The newest Caribbean destination to waive all of its travel health restrictions?
Antigua and Barbuda, one of the Caribbean’s booming tourism destinations.
The twin-island hotspot just announced that travelers no longer needed to show proof of vaccination or a negative test to enter the country.
The move applies to both air passenger and those arriving by yacht or ferry; marine pleasure chat and ferries do need to contact the Antigua Port Authority at least six hours prior to arrival.
A suite at the Keyonna Beach Resort in Antigua.
The Wearing of face masks and social distancing is “actively encouraged,” however, though not required, officials said.
The destination said arriving passengers with symptoms of Covid-19 may be isolated as determined by health authorities, however.
The Admiral’s Inn and Gunpowder Suites in Antigua.
Antigua and Barbuda joins a growing number of Caribbean destinations that have removed all of their pandemic-era restrictions, one that now includes countries like Jamaica, the Cayman Islands, Martinique, St Kitts and Nevis and Grenada, among others.
“Antigua and Barbuda has benefited from a highly successful strategy of mass vaccinations, quick detection of imported and community-spread infections and proactive public awareness campaigns in significantly reducing Covid-19 infection levels for the past five months,” the government said in a statement.
Long Bay Beach in Antigua.
The news comes as Antigua and Barbuda is continuing to break tourism records, including an all-time-high visitor mark for the month of July.
That includes very strong performance for what is the Caribbean’s top concentration of luxury all-inclusive resorts, from Elite Island Resorts’ Hammock Cove and Galley Bay to the Keyonna Beach Resort and Curtain Bluff, among others.
Montego Bay. Ocho Rios. Negril. Falmouth. Most visitors to Jamaica are familiar with the island’s main tourism districts, but there is one destination that’s been glaringly absent from most Jamaican travel itineraries for the past half-century: the capital city of Kingston.
That may be about to change in a big way.
Jamaica is a relatively small island nation of about three million people, yet thanks to Marcus Garvey, Bob Marley, Usain Bolt, and many others, billions of people around the world are familiar with Jamaican culture.
Kingston, the capital city of Jamaica, is the unquestioned cultural heart of Jamaica.
Yet relatively few visitors to Jamaica spend time in Kingston, which has battled the disadvantages of being far from the island’s popular beach destinations and also a reputation for crime and gang-related violence.
A far different vision of Kingston is emerging, however, fueled by increased visitation to the city by cruise ships and a drive to empower the vibrant local creative community by creating a new arts district that would occupy the heart of Kingston’s downtown waterfront area.
“We are expanding our tourism offerings beyond the north and west coasts of Jamaica,” says Carey Wallace, executive director of Jamaica’s Tourism Enhancement Fund, which leads the country’s tourism-related infrastructure and human-capital development. “Jamaica is big enough to have a variety of diverse offerings — you can come to one country and get so many experiences.”
The opening of the AC Hotel Kingston in 2019 was a major injection of energy for the city.
Wallace described Kingston as “the new frontier of tourism” in Jamaica, noting that the new highway between Kingston on the south coast and Port Antonio on the north coast is not just intended to transport visitors arriving at Kingston’s Norman Manley International Airport to the beaches, but to encourage visitors to come see Kingston, as well.
“We’re having a long-term conversation about Jamaica’s economic development,” said Andrea Dempster Chung, cofounder and executive director at Kingston Creative, a nonprofit arts organization with the mission of using arts and culture to achieve social and economic transformation in Jamaica.
“When you look at the creative economy around the world, that’s something we [in Jamaica] are very good and have a natural advantage in,” she said, pointing to the country’s vibrant performing and visual arts community. “We need to figure out how to convert that raw talent into growth.”
Chung, who also owns the Bookophilia Bookstore & Cafe on Hope Road in Kingston, says that downtown Kingston “has always been a hub for creativity.” To some extent, Kingston already is better positioned now than it has been in decades. The Port Royal Cruise Terminal, which began receiving cruise ships in 2020, deposit visitors at the location of the most notorious pirate city in the Caribbean. Likewise, travelers arriving at the Kingston airport are less than a 15 minute drive to Port Royal.
Destroyed by an earthquake in 1692, Port Royal’s ruins can be seen both on land and under water within walking distance of the cruise pier, which in turn is just across Kingston Harbour from the capital city itself. The Port Royal Museum, which will house artifacts from the sunken city and tell the story of its rise and fall, is scheduled to open later in 2022 at the cruise terminal.
Downtown, a series of murals along Fleet Street provide a welcoming vista, with walls and buildings in the Parade Gardens area now adored with works of art by painters from all over the world. The Paint the City murals and other cultural attractions have been mapped for visitors by Kingston Creative, which also offers monthly art tours in the city.
