Rule number one for outdoor lovers thinking about an escape to the Caribbean? Get off the beaten path. Otherwise you’ll be herded onto overdeveloped beaches and cookie-cutter resorts teeming with the same people you’re hoping to get away from. (If that’s what you want, a flight to South Florida is much cheaper.) Instead, touch down on one of these lesser-known islands, where you’ll find dreamy beaches, world-class fishing, hiking, mountain biking, and, most important, no crowds.

Hike, Don’t Drive, on Saba

You can land on the five-square-mile island of (home to the smallest commercial runway in the world at 1,312 feet, with each end leading off a cliff) and get around using nothing more than your two feet. The airport and Saba’s two main towns, the and , are connected by a series of old walking trails. Before the appearance of in the 1950s, these canopied paths were the main thoroughfares for locals. Pack light and you can hike from hotel to hotel in under two hours through the rainforest, from łŮ´ÇĚý. Or you can stop halfway and spend a night at the . In between, locals will point you to the , a staircase-like climb that leads to the island’s highest point and a sweeping view of Windwardside.

Don’t expect to find many beaches. Saba’s volcanic base gives it a coastline of jagged cliffs that top out at more than 3,000 feet. The island has only two legit strips of sand:  and the man-made . No complaints here—it keeps the daiquiri-sipping tourists at bay.

Get there: Fly to St. Maarten, and then it’s a quick island hopper on to Saba. You can also .

Dive the Blue Holes of Andros

The term “blue hole” has become synonymous with Belize, but the Bahamian island of Andros actually has the highest concentration of them in the world—178 on land and at least 50 in the sea. The holes are at the top of an expansive underwater cave network formed by the eroding limestone bedrock. Tourists can scuba and snorkel right through them. Chances are they won’t be crowded since there are no cruise ships or high-rises on Andros.

The blue holes at South Bight are the most popular because they have the most marine life. But Vermont native turned Andros local Jessie Leopold, owner of , also recommends the Crack, an area where on-land and in-ocean blue holes abut one another. 

Need a rest day? Drive over a causeway from St. Nicholls or San Andros to , 14 miles from the airport. It’s home to a tribe of black Seminoles, ancestors of Native Americans and slaves from Florida who fled from persecution in the early 19th century. They’re known for living off the land and crafting palm thatch baskets. It is possible to visit, just be polite when taking photos.

Get there: Fly to Nassau and either or take a .

Mountain Bike in Haiti

In 2012, just two years after Haiti’s devastating earthquake, a small team of Americans visited the island in hopes of establishing the first professional mountain biking stage race in the country. On that trip, Chris Kehmeier, a trail specialist from the , called one of the gnarliest trails he’d ever seen due to its steep, exposed, rocky terrain. 

The following year, the was born (ayiti translates to “land of mountains”). Using Haitian vendors and local staff, the race injects money into the local economy. The took bikers a total of 65 miles through rural villages from the mountains of Port au Prince to the coastal region of Marigot. On the first day, the course climbed a bruising 8,000 feet into La Visite National Park.

Prepping for its third year this January, the race (not for beginners) showcases Haitian culture along with the stunning landscape. Labeled a “cultural immersion experience” by its creators, the event combines three days of biking with three days of historical tours, trail development, and themed celebrations to connect visitors and locals. The six-day program costs $1,950 per person. Not in the mood to race? You can still access the trails, but contact MTV Ayiti to find a guide. Going it alone is not recommended.

Get there: Fly to Port au Prince direct from Miami.

Bonefish in Los Roques

The Bahamas may be known for excellent bonefishing, but if you want to ditch the crowds, consider , 85 miles off the coast of Venezuela. Yes, the South American country gets a bad rap, but that keeps this marine park immaculate and devoid of American crowds. The U.S. State Department lists a travel warning for Caracas and the Venezuelan interior, but Los Roques is a 45-minute flight in the other direction. 

“Los Roques has a series of super-shallow pancake flats that are surrounded by deeper water,” says Michael Caranci of , the first group of anglers legally licensed to fish in the area. “The shallow flats have a firm bottom that is perfect for stalking fish on foot.” Because it’s closer to the equator, Los Roques enjoys a longer fishing season (February to October) than the islands of the northern Caribbean. 

If you want to see some of the best preserved coral reefs in the Western Hemisphere, check out Ecobuzos Dive şÚÁĎłÔąĎÍřs.

Get there: You’ll need to to Los Rocques Airlines, Chaipi Air, Albatros, Blue Star, or LTA.

Get Your Diving Cert on Petit St. Vincent

is a private island at the southern tip of the Grenadines. It’s extremely small—just 115 acres. The island features only 22 cottages (no Wi-Fi or telephones) and two restaurants. But don’t worry about the lack of land, because you’ll be spending all your time off the grid and in the water.

Owned and operated by the son of Jacques Cousteau,  opened in the beginning of November. The dive center offers guided and instructional dives through what Cousteau calls some of the healthiest reefs in the Caribbean. It’s only the second Jean-Michel Cousteau school in the world and the first in the Western Hemisphere (the other is in Fiji).

Divers can ride tidal currents through the , explore the , track down lobsters and six-foot-tall coral at Frigate Point, and explore the underwater cave at Sail Rock. Beginners can get PADI certified.

Get there: Fly to Barbados, and then change to Union Island. From there, it’s a 20-minute boat ride to .

Race on Nevis

Nevis has been given the nickname “Island of Sport.” Why? The islanders love competition. Take, for instance, the area’s buzzing Ěý˛ą˛Ô»ĺ scenes or its (November) and the 2.5-mile interisland swim to (last Sunday in March).

That reputation keeps growing. Last year, Nevis hosted its first  in September, featuring a marathon, half marathon, 10K, 5K, and 3K. It drew a modest 400 people, but with a second go-round already planned for September 2015, Nevis is shaping up to be a well-rounded destination for competitive racers.

The island is only 35 square miles and encircled by a 20-mile road—. The interior is connected by a series of forested hiking trails that skirt around and through the island’s highest point at 3,232 feet. You can also check out the fishing—recently installed have attracted tuna, wahoo, dorado, kingfish, snapper, barracuda, shark, and mahimahi.

When it’s time to put your feet up, locals recommend the beaches on the west side for relaxing. Don’t miss , , and , where the sand is soft and the water calm. If you’re looking to stay active, head to the reefs of on the Windward side for snorkeling.

Get there: JetBlue and Spirit can get you to St. Maarten, where you can hop on a plane to Nevis or jump on a . American and JetBlue both go to San Juan, Puerto Rico, where you can switch to , ,Ěý´Ç°ů to Nevis.

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Getting far, far, far away from it all is easier—and cheaper—than you think. Presenting seven adventure-packed Caribbean island escapes.

The Over-Under

SABA, NETHERLANDS ANTILLES

The most challenging part of a trip to Saba, a five-square-mile volcanic island 28 miles southwest of St. Maarten, is the arrival. Saba has the shortest commercial runway—1,312 feet—in the world. Think of it as an aircraft carrier made of rainforest and cliffs. But once you touch down, your toughest decision is whether to hike into a cloudforest or dive among coral-covered seamounts. Base yourself in a hot-tub-equipped cottage at Dutch marine biologist Tom van't Hof's Ecolodge Rendez-Vous (doubles, $85; ). Then hike past sweeping ocean vistas on the way up 2,877-foot Mount Scenery. Post-hike, head for the centrally located village of Windwardside, home to Sea Saba Advanced Dive Center. The outfitter leads half-day snorkeling trips and four-day scuba-certification courses in Saba National Marine Park, which van't Hof founded 20 years ago (snorkeling trips, $35; dive course, $450; ). Winair flies daily from St. Maarten to Saba (from $150; ).

Surf and Slip

BARBADOS

Among diehard surfers, Barbados is famous for Soup Bowl, a nasty curl off the eastern shore. Less known—and far more appealing for mortals—are the dozens of forgiving swells surrounding the 166-square-mile island. Newbies will find Freights Bay, near Barbados's southern tip, plenty welcoming. Fryers Well, outside of Speightstown, is a good intermediate option. And Tropicana, a left-hand break north of Holetown, offers hairball thrills. Seek lessons from Christ Church Parish–based surf master Melanie Pitcher ($70; ). On land, do as the locals do: Drink the world's best rum. First, hit the Mount Gay distillery (), where charred-oak barrels give the rum its caramel flavor. Then make for the parish of St. James, home to the John Moore bar, one of Barbados's finest rum shacks. Here, cricket matches are fiercely debated over strong punch and grilled bonita. A solid oceanside crash pad is the Peach & Quiet, in Inch Marlow (doubles from $110; ).

