woodstock525

My adult daughter and I are taking a 7 day Carnival cruise out of San Juan in July. Looking for advice on the best places to visit on the islands we will visit, best tours to book through the cruise ship, and how to stay safe since it's just us girls. The ship will visit: St Thomas, Barbados, St Lucia, St Kitts and St Maarten. Also need recommendations for a hotel in San Juan the night before the cruise. Do any of the hotels provide shuttles from the airport to hotel and from the hotel to the cruise ship?

doug_stallings

We publish a guidebook specifically geared toward cruise ship passengers and cover all the destinations on your itinerary. You don't have to buy that book, but I really do think you should do some independent research to find out what the possibilities are. Read up on the destinations (online for free, even) and then you can understand what some of the choices are.

In San Juan NO hotels offer free airport-to-hotel shuttles, not do they provide free hotel-to-cruise port shuttles. You'll have to take a taxi, but it's not that expensive. You can stay in a hotel that is within walking distance to the cruise pier or at least a very short taxi ride unless you want to stay on the beach, in which case it's a bit further, but not so bad. The Sheraton Old San Juan is across the street from the cruise pier's entrance; it's a nice hotel, but it can be expensive (though I suspect cheaper in the summer).

xkenx

St. Thomas has shopping, beaches, snorkeling at Secret Harbour Hotel and Coki beach. An interesting day on St.Lucia would be to take a small boat trip along the coast to the town of Soufriere near the Pitons, then van to the botanical gardens, the active volcano, and snorkeling on the return.
Barbados is fascinating--take a private taxi, not a ship's tour. A full day would be the historical St.John's parish church, Andromeda Gardens, Harrison's Cave. Stop for lunch beachside at Coral Reef Club, the class act resort hotel on the island.

virginia

my friends just stayed at the sheraton (took same cruise as you) and were quite pleased. said the lobby was not as nice as they expected but that the rooms were clean & nice. easy walk across the street to the ship which they could see from their room.

on st. lucia you can walk from the pier to the water taxis. friends took water taxi to anse chastenet and jalousie plantation. they snorkeled both & had lunch on the beach. they did this as special request but it was no problem as taxi went to both anyway. the volcano is not that interesting & is ummm stinky.

on st martin you can take an excursion to pinel island for a quiet day, or go duty free shopping, or take any of numerous water excursions or go to one of the busier beaches. busy island - tons of options.

it would really help if you told us how old your daughter is & what sort of things you'd like to do.

tweenpix

m4rv3 - "Take lots of pics & Soak up as much sunshine as you can"
haha funny

There are many different excursions and adventures you can do whilst on each island and surely one day isn't enough to gain a good experience of the island.

A tour of the island sounds good, either by Car or by Catamaran as m4rv3 recommended above.

You cant visit St. Lucia and not visit the town of Soufriere where the Drive in Volcano is, as well as the Pitons and the Botanical Gardens + Waterfall.

You can choose to do Snorkelling, Segwaying, Ziplining etc. It all depends on you.

Normally the excursion bookings from the cruise ship tend to be overpriced, so be sure to get a quote from a destination manager such as eKarib.com