Island Hopping Groupings

Not in any particular order:

1) Puerto Rico/Culebra/Vieques

2) St. Vincent & all the Grenadines and possibily Grenada

3) Grand Cayman/Cayman Brac/Little Cayman

4) Antigua & Barbuda

5) Trinadad & Tobago

6) Not officially in the Caribbean - The Turks & Caicos

7) Guadalupe/Iles Des Saints/Marie Gallant

8) Cancun (not really an island) and Cozemel

9) The USVI's

10) Again, not technically in the Caribbean but the Bahamas Out-Islands could be considered and island grouping.

I left out one other grouping:

Aruba/Bonaire/Curacao

FYI - it's not always easy to get around the various "island groups".

A_Traveller has given you a pretty long list of island groups, but I think you were asking more about the practical implications of traveling between islands. It's always better when there are ferries or when flights are cheap.

Barbados and St. Lucia are often combined, and you can get a cheap flight between the two.

The Grenadines are linked by a ferry system or by cheap quick flights. This is an excellent island-hopping destination.

The Guadeloupe archipelago is a great island-hopping destination, either by ferry or flight. There are several good islands to visit there.

Ferries also link Dominica, Martinique, and Guadeloupe, but they are long rides.

Hi A_Traveller and Doug_Stallings:

Thanks for the help!! Doug is correct -- I am looking for islands that would easily lend themselves to hopping/grouping via ferry or very cheap and quick flights.

The Guadalupe/Iles Des Saints/Marie Gallant; the Grenadines and Puerto Rice/Culebra/Vieques grouping all fit your bill. FYI Guadalupe is a heavily "French" destination so if you don't speak the language you may find it a bit difficult to get around.

Keep in mind that the words "cheap" and "quick" are all relative terms so you have to do your homework to see if they meet your definition.

Fast forward to island hopping plans for late 2010. I see some current non-daily ferries schedules connecting:
- St. Lucia - Martinique - Dominica - Guadeloupe
- USVI to BVI or to Puerto Rico E end

The website http://www.travellerspoint.com/guide/Caribbean_ferries/ looks old.

I'd be interested in comments by people with actual experiences. Ideally I'd like to fly from the US Midwest into one island, like St. Lucia, and out from another one with a different flavor and still good air connections, like Guadeloupe. That way, over a 2 week vacation, I might be able to combine air + water + beach + tropical forest + mountains. Thank you.

From Cancun you can take a ferry to Isla Mujeres or you can drive to Playa del Carmen, Tulum, Akumel and Puerto Morelos. From Playa del Carmen you can take a ferry to Cozumel.

We are looking at; from Barbados to fly to St. Vincent and the Grenadines and to Grenada. Can also fly to St. Lucia. There is a tour company that offers packages that inlcudes air, meals, drinks and tour guide/transportation for a set price. About $500 p/p.

From St. Lucia you can fly to St. Vincent and the Grenadines and Martinque.

We have flown from Aruba to Curacao. Also have flown between the Hawaiian Islands.

We have also been looking at Costa Rica. It's recommended to travel to several areas, which will give you the water, beach, tropical forest and mountians you listed. Can go by car or small aircraft.

The Out Islands of the Bahamas are not easy to island hop without going back to Nassau to connect with a flight.

Abaco, Bahamas is a great area to island hop. They are cays and are accessible by boat in the calm Sea of Abaco. It's even easy for the novice boater to navigate their way around the area or you can use the ferry system.

L'Express des Iles serves Guadeloupe/Martinique with a stop in Dominica. It took about 3 hours but you still arrive before lunch. We compared to flying and although flight time is obviously much shorter we thought the catamaran would be interesting - and sailing down the side of Martinique and into Fort de France was quite beautiful. Comments like these islands are heavy French destinations might put some off going which is a pity - no-one gets put off going to Paris. They are a department of France, use the Euro and look as if they have one of the best standards of living in the Caribbean. Also some of the islanders are from other English speaking parts of the Caribbean - there for work etc.

There are good services from Guadeloupe to Les Saintes/Marie Galante

Other groupings: ABC islands
St Lucia and Grenada
Barbados and Grenadines
St Martin and Saba or Statia
Florida keys and Bahamas (from MIA)