We live in the Caribbean and visited many Caribbean islands. We made this guide ranking our favorite Caribbean islands based on our overall experiences. You might think the perfect Caribbean vacation is all about lounging by the beach or in your resort and that’s about it. But, we like to also focus on adventurous activities, how easy it is to walk around or get in your rental car and go on an epic road trip. Food, access to amazing beaches and a variety of accommodations and things to do that won’t be extremely expensive. So, here is our ranking of the best Caribbean islands.
Every destination on this list, we visited for a different amount of time. Some places we spent 6 days, other islands we were just there for 2 or 3. We also like to stay at various types of accommodations in each island. We try to stay at resorts and affordable Airbnb’s wherever we go to experience the best of both worlds. If you’re curious about how much a trip to each of these islands might cost or you want to visit a cheap Caribbean island, you can check out my article: Budget Travel Guide: Cheap Islands in The Caribbean to Visit
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6. Tobago, Trinidad & Tobago
Tobago is the touristy island of the country Trinidad and Tobago. This is where I am from. Even though I live in Trinidad for all my life, I hardly ever make an opportunity to visit Tobago. That’s something I’ll definitely change after my last trip a few months ago. Tobago has a couple of the things that I love in an island. It’s small and compact, a few good beaches, great food and the overall vibe is just touristy and laid back.
What I think Tobago lack are activities, affordability and a proper resort. Besides visiting Little Tobago on a tour, I found myself in a loop of: going to the beach for most of the day, grab lunch, probably drive around a little and relax, go out for dinner and maybe drinks.
I also think that Tobago is expensive, especially at the touristy beaches like Pigeon Point. It costs $6 USD for a beer by one of the beach bars and food is also expensive. Accommodation is also a little bit on the expensive side. Compared to other Caribbean Islands I’ve visited, there’s no reason for things to cost that much because it’s way less touristy than all the other islands on this list.
5. Dominica
I want to give a proper assessment of my Dominica experience even though I only spent 3 days here. I think Dominica is one of the most naturally beautiful and peaceful Caribbean islands there is. I’ve come to the conclusion that Dominica is either for adventure travelers who want to reside in nature, go hiking to waterfalls, stay in eco lodges and see marine life or for people that want a totally peaceful escape. Dominica feels like an untouched gem of the Caribbean that is not yet overrun by tourism and high prices.
One of my favorite things about Dominica is how affordable it is. Accommodation was cheap, buying stuff in shops and restaurants was also very affordable. Dominica is also really safe. We walked around at night in rural areas and streets and everyone was friendly and helpful. For someone like me who loves to explore on foot all hours of the day or night, that’s a huge plus.
Where I think Dominica fall short are in food, beaches and things to do outside of nature. Our attempts to find proper Dominican street food were to no avail. We looked in the heart of the capital, in the markets and in the streets. There was hardly anything that was of much interest.
If you come here expecting white sand and turquoise beaches, you’ll be disappointed. The beaches in Dominica are black volcanic rock not the type that everyone imagines when they think of the Caribbean. I expected this before coming here, so we mainly did hiking and other exploration activities in Dominica like road trips and stuff.
Dominica is best for: Nature, hiking and just having a chill time. It’s also great for solo travel if you’re into that sort of thing.
4. The Dominican Republic
We stayed at an all-inclusive resort this time. I was surprised by how well managed, attentive and staffed the resort was. Everything ran exceptionally well 24/7. There was entertainment, food, activities going on constantly and we were never bored. What was interesting was that this was one of the most affordable all-inclusive resorts in the country at the time. Could you imagine the top of the line ones? For anyone interested, the resort we stayed at was Bahia Principe Grand La Romana.
Dominican Republic is ranked somewhere in the middle because I felt like I was really stuck within the resort for the majority of the trip. That was mainly because this was a three country trip and we just went for luxury and a chill time in DR instead of the other 2 countries. Going outside the resort to explore the streets or to look for some local food required us to use a private car from the resort. This cost us $118 USD.
Driving in the Dominican Republic seems very stressful. Half of the population are on scooters, people drive really close to each other and there’s almost always traffic.
I know that The Dominican Republic has so much more to offer and it’s a large country with many cities and nature to explore. But, that just gives me another reason to go back for a very different type of vacation. I really think the Dominican Republic is best for people who want to stay in an all-inclusive resort and never have to leave.
