Staniel Cay is small (5km^2) and remote (75 miles away from Nassau), and gives a feeling of a private island. We booked a tour with Staniel Cay Adventures, which makes a one-day visit possible. There are a lot of private jets arriving here every day. Although the island has a population of less than 118 full-time residents according to the wiki, there are vacation houses where the rich people from USA flying in with their family and friends from time to time. One of the locals was talking to me at the airport while she was waiting for a US family “I work for a vacation villa here, and the family came in 6 times last year with their private jet”. Wow! You can also come here by yourself by booking the regional airlines, finding the resorts, hotels and lodges on this island, and then ordering tours to go out to the nearby islands.

Bahamas airlines — the names sound relax and local, do they? 🙂 I heard from the local that FlamingoAir is often delayed when flying back from Staniel Cay.

It’s my first time to take small airlines of 20ish people. It’s quite exciting!

The views from the airplane are gorgeous. It’s almost like we were taking a helicopter tour of the Bahamas islands—crystal clear water, harmonic green blue, white sand bars, beautiful curves of the coast …

Staniel Cay airport is very windy. With so much cross-wind, the pilot lands the aircraft on one wheel. It took about half an hour to arrive here from Nassau; however, when we went back, the high-wing plane flies much lower and slower, and it detoured towards the big island of Bahamas, so the flight almost took close to 2 hours.

Sitting in the terminal, you embrace the warm island winds in the face.

This raw island has a lot of nature and local stuffs.

The dock is 5-minutes walk away from the airport. Our guide picked us up at the airport and our boat was already waiting.

Atlantis is a luxurious resort on the paradise island in Bahamas. Their water park is ranked among the 10 top in the world according to some critiques :). It is surely my favorite water park I have visited so far. To access it, you don’t have to live in the resort, and you will just need to buy an Atlantis day pass by calling 1-800-285-2684 or visiting their website. The ticket costs about 300 dollars for an adult and $250 for a kid. It can be canceled a few days prior.

The water park is very big and has beautiful views. We stored everything in the lock and just worked around bare feet. Even during the holidays, it is not busy at all and with very good lines (1-2 minutes wait for the most of the rides). Their rides are very novel and comfy. It is fun and feels good. Here are their highlights:

Beautiful views:

Rapid river: it is a one-mile long “river”. Unlike lazy rivers in most of the water parks, the rapid river takes you to sections of rapids, caves and some tide waves. It has 9 entries/exists.

Slides: there are two big buildings for water slides, a total of 8 or 9 courses. Our favorite of course is to slide into the shark tanks in a dark tube. There are also jungle slides, challengers, the leap of faith (almost 90 degree drop) and the surge. There are two slides which will lead you into the shark tanks. When you come down from the surge slide, you will then enter the rapid river and it will carry you to the entry of the surge so you can continue.

Pools: The park has different themes. Some have waterfalls and some have Jacuzzi. In December, it is still chill when you come out of the slides, so we dipped in the hot Jacuzzi pools from time to time. Of course, another fun place is to play water falls.

It probably need a whole day to explore the entire water park. We started mid-morning and did not finish all the slides at 5pm when the park is closed. There are towels and showers in the park. So you pretty does not need to bring things but sunscreens and maybe some cash/credit card for food.

My family is quite laid back and lazy, so 100% time I am in charge of our vacation. Nowadays, we know where and when we want to go for what types of vacation , so I book them way early, when I have time or when I am bored of my routine life—-at that time, all the tickets are still available and may be cheap too.

In the first day, we will be landing, picking up the rental car, finding the hotel, unpacking, having a comfy shower, and then going out for a good meal. Starting the second day, every other day, I typically do an interesting thing/excursion booked in advance. These are the things that are either time-sensitive or very important that you can’t miss. On the rest days, we will have no plans and play by ear depending on that day. Typically it will be either relax with books, writing, late morning breakfast and board games, or find a place spontaneously for exploration. It can be a national park, old city wandering, some local shops and restaurants told by a local taxi driver or a hotel receptionist.

Caribbean islands are my favorite destination for Christmas. They are located in the tropics and beautiful exotic plants (I just love running around with my tank tops, shorts and flip flops during my vacation). They have pleasant blue/green oceans and are the excellent snorkeling sites with many cute sea creatures. Many of them become independent from the colonies of European countries but also have their own interesting local cultures and food (very tasty). Island buildings are colorful and its architectures are influenced, for example, by English, dutch, Spanish or French colonizers. Island people are very friendly; they invent many fun things to do for your vacation, and can speak English well. It’s all super fun to me, no matter it is swimming in oceans and seeing sinked boats/tropic fish, or driving ATV/UTV in deserts and hiking around sugar plant ruins. Those countries are mostly US friendly. You almost don’t need any visa, and at many places you directly use dollars. There are US custom right on the islands, so you’ll need to prepare 3 hours for boarding your plane back to US (we almost missed our plane when back from Aruba).

