Best Caribbean island/country for wedding?

[Jodell88]

Just for the sake of asking... Where would someone go that wants to see local culture, and not see a tourist or souvenir shop the whole time? No luxury pools, no stupid drinks with toys stuck in the top, just regular people, doing regular things.

edit:
and not more dangerous than an average US city

I highly recommend Castara, Tobago. It's a small fishing village, with the majority of the accommodations being of the self serve variety. There a few restaurants of course.

Also, it isn't far from the Main Ridge Forest Reserve, which is the oldest legally protected forest reserve geared specifically towards a conservation purpose in the world.

If eco-tourism is your thing especially bird watching, the Asa Wright Nature Center in Trinidad may be of particular interest to you. Between both islands, 470 species of birds have been recorded.

 

[Artdeco]

One of my Doctor buddies rented a private beach in Bali, he said they were naked most of that week. The pictures were incredible, they were all neck up, LOL

https://indonesia.tripcanvas.co/bali/private-beach-hotel-villa/

https://www.wheretostay.com/caribbean-villas-for-Honeymoon

 

[GasX]

Just for the sake of asking... Where would someone go that wants to see local culture, and not see a tourist or souvenir shop the whole time? No luxury pools, no stupid drinks with toys stuck in the top, just regular people, doing regular things.

edit:
and not more dangerous than an average US city

Caye Caulker in Belize.

 

[Fingolfin269]

Just for the sake of asking... Where would someone go that wants to see local culture, and not see a tourist or souvenir shop the whole time? No luxury pools, no stupid drinks with toys stuck in the top, just regular people, doing regular things.

edit:
and not more dangerous than an average US city

Once again... St. John USVI.

 

[KMFJD]

Just for the sake of asking... Where would someone go that wants to see local culture, and not see a tourist or souvenir shop the whole time? No luxury pools, no stupid drinks with toys stuck in the top, just regular people, doing regular things.

edit:
and not more dangerous than an average US city

You'd like Newfoundland

 

[MongGrel]

Once again... St. John USVI.

St. John is a long way from being non touristy.

 

[lxskllr]

I like the looks of Tobago. Once I was in a Trinidadian grocery that was near a job I was on. Nice woman with a dilapidated cat owned it. She was more Indian than black, and was telling me about collecting conchs on the beach back home. The food in the store looked interesting. I meant to go back, and now I can't remember where it was. I've wanted to go look for it to see if it's still open.

 

[zCypher]

I attended the wedding of a good friend on the island of Anguilla.

https://goo.gl/maps/a1Grg52w8X42
https://www.google.ca/search?site=&...mg..0.11.1228.JlU1EIysv18#tbm=isch&q=Anguilla

Personally I thought it was friggin awesome, and it was a fairly cheap destination for me to get to, too. Pretty small island that is pretty friendly towards tourists, and most people speak good enough English there that you generally don't have any trouble getting around and understanding everybody. Your mileage may vary, but I got excellent service everywhere I went, the beaches were breathtaking and not overcrowded, and their whole wedding was a big success too, great fun for everyone and got lots of awesome pics.


the weather was also amazing, not overwhelmingly scorching hot or humid. highly recommend!

 

[Jodell88]

and most people speak good enough English there that you generally don't have any trouble getting around and understanding everybody.

That's because they speak English...

 

[Jodell88]

I like the looks of Tobago. Once I was in a Trinidadian grocery that was near a job I was on. Nice woman with a dilapidated cat owned it. She was more Indian than black, and was telling me about collecting conchs on the beach back home. The food in the store looked interesting. I meant to go back, and now I can't remember where it was. I've wanted to go look for it to see if it's still open.

Trinidad and Tobago is about roughly equal parts African/East Indian descent, the rest being of mixed descent in some way and a small amount of European, Chinese, Middle East(Syrian) descent.

 

[lykaon78]

Pick some place you can get to with no more than one air connection. Some of the smaller islands may take three flights.

My wife and I liked Sandals Ocho Rios, Jamaica for our honeymoon. Saw plenty of people getting married there. When they say all inclusive they mean it (including adult beverages). The only thing you pay for is off resort excursions and tipping the baggage guys and driver to and from from the airport.

