QuikTrip went to Atlantis Paradise Island for its incentive program for the first time last year and liked it so much they booked it again for next year. Bahamas Visual Services

The Caribbean showcases great destinations even at first glance, and surprising delights sit below the surface. Groups seeking sunshine, beaches and spas are sure to eye the Caribbean but the region’s diverse destinations serve up a vast array of experiences. Luxury resorts, fine dining and high-end shopping are available while dashes of history and meals aboard ships are on offer too.

U.S. Virgin Islands

Made up of St. Thomas, St. John and St. Croix, this cluster of destinations provides an assortment of attractions, including white sand beaches, snorkeling in clear waters that enable the visibility of many tropical fish, tons of high-end, duty-free shopping in St. Thomas and even a Pirate’s Treasure museum in St. John.

The Frenchman’s Reef complex in Saint Thomas underwent a $425 million renovation, after a double wallop from Hurricanes Irma and Maria in 2017, and triumphantly re-opened last year. Revamped properties at the site included Westin Beach Resort & Spa at Frenchman’s Reef and Morningstar Buoy Haus Beach Resort at Frenchman’s Reef, Autograph Collection — formerly the Morningstar Beach Resort.

A total of 486 guest rooms were added to the complex, as were two pickleball courts and hurricane proofing. At the Westin, the spa was expanded while, across both hotels, guest rooms, lobbies, bars and restaurants and public spaces were redone.

Morningstar has 94 guest rooms, including two suites; almost 13,000 sf of meeting space; four restaurants and an infinity-edge oceanfront pool. The Westin now provides 392 rooms, including 28 suites; 72,000 sf of meeting space; a private beach, five restaurants/lounges and three ocean-view pools.

Also coming off of a recent $100 million renovation is The Ritz-Carlton, St. Thomas. A breathtaking 30 acre, oceanfront luxury hotel, The Ritz-Carlton, St. Thomas is a Caribbean marvel styled after traditional island architecture, but richly updated with all of the contemporary comforts for which the resorts of The Ritz-Carlton are known. New public and event spaces have been added to the property, which has 180 guest rooms and suites, and over 10,000 sf of indoor and outdoor meeting space.

An incentive group of 30 couples, made up of top sales people and executives plus their guests, wanted to stay in the United States and the Virgin Islands were easier to get to. The hotel went over well, says planner Helene Falgia, founder and president of Fancy Meeting You Here.

“It was not a bad ride from the airport, to get downtown or to the ferry to St. John,” she says. “Plus, it’s on the beach, you can’t go wrong. We went snorkeling, did a catamaran sunset cruise one day and had lunch on the beach. It was beautiful.”

The group patronized restaurants in St. John, Falgia says, including Morgan’s Mango “where the food was delicious,” and in St. Thomas, Oceana Restaurant & Bistro, which had an “amazing view of a mountain top” and others. “Everywhere we went, the people were extremely nice. In St. Thomas and St. John, there was a great atmosphere everywhere and I never had a bad meal.”

The U.S. Virgin Islands Department of Tourism distributed her RFP to numerous properties and introduced other suppliers. The Ritz-Carlton arranged a fire show on the beach for the group on the final night, with music. “The performers got the attendees up and dancing. It was fun and a nice way to end the trip,” says Falgia.

Aruba

Home to Eagle Beach — which last year won first place in TripAdvisor’s Best of Best beaches in the world, and second best in the Caribbean — the island of Aruba is home to unique geological formations made of coral limestone, which can be found perched 25 feet above the sea in Arikok National Park. The destination is debuting two luxury hotels.

Iberostar Grand Aruba, an adults-only property, will open this year. Perched on Eagle Beach, the hotel will have 240 guest suites and a more than 10,000-sf convention center divisible into five rooms. The venue will have its own entrance and lobby, and it can seat 360 people for a banquet.

The resort will offer three restaurants: a buffet for breakfast, one spotlighting Caribbean cuisine and another for grilled local fish and meat. It also will have five bars and sustainability will be a focus in the hotel’s design.

Iberostar Grand Aruba is just six minutes from Palm Beach, a two-mile stretch of hotels and water sports. Joining that stretch in 2025 will be the St. Regis Aruba Palm Beach Resort. Strategically located in the Caribbean — one of the most coveted leisure destinations in the world, including locales most desired by the next generation of buisness travelers, this resort will offer a leisure experience inspired by the glamorous private retreats of St. Regis’ founding family, the Astors.

