About Us

Welcome to our Caribbean travel guide on the ParadiseIslands website. Our West Indies travel guide covers many of the Leeward and Windward isles including the British and US Virgin Isle chains, the popular vacation destinations of Antigua, Barbados and Saint Lucia as well as some of the lesser known holiday  destinations such as Tobago, Grenada and Saint Vincent and the Grenadines. We hope you enjoy browsing the thousands of tropical photographs, maps and useful information about the many and varied destinations.

The Leeward and Windward isles are situated in the Caribbean Sea in a line of fragmented land masses called the Lesser Antilles. Many of the Caribbean islands are volcanic and a few are flat coral structures (notably Barbados and the "ABC" isles of the Leeward Antilles). The most active volcano in recent times is the Soufriere Hills Montserrat Volcano. Also active is the Sulphur Springs in St Lucia which is also the only "drive in" volcano in the world. Dormant or extinct volcanoes include the famous twin peaks of The Pitons.

The whole Caribbean Sea / West Indies region encompasses some 5,000 plus land masses, reefs and cays. The section above of the guide focuses on the Greater and Lesser Antilles region of the West Indies from the Cuba in the north west to Trinidad in the south.

Surprisingly much of the West Indies are covered in lush tropical rainforests. Large areas of rain forest can be found in Saint Lucia, Dominica and the El Yunque National Forest in the Sierra de Luquillo mountains on Puerto Rico.

The region's name "Caribbean" is derived from the Carib Indians who were present in large numbers in the region during the first European contact in the 15th Century. "Antilles" is derived from the Spanish term Antillas and indeed the Spanish were the first Europeans to dominate the region.

The Windward isles are so named due to being on the windier and wetter side of the Lesser Antilles and consist of Martinique, Saint Lucia, Barbados, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Grenada Trinidad and Tobago.

Together the Leeward's and Windward's make up the group of Caribbean islands known as the Lesser Antilles archipelago.

The Greater Antilles archipelago includes Puerto Rico, the Dominican Republic and Haiti (which jointly share the isle of "Hispaniola"), Jamaica, Cuba and the three Cayman Isles.

The Leeward Antilles are located in the far south of the region just above Venezuela. They are divided into two groups; the Dutch "ABC" group of Aruba, Bonaire and Curacao (they also used to be known as the Netherland Antilles until 2010); and the Venezuelan group of Las Aves, Los Roques, Orchila, Tortuga and Magarita.

The region enjoys high temperatures all year and attracts large numbers of people seeking a holiday or vacation on an idyllic tropical paradise. Package holidays are popular in the winter and some of the more well known areas are the West Coast of Barbados, Punta Cana (Dominican Republic), Jolly Beach (Antigua) and Rodney Bay (St Lucia).