The Caribbean Islands from Above

With magnificent top-down aerial shots of the Carribean Sea, you can see why "Dronecorleone - Caribe" was nominated for Drone Video of the Week and was a Drone Video of the Month Staff Pick for October 2018. The shots of wild horses contrast perfectly with glittering views of the cities which line the great sea. The video includes epic aerial views of Curacao, the Mexican resort town of Cancun, the Dominican Republic, the Colombian port city of Cartagena, the Venezuelan Caribbean islands, and more.

The eastern boundary of the Caribbean Sea is formed by a chain of islands called the Lesser Antilles.  They begin east of Puerto Rico and form an arc which loops east and south and ends at Trinidad and Tobago, right off the coast of Venezuela.  Top AirVuz contributor and pilot Lewieque took a DJI Mavic Pro drone along on a trip to this tropical paradise and created this beautiful aerial collage of some of these Lesser Antilles: St Thomas, Antiqua, Barbuda, Barbados, Grenada, and Curacao, plus Aruba.  

The Cayman Islands are the smallest of the Greater Antilles, the group of islands which lie in the northern Caribbean Sea.  It's a group of three islands which are under British control, the largest of which is Grand Cayman.  The Caymans are known for their white sand beaches as well as their secretive banking system which has made the territory an offshore financial haven.  In this video, top contributor Majestic applies his considerable editing skills to give us a marvelous time-lapsed view of Grand Cayman.

Cuba "anchors" the Caribbean as the westernmost of the Greater Antilles islands which form its northern boundary.  Once home to the strongest tourist trade in the region, tourism fell off dramatically with the 1959 revoution, but has begun to recover with the normalization of Cuban-US relations in recent years.  Contributor Yan Nielsen traveled to the capital city Havana with a DJI Mavic drone, and his aerial video reveals the varying degrees of restoration and lack thereof throughout the historic city.  

Contributor and pilot Elena Buenrostro has turned her passion for drones and aerial videography into a career; she's been featured in numerous high profile publications including the Washington Post and Fast Company.  In this video, she puts her DJI Mavic Pro 2 drone to work creating an look at the Caribbean island of Jamaica.  The video includes epic timelapse and asteroid mode shots, and a very creative dronie with her "Woman Who Drone" tagline etched into the famous white sands of this tropical Caribbean island.

While Haiti is considered a Caribbean nation, some of its most beautiful (and historic) spots are actually along its northern coast, which is not on the Caribbean but rather the South Atlantic.  This area has always maintained a distinctive flavor relative to the central and southern parts of the country.  In this video by Malfini Photography, you'll get a drone's eye view of some of these spots, including Fort Picolet, Cap Haitien, Milot, La Citadelle, Cormier Plage, Baie de Cadras, and Ile Amiga. 

In this video, you'll get a bird's eye view of the Haitian island of Tortuga, compliments of contributor Malfini Photography.  Tortuga is a smallish island which sits just off the northwestern coast of mainland Haiti.  For nearly two centuries, Tortuga was intimately connected to Caribbean region piracy, and was a much feared name amongst shippers in the area.    The mountainous island was depicted in the Pirates of the Caribbean series, although the actual filming took place in St. Vincent and the Grenadines.     

In this video by Dronesantana007 from the Caribbean Islands, you'll get epic bird's eye views of one of the Greater Antilles and two of the Lesser Antilles, all in the same video.  Labadee is a major cruise ship port on the northern part of Haiti, one of the Greater Antilles Islands that forms the northern border of the sea.  Saint Martin and St. Kitts are part of the Lesser Antilles group, specifically the Leeward Antilles subgroup which runs on an east-west axis from the British Virgin Islands to Guadeloupe.  

Contributor Liemur Lissa used her DJI Mavic Pro drone to create an unforgettable record of her trip to the island nation of the Dominican Republic.  Using a mix of aerial and ground footage, she provides a spectacular bird's eye view of the sights and sounds of this magical Caribbean island which shares the island of Hispaniola with its neighbor Haiti which is situated immediately to its west.  It's part of the Greater Antilles chain of larger islands which form most of the northern boundary of the Caribbean.   

Top contributor Thatdroneview created this marvelous aerial tour of Puerto Rico, the United States Territory in the Caribbean Sea.  The video features bird's eye views of the island's crystal clear waters, mangrove-lined beaches, and the jade-colored mountains, and other natural and cultural features which make it a perennial favorite amongst Caribbean travel destinations. The video was shot using a combination of aerial footage from a DJI Phantom 4 drone and ground camera footage.  

