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Although the islands are not that far, flying between them requires patience, strength, and more patience. The only option for us to get from Dominica to St Martin was to fly on Liat Air, the worst airline we’ve ever flown on (ok – 2nd worse. Vietnam Air crashed the Airbus we were supposed to be ... (read more →)
Driving from Portsmouth to Melville Hall aiport took about 1 hour, and was a fairly easy drive, even in the rain. We only almost got lost once, but a friendly local directed us before we could even take out our map. Our car rental company let us drop off the car at the aiport without ... (read more →)
We arranged for a guide to take us up the Indian River. The Indian River is a river that empties into the ocean at the heart of Portsmouth, and rowboats and guides will take you up the river to a “Jungle Bar” where some delicious rum punch is served. Our guide was excellent (despite being ... (read more →)
We stayed on Picard Beach. This is a black sand beach, and this hotel is where a lot of the film crew from Pirates of the Caribbean slept (every cabin has a crew members name on it). The beach is beautiful – very little development, and amazing sunsets every night. The beach was long enough ... (read more →)
We drove into the Carib territory from Emerald Falls. The Caribs are a native Amerindian population in all the Caribbean. The east coast of the island is much more rugged, and this is where scenes of Pirates of the Caribbean 2 and 3 were filmed. We enjoyed our drive, and there is lots of places ... (read more →)
The next day we checked out of Roseau and went on a driving tour of the island. Our first stop was Emerald Pool, a UNESCO World Heritage Site in Morne Trois Pitons. These are the most accesible falls in Dominica. On cruise ship days, I’m sure it’s very busy, but we were lucky enough to ... (read more →)
We went on a whale watching trip with Dive Dominica. There are a couple of operators on the island, and we chose Dive Dominica because they had a better web site and we could book by email. They are located about a 10 minute drive south of Roseau. The boat was a big catamaran. The ... (read more →)
About 20 minutes south of Roseau (an easy drive), there is a park called “Champagne”. It’s actually just a small strip of land and boardwalk bordering the ocean. The attraction here is that there is geothermal activity under the ocean floor which causes bubbles to float up. The bubbles are not really visible from the ... (read more →)
When we visited Costa Rica, we enjoyed the Aerial Tram, which is a tram that slowly glides through the canopy and floor of the forest. The company that operates that tram ride also operates one in Dominica, so we decided to check it out. It was a very challenging drive to get there – probably ... (read more →)
We didn’t have much luck with restaurants in Roseau. We tried a local sports bar/restaurant that was recommended to us called Garage Bar and Grill, but the food was pretty bad, and the service was horrible. We ended up eating a couple of meals at a Chinese restaurant and bar on Independence Street at the ... (read more →)
Roseau is not the nicest city and isn’t representative of Dominica- when we were there, there was a lot of drunks and vagrants always wandering around. The city is fairly easy to navigate – it has a simple grid system. There are no sights as such in Roseau except for the farmers market, although it ... (read more →)
Driving in Dominica was very challenging – perhaps some of the most challenging driving we’ve ever seen in 50 countries. In fact, later on, our taxi driver in St. Martin said she refused to drive when she visited Dominica. Although there really isn’t very many cars on the road, and the speed limits are very ... (read more →)
Renting a car in Dominica proved to be a little difficult. The only international agency that actually answered the phone was Budget, and they explained to me that at Christmas time, they don’t really do reservations – they could do a “tentative” reservation, but it really depended on whether people returned cars. So, from our guesthouse we ... (read more →)
We stayed at the Ma Bass Gues House in Roseau, which was one of the few affordable options in the middle of town. The location was great. Arriving was a little difficult – it was 7pm and dark and there was no clear door to get in. So we banged on all the locked doors, ... (read more →)
There are no direct flights from Martinique to Dominica, and fortunately there happened to be a ferry (Express des Iles) that ran on the day we wanted. Booking tickets online for Express des Iles was very difficult – we finally ended up using a travel agent in Dominica (Whitchurch Travel). I called them up, and after many ... (read more →)
