In Martinique, the time is set by tree frogs and ti’ punches.

A morning is an unrisen sun without that rum cocktail peculiar to the French Antilles, the small but potent mix they call here “decollage” – a take off. 

You may know it as the ti’ punch: lime, sugar, rhum blanc. 

And the tree frogs here know better than we when the sun has set, launching their chirp at the shortest end of twilight. 

After the frogs start singing, time shifts to a Rhum Vieux, neat, in Fort de France something local like La Favorite made on the outskirts of town. (When you have more than a dozen rum distilleries, local means local.)

I am sitting after twilight in the cafe of the Imperatrice, an Antillean anomaly, seemingly grabbed right out of the Boulevard St Germain but quintessentially Martiniquais.

It calls home the ground floor of a hotel nearly three quarters of a century old, and the age is something palpable. 

It’s a timeless, charming little hotel with 21 rooms, all with mahogany parquet floors and the feeling that you’ve stepped into another epoch. 

It’s one of the epicenters of this endlessly charming French Caribbean city, a place filled with art and culture and pulsing energy and biguine.

To my left, a table of old friends smokes cigars and talks their weekday talk. To my right, French tourists on their phones. 

Inside, Foyals (the demonym for those from Fort de France proper) take a cocktail and laugh loudly. 

It is in a place like the Imperatrice that Martinique begins to open itself up to you. Because there are no cafes like this in most Caribbean downtowns, and few hotels like this either. 

Sitting here in the kind of outward-facing cafe table you’d find in Paris, sipping on an aged glass of La Favorite, the frogs in the background and the palm trees shaking, you start to get it. 

It’s what makes Martinique so fascinating to visit – it’s set right in the middle of the West Indies but an island of islands, long hidden away from the world of travel and so much richer for it. 

And then somehow an espresso appears. I didn’t order it but the espresso knew it was meant for me. 

Because in Martinique, if you open yourself to it, will give to you. 

This is France. This is the Caribbean.

This is also inextricably, inevitably, wonderfully Martinique. 

For more, visit the Imperatrice.

The post A Timeless Caribbean Hotel in Martinique  appeared first on Caribbean Journal.

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It’s one of the hottest things in the world of Caribbean all-inclusive, a concept that is itself the biggest thing in travel right now.

We’re talking, naturally, about the swim-up room. 

If there’s a new all-inclusive in development in the Caribbean, chances are swim-up rooms are front and center, whether it’s a reimagined Sandals or a new-build Margaritaville Island Reserve. 

And it’s easy to see why: there are few more pleasant amenity than having direct access to the pool right from your room, the sort of thing that turns a regular room or suite into something very, very different. 

During the day, it’s a great way to cool off, and it’s perfect for extending the evening, too. 

It also makes your room feel bigger: the swim-up pool expands your balcony, giving a broader, more infinite feeling to your view. 

Short of having your own villa or your own private plunge pool, it’s very hard to beat. 

But not all swim-up rooms are the same, particularly in the swim-up epicenter of Punta Cana in the Dominican Republic. 

Swim-ups abound in the Caribbean’s all-inclusive capital; but in large resorts, they typically have a drawback: there isn’t always much privacy, particularly in larger resorts where the swim-up rooms are set on long river-style pools. 

That brings us to our favorite swim-up rooms in all of Punta Cana: those at the new Lopesan Costa Bavaro. 

Lopesan, a resort that has placed a premium on forward-thinking design, has some rather unique swim-ups. 

Instead of being set on endless pools with rows of rooms next to each other, there is more of a boutique feel, with a series of detached pools, all with just a handful of rooms with access. 

What it means is that most of the time you have the entire pool to yourself, and instead of sharing one pool with scores of neighbors, you feel a sense of independence. 

Even better? They’re extremely well landscaped, offering a level of privacy and serenity you simply don’t find in other swim-up rooms in the area. 

Even in a resort with more than 1,000 rooms, you feel like you’re in your own private villa. And that’s not an easy thing to achieve.

It’s the swim-up, redefined, and the perfect couples’ getaway in Punta Cana. 

For more, visit Lopesan Costa Bavaro.

The post In Punta Cana, the Perfect All-Inclusive Swim Up Rooms appeared first on Caribbean Journal.

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It’s been one of the biggest success stories in Caribbean tourism since the onset of the pandemic: the US Virgin Islands, which expertly navigated the uncertain waters of the pandemic and came out with record-breaking numbers. 

Indeed, from June 2021 to May 2022, the US Virgin Islands had the highest hotel occupancy in the Caribbean, with a 72.5 percent number, according to data from STR. 

The USVI also led the region in average daily rate at $637 and revenue per available room, $461.61, during the same period. 

And the numbers keep getting even better. 

In a sizzling start to 2022, first-quarter visitor arrivals surged 153 percent compared to the same period in 2021, with a total of 452,764 visitors, according to Tourism Commissioner Joseph Boschulte. 

The USVI also saw a rapid increase in new airlift during the pandemic; Transportation Security Administration data showed that the USVI was the fastest-growing location for total airlift capacity in the Americas from 2019 to 2021. 

The hope, Boschulte tells Caribbean Journal, is for these numbers to stay strong. 

