To Cruise or Not to Cruise, a backpacker’s perspective

You could have a beach day but does that count as exploring, does it really tell you or show you anything about that island? I can’t answer any of these, they are personal and there are no wrong answers, just different styles of traveller.

Personally, the bus excursions sounded like pure hell. For me exploring the islands meant walking off the ship and setting off in a direction and sticking to it as far as I could and catching local buses to get back to the port. In Curacao this took me through the tourist centre of Willemsted, then the outskirts and a beach area and then to roads lined with trash. In St Lucia, where this plan was most successful, I walked 23km down the coast along beaches, through quiet local towns and past stunning viewpoints, all the while chatting to loads of friendly locals who were very curious as to what I was doing!

It’s also worth noting that I doubt I would ever have made it to Aruba and Curacao otherwise. They are simply too far from any of the other islands and far too expensive to fly to or stay on.

So with a cruise you can explore lots of places, some of which you would never go to any other way. But the type of exploring is hardly thorough and can be very frustrating to those used to long term backpacking

Even when they don’t ask, all of the locals will assume that you are a cruiser if you are in the dock town or any major destination and will treat you as such. Considering that over 8000 tourists are offloaded onto the small islands most days by the ships it’s a perfectly fair assumption, it can just be frustrating. The other problem is that you simply don’t have time and will always have to be back on the ship by early evening. Good luck getting to know Caribbean culture solely in the heat of the day!

I don’t consider this one arguable, if this is a priority for you then a cruise is probably not a good idea.

Go to a clearly local café or bar in the main town and strike up a conversation and since most people from the ships give these places a wide berth you are very likely to have a good time. Chat to your bartender, waiter, driver or guide as a human being rather than staff and watch what happens. Get on a local bus or walk through a small local town rather than go through on a tourist bus and everyone will want to chat and exchange stories.

Maybe I’m biased because people in the Caribbean are all so openly friendly and conversational. It is clearly better to be in the same places on a day with no ship in the port as everyone is more relaxed and chattier. But I guess my point is it really isn’t hard to meet people anywhere you go in the world if you are open, nice and not acting like a typical tourist (which is to say, terribly!)

Young adults desperate to get away from their families, couples travelling together while still being sociable, groups of friends, other solo travellers, there was no shortage of people looking to socialise every night. My advice is to just hang out at the adults only bar and keep striking up conversations until you find your crowd. It took no time at all!

For me this was the joint best part of the trip. I got chatting to a lovely guy from South Africa, who introduced me to two American girls. The four of us hung out for a large part of the trip with the group ever expanding to siblings, friends, hook-ups, people from the bar and the club, our favourite bartenders and anyone who overheard our conversations and ended up joining in.

In short, it’s probably more enjoyable to go on a cruise with a friend so you have company from the get-go, but alone or in a group you will never struggle to meet amazing people if you put yourself out there.

The food on the ship was generally excellent in my opinion, without the high-class dining options, and the food ashore tended to be good once I had walked far enough away from the port and other tourists. If you are a true foodie you might enjoy this type of holiday but I would expect it to be dramatically more expensive than other types of culinary trip around the Caribbean.

I don’t need to go into this in much more detail, either it’s of interest to you or its not. But once you consider the price as the journey combined with unlimited food and alcohol then you can really start getting your money’s worth from the holiday.

The next consideration is whether you book privately or through the cruise line. Private operators will be available at all ports and can be booked online. They are likely to provide the same service, or even better, at a significantly cheaper price. However, you have more risk, both in ensuring that you are back on the boat on time (although most private operators are well aware of this and the risk is low) and if there is a change of schedule. These excursions can be cancelled due to bad weather or sea conditions or if the boat has to divert to different islands. Booking privately may mean you struggle to recover your money for the activity whereas the cruise line will instantly refund you.

I would never recommend this for anyone with scuba experience, I can’t think of a single way this would be comparable to staying on the islands for longer and better dives. Snorkelling is more debatable but even as a novice I didn’t overly enjoy the snorkelling trip I did due to the huge number of other people in the water and some bad luck with the sea conditions. The cruises do however present a wide range of new snorkelling experiences to try out.

Do you mind where you go?

There are a lot of ships with a lot of different routes but that doesn’t mean you can design your ideal trip. Cruise ships tend to switch regions in different seasons, such as between the Caribbean in winter and the Mediterranean in summer. You may want to go with a particular company that offers a good deal but then be limited by the routes on offer and so on.

If there are certain areas that you want to visit then you can certainly find ships going to them but you have to be prepared for the risk that the route might change. I gather that this is quite rare but many people on our ship were gutted and furious when our captain changed the planned stops in St Kitts and Antigua for Martinique and Guadeloupe to avoid gale force winds. This led to excursions cancelled all over the place and much bigger problems for a family planning to end their trip in Antigua!

If you are flexible and don’t care too much if plans are changed and you don’t see everywhere then it will probably not be an issue. I knew I would have the chance to see the missed places later on so the only disappointment I had was that Bonaire was not included in the itinerary. It would have been so easy from Aruba and Curacao but I couldn’t find a suitable ship doing all three.

Note on other considerations

There is a serious environmental and social consideration that I haven’t gone into here. Most cruise ships are dreadful in terms of environmental protection, the welfare of their crews and often the development of the regions they travel to. I haven’t gone into this because I am by no means an expert and there are far better sources of information. But it is definitely worth at least being aware of before you consider this as an option.

My Final Summary – well done if you read this far!

I cannot possibly weigh up the importance of each of these factors to everyone. As a long-term traveller, the answer for me is yes to most of the questions but even knowing how the trip went I can’t say for sure how I feel about it.

I think it breaks down like this: It wasn’t relaxing, I got to explore lots of places but not for long, I met very few locals and saw little local culture, I didn’t enjoy the snorkelling and I wasn’t interested in the shows. However, there was unlimited good quality food, unlimited alcohol and a wonderful group of people to share them with. I also got to see many islands around the Caribbean, some of which I would never have made it to otherwise and when the route changed I had the time after the trip to adapt and make it to the missed islands anyway. And when all was said and done I hadn’t broken my budget.

I’m glad that I decided to try out this style of travel and am very grateful to the amazing people who made the trip so much fun. But I still don’t think I will do it again. I get so much more out of my normal style of backpacking and enjoyed the rest of my time in the Caribbean significantly more when done like an actual backpacker.

Last Updated: May 2020