Sizzling deals in paradise
THE Caribbean islands offer a welcoming slice of paradise for all just now.
In the summer, hotel rates and air fares are at their lowest, creating budget-friendly deals that can often make a Caribbean holiday cheaper than a comparable week in the Med.
It’s the perfect excuse to leave the busy world behind and indulge in candlelit dining beside the sea, spend hours idling in a hammock, try splashy new water sports and take air-conditioned tours to taste the rich flavours of these sunshine isles.
Here in the Caribbean, the people are friendly, the shopping is fun and the history fascinating, often with a familiar British connection.
Turquoise waters teem with exotic fish and coral, while emerald forests are home to colourful tropical birds – and rustling palm trees fringe arcs of sugar-soft white sand.
At this time of year, warmer temperatures are cooled by sea breezes and occasional sharp downpours are generally followed by bright sunshine and blue skies.
It’s a great time to experience the laidback Caribbean lifestyle for less.
BARBADOS
BARBADOS is affectionately known as Little England and everything here has a familiar feel – from British place names to driving on the left, cricket and afternoon tea.
You’ll find the best of Caribbean pleasures, too. Let the breeze carry you off on a catamaran to snorkel over wrecks in the company of hawksbill turtles and seahorses.
Tour historic sugarcane estates by Jeep – or play at being a pirate of the Caribbean in a towering castle. The sounds of calypso, reggae and R&B fill the evening air in the lively St Lawrence Gap area, where there are buzzing open-air nightclubs on the beachfront. Or get along to the atmospheric Friday night Oistin’s ‘fish fry’. Above all, the charm and hospitality of the friendly Bajans are sure to capture your heart.
This spirited area also happens to be home to one of the best new couples’ resorts in the Caribbean.
Think world-class cuisine in a choice of 11 restaurants, ocean-view suites, private tranquillity soaking tubs and direct access to Barbados’s largest and longest lagoon pool – the perfect sun-soaked retreat.
ANTIGUA
FOR beach bods, laid-back Antigua blends sunshine and crystal water with a necklace of 365 salmon-pink beaches – one for every day of the year.
Small wonder that everyone from Richard Branson to Eric Clapton, Oprah Winfrey and Giorgio Armani has a home in this billionaires’ playground.
A wall of coral reef rings the island, making for exceptional scuba-diving and snorkelling.
Step away from the sands and you’ll find Horatio Nelson’s fully restored dockyard, while historic plantations reveal more of the colonial past.
In the evening, chill out nice and slow in the many restaurants and bars.Best of all, at Dickenson Bay, you’ll find the six-star couples’ resort that is voted the world’s most romantic, year after year.
ST LUCIA
MIX a sense of wonder and fun with complete relaxation, gorgeous palmlined beaches, dramatic mountains and near-perfect weather – and you have a taste of luscious St Lucia.
It’s a deeply romantic destination where daily life typically consists of snorkelling in translucent turquoise seas amid a colour chart of darting tropical fish and corals. Or wandering hand-in-hand along white sands, stopping for a rum punch at a beach bar splashed by an explosion of colour. Or spending happy hours hiking through a verdant rainforest, spotting violet hummingbirds, yellow parrots and pink orchids.
From fruity food markets to costume-filled carnivals, jazz festivals, street parties and ‘fish fries’, there’s every colour but dull here.
Beyond the astonishingly beautiful beaches, the unique island adventures can be just as romantic – allowing you to be a rainforest explorer one minute, a volcano conqueror the next.
The perfect St Lucian retreat? There’s an all-inclusive resort at Rodney Bay offering panoramic views to stir the soul. Volcanic mountains draped in blankets of green rise majestically from an impossibly blue sea, while a sheltered, mile-long beach extends an open invitation for days of endless water play.
This is paradise as it was meant to be – taking you beyond imagination on this most romantic of Caribbean isles. And right now, it’s all there waiting, at an irresistible summer price.