Little Big League

DOMINICAN REPUBLIC

In this nation of 9.5 million, béisbol is not the pastime we know in the States. It's a way of life. Discover as much in Santo Domingo's training grounds, where teams like Aguilas Cibaeñas play in front of crowds that make the Fenway faithful look like sushi eaters (tickets generally cost less than $20; schedule available at ). The pro season runs from October through January, but baseball never stops. Coming this winter? Head to Boca Chica, 45 minutes east of Santo Domingo, and see tomorrow's stars at the New York Mets' new 37-acre training complex. For off-field thrills, drive 2.5 hours north to the adventure ranch Rancho Baiguate, outside Jarabocoa (doubles, $145; ). The guides here are versatile. One day they'll float you eight miles down the Class II Yaque del Norte River ($50). The next, they'll start a multi-day trip up 10,417-foot Pico Duarte, the Caribbean's tallest peak ($385).

Where the Wild Things Are

MONA ISLAND, PUERTO RICO

Think of this as Puerto Rico's version of the Galápagos. Mona Island, 46 miles west of Cabo Rojo, is open to just a few hundred visitors at a time, with the only overnight stays at campsites along its white-sand beach. Inland, nearly 90 percent of the terrain is 200-foot cliffs, riddled with half-mile-deep caverns. These contain the skeletons of many a conquistador and pirate. (Legend has it Captain Kidd once stayed here.) But come for the wildlife. On a four-day trip with mainland-based Acampa şÚÁĎłÔąĎÍř Tours, let four-foot Mona iguanas come to you like poodles, chase after blue-footed boobies, and spy on feral boars (you can also hunt them with bow and arrow in winter). Acampa arranges pickups throughout Puerto Rico, and trips should be booked one month in advance (roughly $750 per person for groups of ten; ).

Ghost Fish

SOUTH ANDROS ISLAND, BAHAMAS

Bonefish are hard to catch. Don't let anyone tell you differently. They look alternately like the white sand and mirrory water they swim between, and hooking them can require pinpoint casts of up to 70 feet. And that's the easy part—they fight like Japanese motorcycles. A good guide is not just recommended but necessary. Raised within sight of the water they traffic, the crew at Andros South, a fishing-first lodge situated on the eastern shore of South Andros, are as good as it gets. Expect about ten of the hardest-fighting fish you've ever encountered on a fly rod, every day. Back at the no-frills lodge, munch on conch fritters and swill Kalik (Bahamian beer) as the sun gets low. Three-day trips from $2,000 ().

Blue Yonder

ST. VINCENT AND THE GRENADINES

The 32 islands and cays of St. Vincent and the Grenadines offer the most varied cruising in the Caribbean. Find Barefoot Yacht Charters, the region's best outfitter, off the southern tip of St. Vincent. Their six-night, American Sailing Association–certified cruise school, aboard a 40-foot yacht, teaches guests to clear the anchor, trim the main, and laze on the beaches of Mayreau ($1,300; ). Already skippered? Hire a sail from Barefoot and drift ($1,800 per week). Your destination: the 16-square-mile Tobago Cays Marine Park, home to a sand-bottom lagoon and six island playgrounds (). Kick your feet up, bounce between islands, and tell your friend the hawksbill turtle you're never going home.

Time Out

CORN ISLANDS, NICARAGUA

Two chunks of sand 40 miles east of Nica­ragua, the Corn Islands are the Caribbean in its primal state. Beaches are empty and wet-T-shirt contests won't make landfall for another 20 years. What to do? Just wander around with a snorkel, a cerveza, and a grin. The puddle-jumper from Managua leaves twice daily for the airstrip on Grand Corn ($165 round-trip; ). The “Grand” part is relative—the island is about four square miles. Dive Nautilus runs trips out to a sunken 400-year-old Spanish galleon ($20; ). Sleep in a bungalow at Casa Canada, where the owners arrange guided jungle hikes (cabanas from $115; ). For dinner, spiny Caribbean lobster runs about $15 at the restaurants near the dock (try Lidia's Place). A trip to Little Corn, a patch of sand 30 minutes north via speedboat, is a must. The Dive Little Corn shop rents snorkeling gear (from $15; ). Crash at Casa Iguana, a wind-and-solar-powered eco-lodge (doubles from $35; ).

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I HAVE BECOME—I will admit—a sailing dweeb. Since graduating from my Fast Track to Cruising course, I moor coffee tables to couches and call out nautical commands while grocery shopping (“Cookies alee, prepare to jibe!”). I blame the Offshore Sailing School, in party-rific Tortola, British Virgin Islands. As promised, its ten-day Fast Track program transformed me from mountain-town landlubber to bluewater skipper, certified to charter a bareboat—any ship hired without a crew—up to 50 feet anywhere in the world. Let me say that again: Ten days of instruction and charter companies will hand you the keys to a yacht.

The first three days covered the basics. Our enthusiastic 26-year-old instructor went over rigging, points of sail, and elementary seamanship during lectures and outings on OSS’s custom-built 26-foot daysailers. The most important and reassuring lesson: It’s almost impossible to capsize a larger keelboat, since at least 40 percent of the weight is underwater. Next, along with two other students, I settled into a 49-foot sloop under the tutelage of David Gayton, a salty 54-year-old with a sailing rĂ©sumĂ© that spans three oceans. While hopping from one island to the next, we practiced the basics—rescues, whipping the huge hull around in tight figure-eights, docking the very expensive boat in very unforgiving concrete slips, and anchoring without damaging fragile reefs. We came to understand the workings of the electric systems and diesel engines and plotted courses that accounted for current and leeway, that inevitable sideways drift.

A thrilling feeling of mastery and humility welled up. On the second-to-last day, we dropped David back at harbor and sailed on alone. We headed downwind five miles to a schooner-turned-bar anchored off an uninhabited island, where I realized that I was hooked—that sailing was in me. I walked over to an attractive woman and introduced myself with perfect ship-to-shore radio protocol: “Sexy Lady, Sexy Lady, Sexy Lady, this is Eric.”

Get Certified

These outfits offer distinct routes to a bareboat cruising certificate, which is what most charter companies require before letting you captain a boat. They also offer training in more advanced skills, like celestial navigation and offshore passage making, that you won’t learn in your bareboat course.

OFFSHORE SAILING SCHOOL

Tortola, BVI, and nine other locations throughout the U.S. and Caribbean

The ten-day Fast Track to Cruising, in Tortola, runs $4,860 from December to July, $3,996 July–October, and $4,117 October–December; includes on-boat meals and private accommodations(on-boat and off);

CLUB NAUTIQUE

Alameda and Sausalito, California

Club Nautique recently won U.S. Sailing’s Prosser award for outstanding instruction, especially impressive considering the challenges of operating in San Francisco Bay. Its cumulative eight-day Skipper’s Course and four-day bareboat-certification course teach you how to navigate fog, busy shipping lanes, strong currents, and 25-knot winds. Both courses, $2,590, including on-boat accommodations;

ANNAPOLIS SAILING SCHOOL

Annapolis, Maryland

America’s oldest sailing school offers a progression of three five-day courses, affording apprentice skippers time to explore Chesapeake Bay. All three, $3,240 (April–October only), including accommodations;

Now, Sail the World

A bareboat should range from $400 to $700 per day, depending on model and season. Stock the galley, step aboard, and sail away. If anything important breaks, your charter company will send someone out from their local base to fix it. Even better: You don’t have to worry about cleaning when you’re done.

Though your bareboat-cruising certificate lets you charter anywhere, be realistic—just because you’ve taken driver’s ed doesn’t mean you’re ready for the Autobahn. The following spots are ordered from easy to hard.