Orange Street, a.k.a. “Beat Street,” is destined to be one of the hubs of Kingston’s downtown arts district; once home to Sir Coxsone Dodd’s Studio One Records and Lee ‘Scratch’ Perry and Prince Buster’s Record Shack, Beat Street is anchored by the Rockers International record store. “The plan is to make that street a journey to reggae music,” says Wallace.
A recent proliferation of AirbnB properties has opened up access to some of the communities made famous by the lyrics of reggae songs, like Trenchtown, where visitors can hear local music and connect with residents at the Trenchtown Culture Yard. Trenchtown’s Reggae Hostel not only offers inexpensive lodging, but Jamaican dance lessons, too.
For visitors seeking more traditional lodging, Kingston is home to several tourist-friendly hotels, including the AC Marriott (a partnership between Sandals and Marriott), the Spanish Court Hotel, the R Hotel Kingston, the Jamaica Pegasus, the Courtleigh Hotel, and — in the nearby Blue Mountains and overlooking the city, the elegant Strawberry Hill.
: Hilton’s first-ever Tapestry Collection hotel in the Caribbean, the “ROK.”
Kingston isn’t entirely undiscovered: backpackers and younger, more adventurous tourists already come to the city to stay in hostels downtown and dancing at venues like the Kingston Dub Club and 22 Jerk. If there’s one place in Kingston that’s familiar to mainstream tourists, it’s the Bob Marley Museum, housed in the legendary reggae artist’s former home on Hope Road.
Strawberry Hill is a short drive from Kingston.
The city also is home to Emancipation Park, highlighted by Jamaican artist Laura Facey’s statue celebrating Jamaicans’ victory over slavery, and the 2,000-acre Hope Gardens, the largest botanical gardens in the English-speaking Caribbean. Devon House, a Kingston mansion was then built by George Stiebel, Jamaica’s first black millionaire, is undergoing a multimillion dollar transformation that will see the elegant home’s vast courtyard used for food, music, and cultural events, says Wallace — an important addition to a city that sometimes comes up short in terms of event venues.
Kingston also is surrounded by the Blue Mountains: the lush peaks, famous for coffee cultivation, are only a half-hour drive from downtown. And visiting Kingston doesn’t mean forgoing the beach: Hellshire Beach, about 15 minutes outside of town, is known for its surf shacks selling local escovitch fish.
The Bob Marley Museum is just the beginning of Kingston’s outsized musical heritage: there’s a separate museum just down the street honoring fellow reggae legend Peter Tosh, for example, and fresh new music is still being produced at Big Yard Music Studios. The Alpha Institute, considering the birthplace of ska music, continues its mission of educating young Jamaican musicians.
The Kingston Art District has not yet been officially designated, and other aspects of the city’s redevelopment into a more visitor-friendly destination are still in progress.
For Chung, the renaissance must be built on essential authenticity.
But Chung envisions a future where buses and ferries take visitors from the cruise port and airport into downtown Kingston to explore the city, rather than just having them linger for a few hours at the cruise port or take a taxi right to a beach resort.
“We have more traction and movement than we’ve seen in years to revitalize the old city of Kingston,” says Chung. “Authenticity is super important, and this is not a manufactured art district. It has always been there, but it’s a very fragile ecosystem that gentrification would destroy. We need people to stay in their communities and keep producing this culture.”
Allowing local people to thrive in the downtown arts district would keep them invested in the tourist experience, argues Chung, turning skeptics wary of the scanty benefits offered by past tourism investments into supporters of community based tourism.
“New opportunities for economic growth are also a crime-reducer,” Chung says, addressing what is probably the top deterrent to greater visitation in Kingston.
Adds Wallace: “Technology has allowed for more tourism entrepreneurship,” such as starting an AirBnB. “Whereas before tourism was soon as in the hands of a few well-heeled people, it’s now seen as something that anybody can benefit from,” he says.
On one side, there’s Trunk Bay and its shimmering turquoise. On the other, there’s Cinnamon Bay and its sparkling sand.
And then beaches keep coming.
This is the epicenter of St John’s marvelous natural environment, and perhaps its most stunning villa of all.
It’s called the CliffHouse, a 12,000-square-foot, four-bedroom marvel in St John’s rarefied Peter Bay.
Set in lower Peter Bay, the recently-upgraded villa is 100 feet above sea level, with breathtaking views of the Sir Francis Drake Channel, the Virgin Islands National Park and those unrivaled St John beaches.
“What makes it unique is the location,” says Shanna Dickerson, Chief Experience Officer at Blue Sky Luxury Travels, which includes the villa in its Caribbean portfolio. “It’s right in lower Peter Bay which makes it walkable to Peter Bay Beach.”
Inside, it’s the essence of St John, with stone walls, a bright, spacious chef’s kitchen and an array Indonesian antiques and custom furniture.
