Posted on 12/11/2014 7:47:47 AM PST by C19fan
It’s dreary outside and you find yourself dreaming of an escape to the Caribbean. You long for turquoise water and sugar-sand beaches, with plenty of activities to take your mind off work. Cruises offer the perfect smorgasbord of beaches, shopping, scenery, and fun things that you can’t do at home, all served up with a fruity, umbrella-topped beverage. But not every port lives up to the image in your dreams. To help you choose your next cruise itinerary — or rather, figure out which places to avoid — Yahoo Travel did some digging around and found the Caribbean ports with the worst reputations.
(Excerpt) Read more at yahoo.com ...
1: Freeport and Nassau, Bahamas
2: Montego Bay and Ocho Rios, Jamaica
3: Belize City
4: Roatan, Honduras
5: Somana and LaRomana, Dominican Republic
I haven’t been to any of those places and I’m happy to see the list.
We loved Roatan. Costa Maya, however, was awful.
Last year we were on a cruise and the lounge comedian says:
“St. Kitts...that’s Caribbean for ghetto, man.”
Nassau and Freeport used to be nice back in the 70s. They have gone way downhill since.
I spent some summers in The Bahamas in the early 80's, really a nice spot to cruise. Literally went to Islands and had the whole Island Beach to ourselves.
Hit Nassau once in the 8os, wasn’t on Bay street (main drag) 5 minutes and some dude was trying to sell me cocaine. Could happen anywhere you say? Probably not with a cop 8 feet away. Belize city was pretty bad, I also hear Jamaica is really dangerous.
I can see that list being accurate
I spent cumulative years in Cornwall Jamaica
Most beautiful island in Caribbean
Country folk are sweet but the rest ruin it
Sorta like here
White mans fault
Your just fresh, mon.
you’re
Got neighbors that went to a “resort” in Jamaica. When they came back they said the resort was A#1 but everything outside was at best 3rd world. They walked the beach one evening and came upon a fence at the resort property line that ran down to the water, there was a security guard from the resort there that asked them if they intended on crossing off of resort property, when they said they were thinking about it....the security guard said before they that he would need their names and room # incase they didn’t return. Scary.
Cruise comedians are really funny, I remember one joke about how small the cabins are, he said “I slipped and fell in the shower last night......fortunately, I fell on the bed!................anybody that’s been on a cruise ship can probably appreciate that.
Done #1; both ports require significant travel to get anywhere interesting.
Freeport took a long taxi ride to the recommended beach & shopping.
Nassau took a ferry then a long walk.
Strongly recommend ensuring all your stuff is conveniently & firmly packed in a highly mobile backpack, and you know path & mode of travel well before you get there.
Both made me keenly aware of how large-scale cruise ships have wrecked much of the local economy: thousands of people show up at once, descend on a few highlights, then vanish a few hours later - concentrating a lot of money in a few places, with almost no cash flowing anywhere outside that very limited range. What used to be a viable tourist infrastructure of small hotels, entertainment & transportation is now a wasteland taxis race pass en masse.
Gotta watch the foreigners.
I’m done with the Caribbean, it does nothing for me, you’ve seen one beach, you’ve seen ‘em all.
yeah, it crossed my mind that the cop was in on it....they probably took turns wearing the uniform. lol
What’s the first thing anyone who’s been on a cruise will talk about?
Hint: It’s not the romance of the cruise itself (water is endless and not very interesting) or the cool things they did, on or off the ship.
Answer: It’s all about the end(re. None of them realize that the reason the cruise lines provide all that food is to keep them soporific during the actual cruising which is usually just a long rest time between shopping.
If you really want to have a good time in the Caribbean, pick out an island (or contiguous group of islands) and go there by air and spend a week or two.
It eliminates the frantic pace of a “four hour tour stop” and gives you a chance to unwind while searching out the true fun spots on the islands.
For the average tourist, the American Virgin Islands are the top choice by far, giving you the best security and familiar fast food places to eat when you get tired of elaborate and expensive fashionable restaurants and traditional island specialties” and just want a pizza or a burger.
Or take a cruise and come home fat.
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