CARIBBEAN BUCKET LIST DESTINATIONS
ABOVE: A 4WD safari in Aruba
LEFT: Bob Marley
Museum, Kingston FAR LEFT: Hunte’s Gardens, Barbados
in the West Indies, it could easily be claimed by Hunte’s Gardens in Barbados. When it comes to ingenuity and tranquillity, you can’t beat it. Created from a deep, steep-sided gully, a narrow, meandering path descends through thickly planted terraces to an oasis of calm at the base of the garden. Here, starbursts of flowers and giant shiny leaves conceal stone benches, strategically placed with romantic moments in mind.
w ADRENALINE SHOT For those who like an excursion that gets their pulse racing, there’s the chance to zip-line through treetop canopies above a gorge in Antigua (Island Routes, from $125), white-water raft on the fast-flowing Yaque del Norte river, Dominican Republic, (Thomson, from £61), or pair the two with a zip-lining and river tubing combo in Ocho Rios (Attraction World, from £85). For a few spills on the water,
you can body and boogie board at Crane Beach on Barbados’s Atlantic coast, where endless rollers break over the pink sands. If your clients are already skilled surfers, they could head to neighbouring Bathsheba, known for its challenging tube-like wave formations. The West Indies has some
fabulous spots to hone kitesurfing skills, too. The cross breeze that caresses Saint Lucia’s Sandy Bay makes it the pick of the crop, and there’s a great school and equipment for hire. For something unique and
unexpected, why not suggest an ATV Tour on the north coast of Aruba to your clients? They’ll kick up a cloud of orange dust as they power their quad bike across the moonscape-like terrain, see a former gold mine, then take a cleansing dip in volcanic rock pools, formed by lava stone at the bottom of an ashen cliff.
LEFT: Klein Bonaire island
w OCEAN ENCOUNTERS Aquariums give you the chance to see a mass of marine life without leaving dry land, but
nothing can compare with seeing those same critters in their natural habitat. If you head to Tobago Cays in the Grenadines, or Bonaire in the Dutch Antilles, marine parks with protected crystal-clear waters teem with such an abundance of fish, you feel as if you are snorkelling in an aquarium anyway. Want to see some turtles doing their thing? You’ll find them hanging out in the lush sea grass around Klein Bonaire. Some of the best places to
observe dolphins swimming wild include the shores of Dominica, the west coast of St Vincent and the West End in Negril, Jamaica. Perhaps the best natural
interaction to be had is at Stingray City, Grand Cayman. At this sizeable sandbank, a few miles out in the ocean, you can stand in the turquoise shallows as schools of cute and curious stingrays swim around your toes. There’s no need to even don a snorkel to see them up close and personal – just sit back and let them come to you. Now that’s a bucket-list item ticked off.
14 September 2017
travelweekly.co.uk 61
PICTURE: BETTIE GRACE MINER
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57 |
Page 58 |
Page 59 |
Page 60 |
Page 61 |
Page 62 |
Page 63 |
Page 64 |
Page 65 |
Page 66 |
Page 67 |
Page 68 |
Page 69 |
Page 70 |
Page 71 |
Page 72 |
Page 73 |
Page 74 |
Page 75 |
Page 76 |
Page 77 |
Page 78 |
Page 79 |
Page 80 |
Page 81 |
Page 82 |
Page 83 |
Page 84 |
Page 85 |
Page 86 |
Page 87 |
Page 88 |
Page 89 |
Page 90 |
Page 91 |
Page 92 |
Page 93 |
Page 94 |
Page 95 |
Page 96
