During a visit to St. Thomas, out writer Rosalind Cummings-Yeates discovers this Caribbean beauty has much more than palm trees and soft sandy beach with which to entice visitors.

Amy Laughinghouse revisits the tiny U.S. Virgin Island of St. John a year after it was devastated by back-to-back hurricanes and finds the resilient residents more determined than ever to fight on.

VIRGIN GORDA, BRITISH VIRGIN ISLANDS - We’ve reached the Bitter End on a week-long voyage aboard the luxury yacht Seadream I – the Bitter End Yacht Club, that is.

A grey sky hangs over our cruise ship when we drop anchor off this Caribbean beauty. But we refuse to let the weather dampen our spirits because we’re eager to explore this island where Christopher Columbus became the first foreign tourist back in 1493 on his second voyage to the New World.

GUSTAVIA, ST. BARTS - Merde! The French expletive jumps out of this Montrealer’s mouth when the snooty shopkeeper on Rue du Bord de Mer looks down his pointy nose and tells me in a smug Parisian accent that “we only accept euros here,” while I (and everyone else on our cruise ship) only have American dollars to spend.