British Virgin Islands

The most popular charter hub in the world offers steady winds and easy navigation between islands. The Moorings,

Sea of Cortez

Spring off Baja’s east coast equals barking seals, flat seas, and crimson sunsets. The Moorings,

Newport, Rhode Island

A reliable summer breeze connects the mainland to Block Island and Martha’s Vineyard. Bareboat Sailing Charters,

Grenadines

Long open-ocean passages (eight miles and more) between lonely sandboxes are an any-season favorite among ambitious sailors. TMM Yacht Charters,

Anacortes, Washington

Summer is the best time to master the fast currents and choppy seas of the San Juan Islands, at the edge of the Pacific. Anacortes Yacht Charters,

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St. Vincent/Grenadines
By Jonathan Runge

If the British Virgin Islands are the junior college of Caribbean sailing, the Grenadines are graduate school: Relatively long stretches of open water between the 30-odd islands south of St. Vincent make for some of the most challenging cruising in the West Indies. When the trade winds blow in from the northeast, sail downwind from St. Vincent to Union Island or
Grenada–basically a broad reach for the whole trip. You can leave the boat and fly home from there; there’s a drop-off fee (minimum, $700), but it’s worth it to avoid the tough upwind beat back to St. Vincent. Book your bareboat through Massachusetts-based Swift Yacht Charters ($2,200-$6,000 per week; 800-866-8340). Crewed charters cost $3,500- $16,000 per week, with boats
ranging from 40 to 110 feet.

St. Vincent
Banana and coconut plantations, bamboo forests, and volcanic ridges provide inspiring views for hikers on mountainous St. Vincent, especially those heading up 4,023-foot Soufrière Volcano. The most defined trail (about three miles) is on the eastern slope, about an hour’s drive from Kingstown, the capital. The western slope is more challenging and requires a guide; call the
tourist board in Kingstown (809-457-1502) for a list of outfitters.

Some say St. Vincent is the diving sleeper of the Caribbean, with relatively undiscovered reefs and walls on the leeward side. Among the best sites are New Guinea Reef (a wall dive where you see black and soft corals and sea horses), The Forest (look for ten-foot gorgonians) and the Seimstrand (a three-wreck dive). Go with Dive St. Vincent (two-tank dive, $90; ten-dive package,
$400; 809-457-4928) or St. Vincent Dive Experience (six-dive package, $195; ten dives, $325; 809-457-5130).

For simple digs, try the Umbrella Beach Hotel (doubles, $48; 809-458-4651), four miles north of Kingstown on small, pleasant Villa Beach, with a great French restaurant next door. Two hundred yards across the water is the deluxe Young Island Resort (doubles, $450, breakfast and dinner included; 809-458-4826), occupying its own 25-acre island. A less expensive alternative is
Petit Byahaut (doubles, $125-$145 per person, all meals included; 809-457-7008), with floored tents tucked away in a 50-acre valley on the west side of the island and accessible only by boat.

Bequia
To get a fix on this tiny island, plant yourself at the bar of the Frangipani Inn on Admiralty Bay in Port Elizabeth, the only town, and let managers Lou and Marie fill you in on the local gossip while you watch the ebb and flow of waterfront activity.

You won’t need a car–you can get just about anywhere on this seven-square-mile island on foot. The walk to Spring and Industry, about 45 minutes from Port Elizabeth, takes you up a small mountain on a rutted road and over to the windward side to a beautiful palm plantation with ruins of a sugar mill. At the end of the beach at Industry, there are cow paths that lead to the
grasslands of Bequia Head, a full-day trip.

The best beaches–golden sand, scant development–are at Lower Bay, Industry, and Hope Bay, all of them good sites for diving and boardsailing. Diving is especially good off the west coast; try West Cay Wall, a sheer, 130-footer where you’ll see black corals, eagle rays, and nurse sharks, or nearby Devil’s Table, a 40- to 90-foot slope. Dive Bequia in Admiralty Bay (two-tank
dive, $90; one-week package, $599, including lodging, unlimited dives, and transfers; call 800-327-6709) can take you there. Boardsailors prefer Friendship Bay on the southeast coast, with its steady 15- to 20-knot winds and good rental board selection at Paradise Windsurfing (board rental, $65 per day, $220 per week; 809-457-3142) at the Friendship Bay Resort.

The best places to stay are the aforementioned Frangipani (doubles, $55-$130; 809-458-3255), a 20-minute drive or short water-taxi ride (about $4) from the Lower Bay beaches, and the Plantation House (doubles, $140-$290, breakfast included; 800-223-9832), a more luxurious resort in Admiralty Bay on a small beach.

Mustique
A low-key hideaway for rock stars and royals (H.R.H. Princess Margaret has a house here), Mustique offers more R and R than action: You can walk the three-mile length of the island, swim, snorkel, or hoist a few at Basil’s Beach Bar–the only hangout on the island.The beaches are everything you’d expect–powdery white sand, aquamarine water, no people.

Stay at the Cotton House (doubles, $325-$550, breakfast and dinner included; 800-223-1108), a converted eighteenth-century stone warehouse with 24 elegant rooms and a private beach. About 45 villas and houses are available to rent through the Mustique Company ($2,500 to $15,000 per week; 800-225-4255). Budget travelers will go for the Firefly Guest House (doubles, $95,
breakfast included; 809-456-3414) in a simple villa overlooking Britannia Bay.

Canouan
This quiet, crescent-shaped island is home to deserted coves, beaches to die for, a handful of hotels–and not much else. The newest resort (it opened in January 1995) is the Tamarind Beach Hotel and Yacht Club (doubles $200-$300, all-inclusive; 800-223-1108), on Grand Bay Beach, Canouan’s prettiest. Other resorts include the deluxe Canouan Beach Hotel (doubles, $316 per person,
all-inclusive; 809-458-8888) with bungalows on a beautiful beach at South Glossy Bay, and the Villa Le Bijou (doubles, $120- $140, breakfast and dinner included; 809-458-8025), about a ten-minute walk from Grand Bay Beach. Diving amid the turtles, sharks, and corals of Friendship and Grand Bay reefs can be arranged through either hotel.

See also:

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Okay, so you’ve mastered the art of doing absolutely nothing but soaking up the rays, ordered up just one more piña colada, and achieved beached-whale nirvana. Then what? How about one of these seven full-tilt and sublime adventures (plus several more bold diversions) to inject a jolt of adrenaline into your next Caribbean idyll? Because even paradise needs an edge.

Recharge: pulling into a tube at Salsipuedes beach near Isabela, Puerto Rico

BAHAMAS
PUERTO RICO
HONDURAS
DOMINICAN REPUBLIC
GRENADINES
DOMINICA
VENEZUELA
ISLAND HOPS

Bahamas

Nothing but Blue Seas Below

Paddling to remote Exuma Cays Land and Sea Park

THERE ARE TWO imperatives for a successful trip to the Exumas, a mostly uninhabited, 120-mile-long archipelago that stretches in a narrow crescent from southeast of Nassau in the Bahamas to the Tropic of Cancer. First, while in George Town, the capital, stop in to see the Shark Lady, aka Gloria Patience, a legendary septuagenarian who earned her nickname—not to mention an audience with Queen Elizabeth II—by hunting down some 1,500 sharks around Great Exuma Island over her lifetime. Second, ignore her on the subject of sea kayaking, because she doesn’t realize she lives in the best damn place in the Caribbean for paddling.

Here in the Exumas, the sea is like Bombay Sapphire in a bottle—a perfect blue lens for a paddler’s up-close perspective, magnifying yellow coral heads, purple sea fans, and tropical fish aplenty. The 88-degree, unpolluted water offers world-class snorkeling, and there are no fewer than 365 cays to explore. “Most classic sea-kayaking trips—Baja, the Honduran Bay Islands—follow a coastline,” says sea-kayak outfitter Bardy Jones of New York–based Ibis Tours. “In Exuma, you’re tiptoeing across a string of islands. You can look to the left and look to the right and see wide-open ocean. It’s kind of intimidating, and it’s seriously remote.”

If you have at least a week and you arrive during the spring, hop a 25-minute charter flight from George Town to Exuma Cays Land and Sea Park near the northern Exuma port town of Staniel Cay, where two outfitters have been guiding weeklong, 50-mile trips in the park by sea kayak for more than a decade. Established in 1958, the 176-square-mile park is a no-take (i.e. no-fishing) zone that serves as a nursery for grouper, conch, and lobster. Miniscule cays spring up everywhere, home to the white-tailed tropicbird—a smallish bird endowed with a spectacular, three-foot-long white streamer—and the faded ruins of British loyalist plantations.

