The sea is the easy part. Choosing the island is not.
Which catamaran anchors long enough to actually swim. What a buggy morning in Punta Cana costs against a jeep day in Aruba. Whether the glowing bay is worth a night drive out of San Juan. Reviews of every tour you can book across the Caribbean.
A rainforest, a jeep track, a waterfall staircase and a beach full of pigs.
Four days that decide most Caribbean itineraries. What each one costs, and what the travellers who took it say.
01The El Yunque dayTop Rated El Yunque Rainforest & Waterslide – SmallGroup TourEl Yunque waterslides and rope swings, an hour east of San Juan. Take a dry morning; the rock turns slick once the afternoon rain arrives.
02The Aruba dayUltimate Island Jeep Safari with Natural Pool, Baby Beach & LunchJeep tracks down the windward coast to the Natural Pool, then Baby Beach and lunch on the sheltered side. The island in one drive.
03The Jamaica climbTriple Action pack Combo (Blue Hole, Horse back riding and river tubing)Dunn’s River hand in hand up six hundred feet of limestone terraces. Wear what you would swim in, because you will.
04The Exuma day3 Islands Tour, Snorkel, Pig Beach, Turtles & LunchThree cays out of Nassau: the swimming pigs at Big Major, a reef stop, and turtles in the shallows off Green Cay.
The Caribbean’s most booked days out.
Every Caribbean review →The tours more travellers take than anything else in the region, and what earns each one its slot.
1
San Juan Guided Snorkel With Turtles Tour and Videos
Walk into the warm water at Escambrón Beach for a 1 to 1.5-hour guided snorkel with a professional diver. You’ll get instruction, gear, a life vest, and a GoPro video. Guides such as Lily, Jill, Rey, and Kenzie have been praised for helping beginners and finding turtles, though weather and currents can change the route.
From · $42
Read our review →
2
Top Rated El Yunque Rainforest & Waterslide – SmallGroup Tour
from $45
3
Adventure Bundle: Monkeyland, Ziplines & Buggies Punta Cana
4
Ultimate Island Jeep Safari with Natural Pool, Baby Beach & Lunch
from $130
5
Half-Day Yunque Rainforest Waterslide & rope swing Guided Tour
from $25
6
Authentic Flavors of San Juan Food Tour
from $165
7
Full-Day Santo Domingo City Tour from Punta Cana
from $95
8
Captain Bob Speed Boat, Snorkeling, Beach Tour & Lunch St Maarten
from $139
Every good Caribbean day starts at a dock.
Catamarans that anchor long enough for a proper swim, snorkel boats that stop where the fish are rather than where the mooring is, sunset sails with the bar open. Four kinds of day afloat, what it costs to board each one, and which island it suits.
Six islands carry most of the Caribbean’s day trips.
A country with two coasts and a cave system, an island with a rainforest and a walled city, a desert island that runs on jeeps, and three small ones where the boat is the whole point.
The Dominican Republic books more days out than any island here.
Everything in the Dominican Republic →
Punta Cana runs on buggies, catamarans and the crossing to Saona. Puerto Plata has the cable car and the amber coast behind it. Santo Domingo holds the oldest cathedral in the Americas inside a colonial grid you can walk before lunch.
Dune buggy, or the 4x4 with the cave
Both run the same cane tracks to Macao. The 4x4 adds the water cave at Cueva Taina and a longer stop at the beach; the two-seat buggy is cheaper, dustier and more fun to drive.
Saona by catamaran, or by speedboat
The catamaran goes out slowly with a bar open and comes back under sail. The speedboat gets you there in half the time and buys you an extra hour on the natural pool. Same island, different day.
Caves, cenotes and the Dominican interior
Behind the resort strip the limestone is riddled with flooded caves. Most tours pair one with a cacao and coffee stop on a working plantation, which is the closest thing to a countryside day the coast offers.
Puerto Rico gives you a rainforest, a walled city and a glowing bay in one week.
El Yunque is the only tropical rainforest in the United States forest system and it sits forty minutes from Old San Juan. Fajardo’s lagoon lights up on a dark night. The old city is blue cobbles, two sea forts and kitchens that stay open late.
Every Puerto Rico day out →
Past the beach the islands turn to limestone, mud and canopy.
Buggy tracks through cane country, caves with water the colour of antifreeze, waterfall staircases you climb rather than photograph. The other half of a Caribbean week, and usually the cheaper half.
What a day out in the Caribbean actually costs.
Every tour on the site, grouped by what you pay for it. The cheap end is not the dull end.
