Getting To & Through The West Indies
Australian Cricket Tour To The West Indies 2025 | Getting To & Through The West Indies
Australian Passport Holders Do Not Require A Visa To Enter Any Caribbean Island That We Will Visit For Cricket Or Adventure, Though You Need To Pay A Visa Waiver On Arrival Into Trinidad & Tobago. If You Are Doing Independent Travel, Each Island Has Their Own Limits Of Stay Ranging From 21 Days In Dominica To 180 Days In Barbados.
The Best Reference For All Global Visa Requirements Is VisaHQ
Travelling to the West Indies
Until Qantas launches Melbourne - Barbados flights, no matter which way you bend it, reaching the West Indies in one go from Australia cannot be done.
You must overnight in the US or Canada and get a connecting flight the next day. Best option is get to Miami (for e.g.) ASAP, overnight there, and pick up a morning flight to arrive into your preferred island.
Unless you are travelling on a 'Round-The-World' fare, it may be cheaper buying Australia - USA - Australia on one ticket, and USA - CARIBBEAN ISLAND - USA on a another ticket.
The flight from the USA can be an open-jaw flight, i.e Miami into St Kitts and from Grenada back to Miami after the cricket, or whichever island is your last. You don't need to book Miami-St Kitts-Miami.
There are near countless multiple daily direct flights from US and Canadian hubs to most Caribbean nations, with American Airlines out of Miami, the most prolific.
Travelling from South America is possible nowadays with flights to Barbados from Panama, Suriname, and Caracas, whereas Caribbean Airlines link Caracas with Trinidad. You still must reach Panama, Suriname and Venezuea of course!
Otherwise the near countless routes from South American cities to the USA and then back to your preferred Caribbean Island will not leave you short of choice.
If you are coming from the UK, Virgin Atlantic and British Airways fly direct into several islands including Barbados, Antigua, St Lucia, and Grenada, along with tags to St Kitts, Guyana, Trinidad, Tobago, and Aruba, and codeshare services to other islands with interCaribbean Airlines.
You can also fly a US or Canadian airline via their hub into the islands, or KLM and Air France from Amsterdam and Paris direct into our beloved St Maarten. You are not spoiled for choice especially if loyal to an airline alliance.
Island Hopping In The West Indies
The term 'Island Hopping' captivates many and there may be no better waters than the Caribbean to do so even amid the turmoil of thunderous weather if not the blindness of glorious skies to reach your next tropical idyll.
Though we plan to include inter-island travel as required if you join us on multiple islands, if you plan to visit other islands book direct on:
- LIAT - Once a mainstay of Caribbean travel, now a skeleton of its former infamy, relaunched (as of August 2024) as LIAT 20. LIAT will eventually reconnect all Eastern Caribbean islands, albeit with one or two stops. For now, their new website is dreadful, to match their predecessor!
- INTERCARIBBEAN - The new old kid on the rocks. Long-based in Turks & Caicos, interCaribbean has filled the void left by near-defunct LIAT and spread it wings to the eastern Caribbean. From their Barbados hub they connect all cricket nations (except Trinidad), British and US Virgin Islands, Puerto Rico, and Cuba*
*If you visit Cuba, you no longer qualify for the USA Visa-Waiver program. If you intend to travel to the USA, for 11-years post Cuba, you need to apply for a visa and undergo rigorous scrutiny including physical interviews. Obtaining a USA tourist visa can take at least 3 months. If you have an existing ESTA but are found on arrival into the USA to have since travelled to Cuba, the visa-waiver will be revoked.
- CARIBBEAN AIRLINES (the original 'BWIA') - Connects the wider Caribbean from Suriname, Guyana, Cayman, Cuba, Florida, New York, and Toronto via their Trinidad or Jamaica hubs.
They have now expanded their new hub in Barbados to connect all of the Eastern Caribbean islands including, for the first time, French territories of Martinque and Guadaloupe
- SUNRISE AIRWAYS - This old-school Haitian Airline has shifted its base to Antigua and is developing a strong network through the Eastern Caribbean, including St Kitts to Dominica direct, the only airline to operate this route
- AIR ANTILLES - Has relaunched to connect the French Caribbean Islands, with flights using St Maarten's Grand Case Esperance Airport.
