I wrote this on Trip Advisor and they took it down because it was unflattering. So beware what you read on Trip Advisor.

I visited both St. Martin(French) and St. Maarten(Dutch) and found the Dutch side to be commercial, orderly and dull. I loved the food and interior ambience of St. Martin(French) to be wonderful, stylish and refined. The problem I had with St. Martin was that they don't seem to care about the exterior. The roads and common areas are filthy and unmaintained. There is no zoning to speak of and the open air barbeques are enough to make you gag--everything just seems so dirty. And the final insult is the sewage dumped into the beach directly from the hotels. That lush algae is a result of excessive "nutrients."

I suggest St. Lucia (expensive), St. Kitts and Saba were my favorites for personality, Little Cayman and Cayman Brac are sweet, Bimini has the most fish.

I also discourage visitors to Grand Cayman. I was attacked by 3 wild dogs, lived to tell about it and no one cared. And the taxi drivers were rude. Antigua, well, just forget it unless you like the all-inclusives. I suggest unless you go to Adm. Nelson's for lunch, don't leave your hotel.

The Abacos in the Bahamas are lovely, slow and sweet. Freeport and Grand Bahama are overrun with tourists and fast food joints.

Those are my honest opinions. Beware those who make money off the tourism industry--they hide behind screen names and want to protect their livelihoods.

Yes, hard to believe though it is, TripAdvisor has been essentially shooting their credibility in the collective foot lately.

They take down negative reviews with alarming frequency --- even when they're written by long-term members who have a lot of travel knowledge and good judgment.

They've also been allowing travel vendors to rebut criticisms and to manipulate which reviews appear and which don't.

I used to like using TripAdvisor, but if they're doing things like this, they are no longer a reliable source of information for REAL travelers.

M

That's interesting - I tend to use the aggregate scores on Tripadvisor (3.5 and up is usually an okay hotel/restaurant) although I don't usually think much of the individual reviews.

If they're getting rid of the negatives, maybe even the overall ratings aren't worth much.

Michelle

What do people think of Anguilla......... All I have heard is wonderful things...... Especially about Arawak Beach Inn.....