If you have less than a week, sign up as I did with Starfish, the only Exuma-based outfitter, in George Town. For two days I explored the red mangrove colonies and bonefish flats of the nearly deserted south side of Great Exuma with a taciturn Dutch guide, Valentijn Hoff, and his younger Bahamian sidekick, Philip Smith, who entertained us with his granny’s bush-medicine wisdom: The “juice” from a ghost crab kills an earache, tea from the “strongback” plant increases male virility, and sniffing crushed orange peel dispels seasickness. After a short hike around 18th-century limestone ruins on rocky Crab Cay, we camped on the sand of an unnamed barrier island, uninhabited but for a ravenous air force of mosquitoes and no-see-ums.

But the trip’s standout hour came the next morning. As we coasted back toward George Town, the hot sun splintered through the turquoise sea, casting a brilliant net that scrolled across the white-sand floor—picture an enormous David Hockney pool. Then, from just beyond my right paddle, came a sudden, loud outbreath. Three dolphins leaped among our bright plastic hulls for a moment and then vanished.

Access + Resources

Whether you arrive in Exuma during the dry season, from December to May, or the wet from June to October, which averages six to nine inches rainfall per month, it’s easy to locate an ocean-worthy kayak and all the gear you need to set out to sea.

GETTING OUTFITTED: Starfish (877-398-6222; ) runs trips around the coast and barrier islands of Great Exuma and Little Exuma for $45 (half-day) to $75 (full day) per person year-round; overnight trips, like the 12-mile route I did, cost $150 per person per day for the first two days, and $100 per night for every night after that. If you want to go it on your own, Starfish rents touring kayaks ($30 per day for singles, $40 for doubles) as well as Hobie Wave sailboats ($50 for a half-day), tents, and other camping gear. March through May, Ibis Tours (800-525-9411; ) runs eight-day trips in Exuma Cays Land and Sea Park () in the northern half of the archipelago for $1,595 per person, including charter airfare from Nassau.

GETTING THERE: American Airlines (800-433-7300) flies from New York to Nassau for about $420 round-trip, $360 from Atlanta. Charter airfare from Nassau is included in outfitters’ package prices; or, if you’re traveling on your own, ask at your hotel or the local marina for information on the many private planes that can fly you to Staniel Cay for about $250 one-way.

LODGING: George Town’s Peace & Plenty (800-525-2210; ) is the small town’s clubby social hub. Doubles start at $175.

Puerto Rico

Riders on the Perfect Storm

Tough commute: heading out to a break on Puerto Rico’s west coast

IF YOU HAPPEN to reach for your sheet one night in your cabina in RincĂłn, Puerto Rico, you’ll know the cold front has arrived. No worries: By the time the big lows that rumble out of the Arctic and fling nor’easters at the whole eastern seaboard hit Puerto Rico, they’re feeble, welcome whiffs of free AC. But before you snuggle under your sheet and drift back to sleep, listen close—feel—for the detonations, because cold fronts bring good tidings. Far out in the dark, thundering like a thousand derailing boxcars, is just what you came for, and at dawn, you’ll have your proof: Pools Beach submerged, seawater raging up into the dry streambed, and the surf…humongous.

If it’s early in your trip, congratulations—you’ve won the raffle! The swell will last three or four days at least. And now you’ve got a ton of good options. (As for your surf-swell lotto odds, they’re excellent in February, good for March, but dicey after April Fools’ Day.) There’s surf on the whole north coast of Puerto Rico, from San Juan to the Punta BorinquĂ©n corner, and more along the west coast south to RincĂłn. In fact, the northwest corner of the island is Oahu’s North Shore writ small—OK, miniature—but also minus the ego wars and the raging King Kamehameha Highway.

Start by heading to Tres Palmas, less than five minutes by car from RincĂłn, and the island’s biggest wave. A deep-water reef and a thousand-mile stare across the Puerto Rico Trench mean you see the real fist-prints of the storm from here. To the south it’s all channel, and an easy, if tense and longish, paddle out to the breakers. But unless you’re a badass—and even if you are—beware of Tres Palmas: The sneaker sets are sneakier than you are, and even on a ten-foot day (the minimum for Tres), there’ll likely be a 15-foot set with your name on it.

For a base of operations, it’s hard to top that cabina in RincĂłn, the Capital de Surf on the island’s west end, which has all the amenities of a small resort town tweaked for its surfista clientele. It’s Gringolandia, fer sure, but you can rent anything from a Ted Kaczynski cabin under a palm tree to a villa in the lush hills and be within walking distance of dozens of breaks. RincĂłn is the most bike- and pedestrian-friendly surf destination I know, and the unofficial capital of the Capital, Calypso Bar and Grill, sits within binocular range of Tres Palmas and boasts a commanding view of The Point, arguably PR’s best point break. Restless? Take a quick 300-yard hike from RincĂłn along the tawny, tide-pool-bejeweled beach up to El Faro, a lighthouse atop a grassy bluff where the whale-watchers gather. From there, it’s a quarter-mile or so up a rutted dirt road to Domes, site of a defunct nuclear apparatus and a sliver of beach whose first-rate right point has an inside-bowl section perfect for launching aerials. And don’t neglect Spanish Wall, a few steps farther north, or Sandy Beach, just around another small point and anchored by its own pub, the Tamboo Tavern.

Meanwhile, a case for day trips can easily be made. Get up early to beat the gridlock in Aguadilla and drive 30 miles north of RincĂłn to Wilderness, a series of spacious reef breaks at the foot of the old Ramey military base golf course. With its rugged coast of tall causarina pines, Wildo is lovely. Or venture farther north to the less populous dunes around Jobos, or even remoter spots such as Shacks or Middles. Middles is said to be the best all-around wave on the island, an A-frame barrel on its signature days.
Still can’t quite picture it? Allow me: It’s the third day of a weeklong swell, and you’re at the end of an afternoon session. You’ve been working your way north as the crowd thinned, moving from the overhead right and left peaks of Dogman’s, over the shallow reef at Maria’s for some tuck-in tubes, and now at twilight you’re shading toward The Point itself with just a handful of surfers still out. The sun is slipping down behind Desecheo, the silhouette of the island looking like Captain Nemo’s Nautilus. On shore, the lights of the Calypso are twinkling, music wafting out over the water. You take off on a wave that’s tall, razor-thin, backlit, and burnished by the setting sun, thinking it might be your last wave of the day. But then it lines up so sweetly, section after section, that when you kick, spray slightly chilling you with that faintest hint of winter, you think, well, maybe one more. And here comes a guy paddling out, wall-to-wall grin, who says he just arrived from Maine. “Took off in a snowstorm,” he says. “Man, am I glad to be here.”

Access + Resources

GETTING OUTFITTED: TWA (800-221-2000) flies from New York’s JFK to Aguadilla (30 minutes by car from RincĂłn) for $288; or try TWA from Fort Lauderdale to San Juan (two hours’ drive from the west end) for $285. American Airlines offers Miami–San Juan flights for $350. The major U.S. rental-car agencies have outlets at both Puerto Rico airports.

OUTFITTERS: Best to bring your own board, but there are several surf shops in RincĂłn where you can rent or buy used boards in an emergency. Also, if you stay at the RincĂłn Surf and Board, they’ll rent you one.

WHERE TO STAY: I recommend either RincĂłn Surf and Board (787-823-0610; ), with suites for $85 per night and dorm-style accommodations for $20 per person, or the Lazy Parrot Inn and Restaurant (787-823-5654). Rates at the Lazy Parrot run $85 for a single, $95 for a double, including a pool. For extended stays or more posh spreads, try Island West Properties (787-823-2323), which lists peak-season rentals (lots are oceanfront) from $553 to $3,675 weekly.