- WINAIR - Reknown for connecting the Winward Islands with puddle-jumpers from St Maarten (SXM), incl. the world's shortest runway of Saba, Winair has expanded their network and aircraft to include 70 seats ATR's to connect SXM with the southern Caribbean
Your Included Travel In The West Indies 2025
As part of your Australian Cricket Tour To The West Indies 2025 we plan to include, as required, all inter-island travel. This will be confirmed once we know where we are playing.
If you are starting with us in St Kitts (for e.g.) we will get you from there to the 1st Test. If you are also doing the 2nd test, we will get you from the 1st Test to the next test, and then to the 3rd Test.
If you are doing Twenty20 cricket in the West Indies, we will get you after the 3rd Test to the first two T20's and then onwards to the next three T20's. There will be five Twenty20 games ONLY in 2025.
No matter which island is your last, you are responsible for getting off that island.
When buying your inbound flight, and based on you enjoying every day of our 'example itinerary' you should book a return flight (for e.g.) from Miami (MIA) to St Kitts (SKB) and then St Maarten (SXM) back to Miami (MIA).
If you're joining us for 1 Test on one island, then no travel included.
Ferries in the West Indies
The Caribbean is not like Greece that has countless ferries connecting every Metaxa distillery north of Africa, which sadly means you cannot 'ferry' between cricket nations between Tests, though is not without meek possibility.
Primary ferry services connect regional multi island nations of Antigua & Barbuda, St Kitts & Nevis, Trinidad & Tobago, St Vincent & The Grenadines, Virgin Islands, Bahamas, Netherlands Antilles, and French Antilles.
The only service connecting two cricket nations is L'Express des Iles, ferrying between Dominica and St Lucia via Martinque 5 days per week. This 4.5 hour journey has a flat price starting at €99 one-way.
There is a ferry from Union Island in the Grenadines to Grenada, but you first must reach Union Island from St Vincent, so you are better off flying.
If you are following cricket independently, and if you have time, ferries can get you to where you might want to go, on a day you don't want to go, and may end up a convoluted migraine inducing effort but that's up to you. For us, it's far easier to take a short flight and quick hop to spend more time on the next island!
- A Great Caribbean Ferry Reference is Travellers' Point
Travel Insurance In The West Indies
A timeless fact: If you cannot afford travel insurance, you cannot afford to travel
It is imperative that you have adequate travel insurance to cover your time in the Islands. Caribbean airlines have a life-long reputation of doing as they please with your luggage or even your flight as we learned in 2015.
Flying from St Maarten to Antigua to connect to a new flight to Dominica, the majority of passengers (us!) were going to Dominica so they flew direct to Dominica without one word said. Instead of a 5 hour journey, it was 45mins!
I wonder what the passengers travelling to Antigua thought about their detour?
That was far from being a problem, I'm only suggesting you may end up somewhere unexpected, which may catch you out!
In June 2024, when travelling the islands to prepare for your Australian Cricket Tour To The West Indies 2025, I arrived at St Vincent airport to be told my flight had been cancelled and to come back tomorrow.
That was it. No compensation, no hotel, no taxi, no meal voucher.
I had to book another taxi, hotel (losing the hotel night paid for in Grenada), and taxi the following night. That was a US$300 loss, recovered with travel insurance.
Otherwise, you may 'check your bag' and not see it for three days or your flight may be cancelled if there's not enough passengers or inclination to get it off the ground.
After 30 years the regional airlines have improved out of sight but cultural DNA is impossible to shake so just make sure you are adequately covered.
Safety in the West Indies
There are not too many places in the world where a Government doesn't offer some kind of 'be safe' advisory so you can relax knowing this is the Australian Government understanding of life in the islands:
"The Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade does not produce travel advisories for Antigua & Barbuda, Barbados, Dominica, Grenada, St Kitts & Nevis, St Lucia, (St Vincent & The Grenadines), and Suriname, or any of the non-independent Caribbean territories at this time."
Suffice to say, watch your back in Jamaica, Guyana, and Trinidad!