ESCAPE TO THE CARIBBEAN

These islands in the coral stream, once the province of pirates and explorers, have become destination treasures for modern adventurers. The lure of the Caribbean has always been the happy combination of sea, sky and sand, all orchestrated to a calypso rhythm. Now that beat goes on, swelling to a crescendo as more and more Caribbean hosts from super resorts to yacht captains bid for the attention of Texans with their attractive tour packages.

Once upon a time not long ago, Texans bound for the Caribbean found themselves on seemingly endless flights routed through Miami and New York. Now American Airlines has come up with a shortcut. Offering daily DC-10 nonstop service from Dallas to Puerto Rico, American gives Texans a welcome head start to multiple destinations. The San Juan flights connect to others bound for Caribbean airports from nearby St. Thomas in the U.S. Virgin Islands to distant Aruba off the Venezuelan coast.

No wonder, then, that more and more Dallas faces are being seen on the beaches and boulevards of the Caribbean. So. with a hearty “Hey, mon,” and a supply of coconut-scented suntan lotion, we’re off on five stirring routes to Caribbean adventure.

1. Beaches Worth Knowing

Can any other area in the world claim to have more gorgeous beaches than the Caribbean? Definitely not. With fine, powdery sands, brilliantly-colored water and underwater marine life so vividly colored that the creatures must surely be a Hollywood fantasy, here are a lew worth savoring.

Trunk Bay on St. John in the U.S. Virgin Islands owes much of its still unspoiled charms to the efforts of Laurance Rockefeller, who in the Fifites not only built his trend-setting Caneel Bay resort but bought large chunks of the island and donated it to the Virgin Islands National Park. Now a marked underwater trail guides divers along the reef |usl on the beach

Rendezvous Bay in Anguilla is one of the wonders of this off-the-beaten track island. Actually a slab of coral limestone, flat-as-a-pancake Anguilla is a snorkeler’s paradise. Rendezvous Bay sweeps along four miles of sand dunes looking across ribbons of blue to nearby St. Martin.

St. Jean Beach in St. Barthelemy has become known for the brief bikinis many of its sunworshippers wear as well as for its crystal clear waters and a pair of side-by-side curves of sand.

Cane Garden Bay on Tortolla in the British Virgins gives bathers a chance to get away from almost everything save sand and water and sky. With no ready-made facilities for bathers, the bay offers the stark simplicity of one-and-a-half miles of white beach and serenity.

Where to Stay: On St. John, check out Caneel Bay Plantation, quietly posh and spread out over rolling hills, with seven beaches to boot. On Anguilla, the Mariners are cozy, small and generally uncrowded. On St. Barthelemy, the Hotel Manapay near Anse des Cayes clusters 20 luxury cottages on a hillside location and throws in one of the blessings of hotel life: 24-hour room service.

2. Treasure Islands

Who can venture down to the Caribbean without at least a fleeting thought of getting lucky and uncovering some long-lost trove of buried treasure? Thousands of treasure ships transporting booty are said to have sunk in the Caribbean and western Atlantic, so somewhere at the bottom of those seas may yet be barnacle-encrusted pirates’ trunks loaded with gold and precious jewels. Once in a while, someone even turns up a rare find, although the odds don’t seem to be in favor of it. But here are some possibilities for big dreamers who would like to be big spenders.

Divers in Jamaica occasionally bring something old and valuable to the surface near the city of Port Royal, which sank beneath the sea in a 1692 earthquake. Reports of other wrecks near Negril and Montego Bay keep the bounty-hunters coming back there, too.

A woman walking along the beach in Grand Cayman Island some years back miraculously discovered $100,000 worth of treasure simply lying beneath her feet Things down there have never been the same since. So if you go to Grand Cayman, keep your eyes open-and looking downward.

Where to Stay: In Negril. Jamaica, anybody adventurous enough to dive for buried treasure should have an inkling toward the improbably named Hedonism II, a Club Med-like resort In Montego Bay, Jamaica, a treasure of a different sort lies at the elegant Half Moon Club, a 400-acre layout abounding in luxuries. In Grand Cayman, treasure hunters surely can’t resist the Christopher Col-umDus, with apartments on the beach. In St. Eustatius, settle in at the Old Gin House, a stylish retreat built on the foundation of an 18th century warehouse.

3. The Caymans: Closest to Home

Their proximity to Dallas, air service through Houston and their gentle good nature have made the Caymans repeat choices for Dallas tourists. These islands are tiny specks of land sticking their heads out of the water 180 miles north-northwest of Jamaica. Called Grand Cayman. Little Cayman and Cayman Brac, they are outcrop-pings of a subterranean mountain ridge called Cayman Ridge.

