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 .

Sign up herefor our daily Thrillist electronic mail , and get your fix of the best in solid food / drunkenness / fun .

Pigeon Island National Park, St. Lucia

Courtesy of St. Lucia Tourist Board

Arikok National Park, Aruba

Courtesy of Aruba Tourism

The Baths, Virgin Gorda

Courtesy of British Virgin Islands

Morne Trois Pitons, Dominica

John A. Anderson/Shutterstock

Trunk Bay, St. John, USVI

Sorin Colac/Shutterstock

Citadelle Laferriere, Haiti

Wikimedia Commons By SPC Gibran Torres, United States Army

Bonaire National Marine Park, Bonaire

Flickr/amanderson

Lucayan National Park

Flickr/katiebordner

El Yunque Puerto Rico

Flickr/jeffgunn

Pigeon Island National Park, St. Lucia

Courtesy of St. Lucia Tourist Board

Brimstone Hill

MBoe/Shutterstock

Pico Duarte Dominican Republic

Flickr/sosuaonlinefull

Tobago Cays

Flickr/_dchris