It’s been the hottest beach club in the Caribbean for the last year: Nobu Barbuda, Robert De Niro’s new hotspot on the breathtaking little island of Barbuda. 

And now Nobu Barbuda is back again, reopening Nov. 9 for the season with a host of new additions. 

It’s the only beachfront Nobu in the world, with sun beds, private cabanas, beverage service all day until 6 PM and a lounge bar, too, with Nobu-style dishes caught fresh from the Caribbean Sea. 

The cabanas themselves come with some outstanding perks, including beachfront massages available on request, selections of sushi and light bento boxes and personal hosts for the day. 

One cabana comes with its own VIP experience, lounge and private dining. 

And for the season, Nobu is adding several new bespoke experiences. 

That includes a lobster cookout, where you snorkel to the chef’s lobster trap, select a fresh Barbuda spiny lobster, bring back your catch and have it prepared by the Nobu chef. 

A new boat charter takes guests on a fishing trip for the day, one that culminates in a custom-prepared meal with your catch. 

There’s even a new sushi class, where you can learn how to “craft the perfect sushi roll,” with an education on sushi maki incorporating locally-sourced items like conch, snapper and lobster. 

That’s along with a “sunset omakase,” which includes a six-course Omakase menu right on Princess Diana Beach. 

Nobu Barbuda has also added a helicopter package for guests looking to the island, with trips for guests in both Antigua and St Barth that include an all-day experience at Nobu. 

De Niro and his partners are continuing the buildout of the highly-anticipated Nobu Beach Inn, the brand’s in-development hotel on Barbuda. 

The eatery has helped turn Barbuda into a new jet-set hotspot in the Caribbean, breathing new life into the destination after the devastation of the storms of 2017. 

Later this year, Barbuda is getting a major new international airport, too. 

For more, visit Nobu Barbuda.

The post Robert De Niro’s Caribbean Beach Club Is Open Again in Barbuda  appeared first on Caribbean Journal.

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There’s been a significant shift in the Caribbean’s testing policies, with just about every destination in the region having lifted its entry rules. 

And now you can include St Maarten. 

Effective Nov. 1, the Friendly Island will no longer require travelers to show proof of vaccination or a negative test result in order to enter the island. 

The news was confirmed by St Maarten Tourism Minister Omar Ottley this week. 

It’s naturally a boost for the French side of St Martin as well, which relies on the Dutch side’s Princess Juliana International Airport for the vast majority of its visitors.

Travelers will only need to meet the “usual immigration and border control requirements to visit the island,” Ottley said. 

St Maarten will, however, retain health officials at the airport to monitor passengers entering the country. 

Travelers who may be experiencing flu-like signs or symptoms may be required to test before they depart the airport, the Minister said. 

“St. Maarten has done exceptionally well in its fight against the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) COVID-19. The Country is now fully engaged in restoring economic activity, and one key aspect of economic revitalization is the return of visitors in large numbers,” Ottley said. “At the same time, while we concentrate on rebuilding our Tourism destination, our work will continue to protect the population, including our visitors.”a

The lifting of all restrictions comes after a public call by the St Maarten Hotel and Tourism Association to do just that, arguing that the travel restrictions would limit the potential for St Maarten’s winter tourism season. 

St Maarten is the last Dutch Caribbean destination to remove its travel restrictions. Bonaire, St Maarten, Statia, Saba, Curacao and Aruba all previously removed their restrictions earlier this year. 

“St. Maarten must remain vigilant and be mindful that before COVID-19, hotels and the island dealt with other transmittable diseases that were harmful to the economy and the people,” Ottley said. 

For more, visit St Maarten.

The post St Maarten Is Removing All Testing, Vaccination Rules for Travelers  appeared first on Caribbean Journal.

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Chill. It’s what you feel you get when you stay here.   

All hotels have rooms.  At an O:live Collection hotel, it’s about something more: feelings and experiences. Not just the room. It doesn’t hurt, though, when the rooms themselves are impossibly beautiful. 

That brings us to the new Aire de O:live in Puerto Rico, a property that delivers new experiences and redefines the modern beachfront hotel.  

Owned and operated by the husband and wife team of Loisse Herger and Fernando Davilla, creators of the successful O:live Boutique Hotel and the O:Live 55 in the Condado neighborhood of San Juan, Aire de O:live breaks new ground.  

If you’ve been lucky enough to experience one of the O:live hotels, you’ve seen how Loisse and Fernando are masters of transforming, renovating and restoring boutique hotels. 

