Curacao, off the Venezuelan coast, is an oil refining and tourist centre, boasting white-sand beaches, crystalline waters and popular casinos.

BBC: Curacao profile

Yet the country is still a popular stopover for cruises, and, being that it is home to the world's second longest barrier reef, impressive eco-tourism attractions and relaxing white-sand beaches, tourism is still one of its top sources of revenue.

BBC: Central America��s shift in safety

Which it does: serene views of Little Narragansett Bay and Block Island Sound, spotless white-sand beaches, and a newly rebuilt, grand inn atop a scenic bluff, the Ocean House, which for decades had stood as a neglected sentinel, a reminder of grander times past.

FORBES

The wild geography and topography around Killary, with its gorse-covered mountains, sweeping valleys and white sand beaches, presents both stark beauty and physical challenges.

BBC: A finish line few will cross

It was not the miles of palm-fringed, white sand or the ludicrously blue sea that stunned me the Caribbean is littered with beaches fit for postcards it was the fact that there was virtually no development in any direction and hardly a soul in sight.

BBC: Colombia��s virtually vacant paradise