By Sarah Greaves-Gabbadon
CJ Travel Editor

You’re at your favorite Caribbean beach bar enjoying the blissfully mind-numbing effects of your favorite rum drink. The sun is hot, the sand is soft, and refreshingly cool waves lap at your toes. It’d be so great, you think, if I could just stay here forever.

Well, you can.

Check out these five Caribbean beach bars that serve up potent cocktails as well as a comfortable place to spend the night to recover from them. You might not be able to stay forever, but a night or two just might do the trick.

Soggy Dollar Bar, British Virgin Islands By now you know that this classic Jost Van Dyke beach bar is the where the Painkiller rum cocktail was born back in the 1970s. But did you know that if you’ve had a few to many of the potent rum-and-coconut libations you can actually stay here? Soggy’s adjacent (adults-only) Sandcastle Hotel has a clutch of beachfront and garden cottages where you can sleep off your hangover. And prepare to do it all over again tomorrow.

The Big Bamboo, British Virgin Islands The famously flat BVI of Anegada is separated from her siblings by 15 miles, so if you make it all the way here, make your visit count by staying overnight. Our recommendation: Make a beeline for Loblolly Bay, an idyllic 17-mile strip of sand where this beachfront bar and restaurant serves up heaping platters of the island’s famous lobster. Wash it down with a few rum punches and then decamp to one of The Big Bamboo’s four simple, self-contained villas on the beach for a back-to-nature overnight experience.

Saba Rock, British Virgin Islands No visit to the British Virgin Islands is complete without a stop at this 1-square-acre North Sound island, where the eponymous bar and waterfront restaurant is a happy hour institution. Have a frozen mojito as you watch the daily tarpon feeding; have a few more as the sun descends to the sea; and when you’ve had enough, have the best sleep ever in one of eight stylish rooms, all recently revamped in contemporary style.

Que Fresco!, Mexico In the boho beach town of Tulum there are plenty of places to kick back with a cold chelada. But Que Fresco!, with its flip-flop-friendly vibe and tables set up under thatch-roof palapas on the sand, is our hands-down favorite. The only thing we love more is Zamas, the hotel attached to the bar and restaurant, where the beachfront cabanas and jungle bungalows are our favorite place to rest and recuperate.

Goatie’s Bar, St Vincent and the Grenadines This open-to-all beach bar on Petit St Vincent has the same vibe as the private-island resort it’s a part of: decidedly posh but delightfully unpretentious. Pull up a stool at this laidback watering hole and you’ll likely be seated next to a very well-heeled guest. But after a few ice-cold bottles of Hairoun (the local brew), you might discover that you have lots in common – and be willing to pony up for one of the resort’s 22 plush cottages, just a few steps away.

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The Caribbean could be close to breaking a record.

The Caribbean Tourism Organization is projecting that tourist arrivals to the region will exceed 30 million for the first time ever this year.

That would follow a record 28.7 million tourist arrivals to the region in 2015.

Tourist arrivals to the region were up by 7.3 percent in the first quarter.

“This performance was buttressed by lower oil prices and the strong US dollar, which increased the appeal of the region to potential visitors. The many air service agreements ensured that the region had adequate seats to facilitate the flow of travellers to and within the region,” said Richard Sealy, current chairman of the CTO.

The CTO has projected growth of between 4.5 percent and 5.5 percent in 2016.

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By Robert Di Pano
CJ Contributor

BIMINI — A major new hotel has opened its doors in the Bahamas.

Hilton at Resorts World Bimini held its grand opening this weekend, a highly-anticipated debut that brings a cutting-edge hotel to the 700-island chain.

Bahamas Prime Minister Perry Christie, who was on hand for the junkanoo-style opening ceremony, said the hotel’s debut was a “defining experience” for the Bahamas.

The property, which joins what was already one of the region’s top casinos, has a total of 305 rooms including 18 suites.

It immediately becomes one of the most modern hotels in the country and the wider region.

The opening marks the completion of the hotel’s second phase, which included meeting rooms, restaurants including a sushi bar in the lobby, rooftop amenities, a spa with five treatment rooms and a new connection to the casino.

That’s all in addition to what is the largest combined marina in the Bahamas.

The waterside pool at Hilton at Resorts World Bimini.

Also on hand are suites for high rollers and Diamond members.

One of the highlights is a rooftop infinity pool with a dramatic wraparound walkaway, along with the hotel’s signature swim-up suites.

“This is an example of how public-private partnership can work with development and service-oriented business,” said Bahamas Tourism Minister Obie Wilchcombe. “It will ensure that when we say it’s better in the Bahamas. we mean it.”

The wider Resorts World Bimini project has already catapulted Bimini into the second-most visited Out Island of the Bahamas, Christie said.

That’s been boosted, too, by the recent launch of daily seaplane flights from Fort Lauderdale to Bimini on Cape Air. The flights, which began operating earlier this year, mean the trip takes about 30 minutes. More crucially, passengers return to Fort Lauderdale though the private aviation terminal, meaning a far less crowded customs and immigration experience.

The resort should stabilize at around 720 employees, a significant boost on an island with a population of about 2,000 people.

The hotel becomes the second Hilton-branded property in the Bahamas, joining Hilton British Colonial in Nassau.

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By Sarah Greaves-Gabbadon
CJ Travel Editor

Is this France’s Tree Of the Year? The owners of Martinique’s Habitation Cèron (and likely the entire population of the French-Caribbean island) think so.

And they hope you will, too.

That’s because the 300-year-old Zamana tree, on the grounds of the 17^th-century sugarcane estate in Le Prêcheur, is a nominee for France’s fifth annual Arbre De L’Année (Tree of the Year) competition. A single tree is nominated in each French region, and Habitation’s Ceron magnificent specimen, which has an eight-foot-diameter trunk, is Martinique’s entry.

All the nominees are listed on the competition website, abredelannee.com, and the public can vote for their favorite tree from now through August 31.

To complement the competition, Habitation Ceron is also running a Facebook photo competition, and will award a prize every 10 days for the best picture of the Zamana tree. Go to their page, Facebook.com/HabitationCeron, for more details.

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In the beginning, there was Kali.

Long before St Martin was one of the Caribbean’s top travel destinations, there was Kali. Just Kali and his beach bar.

This is Kali’s, the first beach bar in St Martin when it opened on Friar’s Bay almost 36 years ago.

And today, the legend remains, serving cocktails and ti’ punches and lazy afternoons to all those who make the trek to this less-traveled sweep of sand on the French side.

“This is the place to be in paradise,” Kali tells CJ. And he’s exactly right.

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