Dominica (Pirates of the Caribbean)

We traveled to Dominica in February, 2008. The cost was about $1,100 each person for airfare and hotel. We flew out of Baltimore, had a layover in San Juan, Puerto Rico and continued on to Dominica. Landing on a tiny island causes some minor anxiety as the plan approaches, goes over a mountain, and then drops down to land on a short runway then slams on its brakes, some may get a tad bit nervous. We arrived, went through customs in a TINY airport, grabbed our luggage and walked outside to meet the guy from our rental car company (sorry I don't remember the name), but it was more like the guy rented us his personal vehicle. Don't get me wrong, it was fairly inexpensive, but the vehicle came stock with condoms in the glove box and sunglasses on the dash. we chose the "European Version" with the steering wheel on the right side of the car. Oddly enough car (more like a Geo Tracker) was in Chinese, the warnings, stereo, and signals were all in Chinese! Anyways, the rental guy drove us to our hotel and took a cab back to his house free of charge.



We arrived at our hotel "The Tamarind Tree Hotel" and were greeted by the owner and her son. This hotel is located on the west coast of Dominica, about half an hour from the Canefield Airport and about one hour from the Melville Hall Airport. We flew into Melville Hall Airport. It is situated on a cliff that overlooks the ocean, there is a small private beach in walking distance where we never ran into anybody else. The sunsets from the hotel restaruant/pool area were absolutely breathtaking.



All of the people at the hotel were wonderful. They were all older and us being in our late 20's, were the youngest that were staying there. It was quiet and romantic, especially in the morning while eating breakfast (which is included) overlooking the ocean. The hotel was very quaint and quiet. The pool was rarely used by guests and was fairly small. But it did not matter since nobody was ever in the pool (except me). Definitely get a rental car and drive around the island. We went up north where Pirates of the Caribbean was filmed, we did the boiling lake hike (VERY VERY DIFFICULT AND STRENUOUS), we drove to Rosseau on a day that cruise ships came in and all of the vendors were out. We wondered through the crowds and even found a Subway (yummmmm). We picked up a couple of bottles of wine and some snacks at a grocery store in Rosseau and headed back to the hotel to relax. We went snorkeling at "Champagne" which was beautiful and drove up to the rain forest and did several waterfall hikes. Most hikes were fairly short and not strenuous, we even did one in the pouring rain (it was still warm out and pretty fun).



We drove down south and checked out Scotts Head. We had lunch and wondered the streets and beaches of the area, it is absolutely gorgeous.



There really aren't many great beaches in Dominica, but drive around and you can find something that meets your needs. Also, make sure you do the whale watching tour from Portsmouth and visit one of the various sulpher springs areas to check out the boiling rivers.