The vila was also just re-plastered, with a re-tiled pool and a brand-new Jacuzzi on the deck.
And there’s even a large gym with a treadmill, elliptical, free weights, yoga mats, resistance bands and an all-in-one workout machine.
But you’ll be spending most of your time out on the deck, peering out at the green-hilled jewels of the Virgin Islands.
Whether you’re getting a private massage at the edge of the cliff, lazing in the lanai or taking a cocktail in the pool, it’s an otherworldly experience.
You can get a massage right on the deck.
St John’s villa market (and its tourism sector in general) has been booming since the onset of the pandemic, with more and more travelers drawn to the island’s unmatched blend of private sanctuary and natural wonder.
There’s easy access to Peter Bay Beach.
It’s always been one of the most spectacular, iconic villas in St John, and now it’s better than ever.
Planning a trip to the Cayman Islands? It just got a whole lot easier.
The Cayman Islands has officially removed all of its travel restrictions, meaning no more testing, vaccination proof or registration of any kind.
The new regulations mean the destination is open to both vaccinated and unvaccinated travelers, with no testing required.
In other words, just book your trip, get on a plane and enjoy your vacation.
Grand Cayman.
“The new Regulations are in keeping with the current global environment, and I am in full support of and welcome the removal of travel restrictions,” said the Cayman Islands’ Minister for Tourism and Transport Kenneth Bryan. “[This] is a great day in Cayman – and we thank every traveler, partner, and member of our community for ensuring our Government’s Phased Reopening Plan remains a success. At last, we can proudly say the Cayman Islands is open to all!”
The news comes as Cayman is seeing broad air capacity to the destination, ahead of its levels in 2019 before the pandemic.
Cayman is also set for a big boost in a few months with the launch of Cayman Airways’ first-ever flights from Los Angeles.
Grand Cayman’s Camana Bay.
“With each new phase of reopening we have seen an increase in visitor arrivals to our beautiful destination, and we recently celebrated a major tourism recovery milestone as we increased airlift capacity,” said Rosa Harris, Director of Tourism for the Cayman Islands. “We are ready to open our doors to everyone who wishes to visit us and believe that the future of Cayman tourism is strong.”
The elimination of restrictions means travelers can savor a remarkably diverse destination in Grand Cayman, from its position as one of the culinary capitals to the Caribbean to its home to one of the best beaches on earth – and two of the most beautiful golf courses in the Caribbean.
Greg Norman’s nine-hole course at the Ritz-Carlton, Grand Cayman is among the most beautiful in the Caribbean.
That’s along with Grand Cayman’s Camana Bay, the mixed-use community that’s effectively the Cayman Islands’ town square, with shops, eateries, a cinema, cultural activities and bountiful energy.
For further exploration, there are the sister islands of Cayman Brac and Little Cayman; the former, a naturally beautiful island made for adventure, diving and farm-to-table dining; the latter, a tiny, toes-in-the-sand oasis for beach lovers in seek of the pristine Caribbean.
Sandals added more resorts with overwater bungalows, and more and more companies began doing the same — including the highly popular overwater bungalows at the Royalton Antigua (now part of Marriott’s all-inclusive portfolio).
And now one of the region’s top luxury players has entered the game.
There’s a new all-inclusive overwater bungalow resort in one of the Caribbean’s most sought-after destinations.
This is the Nayara Boca Bali, the first-ever Nayara resort on the Caribbean coast of Panama.
The adults-only resort has a collection of 16 overwater villas set off a private island in the stunning Bocas del Toro archipelago.
The resort is the product of a partnership between owner Dan Behm and Nayara, which has a collection of ultra-luxe eco-retreats in Costa Rica.
“We chose Nayara because of the ideal cultural fit and their proven ability to create extraordinary experiences for their guests,” Behm said.
The resort is home to a pair of international restaurants with a “local twist,” meaning dishes like fresh ceviche, Johnny cakes and Caribbean curry.
The villas area all inspired by Bali, with natural materials and beds wrapped in Javanese-style canopies; some feature saltwater pools and glass floor panels, gateways to the undersea world below.
This fall, the Nayara is opening its first Treehouse, with plans to add several more in late 2022 and 2023.
What a bungalow looks like.
Some of those treehouse units will float as high as 40 feet off the ground, the property says.
The resort is also home to what it bills as the world’s first “overwater beach,” set on stilts and stretching 90 feet long.
The beach has a beach bar called Tipsy Bar and a series of stairs descending directly into the Caribbean Sea.
So how do you get there?
First fly into Panama’s Tocumen International Airport, which features flights from major cities in the US, particularly Miami.
Then hop on a one-hour flight to Boca Airport and get on a hotel boat.
