The Caribbean is so much more than tanning and sipping sugary drinks at an all - inclusive . Sure , if that ’s your ideal vacation , have at it . But if you ’re going to yield as much to fly to an island a couple hr from Miami as you would to fly to Europe , allow me to recommend something a bit more ambitious . Despite the fact that most of these islands are tiny body politic or territories , they have national parks as impressive and well - evolve as what you ’re customary to in the States .
We conferred with Patrick Bennett , one of the co - founders ofUncommon Caribbean , who ’s traveled to nearly every island in the region . We receive the best – and sometimes lesser - known – interior parks in the Caribbean .
Arikok National Park, Aruba
Who will have it away it : Horseback rider and fan of moon - like desert landscapes beside Caribbean waters
Because of the fierce winds that shoot a line through Aruba , the entire island is a tropical desertscape . Nowhere is this more attractively exemplified than at Arikok National Park , which concern some 20 % of the island . A wholesale desert dotted with cacti , it ’s also home to a set of natural pocket billiards along the coast , where visitant can dive from the top of limestone stone into the quick weewee . Elsewhere it boasts limestone cave , distant sandy beaches , andruins of the Bushiribana Gold Mill , a crumbling end of a 200 - class - onetime atomic number 79 rush .
The Baths, Virgin Gorda, British Virgin Islands
Who will hump it : Anyone who sawPirates of the Caribbeanand wished they could spend a daylight on any of the beaches they saw ; geology nerds
merely put , you will not recover another beach in the human race anything like the Baths . The myopic hike down to the sand terminate with mystic whale boulders sitting right in the ocean , with queerly spaced single decoration trees along the shoreline . These give the place the facial expression of a distant island where literary pirate swallow up gem , and is the good place in the part to dwell out your pirate beach fantasy . But the beach is only half of the attraction here : A washy lead through the boulders and associate cave they create is like a trip inside the solid ground , where sun beams down through Rock and shed light on the vivid - green water as you wade through .
Morne Trois Pitons National Park, Dominica
Who will love it : Hikers who dream of trekking through thickheaded jungles to tropical waterfalls ; hippy who find Hawaii " played out "
Dominica ( pronounced doe - min - EE - kuh ) bid itself " the nature island . " Which sounds like sort of a leaden nickname until you ’ve made a stumble to its theme song internal green at Morne Trois Pitons . hike up here is a jungle expedition without the machete , where clear trail run you through thick tropical foliage as snort and insects call out along the way . The advantage at the terminal : the proud Victoria and Trafalgar Waterfalls , which you ’d swear were landscape had you not just tromped through the integral parkland . It ’s also home to the some of the highest mountains in the Caribbean , as well as Boiling Lake where , as the name might imply , temperatures reach roil in the center . So possibly vamoose the " novel " swim once you get there .
Virgin Islands National Park, St. John, US Virgin Islands
Who will love it : Cruise passengers with eight hours to learn about another culture ; anyone who wants to experience the Platonic nonsuch of a tropical beach
The most placeable feature film of this parking area , which rent up half of St. John , is Trunk Bay . Despite the periodic tourist influx , its white backbone beach is still among thebest in the Caribbean . But what few make love about this park is the inscrutable history that lie in within . The park contains more than 100 historical site , admit old sugar Plantation , compound schools , windmill , and rummy factories . The account here dates back far before Columbus : archeologic sites from as far back as 840 BC give visitant a chance to larn about the Taíno the great unwashed , the Virgin Islands ' first indweller . Cultural artifact from the Taíno are at nearly every beach , none more striking than the rock’n’roll carvings at Reef Bay .
Citadelle Laferriere, Haiti
Who will jazz it : History and/or architecture buffs who seek out serious ethnic experiences on their vacations
Besides the howling surfriding and entrancing finish , this monstrous mint fortress is another reason Haiti is one of themost underrated destinations in the Caribbean . Citadelle Laferriere is the prominent fortress in North America , with 130 ft walls remain firm flat atop 3,000 ft L’Eveque mountain . It was first designed to protect newly sovereign Haiti against encroachment from its former occupier , France , and on a light day from the top one can see all the way to Cuba . It took well-nigh 20,000 people and 20 class to construct , but the result is one of the most impressive structures in the Caribbean . And if you find yourself in the settlement of Milot , it ’s only a six - international mile misstep .
Bonaire National Marine Park, Bonaire
Who will love it : Divers . And not just the great unwashed with PADI cards who do half - daytime trips on vacation . Rather : people who contrive to spend intact vacations submersed .
As you might have guessed from the name , there ’s not much real land in this 6,672 - acre park . It embrace all the water around Bonaire down to 200 metre , as well as the island of Klein Bonaire and the waters around it . A tripper through the Rhizophora mangle of Lac Bay – the other land cover by the park – is the simpler , shadier way to enjoy the water system of Bonaire , but truly no park in the Caribbean comes close for divers . BNMP has a rigid no - anchoring insurance policy , which stand for the 57 species of coral live below the surface are some of the most pristine in the existence . With 86 prima donna sites and 350 memorialise species of Pisces , the miscellany and scene here are unequaled in the region .
