20 May 2025

 

The Caribbean

We offer a wide choice of cheap flights to The Caribbean together with The Caribbean hotels, tours and self-drive itineraries.

Marco’s dream boat

Jo Foley cooks up a storm with the godfather of modern cuisine…

The Caribbean - Relax onboard The Ventura The Caribbean - Try a shack snack with traditional ingredients The Caribbean - Table talk: Marco with Ventura diners

1 Relax onboard The Ventura 2 Try a shack snack with traditional ingredients 3 Table talk: Marco with Ventura diners

WATCHING Marco Pierre White dealing with grilled tomatoes is a treat. He ordered them for breakfast, then set about performing a small massacre – skinning, slapping and squashing them on to slices of toast.

Noticing how quiet the table had become, he looked up and stated emphatically: ‘Chefs always skin tomatoes.’ This was just one of many nuggets he dispensed at the cookery classes on board P&O’s Ventura, which were fully booked practically before the ship pulled out of Southampton.

For £75, eight budding Nigellas or Jamies had the undivided attention of the master, who taught us how to sauté, steam, season and scoff all manner of delights.

He does these trips – which include book signings and Q&A sessions – several times a year and is the consultant to the onboard restaurant, The White Room. There were almost 3,000 of us on the ship for a cruise to the Caribbean. It’s a great trip for seadogs, as you spend as much time on the ocean as you do visiting land. There are whole days with no land in sight.

We headed across the Bay of Biscay in all its heaving glory. After that, it was days in the Atlantic before being warmly welcomed at the first call in the Caribbean, Tortola, which is small (although the largest of the British Virgin Islands), with terrific beaches.

There are whole days with no land in sight

Then full steam ahead for St Martin, fantastic for great duty free shopping; St Lucia, all dramatic landscapes, sulphur springs and volcanic sand; and, finally, home by air from Barbados. The Ventura is made for families. The Reef Club takes children from two, with different activities devoted to different age groups.

Younger children may just want play school, while the older ones certainly went for the ‘rock school’, where they could learn guitar and drums.

One of the most popular areas of the ship was the Cirque Ventura, open to children of all ages and their parents. There was a circus school where you could learn tightrope walking or trapeze tricks.


There was even a bungee trampoline. I was not sure who was the most worried – 11-year-old Scott Taylor as he, tight-lipped and steely-eyed, took his first tentative steps on the tightrope, or poor Jan, his mother, who looked on with a forced smile.

But Scott was in safe hands and by the time his lesson finished he was visualising himself walking across Niagara Falls.

I toyed with the idea of tightrope walking, but instead opted for the Oasis Spa, apparently the largest on board any cruise ship. It comes with a gym and exercise studio, fitness classes from stretch to yoga, as well as a hair and beauty salon, plus its own swimming pool just for adults.

You can shower and sauna to your heart’s delight

For £10, you get unlimited access to the Thermal Suite, where you can steam, shower and sauna to your heart’s delight.

The treatments included a detox special, featuring a number of colonic cleansing therapies. I plumped for the medi-spa concept. This was a potent mix of lifting and shaping your saggy bits using ‘galvanic currents’, acupuncture to balance your system and energise, reflexology and bamboo stick massage.

I loved it all, particularly the acupuncture – although, was it brave or foolhardy to have 70 or so needles on my face and body as we rolled over the waves? The calm and kind Dr Nav improved my sleep, while the amazing reflexologist and masseuse brought incredible relief to my neck and shoulders. My great find was Dr Marko, the dentist, who whitened my teeth.

This is possibly the best deal onboard at almost half the cost it would be back home – just £198. The only drawback was no coffee and no red wine for a few days. The most glamorous bar was Metropolis and no fewer than 12 restaurants. My favourite? Well, Marco is far too terrifying for me not to choose his. Actually, he’s a big softie.

When I came across him signing copies of his book, he was politeness itself and asked if I had any questions. ‘Why do you never brush your hair?’ I wanted to ask. But then I realised I liked his hair just as it was.


I'm mad about the local dishes

Marco Pierre White tells of his passion for Jamaican food

I really like Jamaica and I’ve developed a serious love for the food. I was there recently at the invitation of Sandals to present the local food awards in Kingston, so it was a great opportunity to rediscover eating places I had enjoyed on previous trips and chefs.

When I go to Jamaica, I love the simple jerk shacks, and buying fish from the friendly locals.

This time I made sure I sampled all the traditional favourites: curried goat, jerk chicken, peas and rice. But what I always enjoy is the fish – it’s utterly delicious. One of my favourite places is Scotchies in Montego Bay, a collection of little tiki huts in beautiful gardens, where I had a bottle of Red Stripe and some jerk chicken and it was one of the best experiences.

Wherever I travel I want to eat what the local people are eating. For breakfast at a jerk shack I have peanut porridge. I also love the ackee and saltfish, the national dish. At Fisherman’s Beach in Ocho Rios I have their fried fish, at Negril the peppered shrimps.

And their patties are delicious – the chicken ones especially.

I love the simple jerk shacks

I like hanging out with the locals and watch them chop the heads off coconuts. On Fisherman’s Beach I roll my jeans up and help the boys drag their boats up out of the water. Food is part of who the Jamaicans are.

It works in their environment, though I’m not sure you could present it in a London restaurant. I see a special kind of spirituality in the food - sophisticated, but humble and intelligent. What Jamaican cuisine has in its favour is the quality of local ingredients, the fantastic fish, great lobster, avocados bigger than you have ever seen, delicious mangoes and wonderful coconuts.

My children also love it there. There are so many sides to Jamaica. There’s reggae, you can visit Noel Coward’s old home Firefly, which is a delight.

And my friendship with Butch Stewart, who founded Sandals 30 years ago, has given me an entrée into places in Jamaica that most other people don’t normally see, such as being taken into the Blue Mountains and shown how to make authentic Jamaican jerk spice. The perfect busman’s holiday!

This article was featured in the July 2011 DialAFlight magazine. All information was correct at time of going to print.

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