We stayed in the newly renovated rooms earlier this month, and the transformation of San Juan Water and Beach Club into the Aire de O:live was still n process. (While they are working on the other floors you can still come and enjoy the new rooms and all the hotel’s amenities.) 

Each room here is different and special, designed and decorated to create a relaxing, earthy environment. There is low energy lighting and natural materials are used throughout the rooms and common areas. 

It’s set on the sand in Isla Verde, and the laid-back beach vibe is apparent the minute you arrive. The hotel is in a residential area and people walk and hang out in a park-like atmosphere along the beach and adjacent streets. Even in the heart of the city, this feels far more like a beach town. People are friendly, the town feels welcoming, confident, and upcoming. 

To the East, you are five minutes from the airport and to the West you are 5-10 minutes from the Condado and Old San Juan: close to everything, and so close to the beach you can hear the ocean from your room. 

We stayed in the 600-square-ffoot Aqua de O:live master suite, which has a heated plunge pool dramatically overlooking the ocean. It’s a two-room suite with a king sized bed and open design so you can even see the ocean from the shower. It’s one of the most beautiful rooms in all of Puerto Rico, in a hotel that sets a new standard for cool on the island. 

Ascend to the rooftop and you find a fantastic restaurant and tres-cool bar called KUMO which aptly means cloud in Japanese.  KUMO serves food all day long, and the specialty of the house is Japanese robatayaki. 

It’s joined on the roof by a breathtaking pool overlooking the ocean and the beach. 

A beautiful beach, a great pool deck, an awesome bar and restaurant and, well, an instant, lasting, unforgettable chill. 

For more, visit Aire de O:live. 

See more in the latest CJ Video at the top. 

The post At the Aire de O:live in Puerto Rico, Redefining the Beach Hotel appeared first on Caribbean Journal.

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They’re tucked away in tiny corners of the Caribbean, set off far in the middle of the sea, hidden beneath cliffs. 

They’re those rarefied beaches that are a bit harder to reach, the ones you can’t fly to, the ones you can’t drive to or walk to. 

They’re the remote stretches of sand that keep our hearts beating a bit faster on cold winter evenings. 

These are some of the more remote beaches in the Caribbean, where the journey is tougher but the reward that much sweeter. 

They’re beaches you can only reach by boat. And here are 20 of our favorites in the Caribbean. 

Protestant Cay, St Croix It’s not exactly hidden, this lovely little cay off the coast of Christiansted in St Croix. It’s right there, staring at you as you traverse the historic town’s boardwalk. And there’s regular boat service running all day long, a blissful 30 second trip. But there’s just something magical about this beach, about the sparkle of the turquoise and the feeling that you’re someplace else entirely. 

The post 17 Great Caribbean Beaches You Can Only Reach By Boat  appeared first on Caribbean Journal.

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Jimmy Buffett’s fast-expanding resort empire is adding another Caribbean resort, this time in Belize. 

And the new Margaritaville Beach Resort Ambergris Caye is officially taking reservations, Caribbean Journal has learned. 

It’s a different kind of Margaritaville, a decidedly boutique-style resort that is opening its doors in “early 2023,” according to Margaritaville, with 55 suites, three food and beverage concepts, two swimming pools and a spa, among other amenities. 

That includes two lagoon-style pools, one oceanfront and another exclusively for families; the spa, a signature St Somewhere Spa, will include waterside treatment bungalows. 

And the culinary options will include a beachfront eatery and a pair of on-site bars. 

The resort, which will only be accessible by boat, is set just north of San Pedro Town in Belize’s ever-popular Ambergris Caye. 

It’s a “a treasured destination surrounded by crystal clear Caribbean waters and the second largest coral reef in the world, teeming with marine life,” Margaritaville said in a statement. 

Notably, the Belize property will be a residential resort; that means it also includes options for real estate buyers. 

It’s yet another high-profile brand for Belize, which has seen a wave of new hotel development in recent years, from Marriott to Wyndham to Four Seasons (which is opening its first Caribbean private-island resort in the country)  and strong tourism numbers to show for it. 

The resort is the latest product of Margaritaville’s alliance with Karisma Hotels and Resorts, one that has created the brand’s all-inclusive Margaritaville Island Reserve resorts in both Cap Cana and the Riviera Cancun, Mexico. (A third is on the way in the Riviera Maya on the Caribbean coast of Mexico. 

The Belize resort will not be all-inclusive, however. 

For more, visit Margaritaville Beach Resort Belize. 

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