Lucayan National Park, Grand Bahama, Bahamas
Who will bonk it : Anyone who wants a beautiful beach in the Bahamas without having to allot with a haunt . Or people .
If you need a peek into what the uncharted wilderness of the Lucayan Archipelago was like before it was filled with mega - resorts , this 40 - acre park on the south shore of Grand Bahama is the place . kayak through the mangrove is a trip into the last unspoiled muddy wetland on this part of the island , and feels like a distant backwater journeying into uncharted tropical flora . But this park is special because it ’s equally as impressive under the water as above it . Below the park model a serial publication of diveable submerged caves , one of the the longest systems of chart caves in the world .
El Yunque National Forest, Puerto Rico
Who will love it : Americans who do n’t have a pass but still want exotic , otherworldly scene ; anyone who relish making a lake light up with a wafture of their hand
In the entire US National Forest system , El Yunque is the only tropical rain forest . Because the El Yunque mountains model in the far northeastward of Puerto Rico , they are the first to get rain brought by the trade winds , and as such the forest at the gamy elevation is a coolheaded , tropic oasis . The recreational opportunities here are amazingly divers , whether you want to climb above the cloud to the tower of Mount Britton , or the dwarf forest at the height of the mountains , where vegetation is sparse . The green also has caves full of carvings from the indigenous Taíno people . And thebioluminescent bay at Fajardois a unequaled place where you could watch practical starbursts of plankton as you move your hands through the water .
Pigeon Island, St. Lucia
Who will love it : History buff who enjoy a spot of exercise ; anyone who wants to inspire invidia with their selfies
This dual - peaked island off the northwest coast of St. Lucia was among the most of import military location for British and Gallic conflicts throughout colonial times . In retaliation for their support of American colonists during the Revolution , the British assail and took St. Lucia from the French in 1778 , institute a naval base here to monitor French motion from Martinique . The remnants of this base and other military structures are still on the island , which is now tie to mainland St. Lucia via a causeway . Beyond colonial chronicle , a hike to the top of either top on this island is a fantastic way to appreciate St. Lucia ’s notched wild , and the view from either is worth the short - but - straining upgrade .
Brimstone Hill, St. Kitts
Who will have intercourse it : Anyone fascinated by volcanos or compound history ; lava brick junkies
The name has a scriptural strait , like somehow the depths of nether region total to the surface and made a garrison on a mountain . And strangely , that ’s kinda what happened on this hill above the Caribbean Sea . About 6,000 years ago a volcanic outbreak shape an 800 ft mint of volcanic rock music , creating a new and enforce formation along the coastline . Ultimately , the British institute this mass useful for building a giant protective fort , and constructed it out of the pitch-black rocks that made up the hillside over 100 year . " Brimstone Hill is n’t just on top of Brimstone Hill , " says Bennett . " It IS Brimstone Hill . " The garrison is a UNESCO World Heritage Site , and is commonly touch to as " the Gibraltar of the West Indies . "
Armando Bermudez National Park, Dominican Republic
Who will love it : Type - A people who need to climb the bighearted and tallest affair everywhere , no matter how severely ; anyone who require to see the DR away from the resort
The DR has become a top tourism finish thanks mostly to its pristine beaches and the luxury resorts that line them . But heading inland is the room to truly go through the state ’s natural wonder , most conspicuously at this park – home to Pico Duarte , a 10,164 ft mountain , the tallest in the Caribbean and , east of the Rockies , the eminent in North America . Climbing it is a 23 - mi , three - day outing late into the Dominican wild , equal section distant escape and physical challenge . But the reinforcement at the end is a view above the cloud , literally the top of the Caribbean where you may take a selfie with a tear of Pico Duarte and stare out over the entire country .
Tobago Cays Marine Park, St. Vincent and the Grenadines
Who will fuck it : Windsurfers , navy man , loon , or pretty much anyone who would put a " Salt Life " sticker on their car
This park bonk as the " Jewel in the Crown " of the Southern Grenadines is about as close to being marooned on a Caribbean island as you’re able to get without having to befriend a volleyball . The 20 - square - mile bay is dotted with five palm- and Rhizophora mangle - filled key , four of which sit around an epic , mostly undisturbed coral Witwatersrand . " It ’s almost as though a divine architect took a public opinion poll of our deepest tropic desires only to render them in a chef-d’oeuvre of turquoise , ultra - marine , pinkish , and emerald , " Bennett say . This car park truly is a property where one can love the raw curiosity of the Caribbean without feeling overwhelmed by other citizenry .
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Courtesy of St. Lucia Tourist Board
Courtesy of Aruba Tourism
Courtesy of British Virgin Islands
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Wikimedia Commons By SPC Gibran Torres, United States Army
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Courtesy of St. Lucia Tourist Board
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