There’s a particular delight in finding the perfect beach town in the Caribbean, a place that manages to marry a pristine stretch of sand with a walkable, energetic, culture-filled mini-destination. 

While great beach towns (and beach cities) abound in the Caribbean, from legendary spots like Grand Case, Saint Martin to surf hotspots like Cabarete, it’s the Caribbean’s tiny beach towns that really manage to yank at your heart strings. 

Here are five of our favorite small beach towns in the Caribbean, ranging from the heart of the French Caribbean to a tucked-away destination on the Caribbean coast of Mexico. 

Le Carbet, Martinique It began with a beach bar, Le Petibonum, that almost single-handedly turned this lovable village just south of Saint Pierre into a bucket-list destination. Now, Le Carbet is a buzzing (but still quite laid back) beach destination with a growing number of toes-in-the-sand eateries and a hard-to-match barefoot vibe. It doesn’t hurt that just across from the sand is one of the Caribbean’s most legendary rum distilleries, Rhum Neisson.