[boogerz]

Antigua is amazing. Try and stay as long as you can

The best way to soak up the local culture is to avoid the tourist/white people places that the cruise ship recommends and has shuttles to. If you are white skinned and don't know the culture, you'll be relatively safe in St. Thomas, Tortola, Antigua, Dominica, and Barbados(some areas) if you decide to venture on your own into town. Very easy going locals in each of these places. Without doing some wandering ou will not experience eating foods such as salt fish, roti, real chicken curry w/ atchar(?sp), or cook up rice

Dominica and Grenada don't really have any good beaches. Beautiful scenery, spices, and scuba diving though.


Try and avoid using utensils from local cook shops or food places. One fish stand in Dominica I ate at had no running water and was quite unclean(possibly the dirtiest place I ate at while on my cruise). The food was good and I drank a beer with a cop(I was underaged at the time), but it could have been disastrous without the proper immunizations and precautions.

It's also a given that you shouldn't dress very gaudy and/or wear a lot of jewelery while you are off the boat. That's just asking for unwanted attention.

Also, each Caribbean island has it's own common brew, so make sure you try the popular beer from each island. Try some 60% proof white rum too. Very potent, but it tastes great and goes down surprisingly smooth.