Planning a trip late May/early June to the Caribbean with wife & two teens 15 & 17.
We are not folks who will be in a resort the entire time, will rent a vehicle. We are VERY anti-cruise ship.

Looking for a variety of activities.... snorkling/scuba, sailing, driving a jeep around. To a lesser extent possibly fishing, jet ski, kayak etc.
Have narrowed down to 6 (I know) islands and have a few questions. This is sort of my first filter before narrowing down to 2-3 choices for wife review.

Grand Cayman - Looks great - is it easy to go to little Cayman for Scuba Diving for a day w/o flying?
Curacao - Looks like great shore diving/snorkling. Is there much else to do?
St. Lucia - Seems like a pain to get to from Texas? How is the diving/snorkling there?
St. John - I know most of the island is a national park. Are there any rental place for jet ski/sailing/fishing charter, or does everything run out of St. Thomas?
St. Martin - Other than the jets flying super low & being French/Dutch... don't know much.
Dominica - I like the island's geography, but seems like it rains alot & cruise ships can overrun the place? Anyone been?

I'm open to other islands, but want to stay away from Central America/Mexico, PR, DR, Jamaica. Turks looks awesome but maybe not so much for kids to do... and it's pricey. Have been to Virgin Gorda & loved it, but I seldom travel to the same place twice.

Here is what I have experience with:

Grand Cayman - great diving. We use Living the Dream divers. I think it's a plane ride over to Little Cayman, as I never saw an option for a boat trip. I think it would take a long part of the day to ride out and back. What about a few nights on each?

Curacao - i haven't been there but everyone in Bonaire we were with that have done both said that Bonaire is better diving, with better shore diving too. We stayed at Village Harbour and dove with them.

St. John - we had boats from St Thomas take us out so I'm not quite sure what's available on the island. That said, I think it's a great place to visit. Much more topography than Cayman or Bonaire. We only snorkeled there but I know there are dive spots. That said, there are better options if you want a pure dive trip.

On day 10 of 11 day cruise in the Caribbean. Aruba was a favorite stop - we did an UTV tour of the northern treasure. It was so much fun and beautifull - your kids will love it!! It's close to curaao which you mentioned so I'm guessing Aruba might be up for consideration.

Apache said:

---

Planning a trip late May/early June to the Caribbean with wife & two teens 15 & 17.
We are not folks who will be in a resort the entire time, will rent a vehicle. We are VERY anti-cruise ship.

Looking for a variety of activities.... snorkling/scuba, sailing, driving a jeep around. To a lesser extent possibly fishing, jet ski, kayak etc.
Have narrowed down to 6 (I know) islands and have a few questions. This is sort of my first filter before narrowing down to 2-3 choices for wife review.

Grand Cayman - Looks great - is it easy to go to little Cayman for Scuba Diving for a day w/o flying?
Curacao - Looks like great shore diving/snorkling. Is there much else to do?
St. Lucia - Seems like a pain to get to from Texas? How is the diving/snorkling there?
St. John - I know most of the island is a national park. Are there any rental place for jet ski/sailing/fishing charter, or does everything run out of St. Thomas?
St. Martin - Other than the jets flying super low & being French/Dutch... don't know much.
Dominica - I like the island's geography, but seems like it rains alot & cruise ships can overrun the place? Anyone been?

I'm open to other islands, but want to stay away from Central America/Mexico, PR, DR, Jamaica. Turks looks awesome but maybe not so much for kids to do... and it's pricey. Have been to Virgin Gorda & loved it, but I seldom travel to the same place twice.

---

Little Cayman is about 70 miles from Grand Cayman and the Twin Otters that they fly over there generally go to about 7500' unpressurized. So you need at least 18 hours after your last dive before you can fly over or fly out. There is not much topside on LC worthy of a day trip, but the diving on the north side in the marine park is IMO the best in the Caribbean. There is very little for non-divers to do on Little Cayman and the beaches don't compare to 7MB on GC except for maybe Point of Sand on the east end of the island. But the diving and the dive operations on LC are the best in class as far as Caribbean diving goes. There used to be an outfit that would do special trips over in a helicopter at low altitude and back for day trips, but it was very expensive IIRC.

Ok, so I took a look and it sounds like Ocean Frontiers will sometimes offer a day trip via boat (46' Newton) to LC weather dependent, but their schedule is showing leaving the dock at 6am and returning at 6pm, with about 7 hours of boat time getting to and from LC. If you are staying over in Georgetown or on 7MB, that is a long trip to East End to get there for the 5:30 am checkin. 7 hours on one of those boats would be a no go for me in the middle to late summer, which is the only time you might be able to reliably plan for the weather necessary to make the trip.

The helicopter outfit is Shaggy's and their fee is $7k for up to 5 divers.

Thank you for that info... not worth the time spent IMO to try and make it out there.

For what you are looking for, check out Barbados. Easy to rent a VRBO, rent a car and do your own thing. Safe island with gorgeous beaches.

OP: Grand Cayman is probably what you are looking for. It is easy to drive around, and has outstanding diving. Just "stay on de leff" when you drive! Perhaps you should also look at Bonaire. Both have non-stops from Houston.

St.Lucia and Dominica: both are very rustic outside the tourist hotels and infrastructure.

You might also consider Grenada or Tobago. I've been to both, and they are really nice. To get to Tobago, you connect through Port of Spain, Trinidad. You'll need to stay overnight. Stay at the Hyatt. You'll have to connect through Miami to get to Grenada.

We went to Carriacou, part of Grenada last summer. It was amazing. While it has absolutely no tourist infrastructure, you can rent a villa in the offseason (summer) at a reasonable rate. It is easy to drive around once you get the hang of it. There is a really good dive shop on the island, that can help you plan activities if you dare to be adventurous and go there. I know I'll go back!

Just got back from Windstar- WIndsurf cruise...I've always been very anti cruise but tried this one out as it was only 300 people.
It was amazing. Felt like it was our own private boat half the time. Anyway, not trying to convince you of that but here is where we went:
St.Maarten...did the plane/beach thing. Nice but very busy.
Nevis...Loved it. Did a 4-wheeler tour.
Roseau, Dominica. Beautiful. Volcano and rain forest stuff
St. Lucia...meh. it was ok.
Les Saintes, Guadalupe (by far our favorite! tiny island but will absolutely go back. Rent e-bikes or golf cart, hike, snorkel, etc)
St. Kitts...fun. very touristy and had some big boats parked there.
St Barts...fancy and expensive but nice.
St. Maarten

Due to Hurricane season, I don't think these islands are overrun with cruises after May.

Look at Roatan for diving.

I've been to Dominica back in 2016 and my wife was there for about 16 months and I would without a doubt cross that off your list.