Tim & Anne’s Dominica Tour (March 2014)

Dominica Tour
March 2014
by Tim Larison, CLIA Certified Master Cruise Counselor (MCC)
with contributions from Travel Agent Anne Larison

Our favorite shore excursion on our March 2014 Azamara cruise was our day at Dominica with Reyno Tours .  Known as the Nature Island of the Caribbean, Dominica was not a place to go for sandy beaches.  Rather the island featured a mountainous landscape of rainforests, rivers and waterfalls.

Our first stop was Champagne Reef.  Throughout our tour Anne did the swimming while I took the pictures!

Our group arrived early at Champagne Reef, and Anne was the first in the water.  Called Champagne Reef because you see “bubbles right when you enter the water”.

Reyno Tours picked the right time for us to visit this popular snorkeling spot – no crowds!   We saw many cruise ship passengers arrive as we were leaving.

Anne says:
The nice thing about Champagne Reef is that it is easily accessible from the shore.  The calm water and lack of currents makes this spot ideal for beginners and families.  I saw a lot of underwater life but one of the fascinating sights is the many areas where the bubbles rise from the floor of the sea (a volcanic island, heat and pressure escape creating the underwater bubbles).  I could have stayed there all day, but we had many more adventures to come.
Next we visited Dominica’s Botanic Gardens.  The landscape was dominated by huge trees.
This tree was toppled by category 5 Hurricane David in 1979, a powerful storm that the islanders will always remember.
Our Reyno Tours guide Seraye gave us a detailed description of all the different plants we would see.  I was amazed at the wealth of knowledge Seraye shared with us throughout our tour – all without notes!
A beautiful flower and a natural “cannon ball” at the Botanic Gardens.

Anne says:
Dominica has been nicknamed the “Nature Isle of the Caribbean”.  We found this to be true on our visit.  The variety of trees, plants, flowers and bird species was incredible.  

We saw our Azamara Quest ship in the distance at this scenic overlook.

We hiked through this rainforest to our next attraction – what would it be?

A cave that visitors could swim through to see a waterfall.  Not for me!  But I took this picture of Anne and our friends on the tour about ready to enter the water.
Anne says:
When we arrived at the underwater cave we weren’t sure what to expect and after talking with a local guide we decided to hire him.  This was a wise decision.  Our group was not made up of strong swimmers so we were grateful for the help the guide provided in getting us through the underwater cave and up into an area where we could experience getting close to a small but powerful waterfall.  We learned on our trip through the underwater cave that this was one of the sites on the island that was used in the making of Pirates of the Caribbean 2 & 3.  
Our last stop was one of the most well known spots on the island – the beautiful Trafalgar Falls.

Again we hiked through a rainforest before reaching this scenic spot.

We don’t see leaves this big back in Colorado!

The hike to the Falls was well worth it as we were treated to this view.  For the adventurous you could climb up the rocks to get a closer look.

There were two Falls we could see from the viewing platform at the site.

Anne says:
The falls are beautiful and it is hot and humid but since you are in a rainforest the trek to the falls is mostly in the shade, covered by the trees and lush plants.  The hike to the waterfalls is not accessible if you have any kind of issue with ambulation; especially when you get to the falls and hot spring area.  The area is made up of very large boulders and climbing is required if visitors want to go up to get to the waterfalls and down through rocks to get to the hot springs.

A soak in a natural hot spring concluded our visit to Dominica.  The sulphur smell was overwhelming when I took this picture – was it worth enduring the smell for a soak?  Anne says: Absolutely! 

Overall I thought Dominica was one of the most interesting Caribbean Islands I had ever visited!  I liked the variety of nature scenes that we saw.  It reminded me of St Lucia, another mountainous island we visited on a past cruise.  Seraye and our Reyno Tours driver did a great job in showing us the highlights of their island in the few hours we were there.

Anne says:
There are two ports on the island and because our ship was smaller we ended up at the smaller, more remote port.  This was the one thing that could have been better had we been able to dock at the main port.  On this day there was a large NCL ship in the main port.  It was a long walk through an industrial area to where we met our tour guide and there were no local shops around the smaller port as there were at the larger, main port.  This was a small inconvenience and we highly recommend you put Dominica on your bucket list.  I agree with Tim that this was one of my favorite Caribbean islands.  From the volcanic hot springs to the many waterfalls there is something for everyone on Dominica.  

If you would like to visit Dominica on a cruise or a resort stay, we can help!  Contact us for more information.