Caribbean Island Groups: Your Ultimate Paradise Explorer’s Guide!

The Caribbean Island Groups offer a mesmerizing blend of tropical paradise, cultural richness, and breathtaking adventures for every traveler.

Please take some time to study the map of the Caribbean Islands. I urge you to study the map once more and try to implant the location of various islands in your memory as much as possible.

At least, make an attempt to memorize the positions of some of the most important, and highly visited islands that including:

• Bahamas
• Cuba
• Jamaica
• Dominican Republic
• Dutch Caribbean (Aruba, Bonaire, Curacao)
• S. Virgin Islands
• K. Virgin Islands
• Islands that belong to France
• Grenada
• Trinidad & Tobago
• Barbados
• Bermuda
• Puerto Rico

The 7000 islands are spread over the Caribbean Sea and the Atlantic Ocean.

Do you know?

By the way, do you know only 2% of the 7000 islands are inhabited? That is equal to only 140 islands! This means that so many of the Caribbean Islands are yet to be discovered. They remain untouched thus far.

Another interesting fact is, a total of 26 countries are sharing these 7000 islands

I have several more lesser-known facts about the Caribbean Islands. I will mention them at the end of the post.

In this blog post, I will explain how the Caribbean Islands are grouped geographically, and politically.

Understanding how the 7000-odd islands, islets, atolls, and cays are grouped is essential to plan your Caribbean trip.

For example, see how closely the U.S. Virgin Islands and Puerto Rico are lying in a cluster, and look at how the U.K. Virgin Islands are scattered in the Caribbean Sea.

Here is another example.

Suppose you are a French man and would like to visit the islands that belong to France only in the Caribbean Sea, you should know the location and distance between them so that your planning is precise.

The 4 Caribbean Islands that belong to France are:

• Martin
• Beets

These two are seen north of Antigua and Barbuda

• Guadeloupe
• Martinique

These two tropical paradises are perched on either side (north, and south) of Domnica.

Let us now proceed to look at the names of various groups under which, the Caribbean Islands are put under.

Geographical Caribbean Island Groups

1. Greater Antilles

I could not find the meaning of Antilles. So, we will just take it as it is.

The Greater Antilles comprises the fowling islands.

• Cuba
• Hispaniola (The island is split into two. Haiti, and Dominican Republic)
• Jamaica
• Puerto Rico
• Cayman Islands

What is the common factor between these islands that are called part of the Greater Antilles?

These are larger than all other islands that are floating in the Caribbean Sea, and the Atlantic Ocean.

2. Lesser Antilles

You can see this to the right of the Caribbean Sea, in the title map, looking at the sizes of all other islands that lie above the South American country Venezuela, which are much smaller than the Greater Antilles group of islands.

Interestingly, the Lesser Antilles Islands are further divided into two groups, namely:

• Leeward Islands
• Windward Islands

Let me elaborate.

3. Leeward Islands

• Anguilla
• Antigua and Barbuda
• Aruba
• Bonaire
• Curaçao
• Montserrat
• Saba
• Saint Barthélemy
• Saint Kitts and Nevis
• Saint Martin
• S, Virgin Islands
• British Virgin Islands
• US Virgin Islands.

4. Windward Islands

• Barbados
• Dominica
• Grenada
• Martinique
• Saint Lucia
• Saint Vincent
• Grenadines
• Trinidad and Tobago.

The reason for these two sun groups of Lesser Antilles is the position of the islands that face incoming winds that blow across the islands from east to west.

The Leeward Islands are obviously not facing the wind direction because the wind is stopped by the mountains.

Take a closer look at the map again. The islands that lie north of the Lesser Antilles, fall under the Leeward Islands, and the Windward Islands (suggestive name) are mostly located to the south of the Lesser Antilles.

This might appear confusing to you. It is understandable. You need to study the map once more.

A bit of map reading knowledge is required to understand what I have described thus far. These 4 geographical groups are the major and important factors to understand.

Following are groups that are not too important but still, there is nothing wrong in reading further.

Caribbean Island Groups Based on Language

5. Hispanic (Spanish) Caribbean

Only 3 islands appear under this group. They are Puerto Rico, the Dominican Republic, and Cuba. These were under Spanish reign for long and the official language is Spanish in these 3 islands.

6. Anglophone Caribbean

Islands that are called the Caribbean Islands and English is the official language in them are falling under this group.

