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USAFrom botanical gardens and turquoise lagoons to world-famous beaches, these are the best attractions in the Caribbean according to traveller reviews.
From botanical gardens and turquoise lagoons to world-famous beaches, these are the best attractions in the Caribbean according to traveller reviews.
Topping the list is somewhere you might not expect: a botanical garden. But anyone who’s been to Hunte’s Gardens in Barbados will tell you it earns every one of its five-star reviews – more than 90 per cent of visitors, in fact.
Hidden in the hills of St Joseph, the garden winds through a naturally formed gully, with giant palms, exotic orchids and tropical blooms layered around every bend. It’s lush, peaceful and surprisingly moving – the kind of place that makes you slow right down. For cruise passengers, it’s roughly 30 minutes from Bridgetown cruise port and makes for a brilliant shore excursion.
Grace Bay Beach has a habit of topping best beaches in the Caribbean lists, and after one visit it’s easy to understand why. Stretching more than three miles along Providenciales in Turks and Caicos, the sand is impossibly soft and the water shifts through every shade of turquoise imaginable.
The nearby coral reefs make it one of the finest spots in the Caribbean for snorkelling too, with colourful marine life just a short swim from the shore. One of those Caribbean destinations that actually lives up to the hype.
Tucked away on the small Puerto Rican island of Culebra, Flamenco Beach feels like a secret even when you’re sharing it with other visitors. The sheltered bay keeps conditions calm and clear, and the marine life here is genuinely extraordinary – sea turtles, stingrays and tropical fish are regular sightings for snorkellers.
It’s consistently rated among the top things to do in the Caribbean, and it’s the kind of beach that’s hard to leave.
Few Caribbean cruise excursions generate as much excitement as Stingray City – and it absolutely delivers. Out on a shallow sandbar in the Cayman Islands, you wade into waist-deep water surrounded by wild southern stingrays that have grown so comfortable around people they’ll glide right up to you.
Cruise passengers docking at George Town can reach it on a short boat trip. It’s one of those wildlife encounters that stays with you long after you’ve dried off.
The name means Paradise Beach, and for once that’s not an overstatement. On the tiny Cuban island of Cayo Largo del Sur, Playa Paraíso offers the white-sand, clear-blue-water setting that usually only exists in travel brochures – except here it’s real, and remarkably uncrowded.
What sets it apart from many of the best beaches in the Caribbean islands is the quiet. No jet skis, no vendors, no noise. Just sea, sand and sky.
For things to do in the Caribbean that go beyond the beach, the Cayman Crystal Caves are a fantastic find. Set within tropical forest on Grand Cayman, the caves open into dramatic limestone caverns with underground pools and formations that feel almost otherworldly.
Guided tours walk you through several caverns and share the island’s geological story along the way. Look up and you might spot fruit bats in the ceiling – a detail that children and adults alike tend to remember for a long time.
The Blue Hole near Ocho Rios in Jamaica looks like it was designed for social media, but it turns out to be even better in real life. A series of vivid turquoise lagoons hidden in the Jamaican rainforest, connected by waterfalls, cliff jumps, rope swings and hidden caves – it’s as fun as it sounds.
It’s one of the most popular places to visit in the Caribbean for travellers who want something more active, though it’s also beautiful enough that plenty of people are happy just to sit and stare.
Eagle Beach is one of those Caribbean tourist attractions that locals and visitors consistently agree on. Wide, unhurried and fringed by Aruba’s distinctive fofoti trees – which lean dramatically in the trade winds – it has a real character that sets it apart.
It’s also an important nesting site for sea turtles, which return each year to lay their eggs on the shore. One of the more quietly special Caribbean cruise destinations to find yourself in.
Not every top attraction in the Caribbean needs to involve the sea. Valle de Viñales in western Cuba is proof that the region’s landscapes go well beyond the coastline. A UNESCO World Heritage Site, the valley is defined by extraordinary mogotes – great rounded limestone hills rising from flat farmland like something from another world.
Traditional tobacco farming still shapes life here. You can hike it, cycle it or explore on horseback. However you do it, it’s one of the most beautiful places to visit in the Caribbean.
Few Caribbean tourist attractions are as visually arresting as The Baths on Virgin Gorda. Enormous granite boulders – some over 12 metres tall – are scattered along the coastline, forming tunnels, caves and natural pools that you scramble through before emerging onto secluded beaches.
It’s photogenic in the extreme, but also genuinely fun to explore. A firm favourite on Caribbean cruise itineraries through the British Virgin Islands, and one of the most memorable places in the entire region.
