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Experienced and first-time travelers alike rely on Fodor's Gold Guides for rich, reliable coverage the world over. Updated each year and containing a full-color, foldout Rand McNally map, a Fodor's Gold Guide is an essential tool for any kind of traveler. Smart travel tips and important contact info make planning your trip a breeze and detailed coverage of sights, accommodations, and restaurants give you the info you need to make your experience enriching and hassle-free. If you only have room for one guide, this is the one for you. The best guide to the Caribbean, updated every year The islands' most irresistible beaches Diving and snorkeling, sailing, sportfishing, surfing, windsurfing, and other water sports Biking, hiking, tennis, and golf for landlubbers Island shopping--from duty-free perfume and jewelry to spice baskets, straw hats, textiles, and other arts and crafts Top sights--from colonial forts to caves and natural wonders Where to stay and eat, no matter what your budget Top hotels, inns, B&Bs, villas, resorts, and all-inclusives Great meals--from jerk pork and rum punch at roadside stands to grilled fish at seaside cafes and fine cuisine by candlelight Fresh, thorough, practical--from writers you can trust Costs, hours, descriptions, and tips by the thousands 84 pages of maps--and dozens of unique features Island-finder chart comparing destinations Important Contacts A to Z Fodor's Choice Smart Travel Tips What's Where Pleasures & Pastimes Festivals Complete index

About Our Writers Each year the Gold Guides are written and updated by more than 500 resident writers
Connections Resources for travelers
How to Use This Book Describes organization, icons, and other key information
Please Write to Us Tells you how to get in touch with our editors
The Gold Guide: Smart Travel Tips A to Z An easy-to-use section divided alphabetically by topic
Under each listing you'll find tips and information that will help you accomplish what you need to in the Caribbean
You'll also find addresses and telephone numbers of organizations and companies that offer destination-related services and detailed information and publications
Destination: Caribbean Helps get you in the mood for your trip
The Many Faces of the Islands Gives some colorful insight into the differences you'll find from island to island
New and Noteworthy Cues you in on trends and happenings
What's Where Gets you oriented
Pleasures and Pastimes Describes the activities and sights that really make the Caribbean unique
Fodor's Choice Showcases our top picks from special restaurants and one-of-a-kind accommodations to out-of-the-ordinary sights and activities...
Let them inspire you! The following chapters in Fodor's Caribbean '99 are listed alphabetically by island; each island's section covers lodging, dining, beaches, outdoor activities and sports, shopping, nightlife and the arts, and exploring, and ends with a section called A to Z, which tells you how to get there and get around and gives you important local addresses and telephone numbers
Anguilla Antigua Aruba Barbados Bonaire British Virgin Islands Cayman Islands Curaçao Dominica Dominican Republic Grenada Guadeloupe Jamaica Martinique Puerto Rico Saba St. Barthélemy St. Eustatius St. Kitts and Nevis St. Lucia St. Martin/St. Maarten St. Vincent and the Grenadines Trinidad and Tobago Turks and Caicos Islands U.S. Virgin Islands
Index List of Maps
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Pleasures and Pastimes

Cuisine
Caribbean food is a complex blend of indigenous, African, and colonial influences. The Arawaks, Caribs, and Taino contributed native tubers (also called "provisions" in the islands) such as yuca (also known as cassava) and tania (also known as taro), leafy vegetables like callaloo (similar to spinach -- though slightly bitter -- it also doubles as the name of the soup made from it throughout the Lesser Antilles), and such spices as cilantro and achiote. From Africa came plantains, yams, green pigeon peas, and assorted peppers. The Spaniards brought rice, while the British imported such plants as breadfruit from the Pacific.

Don't shy away from such classic dishes as goat water (Dominica, among others), pepper pot (Grenada, St. Lucia, and most of the Windwards), and sancocho (the Dominican Republic and Puerto Rico) -- all thick sultry stews made with various meats and vegetables. Sample johnnycakes (Caribbean muffins) with breakfast, fungi (cornmeal) at lunch, local vegetables like christophene with dinner. Then try tangy soursop ice cream or passion fruit sorbet for dessert.

