Where to stay in the Caribbean: the best islands and resorts

Jamaica is the Caribbean with the volume up. Mountains crowd the coast, music spills out of every rum shack, and the island has more swagger than the rest of the region put together. Most holidaymakers stay on the north coast, where the resorts line up along white-sand beaches.

Montego Bay is the easy option, close to Sangster International Airport, with big all-inclusives and a famous old villa resort on 110 acres just west of town. Negril, out west, is laid-back and sunset-obsessed, with Seven Mile Beach for swimming and cliffs on the West End for jumping. Ocho Rios mixes waterfalls with couples-only resorts and grand old hotels on private crescents of sand, and near Oracabessa sits the hideaway once owned by Ian Fleming.

Barbados is the Caribbean's most British-feeling island, cricket-mad and driving on the left, though the rum shops and fish fries keep it firmly Bajan. The west coast, the Platinum Coast around Holetown, Paynes Bay and Speightstown, has calm, glassy water and the island's most elegant beach hotels.

The south coast, in Christ Church, is livelier and better value, with St Lawrence Gap's bars and restaurants, beaches like Dover and Maxwell, and all-inclusives right on the sand, about ten minutes from the airport. Out east, the Atlantic side is wilder, with a resort on reef-protected Crane Beach.

St Lucia is the honeymoon island, and one look at the Pitons explains why. These two green spikes of volcanic rock rise straight out of the sea above Soufrière, where hotels cling to ridges with open-walled suites and private pools facing the peaks, and one resort sits on the beach right between them.

The north-west is the sociable end, with Rodney Bay's marina, restaurants and calm swimming beach, Gros Islet's Friday night street party, and a string of all-inclusives on the bays around Castries. Many visitors split their stay between the two.

Strictly speaking the Bahamas sits in the Atlantic, but nobody looking at that water cares. Nassau is the big-ticket base, with the glossy Baha Mar resorts on Cable Beach and Atlantis on Paradise Island, water parks, casinos and all.

Hop on a small plane to the Out Islands and the mood flips completely. Harbour Island has a three-mile beach of pale pink sand, pastel cottages and golf carts instead of cars, while Grand Bahama offers relaxed resorts at kinder prices.

Punta Cana is the all-inclusive perfected. The eastern tip of the Dominican Republic is one long ribbon of soft white sand and coconut palms, and resorts run along most of it, from Bávaro and Arena Gorda to Cabeza de Toro, many with half a dozen pools, theatre shows and more restaurants than you could try in a fortnight.

Families are spoilt, with kids clubs, children's water parks and suites built for six. Couples have plenty of adults-only choices, and the gated enclave of Cap Cana, to the south, has the swishest resorts on the gorgeous Juanillo Beach. Punta Cana International Airport is within about half an hour of most resorts.

There's much more to the Dominican Republic than its eastern beaches. The north coast around Puerto Plata is greener and hillier, with golden-sand resorts backed by mountains, and prices that undercut Punta Cana. The Samaná peninsula is wilder still: jungle-covered hills, beaches like Las Terrenas, and humpback whales arriving in the bay between December and March.

Santo Domingo, the capital, is the place for history: its cobbled Colonial Zone is the oldest European-founded city in the Americas, and its long seafront boulevard is lined with big hotels and casinos. Worth a night or two before the beach.