Contributor Invincible Storm Films used a DJI Mavic Pro 2 to shoot this beautiful drone video from two of the most magnificent spots in the Caribbean.  The first location is in the rainforest in the interior of Puerto Rico, the USA territory which is the easternmost of the Greater Antilles (the larger islands of the Caribbean).  The other spot is the US Virgin Islands, another US territory and one of the Lesser Antilles, which lies to the southeast of Puerto Rico and due south of the British Virgin Islands.  

The US Virgin Islands territory consists of three main islands aligned as a narrow "V", with St. Thomas and St. John at the "tips" and St. Croix at the base. In this drone video from Austin J, you'll get a bird's eye view of St. John, which lies just a few km/mi east of St Thomas.  St. Johns is generally favored by those USVI travelers valuing  seclusion: compared to St. Thomas, St. John has only about a tenth the population density.  The main reason: roughly 60% of St. John's land area is part of the US Virgin Islands National Park.  

Top AirVūz contributor and former Drone Video of the Week Winner semberadventure brings us this remarkable video from Antigua, the main island of the Caribbean nation of Antigua and Barbuda.  Consisting of two major islands of Antigua and Barbuda, this sovereign state is located in the West Indies between the Atlantic Ocean and the Caribbean Sea.   The video features footage of the following locations: Fort Barrington, Shirley Heights, Fort Berkeley, English Harbour, Falmouth Harbour, Half Moon Bay, Deep Water Bay, and more.  

St. Thomas is the northwesternmost of the three Caribbean islands known as the United States Virgin Islands. It lies just to the west of St. John and some distance to the north of St. Croix, the largest of the group.  While opinions differ, St. Thomas is generally considered the most beautiful of the US Virgin Islands.  In this drone video by contributor and pilot Jtcfilms, you'll get a bird's eye view of this bit of Caribbean paradise.  It was filmed from the Marriott in Frenchman's Cove and the  surrounding areas.

Take in these stunning drone views of the British Virgin Islands in the Caribbean Sea, compliments of FSJR.  Comprised of four main and 50 small islands, the BVI's are an Overseas Territory of the UK in the northern Caribbean Sea, with Puerto Rico to the west, the US Virgin Islands to the south, and Anguilla to the east.   Filmed primarily from a yacht, the video features footage of Tortola Island, one of the BVI's four main islands, as well as the small islands of Normand, Cooper, Little Jost Van Dyke, Diamond Cay, and Sandy Spit.

The Caribbean Sea has always been a place of shipwrecks, particularly before the age of modern navigation.  With its position in the northeastern corner of the Lesser Antilles islands, and with numerous shallow spots and once-uncharted sand bars, the small island of Anguilla has seen more than its share of ships running aground or sinking off its shores.  In this video by Iain Jordan, you'll get an aerial view of some of these wrecks off of Sandy Ground Road Bay on the northern side of the island.   

Check out this fantastic drone video of the Caribbean paradise known as Sint Maarten, compliments of AGLAerials.  St. Maarten is what's known as a "constituent country" of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, a status it shares with the southern "ABC" Caribbean islands of Aruba, Bonaire, and Curaçao.  Sint Maarten occupies the southern part of the island of St. Martin, which it shares with the French territory of Saint-Martin.  The island is one of the Leeward Islands, just south of Anguilla. 

Measuring at only 5 square miles, Saba is a tiny island in the Caribbean.  It's part of the Lesser Antilles chain, between St. Martin to the north and St. Kitts to the south.  The smallest official municipality of the Netherlands, the geographic features mostly consist of the volcano Mount Scenery. Shot with a DJI Mavic Pro, Panasonic GH5, and GoPro Hero 4, this Drone Video of the Week winner by Jturner features both fantatic aerials and stunning underwater shots of the abundant sea life and coral reefs. 

Contributor mtpetrick put together this beautiful travel video from the Caribbean Sea paradise known as Saint Kitts and Nevis.  The smallest country in the Western Hemisphere, the nation consists of the larger island of Saint Kitts and its sister Nevis, which lies just a few km/mi to the southeast.  Home to some of the first Spanish  settlements in the New World, the islands became the most important English territories in the Caribbean Sea beginning in the latter part of the 1600's.  They were granted full sovereignty in 1983.