Bermuda

Known for its pink sand beaches, an atmosphere of luxury and, of course, its near-to-the-knee shorts, the island of Bermuda also includes mystique and history as it boasts shipwrecks and the intrigue of the Bermuda Triangle. The island will soon get a new major branded resort. Bermudiana Beach Resort, Tapestry Collection by Hilton is expected in late 2024. Overlooking Marley Beach, this clifftop resort is five minutes from the famous Horseshoe Bay Beach. The capital city of Hamilton is just 15 minutes away, and Southlands Park is right outside their doors. Close to the island’s pristine pink sand beaches, the 110-room resort will have 387 sf of event space but will boast an ocean view pool bar and grill, as well as a cliff top bar and restaurant overlooking turquoise reefs.

Next, after a decades-long closure, Ariel Sands will reopen in 2025 following a $155 million renovation. The revamped property of Kempinski Hotels will feature a 33-room hotel and 21 villas. Once co-owned by actor Michael Douglas, Ariel Sands arrived in the early 1950s but closed in 2008 and was demolished in 2015.

Meeting and incentive attendees looking to explore the island have new options. Tour company Blue Sky Bermuda, which was closed for several years, is back. Portions of guests’ itineraries can be customized and visitors can try operating a small plane.

Bermuda’s stately appearance and hospitality impressed a high-end group enough for its event organizer to re-book the island this year after a 2023 event there.

Last month, the Ultimate Whisky [sic] Experience was held at The Loren at Pink Beach, a luxury resort. Between 100 and 150 spirits collectors, connoisseurs, master blenders and others were there. Most came just for the main tasting, The Nth Bermuda Experience, where rare and premium whiskies and spirits were served alongside select culinary offerings, says Erika Welling, owner and chief experience officer at Blendz Events.

“We were impressed with the quality, taste and detail in each superb culinary creation of Executive Chef Lourence Godinho. He turns the ordinary into delectable, un-ordinary dishes, making everything unique and delightful,” she says.

The meeting owner is “great at ‘experiences’ so the Nth is all about pairing the whisky with food, just like wine,” says Welling. The group dined on “heavy hors d’oeuvres” and at carving stations offering everything from a baked camembert tart, lobster salad, stations with gourmet sausages and skewers to live fish carving and poke stations and a panoply of desserts.

A contingent of 20 to 25 attendees arrived early, or stayed after the Nth, for several other activities, including a sit-down dinner at The Loren’s Marée Lounge and a welcome reception at the hotel’s Oceanfront Disk and Pink Beach Club. The closing night event was aboard The Spirit of Bermuda, a modern-built sloop that’s a replica of a famous Royal Navy sloop-of-war.

Bermuda has both the vibe and the customer service needed to pull off the event, Welling says. “It’s pristine, with the pink beaches, and I’ve never seen trash or graffiti there. Plus, the people we worked with at the CVB are by far better than anything I’ve experienced.”

Testing Bermuda’s waters last year, Welling brought a small group to the island and took part in equally unique activities, including dinner at the Governor’s home, a pairing of whiskies and perfumes that focused on their common scents and more.

“There’s the fun mystery around the Bermuda triangle and a lot of shipwrecks. People were so accommodating. If I had wanted to put a vent in the Crystal Caves they’d have made it happen.”

At Atlantis Paradise Island, planners can have the Junkanoo perform for attendees. Courtesy Photo

Atlantis

While its legendary pink exterior is one of the Caribbean’s most iconic images, like the region itself, Atlantis Paradise Island Bahamas offers much more than what appears on the surface.

The 3,805-room resort features 300,000 sf of outdoor event space and another 200,000 sf for indoor functions. Atlantic Paradise Island offers a sprawling 141-acre waterscape comprised of river rides, 11 pools and five miles of white sand beaches. It’s also home to the largest open-air marine habitat in the world, where over 50,000 marine animals from more than 250 species reside, and the property offers many marine experiences.

Atlantis Paradise Island Bahamas recently underwent both renovations and expansions.

All 1,200 guest rooms in two of the Royal Towers were renovated last year to be more relaxing while the casino was updated with a grander look and expansion of two on-site lounges, a high-limit slots lounge and the gaming salon.

Additionally, two celebrity-chef helmed restaurants came onboard last year, giving attendees some delicious fine dining places to choose from onsite during those nights when dinner is on their own.

Michelin-starred and James Beard Award nominated chef Michael White opened Paranza, a fine-dining venue for regional Italian cuisine. The eatery’s launch makes Atlantis the only area resort with three Michelin-starred chef restaurants. The other two are Nobu and Fish by Jose Andres.