Old-town walks, rum tastings, waterfall entries and the short reef hops off the beach.
The standard full day: Saona by catamaran, a jeep safari, El Yunque with transport, the Grace Bay snorkel run.
Private charters, small-boat days to the far cays and the once-a-trip splurges that earn it.
Jamaica is the one island where the best day is uphill.
Dunn’s River is a staircase you climb in the water, hand in hand, from the beach to the road. The blue holes above Ocho Rios are rope swings into cold fresh water. Bamboo rafts on the Martha Brae move at the pace of one man with a pole, which is the whole idea.
- 1Rastafari Cultural ATV Community Experience from Montego Bayfrom $164
- 2Montego Bay Airport (MBJ) Transfer One-Way or Round-Trip to Hotelfrom $18
- 3Jamaica All-Access Adventure Pass at Ocean Outpostfrom $163
Three things the rest of the tropics cannot put on.
Reefs and rum exist all round the tropics. A beach of swimming pigs, a bay that lights up under your paddle, and a sandbar where wild rays come out to meet the boat do not.
Pig Beach, Big Major Cay
Big Major Cay has no residents and a colony of feral pigs that swim out to meet arriving boats. Nobody agrees on how they got there. Boats leave Nassau early because the crossing is long and open, the cays are exposed to any northerly, and the day is usually sold as three stops rather than one. The pigs are fed plenty already, so the better operators bring nothing for them.
- 13 Islands Tour, Snorkel, Pig Beach, Turtles & Lunch★★★★★★★★★★ 4.3 · 2,585 reviews
- 2Swimming Pigs and Private Beach Club Escape★★★★★★★★★★ 4.5 · 1,238 reviews
- 3Sandy Toes The Original Rose Island and Swimming Pigs Tour★★★★★★★★★★ 4.5 · 1,232 reviews
The Bioluminescent Bay
Laguna Grande is one of a small handful of bays on earth where the dinoflagellates are dense enough to light the water. You paddle in through a narrow mangrove channel after dark and every stroke leaves a blue-green trail off the blade. Go on the nights either side of a new moon. A full moon washes the whole effect out and no guide can fix that.
- 1Bio Bay Kayak Tour in Fajardo★★★★★★★★★★ 4.5 · 1,762 reviews
- 2Puerto Rico Bio Bay Kayak Adventure Tour★★★★★★★★★★ 4.5 · 1,581 reviews
- 3Two-in-One Day Trip: El Yunque and Bio Bay Tour with Transport★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · 1,216 reviews
Stingray City
A sandbar in the North Sound where fishermen once cleaned their catch over the side, and the southern rays learned to turn up for it. The water is chest deep and gin clear, the rays are wild, and they have been meeting boats there for decades. Pick a morning with no ship in port and the bar can be almost empty.
- 1Stingray City Experience Plus Two Snorkeling Stops on Grand Cayman★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · 1,477 reviews
- 2Starfish Point, Stingray City & Coral Garden (3-STOP Adventure)★★★★★★★★★★ 4.5 · 1,168 reviews
- 3Stingray City and Starfish Experience with Coral Reef Snorkeling★★★★★★★★★★ 4.5 · 924 reviews
Four Caribbean bookings that will not wait.
Most of this region can be arranged over breakfast. These four run on reservation systems, moon phases and single daily departures that take no interest in when your flight lands.
- 01Top Rated El Yunque Rainforest & Waterslide – SmallGroup TourThe forest runs on timed vehicle reservations released in advance, and the cool morning slots go the day they open.
- 02Bioluminescent Bay Kayak Trip from ViequesThe glow is strongest on the dark nights either side of a new moon, which is exactly when the boats sell out.
- 033 Islands Tour, Snorkel, Pig Beach, Turtles & LunchThe Exuma cays are a long, open crossing from Nassau, so the boats are small, capped and entirely at the mercy of the wind.
- 04Catamaran Boat to Saona Island with Buffet LunchOne morning departure and one afternoon return. The catamaran fills well before the speedboat does.
Three ships alongside turns Grand Turk into a queue by ten.
A cruise call lands several thousand people on one beach within the same hour, and the stingray sandbar, the falls and the catamaran moorings all feel it. The answer is not to stay in. Take the first departure of the day, cross to the windward side, or book something that has its own hull and its own timetable.
By island — Greater Antilles to the Grenadines
San Juan, St Thomas, St Maarten, Barbados: the run most first trips take.
St LuciaThe newest Caribbean tour reviews.
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