Island Hopping on a Caribbean Cruise

Island hopping on a cruise…the best way to get a taste of the culture and vibe of many islands while floating on the sea in your mobile hotel. Having delicious dinners where you can try new foods with no consequence if you don’t like them. Being entertained on a nightly basis by singers, comedians, theater productions, games, gambling, ice skating, art auctions, and dance parties. There is literally something for everyone on a cruise. I would highly recommend island hopping via a cruise to anyone!

Our family took a 7 day cruise on the Royal Caribbean ship Explorer of the Seas. It was my son Austin’s senior year spring break trip with two of his best friends and their families. Our ship sailed out of San Juan, Puerto Rico. We spent two days in San Juan before beginning our 7 day adventure where we island hopped to 6 different islands, 7 if you count Puerto Rico! Our stops included St. Thomas, St. Kitts, Antigua, St. Lucia, St. Maarten, and Barbados. Island hopping to that many islands in 7 days can seem overwhelming, but with a little planning we made the most of our time on each island. It was truly an amazing trip.

*Side note on cruises: COVID testing and vaccination are no longer required for most guests. This takes A LOT of stress out of taking a cruise!

Should we take excursions while Island Hopping?

Take an excursion or see the island on your own? That is the question we asked ourselves as we scoured the extensive list of excursions from Royal Caribbean. How easy would it be to get around on our own? Would it be safe?

Ultimately we did a little of both. I will definitely say it was very easy to hop off the boat and find a cab or a shuttle to take you anywhere you wanted to go. Usually the driver was more than willing to tell you a little history of the island which was a bonus and also offer to come back and pick you up at anytime you wanted to take you back to the ship. On the other hand, we had a blast on the excursions we took as well- the guides definitely know how to entertain you and teach you about their island. Ultimately, I’m glad we mixed it up on our island hopping adventures. I felt safe on all the islands we went to- but of course always use good common sense when traveling.

St. Thomas

I love St. Thomas! We have visited St. Thomas several times, so I felt very comfortable exploring this island on our own. Magen’s bay is one of the most beautiful beaches in the world, and since several in our group had never been there, I knew that was the spot we had to visit. When we disembarked from the ship at the pier in the capital city, Charlotte Amalie, there was plenty of transportation options available. Our whole group was able to hop in an open air trolley and we were on our way within minutes. The driver took us to a scenic overlook so that we could see the beautiful Magen’s Bay from above. He even offered to come back and pick us up to take us back to Charlotte Amalie.

Magen’s Bay is truly gorgeous. Words can’t really describe it, but I will try! The water is calm, clear, brilliant blue, and warm. The bay is protected by a large hill on both sides with beautiful homes overlooking the bay. There is a bar and a restaurant, as well as restrooms available. There are lounge chairs, kayaks and stand up paddle boards for rent. It is lovely just enjoying a few tropical drinks while enjoying the warm, beautiful sea. If it is your first visit to St. Thomas, Magen’s Bay is a must do!

On the way back to Charlotte Amalie, our driver introduced us to one of his favorite songs, “Every Day of the Week” by Burning Flames. It was catchy and easy to learn, and soon we were all singing along on the way back. It was definitely one of my favorite memories of the trip! Isn’t that the joy of traveling? The little moments interacting with local people and really experiencing their culture is just so beautiful!

Upon returning to the bustling port city of Charlotte Amalie, we did a little shopping. If you love to shop, Charlotte Amalie is home to many upscale shops. Did I mention shopping is duty free? Charlotte Amalie is very walkable, and there are lots of historic landmarks to see such as the 99 steps, the Lutheran church, the Legislature building, and Blackbeard’s castle. We stopped at Greengos Caribbean Cantina, a little Mexican restaurant for some refreshment before returning to the ship. Margaritas and flautas hit the spot! The bar area in the restaurant was made of stone and was so cool looking!

St. Kitts

Prepare yourself for disembarkation from the ship at St. Kitts. The locals here are definitely the most aggressive at trying to get your business and it’s a little overwhelming. You WILL probably get a monkey (or three) put on you or your kids, at which time you CAN’T resist taking a picture, after which the local will then tell you it’s $10 for the picture you just took. My advice is to just speed walk a little ways inland to the little port, where you will find friendly, less aggressive locals that are more than happy to take you where you want to go.

The younger kids and I decided to go zip lining with Sky Safari. We did the full tour, which was 5 zip lines. Adults over 14 years were $99, kids 13 and younger are $75. The tour took approximately 2 hours. The equipment was clean and very safe. The guides were super friendly and informative. They not only told us what to do to zip line safely, but they also taught us about the plants and animals we were seeing as we were walking between zip lines. For example, did you know that St. Kitts is home to thousands of monkeys?

While we were zip lining, the rest of our group toured Wingfield Estate: a historic sugar estate and rum distillery that was located right next to the zip lines. Wingfield Estate is a self guided tour, with signage that tells you about the area. There is also rum tasting.

