Our family are sailors and we normally are sailing somewhere for vacation. But I have a close friend who just moved to Carriacou and we decided to do a land-based visit. We have sailed only as far south as Palm Island so we had never visited Grenada or Carriacou

Highlights of the trip:
The people in Grenada are really friendly, especially the hotel staff and restaurant staff. Service was great (better than BVIs)

Grenada is a gorgeous island, although more densely populated than we are used to. We came at the end of dry season, but as soon as the rain came the island turned green.

Carriacou is definitely throw back old Caribbean, low key and sparsely populated.

Sailing on an original Carriacou sloop to Tobago Cays, although slightly costly at about $600 US for our private group.

Speedboat over to Petit St Vincent which has a lovely bar and restaurant area, no snorkeling.

Took a little dinghy over to Anse Le Roche beach on Carriacou which was gorgeous but it rained while we were there so we couldn't snorkel.

Paradise Beach is lovely and we got a boat over to Sandy Island which was beautiful - snorkeling just OK. I read a lot of reviews of the "fantastic" snorkeling at Sandy Island but I didn't find it. Maybe the good snorkeling is on the outside of the island with heavy currents and surge.

Things that were different for us:
The snorkeling was not as good in Grenada or Carriacou as other parts of the Carribean, especially the Virgin Islands. This is a result of many storms and tidal surges in the past ten years, the coral has not regenerated well. We tried many places, including the Tobago Cays, and were disappointed

We were there during extreme off season so there just wasn't anything for my college aged daughter to do at night on Carriacou. She did find some action over on Grenada because there are lots of college kids at St Georges University who were on summer break.

There isn't one bar/restaurant/hotel on the beaches at Carriacou that have any comfortable seating. There are two local bars on Paradise Beach, Off the Hook and Hardwood, but they just have wood chairs and tables. You would need to bring comfortable beach chairs to visit the beach.

Hotels:
We stayed in a private home on Carriacou. Most of the vacation rentals do not have direct access to a beach because they are built on hills to capture breezes and views. This was a little difficult because we did not have a rental car and had to keep paying for a taxi to get to a beach.

Flamboyant on Grand Anse in Grenada. Beach is lovely but this hotel slightly disappointed. We stayed here on our arrival on our way to Carriacou (which requires a 6 seater plane flight) so we tried to save money. Clean and basic but you had to have the AC on to keep out the musty moldy smell. Breakfast food disappointing and not included in room rate.

On our return we stayed on Grenada for 3 days and I found a screaming deal for True Blue Hotel which is on the other side of the island from Grand Anse, near the airport. There was not a sandy beach but this hotel is located at the Horizon charter base. Rooms were great and the staff was outstanding. Same price as Flamboyant and far nicer. My daughter was happy as a clam there because all the college kids were at the Dodgy Dock Bar watching the World Cup and then they were all there another night for the 3 Carib for 10EC ($3.75 US) college night with DJ!! She loved it. Food above average and the free breakfast was very good.

Thanks so much for the report, on a somewhat unusual destination for us. Do you have any pictures you could share?

I'll try to post some pictures if I ever get them out of my daughter's camera and figure out how to load them

Great! Looking forward to it! If you have any questions about posting pictures, let me know. The biggest thing you have to do is find out someplace to post the pictures on the web first, and then either post a link to the pictures, or use the IMAGE tag to show individual pictures within a report.

Finally got some photos off my daughter's camera. Now working on trying to get them somewhere on the web so I can point to them.

I'm not sure where you stayed, but for any future visitors, there are guest houses / small hotels in L'Esterre (near Paradise Beach) and Hillsborough, as well as some rental cottages (with A/C) in Harvey Vale (known amongst sailors as Tyrell Bay). All three locations have long stretches of beach with very few people on them. Beach chairs and umbrellas, though? It's not really that kind of place...;-)

For your trip to the Tobago Cays, did that price include Customs and Immigration fees?

Even in off season, there is live music in Harvey Vale a couple times a week. We've been here just over a month. Various kinds of music, some of it good.

Glad to hear you like True Blue. I have family that may stay there while we are in Grenada. Hope you find the area worth another trip.