Photo by Jad Davenport
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Essential Excursions: Caribbean Beaches
By Jad Davenport, March & April 2009
A Caribbean expert shares his favorite beaches where you can...
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Avoid other people
When I arrive on uninhabited Conception Island in the Bahamas, my reward is nine miles of unnamed beaches with sand as soft as silk. No ferries travel to this Bahamian "Out Island," but Stella Maris Resort Club (800-426-0466), on neighboring Long Island, runs scuba diving trips there roughly once a week. If there's room, you can come along ($50). The island is a nature park, and the only other beachcombers you're likely to see are the occasional nesting sea turtles. Three hundred miles south of Conception Island is tiny Salt Cay, in the Turks and Caicos, home to North Beach, my second-favorite deserted shore. North Beach is a long, straight strand as white as the salt that made this cay famous back in the 17th century. To get there, rent a bicycle at Salt Cay Divers ($10) near Balfour Town, the island's only settlement. It's about a 10- to 15-minute bike ride from the shop to the beach, but don't worry: the ride is easy and flat.
Watch for whales
Pillory Beach, on Grand Turk island in Turks and Caicos, has a front-row seat to one of the planet's greatest wildlife migrations. From January through early April, hundreds of humpback whales pass 400 yards offshore through the mile-deep Turks Island Passage on their way to mate and give birth farther south. Sit on the sunny deck at the new Ike & Donkey beach bar at the Bohio Dive Resort (649-231-3572), order some conch salad, and keep your camera ready for a spectacular breach. More dedicated wildlife watchers can join local whale whisperer Captain Everette Freites with nearby Oasis Divers (800-892-3995). Freites runs three-hour up-close excursions in February and March ($65) aboard his boat, the Prince of Whales.
Ride a horse
"It's everyone's fantasy, galloping through the waves on an empty beach," says Craig Barker as I saddle up on a Paso Fino horse next to Shacks Beach in Isabela, Puerto Rico. Barker, a California surfer, came to the island's wild northwest coast for the waves but stayed to run Tropical Trail Rides (787-872-9256). He and wife Michelle run twice-daily trips ($45) along pristine beaches, through a shaded almond grove, and out along empty Survival Beach, a wide swath of honey-colored sand that's backed by 150-foot limestone cliffs pocked with eerie sea caves.
Snorkel with a sea monster
You won't catch many locals swimming near the seemingly bottomless blue hole at Conch Sound off Andros Island. "Lusca lives here," a tour guide warned me last time I visited. "She's half shark and half octopus and likes to eat people and boats." Small Hope Bay Lodge (800-223-6961) runs all-day Blue Hole Folklore Tours ($75, though the price drops for groups) around the Bahamas' largest island. I ignored his tales and snorkeled into the underwater grotto, only to discover a whirling school of Atlantic spadefish—and the ghostly bones of a recent shipwreck.
View a volcano
Thanks to the ongoing eruptions of the Soufrière Hills Volcano, you can't stroll along the Caribbean's newest strand: Sugar Bay Beach in the British territory of Montserrat. But Captain Troy Deppermann of the Green Monkey Inn and Dive Shop (664-491-2628) gets me daringly close to the beach on one of his boating Island Tours ($55 per person for a minimum group of four). Beyond the dunes I can see the haunting ruins of Plymouth, the former capital of Montserrat and now a modern-day Pompeii. If the ash-gray beach and sulfurous winds leave you craving a slice of amber sand and some breathing room, Deppermann will drop you and a kayak at Rendezvous Beach, a private little scimitar of sand accessible only by boat or on foot ($15 plus an additional $10 per hour for the kayak).
Build a sandcastle
Pack your plastic pail and shovel and head to Grenada, the Spice Isle, for perfect sugary southern-Caribbean sand. Want to dazzle an audience with your castle-construction skills? Head to the ever-popular Grand Anse Beach, a smooth horseshoe of white sand with panoramic views of St. George's (the quaint port capital, complete with red-tile roofs and a glowering fortress). If you'd rather build in silence, head to quieter Morne Rouge Beach, a more secluded strand a little farther south, beyond Quarantine Point. Also, don't leave Grenada without taking a tour of the historic Dougaldston Spice Estate near Gouyave, where spices are still grown and sorted. Admission is free, and you can buy souvenir spice bags for about $2.
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