean.

Trinidad is the odd one out on this list and I love it for that reason. It is the only major Caribbean island I would visit primarily for reasons other than its beaches. It has beaches — some good ones — but that is not why you go to Trinidad.

You go for Carnival — the wildest, most joyful celebration I have ever been part of. If you are there in February, nothing in the world compares. Steelpan orchestras, soca music, mas' bands in elaborate costumes parading through Port of Spain. It is an experience that physically changes you. I came back from my first Carnival unable to fully explain what I had witnessed to anyone who had not seen it for themselves.

You also go for the food. Trinidadian cuisine is a collision of Indian, African, Chinese, and Spanish influences, and the result is some of the most exciting street food in the Caribbean. Doubles — curried chickpeas in fried bara bread eaten from a roadside vendor at 7am — is one of those experiences that ruins you for lesser breakfasts forever.

Tobago is Trinidad's smaller sister island, 20 minutes away by plane, and they could not be more different. Where Trinidad is noisy, busy, and cultural, Tobago is quiet, green, lush, and startlingly beautiful.

The Main Ridge Forest Reserve is the oldest protected rainforest in the Western Hemisphere — established in 1776. I hiked through it with a local guide and saw motmots, toucans, and manakins within a 90 minute walk. The waterfalls at Argyle are legitimately spectacular. And the beaches on the windward side of the island, like Englishman's Bay, are the kind of wild, dramatic, practically deserted stretches of coast that you increasingly have to work hard to find in the Caribbean.

Antigua's claim to fame is numerical: 365 beaches — one for every day of the year. The truth is that many of those beaches are more like coves and not all of them are easily accessible. But the principle holds — Antigua has remarkable beach variety. You can spend a week here and never swim on the same stretch of sand twice.

Half Moon Bay is my favourite — a curved arc of pink tinged sand on the Atlantic coast with a natural rock formation at one end and waves just powerful enough to make bodysurfing genuinely fun. English Harbour itself is worth an afternoon — Nelson's Dockyard is a restored 18th century British naval base turned marina and in season it is filled with superyachts and sailing enthusiasts from around the world.