Being the celebrity couple that we are, we have traveled to many exotic locales. Thanks to a combination of flight benefits and hotel points, we were also able to go to some of the more exclusive destinations without being billionaires. Because Nicole had some free nights coming, it only made sense to pick one of the more expensive options — that being Anguilla in the Caribbean.
Other expensive choices would have been Bora Bora or the Maldives, but we have already checked those boxes because we are spoiled. In contrast, Anguilla seemed like it would be easy — a two-leg journey from Los Angeles to an island nation that is basically neighbors with the United States. There were two revelations that came about from this experience. One, is that “easy” journeys appeal to a different type of traveler that may not always be desirable. And two, for people living on the west coast, getting to the Caribbean is in actuality not easy at all.
To address the first point, the Caribbean is rich with abundant tropical options for all tastes and budgets. You have Cuba for the adventurous and curious, St Barths and Anguilla for people looking for exclusivity, and places like Aruba, Jamaica, or the Bahamas that are well-established resort destinations packed with high-rise hotels and clubs. Each appeals to a different clientele. This is not to say that those going to one of the more popular destinations are less sophisticated or less wealthy individuals, but things that are popular tend to have more marketing. This in turn may entice less-than-savvy travelers.
We were caught between two worlds. We stayed in Anguilla at a nearly $1100 per night hotel that we didn’t have to pay for. And while I presume that a lot of people doing this experience aren’t paying the full price, some surely must be. Our fellow guests appeared to either be honeymooners or retirees. In some ways we seemed like imposters encroaching on a hotel for the rich or those celebrating some sort of special occasion. Contrast that with the short trip over to St Martin, where we found a younger, but often trashier crowd with a penchant for club music, alcohol, and/or cigarettes. Where do we fit in?
Anguilla and St Martin are a short albeit disorganized boat ride apart, yet are two totally different worlds — neither which truly describes Bricole’s comfort zone. At the end of the day, Anguilla had some nice beaches and nice turquoise water, but because we’ve been so lucky to see so many places, it didn’t have the same impact as maybe the Cook Islands, French Polynesia, or the Seychelles may have had. All of those are seemingly more difficult to get to, so one might argue that the Caribbean is a perfect compromise for achieving a decent “paradise” without too much effort. Unfortunately, as we can attest to after the fact, this was one of our more logistically challenging trips.
Perhaps if we lived on the east coast, a voyage to the Caribbean would be simpler, but we are a five hour flight from Miami — nine if you include an unplanned diversion to Phoenix. So by the time we even put ourselves into position to head to Anguilla, we were exhausted. And that dilemma has nothing to do with flying standby. Then it was the weight restrictions leaving Anguilla, and a boat ride, and then an extremely chaotic experience at the St Martin airport, followed by sharing a row with some unsavory characters before finally having to fly a low cost carrier the rest of the way home.
This is one of the posts that will surely come off as incredibly ungrateful, but it has more to do with the geography and logistics of getting to and from rather than the experience in between. Our experience of simply relaxing while on Anguilla was much needed after dealing with a hectic flying schedule or having to interact with middle schoolers. It was a well-deserved break that helped recharge our batteries a bit. But taking into account that we were in Miami for two nights, it would have almost been as easy to get to some far flung locale like the Maldives. I think perhaps the Caribbean is just too easy for others, but not easy enough for us to justify the headache of getting there. After all, living in Los Angeles, we have Hawaii, French Polynesia, or Fiji available on direct flights which folks on the east coast would have to exert much more effort to reach.
I do wonder how much the ease of the journey affects the overall impression of a trip. However, on the flip side of that, some of our best experiences in travel have risen from having to go through a lot of hoops that may have discouraged others. This trip was somewhere in between because it wasn’t all that easy for us, but it was for others. As a result, we often felt out of place. It will perhaps be a while before either of us push to go to the Caribbean again. This is not to imply that it is inferior to all other tropical islands we have visited, but we have a geographical disadvantage in getting there. Now if everyone had to divert to Phoenix in order to get to the Caribbean, I might consider it again. Whereas I wrote an entire reflections post a few months back about how lucky we were with our travels in the South Pacific, I think the universe is simply finding its balance and our luck had to be brought back to its center with a flight on Spirit Airlines. Better luck next time.
passports & pepto bismol 