Plymouth, Montserrat’s former capital and now a modern-day Pompeii.
If you like your scenery more sedate,
Deppermann will drop you and a
kayak at Rendezvous Beach, a private
little scimitar of sand accessible only
by boat or on foot ($15 plus an additional $10 per hour for the kayak).
Ride a horse
“It’s everyone’s fantasy, galloping
through the waves on an empty
beach,” says Craig Barker as I saddle
up on a Paso Fino horse next to Shacks
Beach in Isabela, Puerto Rico. Barker,
a California surfer, came to the island’s
wild northwest coast for the waves
but stayed to run Tropical Trail Rides
(787-872-9256; tropicaltrailrides
.com). He and wife Michelle run twice-daily trips ($45) along Survival Beach,
a wide swath of honey-colored sand
backed by 150-foot limestone cliffs
pocked with eerie sea caves.
Snorkel with a sea monster
You won’t catch many locals swimming near the seemingly bottomless
blue hole at Conch Sound off Andros
Island. “Lusca lives here,” a tour guide
warned me last time I visited. “She’s
half shark and half octopus and likes
to eat people and boats.” Small Hope
Bay Lodge (800-223-6961; smallhope
.com) runs all-day Blue Hole Folklore
Tours ($75, though the price drops for
groups) around the Bahamas’ largest
island. I ignored the guide’s tales and
snorkeled into the underwater grotto,
only to discover a whirling school of
Atlantic spadefish—and the ghostly
bones of a recent shipwreck.
Build a sandcastle
Pack your pail and shovel and head to
Grenada for perfect sugary southern-
Caribbean sand. Want to dazzle an
audience with your castle-building
skills? Head to the ever-popular Grand
Anse Beach, a smooth horseshoe of
white sand with panoramic views of
St. George’s (the quaint capital port,
complete with red-tile roofs and a
glowering fortress). If you’d rather
build in silence, head to quieter
Morne Rouge Beach, a more secluded
strand a little farther south, beyond
Quarantine Point. —Jad Davenport
HORSE PLAY Why walk when you can
gallop next to the waves on Puerto
Rico’s unspoiled beaches?