Once our group got back together, we headed to nearby Romney Manor. Romney Manor is a plantation house that now is home to Caribelle Batik, a business that makes beautiful printed cloth. The Batik cloth is made and sold on the property. Romney Manor was originally owned by Sam Jefferson, the great, great, great grandfather of Thomas Jefferson, our 3rd president. Sam sold the house to the Earl of Romney, and the name Romney Manor has stuck for over 300 years. We enjoyed exploring the beautiful gardens, and quenching our thirst with a drink we’ve never tried before- Pink Ting. Pink Ting is a non-alcoholic grapefruit flavored beverage made in Jamaica that everyone agreed was delicious!

Antigua

Antigua is known for its beautiful beaches. There are hundreds of options! Our driver told us that you could visit a different beach every day for a year in Antigua. How to pick just one to visit for the day? We asked our driver for advice and he recommended Valley Church Beach. This idyllic beach has powder soft sand, a restaurant and bar, clean restrooms, and is not very crowded. Take a walk along the beautiful water and have lunch at The Nest. Jerk Chicken is a specialty, and the coconut shrimp was very good too! Use caution when renting jet skis on this beach. After 15 minutes of riding, the renters waved my husband and kids in saying that they were being reckless and did not give any type of refund for cutting their time short!

St. Lucia

Voted favorite island by our group! I can’t wait to go back to St. Lucia and stay longer to explore all it has to offer. St. Lucia has volcanoes, rainforests, sulfur springs, and mud baths. The Pitons is probably the most famous sight in St. Lucia, however it is quite a distance from the cruise port so it wasn’t a good option for us. More reason to go back!

We took an excursion on this island, called the Open Fun Bus-Scenes and Beach time, which was around $54 per person. We rode in a colorful bus with big open windows for sight seeing to two different beaches. Some drinks were provided, including rum punch on the way back. Our guide on this tour had so much energy. She shared her love for St. Lucia with us and it was contagious! As our bus drove through the island of St. Lucia, I couldn’t help but notice how happy people were on this island. Many stopped to wave at us in our open air bus as they went about their daily lives. It really left an impression on us.

Briefly stopping at Gros Islet so our guide could share some information about her island, most of our time was spent at the Pigeon Island Causeway beach. This little beach sits adjacent to the Pigeon island national park. Admission wasn’t included in our package, but you could easily visit the park. The beach isn’t as beautiful as Magen’s Bay or Valley Church, but it had a great local vibe. The best part of this beach was this colorful little boat playing reggae music that drove up and sold fresh rum drinks in coconut shells. Note that it costs $1 to use the public restrooms on this beach.

Barbados

On the beautiful island of Barbados, we chose the Carlisle Bay Beach Break excursion. This included a scenic drive through Bridgetown to Harbor Lights, a little resort on Carlisle beach. This resort has a bar and grill where you can get lunch. There are a couple of other restaurants and a gift shop nearby. When we arrived, we were given a complimentary cocktail, and shown to a reserved beach chair and umbrella on the beautiful beach. There is also a stand where you can purchase tickets for a Turtle and shipwreck snorkel for about $30 each. We hadn’t snorkeled yet, and I think the kids were a little bored just sitting on the beach, so we took this little trip. The boat took us to two different sites, one that we could swim with sea turtles, and one that was around a shipwreck. We saw a lot of sea turtles and colorful fish, so I thought this was worth it. If you do have your own snorkel equipment with you, however, you could probably swim out yourself and see the sea turtles. The boat we were on didn’t go that far off the beach.

St. Maarten

Last, but certainly not least, was St. Maarten. St. Maarten is the smallest landmass that is a part of two different nations- France and the Netherlands! The ship port is on the Dutch side of the island. St. Maarten was hit pretty hard by hurricane Irma in 2017. We could still see evidence of this as there was a lot of construction going on as we drove through the island. It is obvious that they plan to build back better! This is definitely an island on my short list to go back and visit for a week.

On St. Maarten, we decided to visit the famous Maho Beach, also known as airplane beach. This is definitely a must see if you visit St. Maarten. It’s really unbelievable. The airport is directly across the street from the beach, so as the planes come into land they fly very low (about 100 feet off the ground), right over your head. Does the sand get whipped up and personal belongings get blown around? You bet. But, it’s a pretty amazing sight to see. Nearby is the Sunset Bar and Grill where you can sit and have a tropical drink while you watch the planes fly in.

This island hopping cruise trip was certainly epic. It was a great way to celebrate our favorite graduating seniors! If I had to do it again, I would have done one or two less beach days and picked a different type of excursion. Maybe a catamaran trip or snorkel trip just to mix it up a bit. Otherwise, it was fabulous! I would highly recommend cruises as a great way to travel!

*Note: Our exact itinerary doesn’t appear to be available on Royal Caribbean currently. Search Caribbean cruises on Cruise Critic to find similar itineraries.

*Note: This post contains affiliate links. When you make a purchase using one of these affiliate links, I get paid a small commission at no extra cost to you.

If you are looking for other spring break ideas, read 8 Awesome Things to do on Anna Maria Island!