Welcome to the Caribbean!
The Caribbean is a group of 7,000 inhabited and uninhabited islands, islets, and cays. The region derives its name from the Carib (Kalinago) indigenous peoples.
The Caribbean Sea is located west of the Atlantic Ocean and is considered a sea of the Atlantic. It is bounded by the Greater Antilles to the north. Beyond the Greater Antilles is the Gulf of México, and further north, the United States. To the east, the Caribbean Sea is bounded by the arc of the Lesser Antilles. Beyond the Lesser Antilles is the Atlantic Ocean. To the south is the continent of South America. México and Central America are the western boundaries. The Caribbean Sea spreads across an area of 2,754,000 square kilometers (1,063,000 square miles).
Home to 30-plus sovereign states, territories, and dependencies, the islands of the Caribbean are divided into three major groups: Lucayan (Bahamas) Archipelago, Greater Antilles, and Lesser Antilles (further grouped into the Leeward Islands, Windward Islands, and Leeward Antilles, which include the ABC Islands). Though The Bahamas, Bermuda, and Turks and Caicos Islands are not technically in the Caribbean Sea, they are considered part of the Caribbean. The region covers two time zones. Coordinated Universal Time (UTC) or time zone for the Caribbean is UTC-5 through UTC-4.
For more information about the Caribbean, see Britannica, and Wikipedia (Caribbean islands and Caribbean Sea).
Read more about the Caribbean:
- Number of visits: 15
- Travel stories from: the Caribbean
Photo credit: Featured image – U.S. Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), Public Domain, via Wikipedia Commons
Below is a map of the Caribbean:
The Caribbean