Honduras

Tropical Thrilla in Utila

Give me five: reef life in the Bay Islands

TIME WAS THAT on Tuesday nights, everyone went a bit mad on the island of Utila. It was the day when the supply ship made the 20-mile trip from mainland Honduras, bringing oil for the island generators. As a result, the lights stayed on late and the island became one big electric fiesta. The bars—including my favorite, the Bucket of Blood—set up their good sound systems and the dancing and partying (aka “liming”) ripped full tilt. The supply ship comes to the island’s only town, East Harbor, every day now, which doesn’t mean Utilans don’t still know how to throw a good lime. But even during the high season, which sees less than a couple hundred tourists at any given time, the action tends to wind down before midnight. Negril it ain’t. The reason? Everyone gets up early to dive.

The water averages a mellow 80 degrees Fahrenheit and is as clear as any in the Caribbean when the seas are calm—practically all year, from November to September. On the north shore of Utila are walls where the shallows suddenly drop from five feet to 1,500. On the southeast side, near the airport, are magnificent reefs of soft coral and sea fans. The Bay Islands host a wide variety of aquatic life—from sea horses to sea turtles, and corals such as pillar, elkhorn, lettuce, star, and brain—but they’re also a veritable graveyard of ships. The mainland port of Trujillo was once the main shipping point for the Spanish, and Utila and Roatán were the hideouts for 17th-century buccaneers like Captain Henry Morgan. There are regularly scheduled dives to such famous 20th-century wrecks as the Prince Albert off Roatán or the Jado Trader off Guanaja, and I heard it said a dozen times that for the right price to the right pocket, dives can be arranged to some of the old colonial wreck sites.

During the three weeks I spent on Utila, evenings at the Bucket of Blood, followed by early-morning dives, defined my routine. Later each morning, I’d hang out, read, and swim until I washed up like waterlogged detritus on the beach. After a cheap fresh-fish lunch it was time for a hammock nap, and then in late afternoon I’d climb the hill up to the Bucket of Blood for dominoes with Mr. Cliford Woods, the owner, who has since passed away. He’d mutter angrily whenever he saw me in the doorway, so I think he looked forward to it. Still, every afternoon after he’d given me a good whuppin’ at the table, he’d say, “So tomorrow you’ll be going home, eh?”

Islanders’ attitudes—along with a low beach-to-marshland ratio—have so far saved the island from massive tourism development. Twenty-five-square-mile Utila, the islands of Roatán and Guanaja, and some smaller uninhabited and sparsely inhabited cays comprise Honduras’s Bay Islands. (In 1998, Hurricane Mitch devastated Guanaja, doing thousands of dollars’ worth of damage, but left Utila virtually unscathed.) Most of Utila’s 5,000 inhabitants live along Main Street, a narrow road that runs along the crescent-shaped bay of the east side. It’s a bike-and-hike island when it’s not too hot to move around.
But most of all, it’s a dive island. Some of the world’s least expensive scuba certification programs operate out of the dozen or so different dive shops along Main Street.

On one of my leisurely dives just a hundred feet from the tiny airport’s runway, I fell into a trance among the delicate sea fans, letting the schools of parrot fish, indigo hamlets, rock hinds, and the occasional sea turtle circle but otherwise ignore me as they went about their business. Suddenly, a huge dark shadow came toward me and then, in a flash, passed overhead. My first panicked thought, of course, was that it was the Mother of All Great White Sharks. I swam hard and broke the surface a few yards from land. That’s when I saw that the large, looming shadow was in fact a small plane landing at the airstrip.
Afterwards, when I dropped in on Mr. Cliford, I downed a Port Royal and told him of my high adventure. He looked at me as he might a failed vaudeville act. “You know, there’s not a day go by I don’t wish you tourists would stay home,” he said with a long sigh, pausing to move a domino. “Or at least go to Roatán.”

Access + Resources

GETTING THERE: The best way to reach Utila’s waterfront airstrip is by flying on one of the major carriers into San Pedro Sula, Honduras (American Airlines, 800-433-7300, $840 from New York, $420 from Miami), and then connecting to either SOSA (011-504-425-3161) or Atlantic (011-504-425-3241) for the short $110 round-trip to Utila.

DIVING: According to Troy Bodden, owner of Utila Water Sports (011-504-425-3239), the owners of most of the dive shops on the island, such as Cross Creek (011-504-425-3134), Bay Islands College of Diving (011-504-425-3143), and EcoMarine Gunter’s (011-504-425-3350), have cooperatively priced the basic PADI beginner open-water certification—including four to five days of instruction, equipment, and two tanks—at $159 per person.

WHERE TO STAY: There are several clean, basic hotels in East Harbor for under $20 a night, with ceiling fans and occasional hot water. I stayed at the Bayview Hotel (011-504-425-3114) for $14 (ask for the first-floor room facing the bay); I also recommend Hotel Trudy Laguna del Mar ($15, 011-504-425-3103) and Utila Lodge ($75, 011-504-425-3143), which has amenities like air-conditioning and a recompression chamber.

Dominican Republic

The Bigger Island, the Better Ride

Hot Wheels: the Rocky MF trail in the El Choco National Park, Dominican Republic

CONVENTIONAL WISDOM has it that the tiniest Caribbean islands are the most precious and desirable. Think eight-square-mile St. Bart’s, or the newly chic crop of “single-resort islands.” This logic is fine if your idea of dry-land adventure starts and ends with daily barefoot beach strolls. But if you’re a mountain biker seeking enough varied terrain to explore for more than an hour or two, you probably subscribe to that all-American axiom “Bigger is better.” Hence the allure of the 19,000-square-mile Dominican Republic, which occupies the eastern two-thirds of the Caribbean’s second-largest island, Hispaniola. (Haiti lies to the west.) And it’s not just size that appeals: The range and diversity of riding here beat any you’ll find elsewhere in the Caribbean.

Flying into Puerto Plata on the north coast, you immediately see that the country has more to offer than beaches. With tropical bush–covered peaks rising steeply from the cultivated coastline, the Dominican Republic looks like a rugged, misplaced chunk of Central America. Forget the value-priced, all-inclusive resort compounds for which the DR is dubiously famous. Instead, take a 20-minute taxi ride east from the airport to Cabarete, and make it your home base for two-wheel adventure.

A tiny fishing village when wave-craving Canadian and Swiss windsurfers started showing up more than a dozen years ago, Cabarete has quickly matriculated from backpacker’s crash pad to a thriving, polyglot adrenaline-sports colony. A few Cabarete outfitters have turned their backs on the ocean to focus on the region’s river-threaded valleys, limestone caves, misting waterfalls, and twin cordilleras (10,414-foot Pico Duarte, 100 miles southwest of Cabarete, is the highest peak in the Caribbean). Upstate New York native Tricia Suriel is foremost among these inland guides. With her seven-year-old company, Iguana Mama, she’s scouted hundreds of miles of bike routes, on everything from paved roads to goat paths to highly technical singletrack across waist-deep rivers. If you bring your own bike—or rent one of Iguana Mama’s new XT-equipped Specialized RockHoppers and ride guideless—it’s still smart to sign on for a ride or two to get oriented.

One standout trail, the cryptic-sounding Rocky MF, is a remote, seven-mile experts-only ride that climbs up and then careens down jagged, rock-mined singletrack, all beneath the dense shade of mango and avocado trees in El Choco National Park, one of the country’s newest, just outside Cabarete. But most day rides from Cabarete are less technical, rambling forays into the Cordillera Septentrional. As you pedal, the ubiquitous concrete-block shops selling Coke and lottery tickets thin out. Soon you’re passing pink-and-green-painted wooden shacks and hibiscus bushes draped with wet laundry. Uniformed schoolkids rush out to try for rolling high fives; farther outside town, they just stare shyly. Trading dirt road for rutted cow path, you navigate between leafy “living fences”—piñon stakes revivified in the fertile soil. Above shoulder-deep pasture grass, egrets flash white, tending humpbacked Brahman bulls.

Slowly absorbing the way life is lived here is what can make riding in the DR so eye-opening. Curious locals seem willing to entertain the rustiest of Spanish-language overtures. Up for some real immersion? Join one of Iguana Mama’s multiday trips (they’ll design custom itineraries, or you can book ahead for one of their five-day expeditions). During an overnight to Armando Bermudez National Park, near the base of Pico Duarte, my small group enjoyed a vegetarian coconut-milk stew with the park ranger’s family, and then sneaked our sleeping bags inside park headquarters to escape a nocturnal downpour.
All this is not to say you should sacrifice the island’s more traditional Caribbean seductions for mountain biking: They are best enjoyed hand-in-hand, as exemplified by a triumphant return to the beach at Cabarete after a good hard ride. Late afternoons, you can try out everything from Hobie Cats to sea kayaks to kiteboards. Or my personal favorite, a nice long bodysurfing session and a face-in-the-sand nap.