“Based on our tourism numbers for Fiscal Year 2022 and projecting into next year, we are feeling confident that visitation to the U.S. Virgin Islands will continue on an upward trajectory,” Boschulte says. “Thanks to our efforts in attracting more airlift, our overnight visitor numbers have soared, leading to record hotel occupancy for the Territory.”

The US Virgin Islands has also seen its cruise industry, which was largely dormant for the calendar year 2021, rebound in a big way. 

The USVI is projected to see more than 450 calls and 1.4 million passengers in the fiscal year 2023, up from just under 250 calls and around 480,000 passengers in fiscal year 2022. 

The aim is to add 70 percent more passengers to Crown Bay in St Thomas, and to triple the numbers in St Croix’s cruise port in Frederiksted in 2023. 

The latter will come from a major expansion by Royal Caribbean, which is adding three times it’s passenger volume to Frederiksted, it announced at SeaTrade earlier this year.

“With airlift at record highs and continuing to increase, thanks to our aggressive efforts to attract new service, and with the return of the cruise business this year, we expect our visitor numbers to match or exceed the pre-pandemic year of 2019,” he said. 

“We are not resting on past efforts. Working closely with government leadership and local tourism partners, we are continuing to develop programs and products that will attract new and repeat visitors, including in the meetings, incentives, conventions and events (MICE) business,” Boschulte says. “We are ensuring we are top of mind with travel advisors and the media, using our social media platforms and other trade and public relations efforts to keep these audiences engaged and informed.”

The post US Virgin Islands Tourism Is Booming appeared first on Caribbean Journal.

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Grenada has an abundance of locally grown food and spirits, and one way to tap into the Spice Island’s rich culinary diversity is to stay at one of Grenada’s resorts with all-inclusive options.

From popular brands with global recognition to family-owned luxury beach resorts, Grenada has a small but diverse group of all-inclusive options to choose from.

Spice Island Beach Resort This legendary resort set directly on Grand Anse Beach is a traditional all-inclusive, meaning fine dining, premium drinks, non-motorized water sports, and access to the fitness center and kids club in one nightly rate. The 64 suites are spread around eight beachfront acres, all opening onto the sand or gardens and many featuring private courtyard pools. The private Janissa’s Spa is Grenada’s best.

Royalton Grenada Got some Marriott points to burn? This Autograph Collection resort on Tamarind Bay might deplete your Bonvoy balance but it’s well worth the splurge on a luxury all-inclusive vacation in Grenada that includes all-suites accommodations — some on the beach, others with direct access to a private pool. Amenities include five gourmet restaurants, a spa and fitness center, a kids club and beach camp program, and butler-served Diamond Club rooms.

Sandals Grenada There’s a certain amount of homogeneity — lets call it consistency — among the resorts in the Sandals chain of all-inclusive resorts. Certain restaurant names and room types repeat from property to property, and the Red Lane spa is a given, for example. That said, we think Sandals Grenada stands out as one of the company’s more beautiful hotels, and we’re particular fans of the Love Nest suites here. Guests can sample Grenadian food at the Spices restaurant, kayak or sail in the waters off Pink Gin Beach, indulge in treatments at the spa — you’ll never get bored even during a stay of a week or more.

Coyaba Beach Resort This midsized (80-room) resort has a lovely location on Grand Anse Beach and offers two all-inclusive packages alongside American and Modified American Plan options. The premium all-inclusive deal includes all food and drinks, daily massages, snorkeling, dive, and market tours, and — my wife’s favorite — a logo robe to take home. Activities include tennis, yoga and tai chi classes, and nightly entertainment.

The post How to Take an All-Inclusive Vacation in Grenada appeared first on Caribbean Journal.

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Devanshi Kasana and her colleagues were puzzled when they discovered it: a large shark typically thought to live in the freezing Arctic – in the middle of a coral reef in Belize. 

It was the first time a so-called Greenland shark, had been found in the waters of the Western Caribbean. 

The shark, between 10 and 11 feet long, was found in the Glover’s Reef Marine Reserve, a coral atoll off the coast of Belize. 

Kasana, a PhD candidate in Florida International University’s Predator Ecology and Conservation Lab, was working with a team of local Belizean fishermen tagging tiger sharks when they found the unusual visitor. 

The final determination was that the shark was in the Sleeper shark family, and likely either a Greenland shark or a hybrid between the Greenland shark and the Pacific sleeper shark. 

Greenland sharks are a mystery, with little known about the creatures, which tend to live more than 400 years. 

In fact, they’re thought to be the longest-living vertebrates known to science. 

But they’ve been typically known to scavenge on polar bear carcasses in a freezing habitat near the Arctic and North Atlantic oceans — not the Caribbean. 

The result, Kasana and her team suggested, is that sleeper sharks “may be more common and widespread at depth in the tropics than available records indicate.” 

“Great discoveries and conservation can happen when fishermen, scientists and the government work together,” said Beverly Wade, Director of the Blue Bond and Finance Permanence Unit in the Office of the Prime Minister of Belize. “We can really enhance what we can do individually, while also doing some great conservation work and making fantastic discoveries, like this one.”

Kasana published her findings in the journal Marine Biology 

You can find her full article here. 

The post A New Caribbean Shark?  appeared first on Caribbean Journal.

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