Getting around the Caribbean Islands usually means American Eagle and its ancient fleet of ATR 72s.

For many islands, American Eagle is unavoidable. Here's the scenario: Fly direct into San Juan, PR. Wait hours in the over-crowded American Eagle waiting area. Then the flight is delayed or cancelled. (I've had flights cancelled because of hurricanes, the Montserrat volcano, and just for high winds. I've also had flights cancelled for no reason at all.) Re-book and re-wait.

If you do get stuck in San Juan, quickly reserve a room. Your cell phone works fine in the PR, so quickly call one of the large hotel chains. I've stayed at the Court Yard in Isla Verde twice. It's 5 minutes from the airport, affordable and right on a very nice beach. It's also got a casino.

Avoiding San Juan

Many of my trips are now scheduled based on how I can get to the island. The airports in St. Thomas and St. Martin feature long runways for large aircraft. That means the islands around St. Thomas and St. Martin are more easily accessible.

If you can't avoid San Juan there are some new, but expensive, alternatives:

Charter:

Wimco, the villa rental company, offers a chartered service from San Juan to St. Barts. Pricing is $3000 each way for 8 passengers (that's $375 per person).

Wimco can also help schedule charters to St Barts, Virgin Gorda, Tortola, St Thomas, Anguilla, Nevis, Turks & Caicos, St Martin, Barbados, and Mustique.

Scheduled Service:

Tradewind Aviation offers scheduled flights from San Juan to St. Barts. Pricing is $350-$495 each way.

Air Sunshine flies from San Juan to Tortola, Virgin Gorda and St. Thomas. Prices start at $110 each way.

The old Winair (aka "Windward Islands Airways") serves a variety of islands from its station in St. Martin, including: Saba, St. Eustatius, St. Barths, St. Kitts, Nevis, Anguilla, Tortola, Antigua, and Montserrat.

- Derek Crump for Caribbean Travel News