LESSER ANTILLES: WINDWARD ISLANDS

Barbados

Grenada

St. Lucia

Dominica

Martinique

St. Vincent and the Grenadines

BARBADOS

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Barbados is a rather flat island, specially in the coast line, surrounded by coral reefs.  The climate is tropical, with an average annual temperature of 26ºC (78,8 ºF).  
Bridgetown was founded in 1628 by the British and is the capital since 1966, when the country became independent. Is the main port and commercial center, and has a strong English atmosphere which is the island’s heritage. Trafalgar Square, with Lord Nelson statue, is the main attraction along with the Garrison Savannah, where international cricket is played. Anyway this crowded city is an ideal place to take bus or driving tours to visit the seaside villages, plantations, gardens, and English country churches, some dating from the 17th century as the island has an extraordinary history, much of which is still visible in the plantation houses and the story of rum.
The east coast is tranquil, the south coast has a completely different feel and is known for its nightlife, and the west-coast beach is completely built up and has a string of the Caribbean’s finest hotels and restaurants. But some of the island remains undeveloped, and travelers seeking solitude discover that they can enjoy some peace in the beautiful beaches of the island.
Other interesting places to visit are the coral reefs of the Bathsheba Beach in the northeast, and the Harrison’s Cave near Bridgestown, which are an underground world of caverns, streams and weird rock formations, full of stalactites and stalagmites.
The gardens in Barbados, hotel gardens included, are probably the best in the Caribbean, as the Andromeda Botanical Gardens, Flower Forest which was a sugar plantation, and the Barbados Wildlife Reserve.
Barbados has a wonderful cruise ship terminal, filled with duty free shops, boutiques, and craft vendors. Excellent shore excursions are available from the terminal, and several water sports like scuba diving, windsurfing, and snorkeling can be practiced. There are even sightseeing submarines that will give the non-diver an opportunity to view the sea's wonders in comfort. Also a great range of on-land activities are offered in the island such as golf horseback riding, horse racing, cricket matches, fishing and tennis.

DOMINICA

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Dominica, is a mountainous and volcanic island between Guadeloupe and Martinique. Has a tropical climate, with an average annual temperature of 27ºC (80,6 ºF).
The great amount of rain makes of Dominica a naturalist's heaven as the rugged, unspoiled landscape of mountain peaks and valleys is covered with lush rain forests with over 200 varieties of trees, exotic flora and rich bird life. Accordingly, hiking, mountain climbing and exploring are popular visitor pastimes, and inland rivers offer wonderful swimming.
The bananas and the copra extracted from the coconut palms are the principal products of the country.
Roseau is the capital and the principal commercial and communications center. Some of its attractions are the Catholic cathedral from the 18th century and the Dominica Botanic Gardens with orchid trees, bottle palms and the unique Carib Wood tree among others.
The Valley of Desolation, at the mountain Morne Trois Pitons in the center of Dominica, is a moss and lichen covered valley of volcanic origin, littered with brightly-colored hot springs, boiling mud and mini-geysers.
Dominica has impressive waterfalls. The Trafalgar Falls at the southwest coast near Roseau are an impressive example of them. Two spectacular waterfalls, Mother and Father, that fall at a single rocky swimming pool surrounded of breadfruit trees, tree ferns and orchids, which you can climb around and have their rainbow encircle you. Another beautiful waterfalls are Middleham Falls, the island's highest waterfall at 150 feet, but you'll need to take a one-hour hike through fern- and orchid-filled rainforest to get there.
Although most of the beaches are not the white sandy variety of other Caribbean destinations, scuba diving is great around the coral reefs and shipwrecks.

GRENADA

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Tall, volcanic and immensely green, Grenada is the southernmost of the Windward islands and comprises some of the Grenadines, with Carriacou, Sandy and Petite Martinique among them. They are much smaller than their sister island and have a lovely, somnolent air and beaches of extraordinary beauty like the ones belonging to Tyrel Bay and Grand Anse. It has a tropical climate, with an average annual temperature of 28 ºC (82,4 ºF).
Among the nearby countries are St Vincent and the Grenadines to the north, Barbados to the northeast and Venezuela and Trinidad And Tobago to the south.
The island has a mountainous center, with Grand Etan peak and the Grand Etan Lake in an old crater some 1,700 feet above sea level, surrounded by a rain forest. It has white sand beaches on which you will find the island’s hotels, and in the South-west an extraordinary series of serrations that make excellent finger coves which are ideal for yachts. The Concord Falls are an example of the island's many waterfalls.
St. George is Grenada’s capital. It is a coastal city with back meandering streets that was founded on 1650 as a French settlement and it was the capital of the British territory of the Windward Islands from 1885 to 1958.
Is one of the prettiest towns in the Caribbean. The Careenage sits on an amphitheatric bay, all pink and yellow-brick (interspersed with more modern) buildings with red tin roofs stacked toe on shoulder on the steep hillside and is extremely lively, particularly on the Esplanade side, where you will find the Market Square where visitors can buy agricultural products and another local goods as the famous spices, with cocoa, nutmeg and mace, allspice, cinnamon and ginger among them. Grenada calls itself the Isle of Spice.
Also during the Mardi Gras or carnival, noisy bands fill the Market Square with life. Unlike another Catholic countries, Granada celebrates its carnival at the end of the summer. Celebration starts off the second Sunday of August and they develop uninterruptedly during several days, filled with dances and calypso music.