A slower pace in general, the honesty of the people and the surroundings suited for diving, fishing and just being lazy are definite bonuses here. The large island, Grand Cayman, boasts the beauties of West Mile Beach (also known as Seven Mile Beach), whereas the smaller islands. Little Cayman and Cayman Brac (the latter has only 14 total square miles), have getaway-from-it-all lures.

Where to Stay: On Grand Cayman, Hyatt Regency just completed a $41 million, 234-room luxury hotel on Seven Mile Beach. On Little Cayman, the Southern Cross Club can accom-odate only 24 guests, lor those who like intimacy and casual comfort On Cayman Brac, the informal. 33-room Tiara Beach Hotel pops up with good packages lor honeymooners and divers.

4. Small Gems

The Caribbean has islands where the living is lazy and as close to being unspoiled as modern civilization will permit. Some of the best prospects follow.

Peter Island in the British Virgins has no islanders save the 11 resident staffers at the resort of the same name. In addition, the island has no other hotels and only its two restaurants So uncrowded privacy reigns supreme here in a world away from camera-carrying tourists and chaos in general Access is by boat from nearby Tortolla.

Another posh resort encompassing an entire island, Petit St. Vincent on the island of the same name in the Grenadines, gears itself toward maximum seclusion for guests. Twenty-two stone cottages make up the hotel, where guests can raise a flag at their door for room service. Sports abound here: from swimming, sailing and snorkeling to lower-keyed croquet and horseshoes.

Nearby Mustique has become famous for the wealthy, celebrated people who’ve bought homes there, including Mick Jagger and Princess Margaret. When she’s not in residence, visitors can rent the latter’s villa for a mere $4,500 a week. The island’s combination of exclusivity and understatement brings it some of the world’s rich and famous. If you can’t afford the princess’ rental tab, you can probably get something nearby for only $1,700 a week-or so

5. Some Texas Favorites

Texans go everythwere among the islands, but they keep returning to some tried-and-true favorites.

St. Martin/St. Maarten: Crossing a national boundary doesn’t get easier than here in this two-nation island Only a small roadside marker lets you know when you’ve driven from French St. Martin into Dutch St. Marrten. The island is the smallest piece of land shared by two sovereign powers anywhere in the world. On the Dutch side, hotel casinos are the lure; in the French hall, glossy boutiques with an abundance of duty-free merchandise turn the streets of the city of Marigot into a shopper’s heaven. Less costly but well worth the experience is a visit to Marigot’s morning market at harborside to peruse the array of spices and fruit, shells and local crafts. Where to Stay: the sparkling, new L’Habitation, built by French insurance money on the north side of the French half, with inventive architecture and oceans of tropical flowers in full bloom on the grounds.

The U.S. Virgin Islands: The three sister islands of St. Thomas, St. John and St. Croix seem to contain as many people from the continental U.S. as from the Virgin Islands (particularly St. Thomas), They go lor the watersports, the miles of pristine beaches, the brilliant tropical fish and coral reefs. Most Americans seem to stay in St. Thomas, visit St. John by taking the ferry and hop over to St. Croix on the seaplane. One reason is the maze of shops in downtown Charlotte Ama-lie in St. Thomas, where a visitor can purchase up to $800 duty free and then just keep on spending by sending home up to $100 per day duty free. So it pays to stay under the American flag, although the shops can get pretty crowded when several of the big cruise ships are in town at the same time. Where to Stay: Stouffer is now managing the Virgin Grand Beach Hotel, built by the Tram-mell Crow interests of Dallas. With dramatic columns, dormers and burgundy awnings, it’s an eye-stopper, and at least some of the rooms and suites terraced up the hillside have glamorous views of the sea.

Aruba: Deep down in the Caribbean, off the coast of Venezuela, lies the tiny Dutch island of Aruba, A healthy, dry climate with an average year-round temperature of 82 and cooling trade winds mark this as a favored spot lor Americans, Amid the island’s palm trees and cacti, a veritable melting pot of people exists; 40 nationalities are represented among the 56,000 inhabitants. The northern coast is rugged and wild, the beaches everywhere are clean and refreshing and the patchwork-quilt countryside of brightly-painted houses keeps the photographers sublimely happy Where to Stay: In Palm Beach, the Aruba Caribbean Hotel & Casino, newly restored, with 200 rooms and exotic tropical gardens,

St. Lucia: With a turbulent history (the island changed hands between the British and French 14 times over 150 years), the island is now an independent state within the British Commonwealth Visitors here can go from beaches to jungles and even to mountaintops, and St. Lucia has a quiescent (but still bubbling) volcano, which tourists visit to wander among the steaming sulfur pits and bubbling mudholes. Where to Stay: The Couples St. Lucia in Castries means just what its name says. It takes couples only.