The national dish of Jamaica is salt fish and ackee: salted cod and a plant that, when boiled, tastes remarkably like scrambled eggs. You can still find such exotica as crapaud, or "mountain chicken" (actually enormous frogs' legs) and agouti (a large rodent delicious when roasted or smoked) on Dominica. And you must try flying fish, the national dish of Barbados. Grenada, the spice island (it produces much of the world's supply of nutmeg and cloves), has an abundance of seafood and an incredible variety of fruits and vegetables. On St. Lucia, where countless banana plantations cover the mountainsides, you'll find many varieties of banana prepared in dozens of ways. The cuisine on Martinique and Guadeloupe is a marvelous marriage of Creole cooking and classic French dishes; you'll find much of the same on the other French islands of St. Martin and St. Barts. You'll also find a fine selection of French wines in the French West Indies. Anegada, in the British West Indies, is, arguably, where you'll find the Caribbean's best lobster. You can even find roti (a pancake stuffed with chicken or pork and rice) and curries, East Indian legacies that have gradually spread north from Trinidad.

Getting Away from It All
If you're looking to back out of the fast lane, you can park at a secluded, spartan mountain lodge on Dominica, a ruggedly beautiful island laced with rivers and waterfalls and embroidered with untamed vegetation. Puerto Rico's luxuriant 28,000-acre El Yunque is the only rain forest in the U.S. Forestry system. Or opt for the quiet grandeur of a renovated sugar plantation on Nevis or St. Kitts, where you can feast in an elegant dining room or enjoy a barbecue on the beach. Tranquil Anguilla, with soft white beaches nudged by incredibly clear water, offers posh resorts as well as small, inexpensive, locally owned lodgings. From the low-key Turks and Caicos islands, which lie in stunning blue-green waters, you can boat to more than a score of cays so isolated that even the term "low-key" would imply too fast a pace.

On tiny Saba there's little to do but tuck into a small guest house, admire the lush beauty of the island (hiking the aptly named Mt. Scenery), and chat with the friendly Sabans. Nearby St. Eustatius, where adventurers can crawl down into a jungle cradled within a crater, is another friendly, laid-back island. On St. Lucia, you can drive right into a volcano. St. Vincent and the Grenadines offer three tiny, private-island luxury resorts: Young Island, Palm Island, and Petit St. Vincent. Or you can opt for sleepy islands off islands, such as Vieques and Culebra (off Puerto Rico), or Marie Galante, Les Saintes, and La Désirade (off Guadeloupe) -- all with practically deserted pristine beaches, true local color, and charming guest houses. Guadeloupe also has a 74,000-acre nature park with dramatic waterfalls, cool pools, and miles of hiking trails. Majestic Mount Pelée, a not entirely dormant volcano, towers over Martinique's rain forest.

Golf
According to those who have played it, the course at Casa de Campo on the Dominican Republic is one of the best in the Caribbean. The course at the Four Seasons Resort on Nevis is also challenging (and breathtaking). Golfers on St. Thomas, USVI, play the Mahogany Run. There are superb courses in Puerto Rico, including four shared by the Hyatt Dorado Beach and the Hyatt Regency Cerromar Beach. Among the courses on Jamaica are the top-rated Tryall near Montego Bay, and the new Negril Hills Golf Club. Golf is second only to cricket in Barbados; the Royal Westmoreland Golf Club opened its first 18 holes for the 1996 season; another 9 holes are under way. The Cayman Islands have an 18-hole championship course, the Links at Safehaven, and Aruba has the 18-hole, Robert Trent Jones-designed Tierra del Sol.

Weddings
More and more couples are tying the knot in the sunny Caribbean. Recognizing this trend, many islands have relaxed their marriage requirements with shortened (or no) residency periods and simplified paperwork. In addition, many no longer require blood tests. To marry on most islands, you must submit the necessary paperwork before your stay.

Excerpted from Caribbean '99: The Complete Guide to Choosing and Enjoying the Perfect Island Vacation by Fodor's Travel Publications, Inc. Staff
All rights reserved by the original copyright owners. Excerpts are provided for display purposes only and may not be reproduced, reprinted or distributed without the written permission of the publisher.

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Fodor's 1999 Caribbean

Fodor's 1999 Caribbean

0679001239

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