Blue Heaven

With more than 7,000 islands scattered like jewels across sapphire seas, the Caribbean is richly diverse in both culture and nature

Ever since my first visit to the Bahamas several decades ago, the Caribbean has revealed itself to me like an onion – layer upon layer peeling back before my eyes, with each island a delight to discover and a new lesson to learn.

While some of the world’s finest beaches, tropical coral reefs, luxury resorts, and preferred sailing grounds for yachties have turned the region into the major tourism destination that it is, that’s just the start of all there is to experience in this unique part of the planet. As a lifelong traveler, scuba diver, and sailor, every trip to a different island, coral reef, marina, or neighborhood of the Caribbean has added brushstrokes to my picture of how its crossroad of cultures is linked to the wider world, with which its history is interwoven.

Take Jamaica: originally inhabited by the Indigenous Taíno people, it is today a diverse quilt of Rastafarian, Hindu, Jewish, and Muslim communities living together in harmony. The Caribbean’s third-largest island, it’s celebrated as much for the cultural offerings in Kingston and Bob Marley’s musical lore as for the raw beauty of its golden beaches and emerald mountains.

Or consider Puerto Rico, which was colonized by Spain after Christopher Columbus landed in 1493 during his second voyage to the “New World.” Here, Taíno, African, and Spanish traditions blend to give the archipelago its unique flavor. The pride of the islands’ inhabitants ripples through every interaction, whether communing at a reggaeton or Latin trap concert in the capital or immersing in a local agricultural festival in the countryside.

In the Dominican Republic, merengue, the national music and dance, has been granted Intangible Cultural Heritage status by UNESCO. It traces its roots to Spanish, African, and Indigenous Taíno influences, pouring out of homes and nightclubs alike in an island nation known for its resorts and palm-lined beaches of spectacular beauty.

Over in Saint Barthélemy, the Arawak (and later Carib) people were the first stewards of the island, which today is steeped in French culture that blends with Caribbean and Creole traditions. Lagoons, arid mountains, and lush valleys are the backdrop for relaxing year-round, while wintertime’s sublime yachting and regatta season lures the global elite. 

A variety of traditions have blended and merged across the Caribbean to create the array of cultures waiting to be discovered today – but the links with the rest of the world are still firmly embedded. On my global travels, I’ve found myself under a nutmeg tree on an island in Indonesia remembering the same spices I saw growing in Grenada. In Sierra Leone in West Africa, I ate a meal so similar in its presentation and ingredients to ones I’d enjoyed in Jamaica and Cuba, I could have been there.

Rich local cultures bring flavors to Caribbean tables from across the world, with a diverse sense of place and taste that can be linked from island to island. In luxurious Saint Barthélemy, the French influence is never far away. The tony restaurants perched high above the harbor town of Gustavia are places to see and be seen, and to enjoy lobster fresh from the Caribbean Sea proffered alongside the finest flutes of champagne.

After a day on the golden beaches of Jamaica or immersing in the reggae music that seems to waft through the air everywhere you go, it’s impossible not to notice the tantalizing scent of the island’s legendary jerk cooking. Infused with spices like Scotch bonnet peppers and allspice that are native to the West Indies, the cuisine owes its piquant preparation to the Caribbean’s Indigenous Taíno people, who used spice rubs to preserve their meats.

In the Dominican Republic, say yes to an invitation to enjoy (and maybe even help stir) a pot of bubbling sancocho – the national dish made from broth simmered with yucca, plantains, beef, pork, and chicken. Every bowl comes with a hearty dose of the island’s legendary hospitality and pride.

Undoubtedly, it’s the Caribbean’s golden sand beaches – lined with palms and lapped by waters that look more like a swimming pool than anything oceanic – that first come to mind when thoughts turn to the region.

Rarely will you immerse yourself in waters clearer than those along Meads Bay Beach in Anguilla or couples’ favorite destination Pink Sands Beach on Harbour Island in the Bahamas, where flour-fine sand the color of natural strawberry yogurt can be seen through sea so translucent it’s hard to know how far below you it descends.