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GETTING THERE: American Airlines (800-433-7300) flies round-trip to Puerto Plata for about $460 from New York, $360 from Miami. An $18 taxi ride gets you from the airport to Cabarete.

OUTFITTERS: Mountain-bike day trips with Iguana Mama (800-849-4720; ) run $40 to $85 per person. The five-day Dominican Alps inn-to-inn trip costs $950 per person, including guides, equipment, hotel lodging, and meals; customized biking and camping trips are also available. Bikes rent for $30 per day.

WHERE TO STAY: The newly renovated Cabarete Palm Beach Condos (809-571-0758) are spacious and homey, with great beachfront balconies. Two-bedroom condos cost $60 to $160 a night, depending on season and occupancy; studios go for $40 to $70. The 60-unit Windsurf Resort (809-571-0718) charges $74 for a one-bedroom poolside apartment.

Grenadines

The Pleasure of a Steady Nine Knots

Rum Runners: sailing near Palm Island

FOR SEASICKNESS, try beer and peanut butter. I hit on this desperation diet my second morning aboard the Boom Shak-A-Lak, a 45-foot Beneteau sloop that three friends and I had chartered for a two-week, early-winter cruise through the Grenadines. As a novice mariner, I’d had visions of a leisurely sail through bathtub-still waters, the moist tranquility of the tropics permeating my vacation-deprived soul. That nonsense was immediately debunked once we left our mooring in Bequia’s Port Elizabeth. After passing the lee of the island, we were borne by a stiff wind to port as we sliced through the steely water—nearly perpendicular to it—at a steady nine knots. Then for two nights we were pounded by unseasonal rain and high winds that left us cranky and queasy; surprisingly, a breakfast of Corona and Skippy calmed my churning stomach, and what had started out looking like a two-week ordeal instead became a promising adventure.

Known for their unblemished white-sand beaches, spectacular reefs, and northeasterly trade winds, the Grenadines, a minimally developed archipelago in the eastern Caribbean, are an ideal place to drop off the map for a while, guided by the whims of the wind and the waves. Our loose plan was to sail from north to south, stopping at Mustique, the Tobago Cays, Canouan, and Union before ending the trip in Grenada.

After the initial excitement aboard the Boom Shak-A-Lak, I expected our focus to be the islands, with the sailing merely the means of getting from one to the next. In fact, for all their splendor, the islands—celebrity-clogged Mustique, low-key Canouan, the uninhabited Tobago Cays—began to blur together in my mind, while the time spent under full sail, surfing the swells as the wind howled around us, made me feel most alive. In contrast to the relative sameness of the closely spaced landmasses, the sea was infinitely variable, hypnotizing me with its shifts of color and light.

Quickly, we settled into an unhurried routine of rising late, breakfasting on board, and then sailing from one island to the next, stopping along the way to dive the region’s many reefs. Evenings, we went ashore to dine and drink and compare notes with other sailors, most of them French or German. After ten days or so, the land had all but ceased to exist—I didn’t care if we ever docked the boat. By the time we anchored in Tyrrell Bay on Carriacou (politically part of Grenada, but geographically a continuation of Saint Vincent and the Grenadines), we were so attuned to the rhythms of the sea that we now felt queasy only when we ventured onto dry land.

A party at Carriacou’s yacht club, the best that we’d found, soon took care of that. In addition to surprisingly good food, something of a rarity in these parts, we were served the most potent rum punch of the trip, heavily laced with Iron Jack, a spirit so strong (190 proof) that its manufacture is banned in most of the Caribbean. Smuggled in from Trinidad, where it’s legal, or brewed in clandestine backyard stills, Iron Jack has a reputation for bringing even the most experienced rum-swiller to her knees. Sure enough, halfway through our dinner of roti and french fries we were barely able to remain upright, the conversation degenerating into uproarious laughter over nothing in particular. And that was after only one drink.

Back on board the next morning, we discovered that our dinghy had disappeared, and no one could quite remember who had been designated to tie it up. In fact, we couldn’t remember returning to the boat at all. As we prepared, somewhat fuzzily, to sail for Grenada, our final stop, we were a somber bunch. Fortunately, beer and peanut butter works for hangovers, too.

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GETTING THERE: There’s no easy way to get to the Grenadines. The most direct route is to fly to San Juan, Puerto Rico, where you can connect to a nonstop flight to St. Vincent on American Eagle ($330). Most of the yacht-charter operations are on St. Vincent or Grenada; Bequia is a nine-mile ferry ride from St. Vincent.

YACHT CHARTERS: We got our boat through Trade Wind Yachts (800-825-7245; ), which also handled our airline tickets and hotel reservations in San Juan. A Beneteau 445 like ours, with three cabins and three heads with showers, rents for $2,065 to $3,458 per week, depending on the season.

Dominica

Moonscapes and Mountain Chickens

Hell of a time: Dominica’s Boiling Lake Trail

DOMINICA ISN’T YOUR typical Caribbean paradise: There are few beaches to speak of, and the snorkeling’s only so-so. But if you’re the kind to go stir crazy after a couple of languorous hours surfside, you’ll agree—this place is heaven. The largest but least populated isle in the eastern Caribbean’s Windward chain, Dominica has 289 square miles of rugged, 4,000-foot mountains, active volcanoes, old-growth tropical rainforest, and more than 300 miles of hikable trails. On my last visit, hoping to spot an exotic bird (Dominica boasts 172 avian species) or a ten-inch crapaud (locals call these big, tasty frogs “mountain chickens”), I followed Glen, my dreadlocked local guide, up the Syndicate Nature Trail, a rocky ten-mile path through stands of gnarled, hundred-foot chataignier trees, to the summit of 4,747-foot Morne Diablotin, the highest point on the island. Not two hours in, a blue-green Sisserou, the largest, rarest Amazon parrot, glided across the clearing on three-foot wings to land just a few feet ahead of us.

The surreal landscape on the eight-mile, eight-hour out-and-back hike to Boiling Lake, a 200-foot cauldron of bubbling, gray-blue water that simmers at upwards of 200 degrees Fahrenheit and recalls Milton’s Paradise Lost, was equally spectacular. The trail winds through Morne Trois Piton National Park, a 17,000-acre preserve just west of Roseau, climbing the 45-degree slopes of 2,700-foot Morne Nichols before dropping into the Valley of Desolation, a half-mile-wide moonscape of sharp volcanic rocks, hissing steam vents, and hot springs, some of the cooler ones ideal for soaking.

World-class hiking in the Caribbean? Jah, mon.

Access + Resources

GETTING THERE: Dominica is a two-hour flight from San Juan, Puerto Rico ($290, American Eagle, 800-433-7300), or 30 minutes from Guadeloupe ($150, LIAT, 268-480-5601).

OUTFITTERS: You will need a guide—the island’s 300-plus inches of annual rainfall means trails are often washed out and difficult to follow. Hire one ($40 a day) through your hotel. Ken’s Hinterland şÚÁĎłÔąĎÍř Tours (767-448-4850; ) can arrange group hikes or kayaking trips.

WHERE TO STAY: Papillote Wilderness Retreat (767-448-2287;), a cozy inn five miles from Roseau, offers double rooms for $90 a night. Simple, fan-cooled doubles at the colonial-style Springfield Plantation Guest House (767-449-1401), 15 miles northwest of Roseau, also go for $90.

Venezuela

Love on Los Roques

Lean machine: caught speeding near Los Roques National Park

MY PALMS WERE beginning to burn—a sign of the blisters to come—but I couldn’t resist; I pulled hard on the boom and trimmed the sail against another gust. The entire length of the board lifted off the water and shuddered, then settled back on a few inches of fin. I barreled across the channel toward the tiny island of Esparqui, its thick tangle of mangrove trees growing larger by the second, and waited as long as I could before throwing the rig forward and turning sharply through the wind, away from the sandy shore. A huge sea turtle slid beneath me as I headed back to my launch, an empty, salt-white stretch of beach now a good mile away. Except for the masts of a few sailboats shimmering in a distant anchorage downwind, I was the only thing on the water.