MARTINIQUE

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Martinique is a volcanic island with a mountainous landscape. The rainy jungles predominate at the island's highlands, exposed to the northeast's humid trade winds that favor the growth of orchids and numerous tropical flowers.
Fort de France, the city with more population, is its capital and principal seaport. Known as birthplace of the empress Josephine, Napoleon I's wife, and the administrative center of the French prefecture, this noisy city is famous for its luxurious stores and distinguished restaurants of French and Creole kitchen. Another tourist attraction is the Schoelcher library, a building with mixture of Romanesque, Egyptian and Byzantine styles, made of iron and ceramic tiles that was brought from 1889 Paris Exposition and reconstructed piece by piece. This building was named after Victor Schoelcher, who led the fight for slave’s liberation in the French West Indies in the 19th century. Also Balata gardens with thousands of tropical plants of extraordinary beauty is a well known attraction, and there are two particular museums tourists can’t miss: The Banana Museum set in a working plantation, covers everything you could possibly want to know about the banana, and the St. James Distillery and Rum Museum, dedicated to this liquorish elixir.
The town of Les Anses d'Arlets, in the southwest coast, has three isolated coves that provide the perfect hiding-place to the visitors that look for lazy days spent at a bar in a secluded beach. The town is near by two of Martinica's supreme beaches, Grand Anse to the north and Pointe du Diamant to the south.
Also tourist can visit the testimonial town of St. Pierre in the north of Martinique, that was destroyed after the volcano Mont Pelee blew up in 1902. A museum of vulcanology close to the volcano's base has been founded.

ST. LUCÍA

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A volcanic and fertile island situated at the heart of the Windward chain in the Eastern Caribbean, between St Vincent and Martinique. It has a tropical climate, with an average annual temperature of 26ºC (78,8 ºF) and stands with massive green bulk, a network of forested peaks that soar and valleys that tumble to the coastlines. Mount Gimie ( 950 m ) is its highest point, but St. Lucia’s most famous landmark are the Pitons, twin pointed volcanic peaks that rise side by side mid way down the Caribbean coast. They are incredibly striking, when viewed from both sea and land and are part of the walls of a volcanic cone that blew itself apart an estimated 40,000 years ago.
Castries, founded by the Frenchmen in 1650 is the capital city and is located at the island's north-western coast. It has a modernized port were cruisers may dock.
Vieux Fort, in the island's southern extreme is an important city, with the Vigie Airport and the Morne Fortune hill that offers a beautiful view of the zone are in the proximity.
Also Soufrière city is very important since the hot sulphur springs close to it feed the adjacent mineral Bathing, known among the inhabitants of the zone and visitors from over 200 years. Traditionally, its hot waters had rejuvenating properties, and was in 1784 when the Frenchmen realized that these waters were so mineral rich as the ones of Aix-les-Bains , so Luis XVI ordered the construction of the Bathing.

ST. VINCENT AND THE GRENADINES

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The country has St. Vincent as the main island and the north group of the Grenadines. It is located between St. Lucia and Grenada, with Barbados to the east.
St. Vincent is a volcanic island divided from north to south by a mountain range covered of thick vegetation, with The Soufrière volcano (1.234 m) as its highest point. It has a tropical climate with an average annual temperature of 24ºC (75,2 ºF). There are no direct flights to the islands from outside the Caribbean and so visitors have to make a connection somewhere. One option is to fly via Puerto Rico, or choose Barbados (which is well served from both sides of the Atlantic), from where there are excellent flight connections to all the islands in the Grenadines.
Kingstown, the capital and main port is situated at the southwest coast of the island in the Kingstown Bay. There tourist can visit a museum, a Anglican cathedral and the more antique botanical gardens of Caribbean inaugurated in 1763. To the north of the city is Fort Charlotte, a fort constructed by the British in late 18th century as a defense for French invasions. Due to contamination of waters, some zones closed to the public. Some fauna, like St. Vincent's parrot are in danger of extinction, although in 1990 around the fifth part of the country was declared protected zone.
Among the Grenadines, Bequia is the largest one, lovely to visit at any time of the year, with spectacular remote beaches and beach bars and a strong local life too. Its diminutive town, Port Elizabeth, has one of the prettiest and most atmospheric waterfronts in the whole Caribbean, with a line of bars and restaurants that stretch along a shore side walkway under the palms.
Young Island is an ideal place to relax, as the main activity in the island is to wade out to the offshore bar or to retire to the two person hammocks. Mustique is sparser and drier. The guests zip around in Jeeps and 'mules' (Japanese farm vehicles). There is plenty of 'space' in Mustique, both geographically and for those who wish to be alone at the sole hotel of the island, set around an old cotton warehouse.
Canouan, about twelve miles further south, has just received electricity and is a very calm island, with no much of activities to do. Heading south from Canouan you pass Mayreau (population 180, still no mains power) and the uninhabited Tobago Cays, where the yacht masts stand thick in winter. The most southerly of the St Vincent Grenadines is the island-resort of Petit St. Vincent.