Prepare to be completely blown away by this incredible drone video of the Caribbean island of Guadeloupe, compliments of top contributor Majestic and his DJI Mavic Pro 2 drone.  An overseas territory of France, Guadeloupe is one of the Lesser Antilles chain of islands that forms the eastern boundary of the sea.  The video includes brilliant footage of top Guadeloupe sights like Terre de Haut, Les Saintes Island, Fort Napoléo. Waterfall Les chutes du Carbet, and La Grande Soufrière Volcano

Contributor la.drones brought a drone along on a trek to the famous Boiling Lake on the island of Dominica.  It's in the Morne Trois Pitons National Park, home to some of the finest hiking trails in the Caribbean.  The Boiling Lake is so called because of the greenish-blue bubbles which emanate from it.  In the video you'll get an aerial view of the lake, as well as other epic sights of Dominica, a primary filming location for the 2006 box-office smash film Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest.

Top AirVuz contributor Julien57120 brings us this fantastic drone video of the Caribbean islands of Guadeloupe and Martinique.  The two islands, both of which are French territories, are part of the Lesser Antilles, a chain of islands which forms the eastern end of the Caribbean.  They are situated roughly in the middle of the chain, on either side of the island of Dominica (which was also once a French colony but since has become independent).  This video was picked as a Finalist for the Drone Video of the Week contest in May of 2021.  

Check out this fantastic drone video of the Caribbean island of St. Lucia, compliments of top contributor and pilot 8 Fifty Productions.  St. Lucia is situated roughly in the middle of the Windward Antilles chain which runs in an approximately north-south line from Dominica to Trinidad.  Known at one time as the "Helen of the West Indies" due to its alternating control by France and Great Britain, it's been fully independent since 1979.  Visually, it is best distinguished by the 950 meter (just over 3k ft.) volcanic island Mt. Gimie. 

For volcano lovers seeking a Caribbean island vacation, the go-to spot is the tiny island of St. Vincent.  The primary island of the sovereign nation of St. Vincent and the Grenadines, it's dominated by the Soufrière Saint Vincent volcano.  The mountain towers over the northern part of the island, rising to a peak of 1.2k meters (just over 4k ft.) above sea level.  In this video from Aerial Norway, you'll get a great bird's eye view of the volcano, one of the highest mountains in the Caribbean.  

Contributor Niall Thomas brings us this beautiful drone video of the island of Barbados, near the capital city of Bridgetown.  On a map of the Caribbean islands, Barbados appears as an outlier; it sits outside the line of islands known as the Lesser Antilles which form the eastern boundary of the sea.  Situated due east of St. Kitts, it is still considered part of the Windward (southernmost) group of the Lesser Antilles.  Part of the British Commonwealth, it's been an independent nation since the 1960's.

Get a bird's eye view of the Caribbean island of Grenada, compliments of contributoe Don Carlo.  The island is part of the Windward Antilles, the chain of islands which forms the southern half of the Lesser Antilles chain which extends from the Virgin Islands to Trinidad.  An independent nation since 1974, Grenada gained worldwide attention when it was invaded by United States military forces in 1983 following a period of political instability when the country veered towards Communist control.   

AirVuz contributor triniweeks brings us this memorable aerial tour of the island of Trinidad, the largest "member" of the island nation of Trinidad & Tobago in the eastern Caribbean Sea.  "Discovered" by Christopher Columbus on his third trip to the New World (having been inhabited for centuries by native peoples), Trinidad lies just a few miles/km off the coast of Venezuela.  With its substantial hydrocarbon reserves (particularly natural gas), Trinidad & Tobago is one of the richest nations in the Western Hemisphere.

Contributor 360media created this drone video of the Venezuelan islands of Margarita and Coche.   Situated in the southern Caribbean Sea, they represent two of the three islands of Nueva Esparta, one of the country's 23 states.  Margarita, the largest of the islands, was visited by Christopher Columbus in 1498.  The island is split into two large peninsulas.  Coche lies to the south of the eastern part of Margarita, to the east of the (largely uninhabited) Cubagua, the state's third island.  

