When to St. Lucia which is absolutely beautiful. It has its own rainforest biome in the center. Legit, look up photos of St. Lucia landscape. One of the photos has a rainbow. It's almost always there due to the low hanging clouds and weather patterns caused by the rainforest.

Unfortunately there's a huge gang problem there. And one of the most expensive and beautiful resorts has a travel ban due to targeted robberies. Parts of cities keep getting shut down due to crime. In fact, a month before we left for our trip, they shut down half the city we were staying in. We almost canceled. Absolute beautiful island but absolute chit hole because of the crime.

St. Lucia - Sugar Beach

Went to the US Virgin Islands the week after back to back CAT 5 hurricanes flattened them. It was for an inshore sediment collection study. Basically cruised around on one of the only non wrenched boats, free dove reefs and scooped sand. Was crazy seeing million dollar boats 20 ft up a cliff in a tree. Had the whole back half of the island to ourselves, only house with solar too. Bad ass trip and place to see.

Landscape wise 100%; absolutely stunning and I don't just say that unless I'm actually truly feeling that. Unfortunately it's just riddled with crime. It's a drug and gun running hub from South America.

Edit: side note, our snorkeling tour guide said there's been no recorded shark attacks in St. Lucia. That seems to be accurate. Definitely a plus!

I mean, all of the Caribbbean islands have some drug shit going on. There's a reason it's so easy to buy drugs there. But still, as a tourist you'll never encounter that stuff unless you go looking for it. Gangs aren't looking to rob tourists, as it's just not worth it. They usually keep a low profile, and if they start robbing and killing tourists it will ruin their entire operation.

The US Embassy issued a Do Not Stay order at an incredibly high end resort (Ladera) because robbers are traversing cliff sides and robbing tourists at knifepoint. 5 couples on the same night had robbers enter their suites and rob them at knifepoint. I agree, most Caribbean countries have these issues but typically they don't spill over into the tourism industry.
https://nycaribnews.com/st-lucia-us-issued-ban-on-top-resort/

I mean, this just sounds like a resort that got a bit too comfortable with their security. That's not a reason to avoid an island at all, obviously an island with a bunch of poor black people is going to have some bad apples in the mix

Agreed, just correcting the record when you said they don't target tourists.

I’ve been there and swam with the sting rays too. It’s a sand bar off of Grand Cayman called Sting Ray City. For some reason, they are super friendly and docile in that one spot. You can get in there and feed them, pet them, play with them, etc. it’s nuts. Super cool.