Hello. We are trying to plan our honeymoon for May 2007 and we would like to visit two islands in the caribbean. We were thinking Barbados, Barbuda, Anguilla, St. John, St. Barths or Antigua. As you can see I'm looking at the southern caribbean islands. We will be flying out of Miami or Fort Lauderdale and don't mind one connection, but does anyone know what two islands are easy to travel between. Either by boat or plane? Or do I have to fly back to Puerto Rico for a connecting flight? That is what I'm trying to avoid. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Fly into St. Thomas and then go onto St. John, easy ferry between the two.
Then if you want more island hopping charter a boat to British Virgin Islands (the Baths are fabulous!)

A great island hopping group is Anguilla/St. Martin/St Bart's. Direct flight to St. Martin. Then you can ferry to Anguilla (20 minutes) on 1 side, ferry over to St. Barts on the other. All 3 islands are very different from each other. You can even through Saba into the mix.

Actually with the exception of Barbados all of those islands are in the northeastern or central Caribbean, not the southern Caribbean. Other than Barbuda and Antigua the islands on your list are fairly far apart so there's no ferry service you can take.

You can easily fly between Antigua and Barbuda as they are very close (probably a 15 minute flight). The only island on your list that you can reach from Barbados without changing planes is Antigua. You can also fly from from Antigua to Anguilla. To reach St. Barth's you must first make your way to St. Martin and then catch a flight or ferry to St. Barth's. You can only reach St. John by ferry from either St. Thomas or Tortola.

You can only reach St. John by first flying into St. Thomas or Tortola and taking a Ferry to St. John.

It's not always easy to island hop and you may find that you have quite a bit of airport time making connections since it may take two or more flight and/or ferries to reach a particular destination. You also have to keep in mind that you may have to reverse the process on your return in order to reach a gateway city for your flight back to Florida.

Check out the following regional airline web-sites (Liat, Winair, Caribbean Sun, Caribbean Star) to see which itineraries may work for you:

www.liatairline.com
www.fly-winair.com
www.flycsa.com
www.flycaribbeanstar.com

Thanks for your responses. I don't mind taking the ferry either. Any good companies for chartering boats?

If you are talking about bareboat or crewed chartering a boat to sail between islands check out www.moorings.com

They are the largest chartering company in the Caribbean with bases on many islands. You can also do a google search for "Yacht Charters - Caribbean" and you'll find links to just about every charter company. Keep in mind that unless you are an experienced sailor you might want to confine your charter experience to sailing around the USVI's/BVI's or the Grenadines as these areas are considered protected waters and you are never out of sight of land. Hopping between other islands will involve travelling over "blue water" which can get quite rough and because of distances you'll spend more time crossing open water than you will on a beach or exploring islands.

If you are looking for just a day charter it helps to know what island.

Nevis and St. Kitt's are close together and a good combo, since they are both charming and different. It's an easy 15 minute flight between the two. For a romantic trip, we like Nisbet Plantation on Nevis and the Golden Lemon on St. Kitt's. Have a great time.

st. vincent and the grenadines works for island hopping

I'll add Grenada to the mix. It is a short plane hop from Barbados. Between the two islands, you'll have everything--the incredible natural beauty of Grenada and the vibrancy of Barbados, which has a little of everything the islands have to offer (except for gambling or a volcano).