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FeedWhat’s Your Island?
A perfect honeymoon begins with a bit of matchmaking—your personality to the island’s.
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Every island has its own personality. Where Bermuda is elegant and British-proper, Key West is laid-back and ready to party. Providenciales in the Turks and Caicos is an heiress who enjoys the finest in life—crystalline waters, powdery white-sand beaches, gourmet restaurants and five-star resorts. Grenada is her working-class cousin, an unpolished beauty with plenty of personality. And St. Martin-St. Maarten? A schizophrenic, of course. Two-thirds French and one-third Dutch, its cosmopolitan Gaelic side emphasizes luxury, while the bustling Dutch side attracts wealthy yachters and major cruise ships in the Caribbean’s largest lagoon, Simpson Bay.
“Each island has its own flavor,” says senior travel agent Karen Fisher of the AAA South Philadelphia office. When couples go to her for advice on an island vacation, she gets to know them a little first, so she can do her matchmaking. If you choose the wrong island, you’ll probably still have a good time. After all, these are tropical islands. But if you choose the right island, your honeymoon can be all you dream of.
Do you want to lie on the beach, sightsee, snorkel? Are you a gourmand? What sort of scenery do you want? Islands in the Atlantic Ocean and Caribbean Sea have a variety of ecosystems, including rainforest and desert. Do you want a barely developed island with few other tourists or a place with an endless array of hotels, restaurants, shops and people? Are you interested in an all-inclusive trip, or do you prefer to explore the island, meet the locals and experience their culture?
No matter your preference, there’s surely a perfect match to be found among the more than 30 major islands in the Caribbean, Atlantic islands such as Bermuda and the Bahamas, and Florida’s string of keys and Gulf Coast islands like Sanibel. Time of year will dictate some of your choice.
Bermuda (www.bermudatourism.com) lies on the same latitude as North Carolina, so its high season is summer, when temperatures hover in the pleasant range of 75 to 85 degrees. Winter and early spring are typically too cold to enjoy the beaches and in-the-water activities. Bermuda has a well-deserved reputation for being an expensive destination, but the beauty of the island and excellence of the hotels and restaurants often justify the price.
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