Los Roques is an archipelago of hundreds of small islands in the southern Caribbean Sea.  It lies north of the coast of Venezuela, of which it is part.  The Los Roques islands are known around the world for stunning blue waters, white sand beaches, and ubiquitous coral reefs.  In this video, top contributor Isabellefabre uses a drone and ground camera to show us the range of activities available on this Caribbean paradise, which is located due east from the somewhat better known island of Curacao.

If you are looking for some epic close-up shots of kiteboarders that only a drone can deliver, this aerial video by Oliver Leyba is very hard to beat.  It was shot with a DJI Phantom 4 drone at Bonaire, a small Caribbean island in the Leeward Antilles. The island is a possession of the Netherlands and is the "B" in the sub-group group known as the "ABC" islands, the other two being Aruba and Curacao.  In addition to being stunningly beautiful, the ABC's have the distinct advantage of lying outside of Hurricane Alley.  

Prepare to be blown away by this epic travel video from Curaçao, the island paradise in the southern Caribbean.  It's situated just to the east of Aruba and a roughly equal distant north of the Venezuelan coast.   Curaçao was once part of the Netherlands Antilles, which dissolved in 2010 at which point Curaçao reverted to being a Dutch territory. In this video, top contributor th3venture used a DJI Mavic Pro drone and combined ground camera footage to create an epic bird's eye view of the island.  

Check out this stunning DVOW-nominated aerial tour of the Caribbean island of Aruba, compliments of top contributor inigui.  A Dutch territory, Aruba is located in the southern (hurricane-free) part of the Caribbean, a short distance from the Venezuelan mainland.  In addition to some great shots of Aruba's legendary sailing and boating scene, you'll see some of its most beautiful beaches, notably the Palm Beach on the northwestern coast of the island; it's home to some of Aruba's most popular resorts.  

San Andres is an island in the western Caribbean Sea.  While it's a territory of Colombia, the mainland of which lies 750 km (around 450 mi.) to its south, it's actually much closer to the Central American countries of Nicaragua, Costa Rica, and Honduras.  Because of its location relative to busy shipping lanes, San Andres is the site of many shipwrecks.  In this video, top contributor la.drones flies a drone over one of these wrecks near Rocky Cay, producing an amazing aerial perspective through the deep blue Caribbean waters. 

Canadian contributor Braybraywoowoo created this epic drone video of Panama's San Blas Islands.  The islands lay off the east (Caribbean) coast of this Central American country.  It's an archipelago of over 350 islands, only about 15% of which are inhabited.  The San Blas Islands are considered an important watchpoint in the process of global warming; due to their low, flat terrain they are highly vulnerable to changes in worldwide sea levels and will be at great risk if current worldwide temperature trends continue.

Utila is a small Caribbean island off the coast of Honduras in Central America.  It's part of a system called the Great Mayan Reef, which also includes the nearby islands of  Roatán and Guanaja.  These three islands, known as the Bay Islands, represent the southern end of the great reef, the second largest such structure in the world.  For this reason, the Bay Islands offer some of the world's best diving waters.  In this video by contributor Leogiraudeau, you'll get a bird's eye view of Utila.  

Ambergris Caye is one of the largest and least well known islands of the western Caribbean.  It sits off the coast of northeastern Belize, just below on add-shaped southern extension of Mexico's Yucatan Peninsula.  Its primary settlement is the town of San Pedro, near its southern tip.  On a scuba diving trip, contributor Jeven Dovey used his DJI Mavic Pro drone to create this unforgettable aerial portrait of this Central American paradise, which has become a world-class scuba diving destination. 

Cozumel is the most well known of the Mexican islands in the Caribbean Sea.  It sits a short ferry ride off the Mayan Riviera area of the mainland, south of Cancun, in the state of Quintana Roo.  Cozumel's tourism business was fairly modest until the Cancun area began to develop in the 1970's.  Now, Cozumel is home to a world-class scuba diving scene and it's an active cruise ship port of call.  In this video, you'll get a bird's eye view of this beautiful mangrove-covered island, compliments of contributor Isabelle Vaca.

Check out this stunning drone video of the long narrow island off the coast of Mexico called Isla Mujeres, compliments of contributor Reelspecial.  It's a short boat trip from Cancun, the largest resort city on the Yucatan Peninsula.  In pre-Columbian times, it was associated with the Mayan goddess of childbirth.  At about the 2:00 mark you'll get a great view of Playa Norte at the north end of the island; this beach recently appeared in the #7 spot of Coastal Living's ranking of the world's top beaches.