Perfect wind, every conceivable sailing option, warm, clear seas, and utter isolation. In 15 years of windsurfing all over the world, I’d never seen anything like this. Just 11 degrees above the equator and 85 miles north of Caracas, Venezuela’s Los Roques National Park is a pristine archipelago of some 350 small islands, cays, and reefs scattered across 15 miles of iridescent turquoise water. First charted by Spanish explorers 470 years ago, it has remained a refuge from time and civilization, with 1,200 or so residents and few visitors save a handful of hard-core yachtsmen and bonefishing addicts, and the 200 or so windsurfers who ride its steady stream of east-northeasterly trades each year. A primitive airstrip near Gran Roques, the collection of empty sand streets and sun-bleached pastel facades that is Los Roques’ only town, is the one link to reality.

Arriving on Francisqui, an hourglass-shaped island less than a mile long, via a fisherman’s small, open peñero several hours earlier, I had trouble taking it all in. To my left was the flat water of the channel, perfect for easy cruising or speed runs to other islands; on my right lay two reef breaks—a left and a right—for shredding chest-high waves and jumping. Beyond them, rolling swells of open ocean. And every possibilityblessed with 13 to 22 knots of the kind of breeze windsurfers dream about. There was only one thing missing.

“What,” I jokingly asked my guide, Elias Pernales, “no point break?”

He gestured over my shoulder toward the tip of the island. “Ten, maybe twelve tacks upwind and around the anchorage. But it’s tricky getting through the reef, so I don’t bring too many people there.”

Pernales, a relaxed, 36-year-old Venezuelan with a body straight off the cover of a fitness rag, manages Vela Los Roques, the only windsurfing operation on the islands. Working alone out of an open, metal-roofed hut stocked with 30 new sailboards and a huge quiver of pre-rigged sails, he spends his days guiding intermediate and expert sailors—rarely more than three or four in a day even during the high season, thanks to Los Roques’ remoteness—as they weave between islands or along the serpentine barrier reefs. We spent the morning gliding between jagged cays and exploring hidden lagoons, and then retreated to the welcome shade of his “office” for a lunch of fresh tuna steaks, cold pineapple slices, and frosty Polars—the light pilsner that’s considered the national beer of Venezuela. Just as I was eyeballing the hammock, Pernales dragged out a two-man kayak. “Time for some snorkeling, eh?”

We did, among waving sea fans and yellowtailed angelfish near yet another deserted cay. By the time we paddled back to Francisqui, the tide had shifted and the swell was up, so it was out to the reef for some five-foot waves. I tacked upwind a few hundred yards and began slicing down the smooth, right-breaking faces, trying to stay focused on the sharp coral just below the surface. As the tropical sky began to grow pink, I spotted the peñero buzzing slowly across the bay to retrieve us, but I couldn’t bring myself to head in. Instead, I turned the board toward the horizon and raked the sail back for speed.

Access + Resources

GETTING THERE: American (800-433-7300) or Continental (800-231-0856) Airlines can fly you nonstop from New York or Miami to Caracas, Venezuela, and book your 50-minute connecting flight to Margarita Island ($800 total from New York, $687 from Miami). Vela Windsurf Resorts will provide air transportation from Margarita to Los Roques (see Outfitters, below).

OUTFITTERS: U.S.–based Vela Windsurf Resorts (800-223-5443; ) runs the only windsurfing operation in Los Roques and takes clients on single- or multiday excursions to the archipelago from its Margarita Island resort, 180 miles west of Los Roques. Trips leave Margarita Island daily and include round-trip airfare (it’s a 60-minute flight) on Venezuela’s Aerotuy Airlines, boat transfers, accommodations at one of several small guest houses in Gran Roques, meals, equipment, and guide service (one day/one night, $185 per person; three days/two nights, $525). The $16 national-park entry fee is not included.

Island Hops

Even more splendid ways to escape from the chaise longue

Guadeloupe: Pedal Like the Pros
Professional cyclists from around the world meet on this butterfly-shaped isle for the annual Tour de Guadeloupe, a 797-mile, ten-stage road race. The race comes to the island in August, but you can ride the circuit any time (call Dom Location, 011-590-88-84-81, for a map and bike rental, $10/day). Or ditch the bike and explore the island’s offroad attractions: black-sand beaches, jungle waterfalls, and the short hike through clouds of sulfur to the top of La Soufrière volcano.

St. Barthélemy: Buff Enough to Surf
The curl at the out-of-the-way (and, unofficially, clothing-optional) Anse de Grande Saline beach is the island’s best for bodysurfing. The half-mile-long stretch of white sand on the south shore is a 15-minute walk and worlds away from the Hollywood types at St. Danjean Beach. Call the St. Bart’s Tourist Office, 011-590-27-87-27.

Cuba: Total Immersion
Wheel through Havana with the local biking club. Hone your underused salsa moves. Debate hot political issues using your newly mastered verbs (like derrocar—to overthrow). All this and more on a two- to four-week crash course in Spanish language, Cuban culture, and island adventure. Call Cuban Outreach Tours, 415-648-2239; .

St. Lucia: Climb the Big Piton
St. Lucia’s lush, volcanic twin peaks tower over sunbathers on the beach below—but why sit around in the shadows? Though local foresters have tagged precipitous and overgrown 2,461-foot Petit Piton off-limits due to falling rock, the summit of 2,619-foot Gros Piton begs to be topped, and the 2.5-mile trek can be done in four hours. Call the St. Lucia Forestry Department, 758-450-2078, for maps and information.

Trinidad: Walk with the Animals
Hike past the Lagon Bouffe Mud Volcano and two miles up a forest path, where howler monkeys, peccaries, and orange-winged parrots await you in the Trinity Hills Wildlife Sanctuary—a private preserve owned, interestingly enough, by a local oil company. To visit, call the Incoming Tour Operators’ Association of Trinidad and Tobago, 868-633-4733.

Jamaica: Raft the (Other) Rio Grande
Play Huck Finn for a day on a guided, seven-mile run down the Class I water of the lower Rio Grande in the jungly Blue Mountains. Your craft: a 30-by-6-foot, hand-hewn bamboo raft. The highlight: chatting with rural Jamaicans—and Red Stripe vendors—along the riverbank. Call Valley Hikes, 876-993-3881.

Martinique: Absalon, Absalon!
Bushwhack through the rainforest, rappel down a 40-foot cliff, navigate a boulder field, and then slip into the 90-degree, orange (from the iron in the rocks below) waters of the Absalon Thermal Spring. Call Aventures Tropicales, 011-596-75-24-24; .

Jost Van Dyke: La Vida Coco
Watch the sun set over White Bay and grab a painkiller (Pusser’s rum, Coco Lopez, multiple juices, and the obligatory nutmeg) at the self-serve Stress-Free Bar (284-495-9358) on Jost Van Dyke, a three-square-mile dot in the British Virgin Islands. Then pick up a guitar, bongos, or an empty coffee can and jam into the night with the eclectic house band. (Bonus: There’s a campground out back.)

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If you're ready to get away from it all and willing to forgo room service, marooning yourself on an uninhabited island can have its rewards. The trick is to ensure you get de-marooned before developing an emotional attachment to a volleyball. Here, some Castaway-style options.

Buccaneer Archipelago, Australia
Exploring the thousand islands in the Buccaneer chain, just off the coast of northwest Australia's Kimberly region, means foraging for fresh oysters and mud crabs, hiking through thick rainforests and along red-rock cliffs to find Aboriginal rock art, waterfalls, and natural whirlpools, and camping on empty beaches. But it's not all fun and games. You're likely to encounter dangerous 36-foot tides, deadly taipan snakes, sharks, and saltwater crocodiles. Best to bring an experienced guide: Hire one in the seaside town of Derby, on the mainland. For details, call the Derby Tourist Bureau (011-61-08-9191-1426; ).
Tobago Cays, Grenadines
Let the Prada set squabble over condos on Mustique. The place for solitude in the Grenadines is the Tobago Cays: Petit Rameau, Barabel, Jamesby, and Petit Bateau-four tiny, undeveloped islands some 20 miles south of St. Vincent. No rock stars or resorts to cast shadows on your beach towel here; just deserted beaches for camping and picnicking, and some of the best snorkeling in the Caribbean, on shallow, untouched Horseshoe Reef, which surrounds the cays. For more information, contact Captain Yannis Catamarans on Union Island (784-458-8513; ) or the St. Vincent and the Grenadines Department of Tourism (800-729-1726; ).

