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Screensaver Travel: Get Ready for Caribbean Island Season

It's time once again for the annual onslaught of stories about tropical travel and advertisements for Caribbean resorts that feature enticing photos of turquoise water, white sand beaches, swaying palm trees, and frolicking bikini babes. Hey, it works for us. The first major overview of the Caribbean travel scene for the 2008/2009 season comes our way from the Washington Post, and it must have been a really rough reporting assignment. Their Islands 2008 coverage provides updates on ritzy St. Barts, nature-filled St. John, the French/Dutch island of St. Martin/St. Maarten, and shopper's paradise St. Thomas, as well as a primer on why so many islands are referred to as "saints" or "virgins" when they're actually anything but. (It was Columbus's idea.) Did you know, for example, that Saline Beach on St. Bart's is popular with nude sunbathers? Or that two-thirds of St. John is a protected nature sanctuary, closed to development but open for gentle exploration? Or that the gastronomic capital of the Caribbean can be found in St. Martin (the French side of the island, naturally)? It's looking like a rough period for the travel industry, with new economic calamities unfolding every day, but as long as they keep selling sunshine to the frozen masses up north, the Caribbean will be just fine.

[Photo: Washington Post]

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· Caribbean Travel Coverage [Jaunted]