I have been to the Virgin islands and St Thomas. They are elegant, nice and relax, but they are not as interesting compared to other exotic Caribbean countries. Similarly, I often don’t live in 5-star hotels where the food and resorts are super luxury. Instead, I like to live in villages hosted by the locals. Somehow I feel those dirty streets, rundownish buildings and local restaurants can bring in my Childhood memories, and I deeply understand where they are coming from.

Aruba is my favorite snorkeling place so far. The cost is low. You take 20 min or half an hour boat ride, you can arrive at a boat wreck site. There are a lot of fish and turtles even when you just swim off the beach. The beaches are all friendly. There are parking lots, food, umbrella, benches and a lot of people. The Caribbean water is warm and clear, and it does not have big waves. The weather is sunny most of the time. So it is pleasant to swim around and can clearly see far and see the bottom. There are many beautiful pictures I have taken. Here are a few.

For the great barrier reefs, you will need to travel on the boat 2-3 hours one way to reach the reefs. Last time, I was there in early June, and the water is cold and very wavy. Although the corrals are big, many are bleached. I did not see many fish. In China Hainan island, the water is muddy. At Hawaii and Florida keys, you will need to take tours with the group and I did not see many fish offshore. Florida keys were really cold last Christmas, and we had to buy a dive suit. St Thomas and St John have warm and beautiful Caribbean water, I see colorful fishes. But I did not recall we found very impressive snorkeling sites.

The boat wreck site is located on the north west of the island, near the light house. We booked a sailboat trip through https://www.delphiwatersports.com/ to take us there. The boat is cool, there are endless drinks with one light sandwich lunch. DJ plays really good Spanish music for dancing. The boat takes you to two snorkeling sites, and also have rope swing and waterslides after snorkeling. In general, I had a very pleasant experience with them.

Aruba is an island on Caribbean. Local people call it “an happy island” Oct to Mar is its rainy season, still when we were there in late Dec, it is mostly sunny with occasionally some minutes of thunderstorms. Days and nights you’ll just need a tank top, a short and and a pair of flip-flops. Warm breezes bring you some fresh ocean smells. It is one of my favorite islands to have Christmas vacations and already considers going back some day. It is not as snobbish and expensive compared to the Virgin islands. It is small and cozy, and driving around island probably takes an hour; however it has almost everything fun things you can imagine for a vacation.

Aruba has its own language, but English works every where, so do US and credit cards. Many stores mark prices using Aruba currency as well as US dollars (0.57 ratio). Most of people we met are from US, and some are coming back multiple times already. People directly say “I am from Maryland”, instead of “I am from US”. There are direct flights (only a few hours) from Boston, Chicago, Atlanta, Fort Lauderdale and … US passports do not need visa and just remember to apply an ED card online, like this 🙂

You can stay at the north west, called Noord, where there are a lot of hotels and resorts like Marriott, Hyatt and Divi Village. A large and good super market called “superfood” is walking distance from this hotel area. I heard Divi village’s villa has kitchens. Big resorts have swimming pools, sometimes jacuzzi … open at night. Most of the water sports vendors can be found here. During Christmas seasons, I highly recommend that you make reservations for any activities early on their websites or on Viator/tripadvisor. I also heard that some people book the entire trip packages from travelocity this type of website and are happy about it. All the beaches in Aruba are public, the hotels do not owe beaches so non-hotel residents can go as well. Almost all the beaches we went have a lot of beach chairs, umbrellas, the sand is so fine, the water is light blue.

The second area that is good to stay is the downtown area. We lived in an apartment called DonaClara. It is a three-bed efficiency with simple kitchen attached. It is cheap, clean and very conveniently located near restaurants, shops, and some interesting, historical buildings. It is also close to the market place, where we found many lizzards and iguanas. Our host responds to us almost instantly. We rent a car the whole time we were here. You can find street parking near the apartment. I heard from some local people that during Christmas seasons, the local companies will not charge you for street parking (I am still not sure if it is true :))

The third area is the south west, where the most locals live. It is remote, quiet and full of authentic Aruba culture. One of the best restaurants on the island is located here. When we were waiting in line, a young couple from Maryland told us that it is their second time vacation here; last time they stayed in the hotel area and this time, they lived south.