Apart from the U.S. and British Virgin Islands, Barbados, Jamaica, and the Bahamas archipelago are classified under this group.

7. French Caribbean

We have already seen 4 islands under the Lesser Antilles group. The fifth one is Haiti which falls under the Greater Antilles.

Please be aware that St. Martin, one of the French-speaking Caribbean Islands, is also divided into two, similar to Hispaniola.

One half of the St. Martin is French and the other that is called St. Maarten is ruled by the Dutch.

8. Dutch Caribbean

Three islands that were under Dutch rule are the ABC islands (Aruba, Bonaire, and Curacao)/ In addition, you should add the St. Maarten, which is one-half of St, Martin.

Independent nations:

Three Caribbean Islands that are considered independent nations include Jamaica, Dominican Republic, and Barbados.

When to travel to the West Indies?

June to November is the period you should avoid. It rains then; cyclones and hurricanes lash the West Indies during these 6 months.

So, plan your vacation to the tropical paradises on Earth accordingly. In short, December to May is the best time to go to the islands that are floating in the Caribbean Sea and the Atlantic Ocean.

I think this period applies to the Mexican offshore heavens and some of the islands near Venezuela.

A few astonishing places to see.

I thought I would goad you to visit the Caribbean by revealing some astonishing attractions, and facts.

Natural Sauna.

Well, how else do you call it? A boiling lake, maybe?

Did you notice the dense flora while walking through the rainforest? It almost looked like a cloud forest to me.

Where is this Boiling Lake?

It can be seen on the island of Dominica. These kinds of natural hot steam are also known as ‘fumaroles’.

This bizarre attraction is part of the Morne Trois Pitons National Park.

The lush forest is a World Heritage Site, declared by UNESCO.

The geographical phenomenon is located just 11 km away from Dominica’s capital city, Roseau. It is a breathtaking city in the Caribbean.

The cause of such a natural sauna is a volcano. The area around the fumaroles is known as ‘Valley of Desolation’.  The bubbling hot water wears a bluish-grey color.

I suppose it is the correct world because I don’t think the steamy earth can support any wildlife or marine life.

Pigs swarm a beach in the Bahamas:

Pig Beach is the name which is otherwise called Big Major Cay.

Neither the pigs nor the humans bother each other while swimming.

The Pig Beach itself is located on Pig Island, Bahamas. Actually, no one lives there except the pigs and some other wildlife such as wild goats, and feral cats.

Visitors to the Bahamas Islands, are keen to go to this island just to satisfy their curiosity.

Why not? We know beaches where, we see sea lions, Otters, and Dolphins, but never pigs-eh?

You can feed the pigs.

As omnivorous, they eat anything you give.

By the way, know that Pig Island is part of Exuna Cays, an archipelago comprising 350+ islands, islets, and cays (keys).

Sea Flower Cave

Don’t they look like flowers? They are known as Sea Anemones that are living invertebrates, and they are ‘predatory’! Do you want to see such marine creatures?

You get a chance when you are touring Barbados Island.  A sea cave, one of the biggest tourist attractions in Barbados is the entrance to go inside the cave to look at the sea anemones.

The Barbadians call them Animal Flowers.

The cave is situated some feet above the sea, but it gets filled up with seawater once in a way.

Natural Lazy River Safari

It’s Dominica again we venture into, The beautiful island is blessed with hundreds of rivers that carry fresh water.

Imagine a freshwater river on the island that is surrounded by two seas; the Atlantic Ocean, and the Caribbean Sea.

Inflatable tubes are offered for rent. Without a second thought, hire a tube, and go river tubing in one of the hundreds of rivers that are surrounded by terrific vegetation on both sides.

What to buy when you hit a Caribbean Island?

Rum is your first choice. The second edible souvenir is coffee.

Here are some top rum brands and coffee labels that you should buy.

• Jamaica Blue Mountain Coffee Rum
• Westerhall Vintage Rum:
• Doorly’s XO-this is my choice because it has vanilla and banana flavors.
• Rhum Barbancourt

Do you know that coffee is widely cultivated on the islands of the Caribbean?

Here are some labels that you look out for.:

• Puerto Rican Coffee
• Cuban Coffee
• Jamaica Blue Mountain Coffee
• Dominican Coffee

So, that’s the Caribbean Island groups for you in a nutshell. Americans frequent the islands with family.

I am sure the northern countries of South America such as Ecuador, Peru, Columbia, Guyana, Venezuela, and Suriname also send quite a number of tourists.