New inter-island service between the British Virgin Islands and the United States Virgin Islands will launch next month. 

Turks and Caicos-based interCaribbean Airways, which has been steadily growing its footprint in the region, will be launching daily flights between Tortola and St Thomas on Nov. 14, the company announced. 

The move will be a particular boon for the BVI, meaning another connection to reach Tortola’s Beef Island International Airport. 

interCaribbean will be operating two daily flights between Tortola and St Thomas. 

The carrier will also be launching similar service between St Croix and Tortola, which will also begin Nov. 17. 

For more, visit interCaribbean Airways.

— CJ

The post Tortola-St Thomas Flights to Launch in November appeared first on Caribbean Journal.

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New hotels, new villas, new dining hotspots. It may be the quietest time of year in the Caribbean, but the region is as hot as ever – and an October vacation in the Caribbean means you’ll often feel like you have the whole island to yourself. The latest edition of Places to Visit takes you from a new hotspot in The Bahamas to the delights of pure serenity on a small island in the Eastern Caribbean. 

Dominica The island of Dominica is about to get on the map in major way in the middle of this month (Oct. 14, to be exact), Kempinski debuts its highly-anticipated Cabrits Resort and Spa in the north of the island. The spectacular new 151-room luxury beach resort, the product of Range Developments (the company behind the celebrated Park Hyatt St Kitts), is a major addition to the island’s mostly boutique hotel product. And it will serve as yet another reminder for travelers to visit Dominica, which is the most naturally beautiful destination in all of the Caribbean. 

The post 5 Caribbean Vacations for October, From Dominica to The Bahamas appeared first on Caribbean Journal.

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Internationally acclaimed Grammy-winning Puerto Rican musician José Feliciano, (“Feliz …

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The growth of cask-finished rums has skyrocketed in recent years, as more and more distillers look to add new personalities and characters to rums. 

It’s a reminder of the power of the barrel to imbue flavor, of the importance of the years rums spend in wood after their brief sojourns in pot and column stills. 

In the Caribbean rum stronghold of Puerto Rico, it was for decades that only one distiller on the island, the venerable Ron del Barrilito, was finishing its rums in ex-sherry casks, to great success.

More recently, though, Puerto Rico’s popular Don Q got into the cask-finishing game with the Don Q Vermouth Cask Finish. 

It was a very good rum, one that scored 89 points in our tasting, but the effect of the vermouth was, to be fair, a bit heavy on the palate. 

Don Q’s most recent cask-finish endeavor, though, is a major step forward. 

The newest cask-finish expression from Puerto Rico is the Don Q Sherry Cask Finish Rum, one Rum Journal tried on a recent stop in San Juan.

The newest Don Q takes rums aged from five to eight years in American oak barrels before placing them for an additional year in Spanish Oloroso sherry casks. 

So what is it like?

The Don Q Sherry Cask Finish has a muted aroma of brown sugar, tropical fruit, brown sugar and a hint of vanilla. 

The flavor profile is marked by cane stalk, malt, vanilla, dried mango, banana and a slightly herbal whisper. 

The luxurious but fine rum concludes with a round but robust finish, edgy but elegant. 

It’s better balanced than the Don Q Vermouth, the rum and sherry personalities working together, with neither overwhelming the other. 

The result is an excellent rum, another reminder that, with few exceptions, sherry casks seem to marry best with the romantic personality of rum. 

Rum Journal Review

91 Points

The post Rum Journal: A Sherry-Finished Rum From Puerto Rico appeared first on Caribbean Journal.

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By the Caribbean Journal staff

The Caribbean’s fastest-growing hotel brand is coming to the French side of St Martin.

The highly-anticipated Secrets St Martin Resort and Spa will be making its debut on Feb. 1, 2020, Caribbean Journal has learned.

The adults-only, all-inclusive resort is the latest for Apple Leisure Group’s surging AMResorts subsidiary, which closed the first half of this year with almost 9,000 hotel rooms in development in the wider Caribbean-Mexico region.

A rendering of a suite at the new Secrets St Martin.

The resort, which is set on Anse Marcel in St Martin, is a transformation of the former Riu Palace St Martin, which shuttered in the wake of Hurricane Irma in 2017.

While the all-inclusive concept is unique in St Martin, the marketing power and infrastructure of AMResorts and Apple Leisure could be a significant injection of energy into the French side of the island.

The property has been in the midst of a $20 million renovation project that began shortly after AMResorts signed the management deal with property owner Sole Resorts in the summer of 2018.

The all-inclusive resort will have a total of 258 suites, with amenities like 24-hour room service, twice-daily housekeeping and a daily refreshed minibar, among others, along with the Secrets brand’s signature Pevonia spa.

Anse Marcel, a spectacular beach in St Martin.

Secrets St Martin will have six dining concepts. ranging from a poolside grill to a coffee bar to the Italian-inspired Portofino.

It will mark the first-ever AMResorts property in the French Caribbean, and a big addition to a corner of the Caribbean with a small room stock largely comprised of mostly tiny hotels (along with the beloved Grand Case Club, St Martin’s most popular place to stay).

Secrets St Martin “takes its inspiration from the island’s radiant surroundings, steeped in Caribbean-European and French roots,” the company said.

The property will also include an exceptionally large infinity pool, according to the company.

Secrets St Martin will join existing Secrets resorts in four other destinations in the Caribbean Basin, including the Dominican Republic, Mexico, Jamaica and Costa Rica.

For more, visit Secrets St Martin.

— CJ

The post St Martin Is Getting a Major New All-Inclusive Resort appeared first on Caribbean Journal.

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