More Time for Island Dreams

You arrive in Philipsburg, the colorful port city of St. Maarten. You can spend time at Great Bay Beach before strolling along the Boardwalk, where you find restaurants, or exploring the boutiques in the city center. St. Maarten features Dutch culture in the south and French culture in the north, creating a distinctive European character in the Caribbean.

You spend the day sailing as the crew climbs the rigging, unties ropes, and sets the sails by hand. You can relax in a deck chair and watch the crew hoist the sails.

Îles des Saintes is a small archipelago that was disputed for a long time until it finally became French in 1816. In the charming main town of Terre-de-Haut, take a delightful stroll along the waterside promenade. Boutiques, cafés, bars and restaurants invite you to browse and spend some time here. The savoir vivre takes place against a backdrop lit up in all the pastel shades of the Caribbean. Fort Napoleon is set high above the bay and your climb up to it is rewarded by a spectacular panoramic view. On the other side of the island, the Plage de Pompierre invites you to enjoy a dip in the sea and sunbathe on the beach.

Two famous volcanic cones are indisputably the emblem of St. Lucia and have been designated as UNESCO World Heritage Sites. Gros and Petit Piton tower over the southern, windward side of the island and, in Soufrière, seem close enough to touch. The volcanoes have in fact long been extinct, but the sulphur springs demonstrate the power of the earth's core and still bubble up. In the Botanical Gardens, natural abundance is combined with artistic arrangements to create a colorful tropical paradise. Some people claim that Josephine, who later became Napoleon's wife, used to bathe in the little pool in the garden.

Right in the south of the Grenadines are the Tobago Cays – four small uninhabited islands, surrounded by a protective horseshoe-shaped coral reef. The Horseshoe Reef holds the Atlantic swell at bay and its unique animal and plant life make it an ideal place for snorkelling. The lagoon between the islets shimmers in all shades from turquoise through to emerald green and invites you to take a dip at the fantastic beaches.

Beautiful beaches, aromatic spice plantations, dense rainforests, waterfalls, and a volcano that has long been extinct define this stunning island. For many people, Grenada is the incarnation of a tropical paradise and St. George's the most beautiful little port in the Grenadines. All around the horseshoe-shaped bay there are numerous houses reminiscent of colonial times. There is good reason why nutmeg is immortalized on the national flag. Alongside cloves, cinnamon and ginger, it is one of the island's biggest exports.

Spend the day sunbathing, enjoy the fresh wind breeze, and relax into the day!

The second largest in the ABC Islands, which forms part of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, is an idyllic natural paradise with many different faces. In the hilly northern region, lush tropical greenery prevails, and in the south, areas have a desert-like character with cactuses as high as trees and natural salt lakes that attract whole flocks of pink flamingos. The island also gleams with rugged rocky cliffs, mangrove forests, several small bays, endless sandy beaches and a long offshore coral reef.

Curaçao, alphabetically the last of the ABC, is the largest in the Netherlands Antilles in terms of land area. The neat capital, Willemstad, a trading post for the Dutch West India Company in the 17th century, with its well preserved colonial architecture, is a UNESCO World Heritage Site. The picturesque location of the wide harbor canal, boulevards with beautifully restored facades and colorful, typically Dutch gabled houses make Willemstad a lively "Little Amsterdam". Take in the wonder of the bright Caribbean light, beneath palm trees, with azure bays and pearl-white beaches.