3. St. Vincent and the Grenadines
We visited St. Vincent and the Grenadines twice and each time it was increasingly my type of vibe. St. Vincent is one of the least visited islands in the Caribbean and that alone made me really want to explore this island. I visited the mainland of St. Vincent and I went to the Grenadine islands for a day trip to Bequia. The majority of the touristy things to do and nice beaches are actually in the Grenadines.
How my day would go in St. Vincent would be: Wake up and have breakfast, talk about and plan where we are going today, get in the car and go on our road trip, come home at night time. In St. Vincent everything felt private and uncrowded so that made everywhere we went a little more adventurous.
I was really surprised by how amazing the food in St. Vincent and the Grenadines is. Everywhere I ate the food was 10/10 and affordable. We really enjoyed food from Joshua Center and Four Shells bar and restaurant. Another plus for me was how affordable everything in St. Vincent is compared to most other Caribbean islands. A beer on Princess Margaret beach was only $1.85 USD. Note that Princess Margaret beach and Bequia is a very touristy island.
The only area I think St. Vincent and the Grenadines could improve in is the accommodation variety. It’s a little difficult to find a really nice resort, Airbnb or hotel that is also affordable and conveniently placed.
Also, the roads and driving is kind of difficult. A lot of the roads even in very populated areas and towns are really only wide enough for one car at a time. The island is very mountainous and that makes Google Maps send you in the worst places imaginable. I can recall a number of times where we or the other car had to reverse all the way out just for one of us to be able to pass.
St. Vincent and the Grenadines is really best for island hopping, beaches in the Grenadines and the tasty food.
2. Curacao
Compared to all the other islands that I’ve visited, Curacao really seems to be the most all rounded. First of all, I was only here for about 30 hours and we didn’t get to go far from Willemstad. One of the most memorable things for me was how nice everyone was and that they could all speak English and like 3 other languages.
Willemstad is also one of the only walkable towns in the Caribbean where you can properly have a leisurely walk around the entire capital and it doesn’t feel like a busy commercial hub. Everything is speaking tourism, the cobblestone streets, the nice looking buildings and all the cool restaurants around. We literally spent the entire day and night outside of our hotel exploring and just doing stuff. I also saw some really nice beaches nearby that I regrettably didn’t get to swim in.
I plan to visit Curacao for a much longer time this time around. I’ll rent a car, stay in an Airbnb and just drive to different beaches, snorkeling areas and places to get nice food. I think that’ll be a blast.
1. Antigua
We visited Antigua for 5 days. We stayed in an Airbnb for 2 days and the Jolly Beach Resort for 3 days. I think I love everything about Antigua, especially all the amazing beaches. My favorite beach is Valley Church beach. It’s really close to the Jolly Harbour area. Every single beach we visited was 10/10. We rented a car and explored most of the island in true road trip fashion. We went as far as Half Moon beach and we even took a ferry to Barbuda island for a day trip.
I actually wouldn’t go back to Barbuda again. It’s mostly destroyed rubble because of a hurricane. When we were there, we struggled to find any liveliness or places to eat. It was quite desolate. We ended up driving around all of Barbuda looking for pink sand beaches until we ended up on Princess Diana beach. This beach is the best beach in Antigua and the best I’ve ever been to in my life. But, with that said, the ferry ride to come here and to get back was over 4 hours total time and I do not think it was worth it. Luckily visiting Barbuda is a choice, it’s not something you have to do or experience when you visit Antigua.
The food in Antigua is amazing. We had lobster and conch roti. I had doubles, I had pepperpot and fungee which is a very local cuisine. We walked about in the capital St. John’s and it was a pretty good experience. I usually dislike Caribbean cities because it’s usually busy with cars, extremely hot and not much to do. But, St. John’s had a lot of food we wanted to try. We visited a place called Public Market. Here you can practically get anything local that you want to eat.
Exploring around the island was also a breeze. The roads were good and there were plenty of things for us to do. Although, we did get stuck in a flood our first night in Antigua. Be careful when it rains heavily here. What we did when we arrived in Antigua before even checking into our hotel was we rented a car and visited a couple of the beaches, forts and attractions.
The resort we stayed in was actually the cheapest resort on the island and it was still expensive. Antigua is an expensive place compared to other less touristy islands. The food was expensive in certain places. I couldn’t find an affordable resort besides the one we stayed in.
So, Antigua has a huge array of accommodations to choose from, but they are expensive. I guess you can’t get the best of both worlds.