Just returned from St. Lucia. Our resort was St James Club at Morgan Bay and was a good value. Not as nice as Sandals but there are Sandals in St. Lucia too. The beauty of St. Lucia made it worth it. Check out Sugar Beach. Didn't stay there but it was absolutely beautiful (http://www.viceroyhotelsandresorts.com/en/sugarbeach). I think that would be an awesome spot for a Wedding Moon.

If you are planning on kids shortly after the wedding then you might re-think the Caribbean altogether as Zika is a risk in most of that part of the world.

 

[Fingolfin269]

St. John is a long way from being non touristy.

We've got vastly different opinions on what touristy is I think. Some parts of St. John do get inundated with tourists but if you book a villa on the Coral Bay side of the island and stay primarily over there and in the national park you're not going to see a whole lot of people.

 

[SaltyNuts]

Thanks so much guys. Unless I missed it, there was not a single recommendation for the Bahamas, which is where my fiance is leaning, especially since they have the wedding thing down and the marriage is recognized in the U.S. Any reason not to go there?

 

[Midwayman]

Barbados, and St Martin are my two on the must go back to list. St Lucia is nice as well. USVI is 'fine' Just not special really. I've been to most of the islands people have heard about by now.

As for no bahamas.... I liked it well enough. New Providence is nice enough. Well developed. However in a lot of ways it feels like those coastal towns in the US where it was in its prime 40-50 years ago and showing signs of age. If you get to the other islands it will be a different experience. I think a lot of people just didn't like nassau/paradise island.

 

[vi edit]

I got married on the beach at a Sandals resort in Antigua. They handle all of the paperwork and arrangements. Easy peasy. Took a 30 minute trip down to courthouse prior to wedding to do paperwork and then it was all good. Legal in the US. Or at least it seems like it has over the last 13 years.

Would highly recommend. We've done Antigua and St Lucia. St Lucia is a prettier island.

 

[dum]

I got married on the beach in Aruba. My only suggestion would be to make things official in the US beforehand and have a separate ceremony in Aruba. That way your marriage certificate won't have to be translated from Dutch to be recognized in the US. We opted for this route because we had read that it can take some time to get the certificate translated if you're legally married in Aruba.

 

[Beer4Me]

Sandals all inclusive in St. Lucia.

Wife and I did our honeymoon there, and we were very pleased.

 

[vi edit]

There's three Sandals in St. Lucia.

Halcyon, Grande, and La Toc.

Halcyon and Grande are near each other on the north end of the island. Halcyon is very small, very quiet and has the most limited dining options.

Grande is the largest on the island, the must luxurious and has the best beach. It's also got the most restaurants. We stayed at La Toc but took the shuttle over to the Grande a few times for dinners. The beach there is very calm and it's right next to Pigeon Island which is a cool place to go hike.

La Toc is further south and a bit closer to the air port (it's still a crazy ass ride to get there). It's not a Sandals built resort. They bought out another chain and and are slowly renovating. The rooms aren't as nice, it's really spread out on a huge bluff, and there's nothing walkable from the resort. It has some decent restaurant options and the most private beach of compared to the Grande. But it's *very* rough waters.

We got married on Antigua, which at the time was a very small and quiet resort. They have done a lot of development on Antigua so there's a lot more choices there now.

 

[FerrelGeek]

Aruba is definitely a good choice. St John's is very nice as well.

bahamas and dominican are FAR from the best places in the carribean. those are just very commercialized places.

i've stayed at the atlantis. atlantis is really fucking awesome and i liked it a lot, but there are other places i'd rather go.

i've been to many places in the carribean, my favorite place is turks and caicos (providenciales) and a very close 2nd or tied is aruba. been to aruba 3 times and probably going back this year again, and t&c just once which was 2 years ago.

aruba i'd actually recommend big time if you're new to the carribean too. it's VERY safe and you can rent a car and drive anywhere on the island and feel safe. it's a bit more touristy and built up than t&c but not in a bad way. love it there.

just google 'grace bay' and you will see why turks and caicos owns.