If you have never traveled to the islands of the Caribbean you don't know what you're missing, it is truly paradise if such a place exists. The Caribbean Sea runs from South America up to the Gulf of Mexico and meets with the Atlantic Ocean on the East.

It is not surprising that it is the vacation destination of choice for North and South America with natural beauty rarely seen any where else on the planet. Some of the islands feature lush mountains lined with coconut trees and valleys filled with sugar cane and bananas but it is the beaches and the azure waters that bring people back time after time.

When you see how beautiful the Caribbean Islands are you will understand why the British, Spanish, and the French fought over them for centuries after the area was found by Columbus when he got lost trying to find a short cut to India. You will still find the influences of the former colonial dictatorships on St. Croix, Bermuda, Aruba, and other islands with a mixture of both the native cultures and the culture of the colonists who settled there.

There are well over fifty distinctive island vacation spots to choose from with some of them, like the Bahamas, having dozens of islands themselves. One thing is sure; you will never be cold in the Caribbean!

The island of New Providence in the Bahamas is sometimes called Nassau by mistake because that is where the capital of the Bahamas is located. This island, which is a short hop from the east coast of Florida, is home to the majority of Bahamians and is also an offshore financial center with millions of dollars being invested and sheltered there. There is also of course, the famous shopping on Bay Street and the little side streets nearby. Be sure to take in the flavor of the local music as well, which is as famous as the azure waters around the islands.

Another top choice in the Bahamas is Eleuthera, one of the outermost islands and also one of the least developed. If it is your goal to go to a beautiful place that is sparsely populated and a little more primitive, this would be my suggestion. Eleuthera has little night life to speak of, unless you consider the little bar, Elvira's where Lenny Kravitz is known to hang out sometimes. Lenny owns a house there, his mom is Bahamian.

Almost anyplace you stay will be walking distance to the beach and the different areas of the island are so diverse you would probably have to make several trips to be able to appreciate them all. We stayed for a month and still didn't get to see everything we wanted. You will definitely want a rental car though because the taxi service is unreliable at best and there is no public transportation. Picking up hitch hikers is an everyday occurrence and a fun way to integrate into the culture.