One of the best places in the world for setting sail on day cruises or multiday forays aboard catamarans and monohull yachts is the British Virgin Islands. Its islands erupt from the Caribbean Sea like emerald jewels in bezel settings of white sand. Color explodes below the surface on every reef. Snorkelers smile through their masks at sites like the Baths of Virgin Gorda as rainbow-hued parrotfish, tangs, and turtles weave through the nooks of giant boulders lining the shore. Certified scuba divers can descend on the wreck of the RMS Rhone – a former U.K. Royal Mail ship that met its demise during a hurricane in 1867 – in the shallow waters off Salt Island, now teeming with marine life.

Surfers chase waves in this part of the world, too, from the legendary breaks of Puerto Rico’s Rincón region and gentler waves that peel across the beaches near San Juan to classic point breaks that draw experienced surfers to bays around the French West Indies island of Saint Barthélemy.

In the waters off Jamaica and Puerto Rico, nightfall brings the chance to swim in bioluminescence that glows blue with the trails of single-celled organisms called dinoflagellates, enticing visitors to brave a dip after dark in the quiet bays east of Montego Bay and off Vieques island.

Nothing elicits a collective gasp like the sight of a massive cetacean breaching the water. Dominica is the only country in the world where it’s possible to spot sperm whales year-round, with more than 200 resident whales living in the deep coastal waters off the volcanic island. During whale-watching tours in the unspoiled reaches of Samaná Bay in the northeastern Dominican Republic, humpbacks breach and fluke with abandon to the delight of onlookers. To the south of the Bahamas, in the stunning sand-spun islands of Turks and Caicos, specialty charter boat tours depart from Providenciales during the winter months, bound for the remote marine banks west of the Caicos archipelago for more magical humpback moments.

More encounters await on the island of Anguilla, a British Overseas Territory to the east of Puerto Rico that feels quite separate from the rest of the Caribbean islands. Known for exclusive resorts fronting white sand beaches, the coastline is also a haven for green, leatherback, and hawksbill sea turtles that lumber ashore to nest. In September and October, join after-dark tours with the Anguilla National Trust for an experience that feels straight from a wildlife documentary.

The distinctive culture of each Caribbean island extends to its natural heritage. Lush rainforests, desert-like climates, and craggy mountains – it can all be found here, along with memorable wildlife encounters.

The most vertiginous islands offer much in the way of freshwater wonders, with dazzling cascades that beckon as a cool refresher after an exhilarating hike. One of the most spectacularly dramatic islands in the Eastern Caribbean’s Lesser Antilles, the volcanic island of Dominica, is awash with waterfalls. The tallest, at 200 feet, is Middleham Falls, accessible via a half-hour hike through a lush rainforest where hummingbirds delicately insert their dainty bills into beautiful blossoms within the landscapes of Morne Trois Pitons National Park. There, reward your efforts by sinking into the stunning plunge pool at its base.

With some of the most diverse geology in the Caribbean ranging from volcanic formations and fertile valleys to long beaches and lush forests, the Dominican Republic’s avifauna encyclopedia is a wonder, with more than 300 bird species to spot. Here, Pico Duarte is the tallest peak in all the Caribbean, towering over 10,000 feet within the Cordillera Central mountains. It is surrounded by dense tropical forests rich with biodiversity and secreted-away waterfalls with jade-hued waters to swim in, like Salto de Baiguate, tucked into a canyon near José Armando Bermúdez National Park. 

Incredible birdlife abounds across the islands of the Caribbean, too. Sightings of a wild population of endangered Puerto Rican amazons, a green parrot endemic to the island, might surprise visitors to El Yunque National Forest, the only tropical rainforest within the U.S. National Forest System. Found only in Jamaica, the spectacularly beautiful doctorbird – a species of hummingbird known for the male’s streaming tail feathers and rich emerald-green plumage – is on the life list for birders who venture to the island in hopes of spotting it and more than 25 other local species that include Blue Mountain vireos and jewel-like Jamaican mango hummingbirds.

Getting to know the many cultures of the Caribbean has made the world feel smaller to me and more connected. And as someone who loves to be at one with nature, it has filled my cup on repeat. From the beautiful, soft shores of Pink Sands Beach in the Bahamas to the merengue beat of the Dominican Republic, as I continue to peel back the layers of these extraordinary islands, there’s still so much more to encounter, enjoy, and learn.