The Caribbean is an excellent choice for those travelling with children. The flights are relatively short and mostly non-stop, there are few vaccination requirements, the sea is warm and often toddler friendly, the beaches clean and safe and the atmosphere relaxed and the welcome very warm. There are excellent childcare options including supervised clubs and private nannies and a wide choice of accommodation from small beachside villas to glamorous hotels. All the islands differ in geography, culture and character so it’s worth taking time to ensure that the island you choose will match your expectations and wish list. Below we’ve listed what the main islands have to offer, along with our top accommodation suggestions. More detailed information can be found in our Caribbean where to go guide pages and in our Why go to the Caribbean pages. Tailor-made Caribbean If you'd like us to help you decide on the best Caribbean destination for you, just click here and leave your your name, address, tel, email, size of party, budget and any preferences, and we'll mail back some suggestions. Here are our top suggestions. Click on the destination name to go through to a fuller description in the guide pages.

Barbados – safe and sophisticated A great choice for a first visit to the Caribbean. Sophisticated with an excellent choice of accommodation and possibly the widest choice of self-catering properties. Medical facilities and roads are excellent. The West coast enjoys the picture postcard calm, turquoise sea and is great for sheltered bathing. The East coast has Atlantic rollers and is wilder but beautiful and less developed. The South Coast is home to many of the budget options – beautiful, but again, the sea can be rough. Our favourite recommendations are: Settlers Beach – villa hotel.

Little Good harbour

Lovely, friendly boutique hotel close to the cente of St James. Stylish self catering cottage suites with a pool and a popular beach restaurant. No special children’s facilities but the beach is right there and babysitting/nannies easily arranged. From £925 per person per week(each of 4)before Dec14th Click here to link through to all our Barbados recommendations and here for brochures featuring our top hotels/villas Direct flights

St Lucia St Lucia is one of the most beautiful Caribbean islands, with the magnificent piton mountains and lush green scenery. Great for photographers. There is plenty to see and do and it is relatively sophisticated, (although the roads can be poor). There are some excellent destinations for families here: our top recommendations being:

Windjammer Landing Villa Hotel

Offers all the advantages of a top class hotel with the freedom of a villa. There is plenty of supervised childcare and private nannies, and plenty of activities for adults and children. Great beach, good restaurants on site.

La Jalousie Hilton

La Jalousie Hilton is simply one the best places to stay in the Caribbean – it’s beautiful with a variety of room types including villas with private pools. It has a fantastic location right on a lovely beach overlooked by the pitons, has a great spa and excellent food. Best of all, it’s extremely child-friendly with a truly excellent children’s club for 4+ (although they will take younger) which offers educational trips. Private nannies available too. Click here to link through to all our St Lucia recommendations and here for brochures featuring our top hotels/villas Direct flights

Antigua One of the driest islands and a beach-lovers paradise – with one for every day of the year. If you take a trip to its sister island, the exclusive Barbuda you’ll find the famous pink sand beaches. A great island to take advantage of lower prices in the Spring since it’s unlikely to be very wet. Antigua has a very good range of self catering accommodation and some excellent hotels. Our favourites are:

St James Club

A glamorous, all inclusive hotel with a variety of accommodation and excellent facilities, activities and childcare. Newly recommended this year

Jumby Bay

A superb all-inclusive resort on a privately owned island just off Antigua’s coast. Fantastic gardens, beaches and facilities/activities including excellent kids club, babysitting, nanny service. Spacious suites and villas. Around £2000 for one week all inclusive Click here to link through to all our Antigua recommendations and here for brochures featuring our top hotels/villas Direct flights

Tobago

One of our favourites, Tobago is a truly lovely island. Home to fantastic scenery, including a rainforest, Tobago also has beautiful beaches, rare birds, charming towns and good facilities and is a VERY friendly island. If you’d like to laze on your teak lounger on your white wood balcony with the caribbean breeze in your hair and humming birds hovering all around, then this is the place to do it. The self catering options on Tobago are excellent – and very good value. Our top recommendations are Plantation Villas – beautiful villas, shared pool, minutes from the beach and Coral sea villas - an excellent budget option. There are also excellent hotels such as the Coco Reef and Blue Haven Click here to go straight through to all our Tobago recommendations and here for brochures featuring our top hotels/villas Direct flights – BA

Grenada

If you’re looking for a less developed island that also has fantastic scenery and a level of sophistication then Grenada – the spice island - would probably be your choice. Unspoilt with minimal development, it has sophistication and undeveloped charm in equal parts. It also has beautiful beaches, majestic mountains, rainforests, waterfalls, excellent restaurants, Creole food, activities, and plenty to see and do. A wide variety of accommodation from the top notch Spice Island Beach Resort (which has everything, although under 5’s are not accepted 15 Dec-31 March), and Petit Bacaye – back to nature thatched cottages with 2 bedrooms and kitchenettes, right on the beach but feels and sounds like the middle of the rainforest - real adventure for intrepid toddler travellers. Direct flights (touchdown in Tobago) Click here to go straight through to all our Grenada recommendations and here for brochures featuring our top hotels/villas

Turks and Caicos

Fabulously beautiful, some of the best snorkelling and diving in the Caribbean, unspoilt yet with some very sophisticated accommodation and good facilities of all kinds Turks and Caicos is very much the Caribbean aficianado’s best kept secret. See our location report for the full lowdown. Our favourite place to stay has to be the magnificent villa hotel Coral Gardens, which has all the flexibility of a villa with the amenities of a small, exclusive hotel. Right on the best beach on Providenciales (Grace Bay), it’s heaven. The other top, top spot in Parrot Cay – the height of luxury and sophistication with an amazing oriental-influenced spa. It’s truly magnificent, and for November/December offers – click here. New, direct flights with British Airways

Anguilla

Arguably the best beaches in the Caribbean - see our babygoes2 the beach report. Very sophisticated (and expensive) but totally unspoilt. There are some excellent luxury resorts which welcome families, our favourite is the Mallihouana. An excellent, chic villa hotel option is Cove Castles which again give the flexibility of self catering with the amenities of a hotel.

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