The islands of the Caribbean Sea are considered by many people to be among the most romantic and relaxing destination vacations. With more than 700 islands that border or surround it, the Caribbean is one of the largest seas in the world, and these islands attract more than 12 million vacationers every year.
Caribbean Fact Sheet
Many tourists from around the world visit the Caribbean region during every season. The tropical weather and year-round warm temperatures are largely affected by the Gulf Stream and the Humboldt Current. The Caribbean Sea is surrounded by the Gulf of Venezuela, Gulf of Paria, and the Gulf of Honduras. It is also home to many of the world’s most beautiful and exotic wildlife, including the Puerto Rican Parrot, Green Sea Turtle, Caribbean Monk Seal, and the Caribbean Reef Shark.
Some of the top Caribbean vacation destinations are St. Martin, Aruba, the Bahamas, Puerto Rico, Bermuda, the Cayman Islands, and the Virgin Islands; these popular islands provide an ideal spot to relax and unwind.
Tourism in the Caribbean region represents a significant portion of the economy. Many tourists are attracted to the picturesque outdoors, including beautiful blue water, crisp white beach sand, and exotic mountain terrain. The most popular vacation islands in the Caribbean are home to many luxurious resort hotels that border the beaches where visitors can enjoy a relaxing stay in comfortable rooms and a wide range of hotel amenities. They can also enjoy popular outdoor sports like snorkeling and scuba diving.
If you’re looking for a dream vacation, the Caribbean islands are a great place to escape the day-to-day stress of your normal environment. In addition to the beautiful beaches, the Caribbean islands also offer cultural attractions, exotic architecture, and top-notch restaurants. For the responsible gamer, Aruba, the Bahamas, Antiqua, the Virgin Islands, Curacao, and Puerto Rico have glitzy casinos.
Consider a Vacation Club
While a trip to the Caribbean islands sounds expensive, keep in mind that it doesn’t have to be pricey if you’re purchasing your airfare and hotel accommodations with a membership in a vacation club.
A vacation club membership has many advantages, including the ability to book some of the best resorts at discounted prices. You will not only have access to membership benefits for the Caribbean islands, but you can travel to any destination around the world. Many well-established vacation clubs, such as Royal Holiday Destinations, connect their members with five-star luxury hotels and resorts, villas and condominiums at affordable prices that are only available to individuals with these club memberships. You can also build credits each time you book your vacations through the membership club and have an opportunity to earn incentives and rewards.
Photo Credit: trishhartmann
All sounds good to me! I’ve never been to the Caribbean, but we did go to the Riviera Maya for our honeymoon and it was gorgeous. White sand beaches, gorgeous ocean views…. quite idyllic indeed.
This is making me want to go back to the Caribbean! I love it there.
I was born and raised in the Dominican Republic so I might be a little biased, but there’s nothing like the Caribbean!
I’m not so sure about the “vacation club” concept. Sounds a bit like time shares. My family loves to bare boat. We’ve sailed the Virgin Islands many times and this year chartered in Belize.
There’s nothing like being on the water for your vacation; anyone who can should consider chartering even if you have to pay for a captain. It’s a vacation you’ll never forget. For me it’s a million times better than a five-star hotel!
Yeah, I doubt it too. Back in the dark ages, my spouse (before we even met), got suckered into one of those vacation clubs. A few grand to join, then a few hundred a year, and “many choices” of where to go.
Unfortunately, he wasn’t the kind of guy to go on nice vacations. Oh, he WANTED to be, but he just wasn’t.
So, we did use it for our honeymoon to Antigua. It was a bit of a problem. When we got to the condo, they didn’t have our reservation. We had our confirmation number though, so they gave us a condo anyway. It was just an okay condo, but we were young and didn’t have expensive tastes anyway. (Turns out the vacation club had rebooked us in a 5 star resort and had called my soon to be husband and left him a message, but he was living in CA at the time and I was in VA, where we married. So he’d already come to VA and never got the message.)
Anyway, we canceled after that and ended up getting a few hundred back from a class action lawsuit. It was a good learning experience though. We generally vacation by staying in condos. Our last Hawaiian vacation was to a Hilton resort, and we ended up at one of their sales talks. Of course, being working parents with two small children (read: no time, plus a PITA to fly), we were able to resist the big sales. Because we just don’t go on vacation that often.
We are more likely to staycation or go camping.
I have friends with timeshares or vacation clubs who use them all the time, every year, multiple vacations. That’s just not us.