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Click here to plan and book your Bahamas vacation or cruise to the Bahamas.

Complete details at Wikipedia.com

Beginning sixty miles east of the Florida coast, is a group of 700 islands, dazzling in its diversity.The island of New Providence is divided into three main tourist areas — Nassau, Paradise Island and Cable Beach.

Hotel complexes te expansive Cable Beach, which underwent a recent facelift, transforming it to a mecca for visitors who prefer beachcombing with options for exercise and lively entertainment nearby. Luxurious accommodations are offered in resorts of all sizes and types with gourmet food, world-class entertainment, sports facilities (including a golf course) and some large casinos never more than a few steps away.

Nassau, the capital, adds a grand British undertone to island life. Pink government buildings at Rawson Square (actually a circle) face cruise ships whose passengers are drawn to a day of duty-free shopping downtown. A new museum interpreting the colorful Junkanoo tradition is tucked at wharf side in the ships’ shadows. Tiny pubs and restaurants dot Nassau’s narrow side streets. And a bustling straw market houses hundreds of vendors ready to bargain with souvenir merchandise. You can even catch a ride on a horse drawn carriage.

Cross the bridge to Paradise Island where beaches are first-class and the resort selection is excellent — from upscale chic on stately estate grounds, to a yoga retreat, condo facilities (great for family vacations), and large luxury properties (one with a glass tunnel for viewing marine life and a low-key water park). Activity abounds at every turn. Paradise Island has an excellent golf course and its own small airport.

Grand Bahama, with resort development at both Freeport and Lucaya, has the same features on a smaller scale. Golf, tennis, water sports and duty-free shopping are popular and plentiful. And the island moves at a leisurely pace.

Kick back further and visit the Out Islands, favored by explorers who prefer their island life quaint, quiet, simple and barefoot. No rules here, just relaxation and recreation on land and sea when the spirit moves you. Interesting and excellent small and mid-sized hotels and family-run guest houses are interspersed with touches of history and hundreds of friendly faces. Out Island exploration is especially popular with eco-tourists in search of unspoiled island atmosphere, fishermen seeking a record catch and all those who prefer to daydream in idyllic surroundings.

Click here to plan and book your Bahamas vacation or cruise to the Bahamas.

Click here to plan and book your Aruba vacation or cruise to Aruba. Complete details At Wikipedia.com. Visit Aruba’s official website.

Aruba is located in the heart of the southern Caribbean, 15 miles from the South American coastline. The island is 19.6 miles long, and six miles across at its widest point,with a total area of 70 square miles.

Aruba’s topography and vegetation are unusual for a Caribbean island. On the south and west coasts are miles of pristine white beaches that rank among the most beautiful in the world, rimmed by calm blue seas with visibility in some areas to a depth of a hundred feet. The northeast coast, along the windward shore, is rugged and wild. The interior is desertlike, with a variety of cacti and dramatic rock formations. The island’s most famous trees are the watapana, or divi-divi trees, all permanently sculpted into graceful, southwest-bending shapes by the constant trade winds.

It’s always summer in Aruba, and almost always dry. The average daytime temperature is 82° F. The difference between median day and night temperatures, and between summer and winter temperatures, is just 3.6° F. The average rainfall is less than 20 inches a year, occurring mainly in short showers during November and December. Aruba is located safely away from the traditional path of hurricanes. Just one word of caution: The sun is at its strongest between 11am and 2:30pm, and the use of protective sun lotions, including locally made products such as Aruba Aloe, is highly recommended.

There are about 100,000 full-time inhabitants on Aruba,representing more than 40 different nationalities, living peacefully together on Aruba. Hospitality remains a strongly ingrained tradition amongst the population. The official languages of Aruba are Dutch as well as the native tongue of Papiamento, but most Arubans are fluent in several languages, including English and Spanish. The local Papiamento, a lilting, melodic language, has evolved over the centuries from an eclectic mixture of Spanish, Dutch and Portuguese with a sprinkling of Indian, English and French.

The schools of Aruba are subject to the same high standards applied to educational institutions in the Netherlands. Some 14.9 percent of the island’s budget is devoted to education, resulting in a high level of education for the island’s inhabitants.

Cruise to Aruba:

The height of the Aruba cruise season runs October through April, however, numerous big ships and mega-liners visit the island year-round. Cruise lines including Holland America Line, Princess Cruises and the Royal Caribbean Cruise Line,Celebrity Cruises and Carnival Cruises already make regular stops in Aruba, with the island prepared to greet yet more of the big ships with renovation and beautification plans scheduled for the port by the Aruba Ports Authority and the Cruise Tourism Authority.

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Click here to plan and book your Aruba vacation or cruise to Aruba.