Bacuit Archipelago, Palawan, Philippines
With its striking beaches and dramatic limestone cliffs, this place looks remarkably like the setting of the 1974 film The Man with the Golden Gun. Snorkel and sea kayak in the countless coves on forgotten islands such as Matinloc, Entalula, Shimizu, and Tapiutan, jewels of this 45-island archipelago just off the northeast coast of Palawan island. Hire a boat in the town of El Nido. For more information, contact the Philippines Department of Tourism (415-956-4060; ).

Los Roques National Park, Venezuela
Make Gran Roque the jumping-off point for your escape to a smaller roque of your choice. Most of the 340 islands and islets of this national park off Venezuela's northern coast are uninhabited, with about 40 large enough to set up camp. Fly from Caracas to Gran Roque (the largest island in the park), rent a boat at the Pez Raton Fishing Lodge (011-58-212-975-0906), and then sail to the sandy scrub-topped pancake of your choice, where you can fish and snorkel your days away. Camping is free, but you'll need a permit from the Inparques office on Gran Roque. For more information call the Venezuelan Embassy (202-342-2214: ).

Ko Tarutao National Marine Park, Thailand
Thailand's northern islands tend to be swarming with rave-happy Europeans, but down south you're more likely to run into the occasional Chao Le (sea gypsy), sea turtle, dolphin, or crab-eating macaque. These 51 protected, little-visited islands, scattered across 575 square miles in the Andaman Sea, are covered with granite hills and snow-white beaches. The largest, Ko Tarutao, houses the park headquarters and is reachable by boat from PakBara, about 14 miles up the coast from Satun. From Ko Tarutao, charter a longtail boat to uninhabited isles like Ko Adang Rawi and Ko Khai. For more information, call the Tourism Authority of Thailand (800-842-4526; ).

Islands for Sale

FOR SALE: Swan Island, yours for $950,000

Forget champagne wishes and caviar dreams. If you had the cash, you'd go for coconuts and cays. You're not alone: The private-island real estate market has boomed in the last ten years. And why not? For the price of a suburban starter mansion, you can own not just a piece of the rock, but the whole darn thing.

Baboon Cay, Nicaragua-$494,000
Fifteen-acre cutie, just three miles from the jungle mainland. Small cabin with well and generator overlooks powdery beaches, palm trees galore. Only four to six feet above sea level, yet SO protected from rough seas by cays and coral. Dive the reefs, fish tarpon in the flats, stalk marlin offshore. Plenty of lizards, seagulls, and pelicans, but baboon-free. Why not rename the island once it's yours? Call Peter Tsokos at Tropical Islands, 305-273-8033; .

Therese Island, Seychelles-$3.85 million
Exotic Eden! Off the west coast of Mahé, this 179-acre stunner is ringed with white-sand beaches, shaded by rustling palms, and smack in the middle of some of the world's best diving and fishing. A reef protects its very swimmable south shore. Your only neighbors are the tortoises who call this beauty home. Limited development possible; plenty of fresh water. Call Vladi Private Islands, 011-49-40-33-89890; .

Ligia Island, Greece-$800,000
Odysseus longed to return; so will you. This hilly, undeveloped, 32-acre gem floats in the fabulous boating grounds of the Ionian Sea, only nine miles from Ithaca (that Homeric hero's legendary home). Ligia is covered with intoxicatingly fragrant pines, poplars, and wildflowers. A concrete pier on the island's west coast awaits YOUR special yacht. Call Vassili at Ask Elena, 011-44-7808-403063; .

Money Cay, Florida-$2.6 million
Ca-ching! This is the one! Five and a half acres of heaven, just 25 miles from colorful Key West. Coconut palms surround a three-bedroom, 3,500-square-foot designer bungalow with gourmet kitchen, cathedral ceilings, jacuzzi, satellite TV, and, in the living room, a wet bar built over a 300-gallon saltwater aquarium. Fab views from every room! Diving, snorkeling, kayaking, fishing just minutes away from your private dock. Call Money Key Inc., 305-745-3084; .

Wavi Island, Fiji-$550,000
Do the Brando thing: This 26-acre dream sits within a coral reef just off Vanua Levu-the Savusavu airport is just minutes away. But why would you ever want to leave when you can fish, kayak, and snorkel in your own blue lagoon? The lush isle awaits your sensitive hand for development: a personal estate? Private island charter? Boutique resort? You decide. Won't last at this price! Call Pacific Islands Investments, 808-883-8000; .

Swan Island, Australia-$950,000
A nature-lover's wonder Down Under! Tucked in Port Philip Bay, about 40 miles southwest of Melbourne, this lovely 550-acre isle has it all: three fixer-upper houses, eight sparkling beaches bordered by undulating sand dunes, miles of walking trails, abundant abalone in the kelp gardens offshore-even its own fairy-penguin rookery. Private airstrip for easy access. Call Vladi Private Islands, 011-49-40-33-89890; .

One-Resort Islands

Paradise this way: trailhead on Guana Island

Namotu Island Blue Water Sports Resort, Fiji
A sandy, nine-acre strip on the outer fringes of the Mamanuca Islands, this place gets the full brunt of Pacific waves and wind-both perfect for riding. You won't see much of your bure (one of the six Fijian wood-frame huts with balconies) with the rolling Namotu lefts and powdery beaches calling your name-unless, of course, you're hearing things from drinking too much Kava by the pool. ($2,500 per person per week, including round-trip airfare from L.A.; for more on the resort, check out ; for reservations, call Waterways Travel, 800-928-3757).

Lizard Island, Australia
This 2,500-acre National Park is named for the ungainly monitor lizards that roam it, but the nouvelle cuisine, 40 Aussie-luxe guest rooms, and private airstrip are anything but Jurassic. The northernmost resort on the Great Barrier Reef also offers pristine diving at Cod Hole; snorkeling in the Blue Lagoon, where you'll see fields of coral, giant clams, and potato cod; 24 empty beaches; and infinite views from 1,178-foot Cooks Look mountain. (Doubles, US $320-$500; 011-61-7-3876-4644; ).
Guana Island, British Virgin Islands
This hilly green island hideaway of only 850 acres doesn't allow more than 30 guests at a time. Nice. You can easily hide from the 29 others on seven sugar-sand beaches, an extensive network of hiking trails, and in the Guana Island Wildlife Sanctuary, where you can spot Phoenicopterus ruber, a rare species of pink flamingo. When you're ready to socialize, don your whites and play croquet on the manicured lawns, or sail, snorkel, and windsurf from the resort's beach. (Doubles, $640-$850; 284-494-2354; ; rent the entire island for $11,500-$15,000 per day).

Soneva Fushi Resort & Spa, Maldives
The 62 rattan- and palm-wood-furnished villas and rooms are truly worthy of a sultan, and the 30 nearby dive sites are practically schooling with manta rays, guitar sharks, and batfish. The beaches and jungle of North Baa Atoll's 4,600-foot-long Kunfunadhoo Island are also worth the 24-hour flight. But be warned: You might never leave the Six Senses Spa-where you'll get kneaded to a noodle with New Agey treatments. (Doubles, $205-$365; 011-960-230-304; ).

Dolphin Island Lodge, Uaguitupo Island, San Blas Islands, Panama
Swimming and cavorting with dolphins might be the draw, but you'll stay for dream-filled nights in your Kuna Indian-woven cotton hammock and feasts of tulle massy-a Kuna concoction made with coconut milk, plantain, and fish. Guests arrive by dugout canoe to find nine rustic cottages and a sprinkling of coconut palms on this tiny island in the 200-mile-long San Blas (or Kuna Yala) archipelago off Panama's northeast coast. The Lodge is run by Kuna Indians who will take you snorkeling, fishing, and sailing to uninhabited cays and to visit traditional villages (Two-day packages start at $270 per person, including round-trip airfare from Panama City; for more on the lodge, visit ; for reservations, call Lost World şÚÁĎłÔąĎÍřs, 800-999-0558).

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