Under sail
Island hopping by yacht is the ultimate way to see the Caribbean. The British Virgin Islands are the most popular cruising waters with scores of anchorages and nowhere too far from anywhere else. The Grenadines are also ideal, although the inter-island swells can be uncomfortable. If you can't afford to buy a yacht, the next best thing is to charter. And if you can't tell your sheets from your shrouds, there are plenty of professional crews available who can. If you wish to bareboat (ie take a boat off on your own) but lack the confidence to do so, the simplest method is to hire a skipper for however many days it takes to learn the ropes.
Six nights in a double cabin on a fully-crewed yacht for a week in The Grenadines costs from £717pp with The Moorings (0800 220763). Collect a few nautical friends and a whole yacht with crew can cost from £143pp per day (both prices including food and drink, excluding flights). Bareboat prices in the BVIs with The Moorings start at £130 per day, a skipper from £75 a day, a cook from £61 (excluding food). At Club Colonna in Antigua, Sunsail (02392 222222) offers a hotel holiday with dinghies, windsurfing and one of the largest swimming pools on the island. A week's half-board starts at £595pp including flights and full use of boats.
On a budget
Avoid fashionable February and the Christmas rush. Better still, travel in the low season from mid-April to mid-December. The weather in the Caribbean is pretty well constant (a little more humid in summer), demand being influenced more by the weather in Europe and the US. After Easter, room rates drop by as much as half and many hotels waive the cost of a child under 12 sharing a parents' room.
Charter flights cost less than scheduled carriers and often have direct flights not featured by scheduled transatlantic carriers, such as to the Dominican Republic, the most popular Caribbean destination of all for British visitors. The mass market operators like Airtours, Thomson and First Choice all use predominantly charter flights in their packages.
One week self-catering from December 3 in Silver Sands Hotel in Barbados with Airtours, for example, costs from £456pp including flights.
Back to nature
There is a wilder Caribbean to be seen off the beaten tourist trails. Dominica has some of the most appealing topography as well as an impressive record of sustainable tourism. Sparsely- decorated eco-inns are dotted about the island, popular with botanists, photographers and divers.
The St Lucia National Trust organises a programme of walks around Pointe Sable national park, with opportunities to see the hawksbill and leatherback turtles. The Andromeda Gardens on the wind-bashed west coast of Barbados have the biggest range of plants in the West Indies. The island of Guana in the Virgins is a wildlife sanctuary, with at least 50 species of birds, 14 reptiles and amphibians, and 125 species of fish within yards of the shore.
One week in Dominica with Trips Worldwide costs about £950pp including flights. For other islands, contact the relevant tourist board or the Caribbean Tourism Organisation.
Families
Balmy weather, a warm, gently lapping sea and sandy beaches make the Caribbean ideal for families with many hotels offering children's clubs staffed by qualified nannies and minders. But several islands also offer children more than simple beach and club pleasures. Youngsters can explore the deep on Atlantis Submarine and snorkel with rays at Stingray City in Grand Cayman; take a Black River Safari spotting crocodiles and exotic bird life in Jamaica; mountain bike and white-water raft in the Dominican Republic; and see the world's largest aquarium at Atlantis, Paradise Island in the Bahamas.
The best deals for families are during the summer, when hoteliers, anxious to fill rooms in their low season, court the two-plus-twos with tempting "child-free" packages. With babies and infants you don't need either children's clubs or activity programmes, so a quiet hotel, such as Settlers Beach on Barbados with 22 villas around a pool and garden, plus babysitting, works well. Families with children in the toddlers-to-teens bracket should consider one of the all-inclusive resorts that target the family market. Beaches Turks & Caicos resort and spa, for example, has unlimited watersports, tennis, Kids Kamp, Sega Dreamcast Centre, golf, fitness centre and a huge freshwater pool. Other child-welcoming all-inclusives include Beaches Negril and Boscobel Beach in Jamaica, Almond Beach Village in Barbados, the Rex Halcyon Cove on Antigua and Club Med in St Lucia.
Caribbean Connection offers seven nights in a villa at Settlers Beach, Barbados, from £3,108 for two adults and two children including flights. Kuoni offers one week at Beaches Turks & Caicos resort from £1,443pp including flights, children discounted.
Quintessential Caribbean
Grenada, while offering all the beach, palm tree and blue water ingredients, offers a lot more besides. The Spice Island has a full life of its own, with working spice farms, nutmeg stations and old plantation houses to visit, Caribbean history, excellent watersports, all manner of boats, scuba diving over coral reefs and walking in tropical rainforests.
Just Grenada features small coastal hotels, self- catering apartments and villas. One week in a one-bedroomed waterside cottage for a couple costs from £695pp including flights.
Independent travel
The Caribbean is well-served by airlines with scheduled flights - BA, Virgin Atlantic, BWIA and Air Jamaica fly direct - but often the best deals are available through continental airlines via their domestic hubs, such as Paris (Air France), Amsterdam (KLM) and Madrid (Iberia). Once you know the flying options, you can then check out hotel availability. Many islands and specific hotels have their own websites - just type in the name.
wheretostay.com has a huge database of all types of accommodation in the Caribbean. Caribtours will also book accommodation only, with a five-night minimum stay at no more than the published room rates.
Villa seekers
The islands offer everything from some of the most glamorous houses in the world to modest beach chalets and apartments. But forget self- catering - unlike their European counterparts, most Caribbean houses come with a minimum of a housekeeper/maid who will prepare food, and many come with an entire brigade of staff to take care of your every need, from dirty laundry to fixing the pre-dinner drinks. Prices may seem high at first sight - but divide the rental figure by the number of people sharing, and you will generally find you are paying less than you would be for a comparable hotel.
Villas also score with food, all of which will be bought at local supermarkets and you pay the itemised bills, so total expenditure can come to around £70 each for a week, more or less what a top hotel would charge per day.
One of many properties offered by The Owners' Syndicate, Seashell Villas in Tobago, is available from £658pp for a week including flights, based on six sharing. Also try Caribbean Chapters and Elegant Resorts.
Plantation houses
Restored plantation houses are the Caribbean's answer to our country house hotels - small, intimate, pretty and often run on house-party lines. Some are on the beach, others in the countryside. Remote Strawberry Hill in Jamaica, for example, is a working plantation up in the Blue Mountains. Chris Blackwell, the Branson of the Caribbean, has built a wonderful house and a dozen wooden villas in the style of a 19th-century estate, with a pool and an Aveda spa. In Barbados there's Villa Nova, Sir Anthony Eden's old winter retreat, now open as a hotel with 28 colonial-style suites. Others include The Montpelier, The Nisbet and The Hermitage on Nevis, Plantation House on Bequia and the Cotton House in Mustique, converted from an old coral warehouse and sugar mill.
Caribbean Expressions offers one week's half-board at The Nisbet Plantation in Nevis, for example, from £1,485pp including flights.
Loafers
In need of a good spa? The Caribbean oozes relaxing treatments, whether physical (aromatherapy, Swedish massage, Moor mud masques...) or mental (yoga, meditation etc). Resorts like Parrot Cay in Turks and Caicos, La Source in Grenada and Cambridge Beaches in Bermuda are all tempting, and this autumn Anguilla's grand Malliouhana hotel will open its own spa, overlooking the beach and delivering treatments rich in local produce such as aloe and lemon grass.
A week at Le Sport in St Lucia, an all-inclusive with an enormous health centre, starts at £1,359pp including flights, with Thomson.