Click here to plan and book your Antigua vacation or cruise to Antigua. Official island website: http://www.antigua-barbuda.org/.

Antigua (pronounced An-tee’ga) and Barbuda are located in the middle of the Leeward Islands in the Eastern Caribbean, roughly 17 degrees north of the equator. To the south are the islands of Montserrat and Guadaloupe, and to the north and west are Nevis, St. Kitts, St. Barts, and St. Martin.

Antigua (pronounced /ænˈtiːgə/) is an island in the Caribbean, part of the country of Antigua and Barbuda. It is also known as Wadadli, which means approximately “our own”. The island has a population of about 68,000 and is 54 miles in circumference, with an area of 108 square miles.

Over 24,000 people live in the capital of St. John’s, at 17° 6′ N. and 61° 45′ W. Other leading population settlements are All Saints (3,412) and Liberta (2,239), according to the 2001 Census. The capital is situated in the northwest, near to V.C. Bird International Airport, and has a deep harbor which is able to accommodate large cruise ships.

Complete details At Wikipedia.com

Antigua is part of the Leeward Islands and boasts a spectacular choice of 365 picturesque coves and palm-fringed bays, with fine sand, blue seas and some of the best watersports in the Caribbean. As a beach destination, it’s hard to beat with one of the driest climates in the whole Caribbean region, making it particularly popular among sunseekers. The landscape of the island is not particularly varied but there are other attractions of interest: For sightseeing, English Harbor is worthy of a visit, a former British naval bastion used since Nelson’s time. The capital St. John’s has duty free shopping, a lively public market on a Friday and Saturday and an interesting 19th century cathedral.

Travel or vacation in Antigua.

Click here to plan and book your Anguilla vacation or Anguilla cruise.

(English pronunciation: an-GWILL-ah) is a British overseas territory in the Caribbean, the most northerly of the Leeward Islands in the Lesser Antilles. It consists of the main island of Anguilla itself, approximately 16 miles long by 3 miles wide at its widest point, together with a number of much smaller islands and cays with no permanent population. The island’s capital is The Valley. The total land area of the territory is 102 square kilometres (39.4 square miles), with a population of approximately 13,500 (2006 estimate).

Complete details about Anguilla at Wikipedia.
Beaches

The Caribbean is known for many things — crystal blue waters, flawless weather and award-winning restaurants - but the island of Anguilla specializes in the region’s most coveted commodity, pristine, soft, silky, powdery beaches. Twelve miles of spectacular white sand and coral beaches grace the perimeter of the 35-square mile island, bordered by the Caribbean Sea and the Atlantic Ocean.

While all of Anguilla’s beaches are distinct from one another, all are equally inviting, with clear calm waters, ranging in color from aquamarine to royal blue, lapping gently at the shoreline. Each cove, bay and stretch of sand is marked by unique characteristics such as varied rock formations and picturesque tropical blooms. Committed to achieving environmental sustainability, Anguilla is protecting its natural beauty and resources by caring for its beaches, dunes, reefs, shorelines and coastal waters.

The calm, gentle currents and long crescent shapes make swimming and strolling on Anguilla’s beaches both safe and enjoyable, making them popular with, and conducive to, visitors of all ages. The constant but tender breezes of the trade winds, coupled with average monthly temperature of 80 degrees, keep the beaches comfortable as well.

Many of the island’s inviting and varied resorts and hotels are situated directly on one of the island’s 33 beaches, which means you can put your toes in the water first thing in the morning and be lulled to sleep by the soothing waves at night. Furthermore, with all of Anguilla’s beaches open to the public, visitors can take their pick of all 33, or, stay with their favorite during their time on the island. Making the choice of which beach to visit even more difficult is the fact that many of them also share the beachfront with restaurants ranging from fine dining establishments to colorful, beach bistros and bars with live music.

Click here to plan and book your Anguilla vacation or Anguilla cruise.

Travel to the Cayman Islands: Several airlines serve the Islands, including the national airline Cayman Airways, American Airlines, USAIR, Northwest, Delta, Continental, Air Canada, British Airways, and Air Jamaica. The national carrier serves Miami, Houston, Tampa, Orlando, Fort Lauderdale, Boston, Chicago; Kingston and Montego Bay, Jamaica; Havana, Cuba; and Cayman Brac and Little Cayman. Direct links with other US gateways, such as Atlanta, New York and Charlotte, are provided by the US carriers serving the Islands. British Airways operates a twice-weekly direct flight from London to Grand Cayman and return, and Air Canada operates once-weekly from Toronto. A range of charter services are available from North America to the Cayman Islands. There are also frequent charters from Cayman to Honduras, Panama, Costa Rica and other nearby countries. Most carriers world-wide have connecting flights. The frequency of flights may vary seasonally, so contact your travel agent for details.

Cancun