Last month, Atlantis Paradise Island opened FIELDTRIP Restaurant from another James Beard Award nominated chef and television celebrity JJ Johnson, who joins the resort’s rapidly growing portfolio of internationally recognized chefs. He is recognized for his innovative approach to African Caribbean cuisine.

QuikTrip, a convenience store chain, went to Atlantis Paradise Island for its incentive program for the first time last year and liked the resort so much that the organization booked it again for 2025. Comprised of 450 qualifiers and their plus ones, the group had been meeting in Hawaii for a decade when a new decision-maker came in and noticed that many attendees had been on the trip before, so a new location was needed.

For planner Kelly Whitney, account executive of Maritz, Atlantis Paradise Island came to mind in particular because most of the attendees were young, with the average age being 23 years old.

“I thought Atlantis would be appealing for all of the things it offers: the restaurants, the water parks, the beach, the nightlife, plus really everything is contained,” she says. “Not to say that you can’t leave Atlantis but there is a significant amount of things to do right at the property.”

Travel for the large group went smoothly because management had all attendees go through gateway cities to avoid hiccups — or have options when problems arose — and there were ample flights into Nassau International Airport, which sits 30 minutes away from the resort.

The group had a welcome reception on Atlantis’ royal deck which, Whitney notes, “looks out to the ocean but also looks back up to the bridge suite, which is what is known best. It gave the group iconic views.”

Participants enjoyed Atlantis’ many pools and water slides and even had a full pool day where managers made themselves available by sharing their locations in the SpotME meeting app on attendees’ phones. Then attendees could go to whichever property restaurant they chose with a room credit.

But a particular highlight of the event for the group was a dramatic and surprise ending to the award ceremony. A Junkanoo crew — a Bahamian parade tradition that occurs on Boxing Day — entered the room and led attendees out, past restaurants and stores, which the group enjoyed, and down to an event center, called “the Cave,” where a disco had been set-up.

That moment was managed by Atlantis’ in-house AV team, Whitney says, “which speaks highly to their technical and production capabilities.” She also praised the property for allowing the group to use the sprawling Imperial Ballroom, a 50,000-sf space, for the ceremony. “They gave us a large space, it was very generous. We were able to set the room how we wanted to.”

For Whitney, a particularly notable moment in the planning experience happened when there was a staffing change at the hotel. “The conference services manager left and the salesperson did a good job of making sure the transition [to a new one] was handled smoothly and that the details that we had been working on for the nine months leading up to the meeting weren’t lost in the handover.”

Whitney continues, “He led some transitional meetings and he was always on the phone internally to make sure information was being trickled down. If he hadn’t stepped in we could have had a very different outcome.”

The outcome was a success, and when it came time to consider locations for 2025, Whitney brought QuikTrip’s management several new destinations but they said, “You know what? We’ve realized that Atlantis did such a great job, and our attendees loved it so much, we just want to do it again.”

Grand Hyatt Baha Mar is a perfect destination for incentive and corporate groups, and trade shows. Courtesy Photo

Baha Mar

Baha Mar offers three iconic oceanfront hotels: Grand Hyatt, SLS and Rosewood. This $5.2-billion complex, which won Corporate & Incentive Travel’s 2021 Award of Excellence, also operates the Baha Mar Convention, Arts & Entertainment Center, which features 82,000 sf of indoor and outdoor meeting space.

The Grand Hyatt offers a 200,000 sf convention facility plus 1800 guest rooms. The SLS Baha Mar offers 299 rooms plus 107 suites and 12,000 sf of meeting space, while Rosewood Baha Mar provides 230 rooms, suites and villas with 14,200 sf of meeting space. The complex also features a casino, water park, two spas and more.

Last year, Baha Mar added the Aldabra tortoise encounter where, for 20 minutes, guests can touch, feed and snap numerous photos with small, baby tortoises who can grow to 700 pounds!

Restaurant wise, the complex has added operating hours and more offerings at both Café Madeleine, the indoor-outdoor French café and bakery and the Regatta Buffet, also known as the international buffet with a Bahamian twist.

Located in the lively Nassau section of The Bahamas, which is home to over 45 restaurants, lounges and bars, Baha Mar offers guests the “Caribbean’s largest and most luxurious casino,” a wildlife sanctuary, a water park and unlimited access to Baha Bay.

The Bahamas and Caribbean islands offer great scope for those planning group events and those who wish to attend them. From the natural attributes of crystal blue waters, warm climate, pristine beaches and endless sunshine to the tropical vibe found across the islands, the lure is inescapable. C&IT