Travel between Caribbean Islands
 

Hi
Am planning a trip to the Caribbean in early January. What I would like to do is arrive on one island and take boats to some of the others. How do-able is that? What would be an efficient itinerary? What would be the best island to arrive on, depart from?
Thank you for any help you might offer..
GEsssa

It's called "Island Hopping" and how easy or difficult it is depends on which island(s) you want to visit, how much time you have for your trip and how long you are willing to travel to get from one island to another and whether you want to go by ferry or if you want to fly. The easiest way to island hop is to stay within certain island groups.

For instance, if you flew into St. Thomas you can easily reach St. John and almost all of the British Virgin Islands (Tortola, Virgin Gorda, Jost Van Dyke, and a few more) by a series of ferry boats.

If you flew into St. Martin, you can easily get to Anguilla and St. Barth's by boat.

If you flew into St. Kitts you can ferry over to Nevis.

If you flew into Antigua the easiest island to reach is Barbuda.

From St. Vincent or Grenada you can get to some of the Grenadines by ferry.

As a general rule, you can only go by ferry between islands that are in close proximity to each other (like the pairings I mentioned above) - think in terms of only a few (2 to 5) miles between islands. Distances of over 5 or 10 miles miles means you'll be crossing too much "open water" to make the ferry ride practical (way too uncomfortable) so the only viable way to island hop between the further islands is to fly (and that can get expensive).

So, if this is your first trip to the Caribbean and you want to island hop, stick to one of the pairings I mentioned above. Flying into St. Thomas and visiting St. John plus one or more of the British Virgin Islands would be your best bet. Go here to research all the different ferry schedules that link St. Thomas with other nearby island:
http://www.bestofbvi.com/info/info_bviferry.htm or simply google Us Virgin Island Ferries or BVI Ferries for loads of information.

Check the schedules on http://www.express-des-iles.com/index.cfm?lng=en for catamarans between the French islands. The trip between Martinique and Guadeloupe is alot more than 5 or 10 miles and by catamaran is rather comfortable.

You can fly between Aruba, Bonaire and Curacao, also from Cancun to Isla Mujeres and Playa del Carman to Cozumel by ferry, to name a couple more.