Discover: Central America & Caribbean

Introduction

Central America

A narrow land bridge of rainforests, volcanoes, and ancient Maya cities.

Central America packs an outsized range of landscapes into seven small countries, from cloud forests and active volcanoes to Maya ruins hidden in dense rainforest.

Caribbean

An arc of island nations with their own distinct culture, coastline, and rhythm.

From Cuba's classic-car streets to Jamaica's reggae heritage and the Dominican Republic's resort coastline, the Caribbean islands add music, beaches, and colonial port towns to the region's range.

Introduction

Central America

Central America, as covered here, spans the narrow isthmus connecting North and South America — Guatemala, Belize, Honduras, El Salvador, Nicaragua, Costa Rica, and Panama — a region defined by its position between two oceans and two continents. That geography has made it both a natural land bridge for wildlife migration and, historically, a crossroads for trade and conquest, most visibly realized in the Panama Canal's engineering connection between the Atlantic and Pacific.

The region's defining traveler appeal is density of contrast: active volcanoes sit within view of colonial Spanish towns, Caribbean and Pacific coastlines are often only a few hours' drive apart, and rainforest reserves protect both descendants of ancient Maya cities and some of the highest biodiversity per square mile found anywhere on Earth. Economically and culturally the seven countries vary widely — Costa Rica and Panama are considerably more developed and tourism-ready than Nicaragua or Honduras.

Caribbean

The Caribbean islands are a separate geography entirely — isolated by open water rather than connected by it, scattered across the sea to the mainland's north and east. Cuba, Jamaica, Haiti, the Dominican Republic, and Puerto Rico form the larger islands closest to the mainland; further southeast, smaller nations like Barbados, Grenada, Dominica, and St Lucia make up the Lesser Antilles.

Despite sharing much of the same colonial history as the mainland, the islands developed sharply distinct cultures, cuisines, and often their own creole languages — even neighboring islands colonized by the same European power can feel entirely different from one another. Tourism here leans heavily toward beach resorts and cruise stops rather than the mainland's eco-tourism and adventure-travel identity, though a growing number of islands now offer real hiking, diving, and cultural-heritage tourism beyond the classic resort model.