Location: Margarita Island, Venezuela

Published: Endless Vacation Magazine

For those in search of adventure and a Caribbean vacation, it hardly gets more intrepid than Isla Margarita, some 25 miles off the coast of Venezuela. “I know the Caribbean well, but Margarita is something different,” says Hervé Lleonci,a Frenchman who settled on this cactus-covered island in 2000. “Other parts of the Caribbean can feel like the U.S., or England. There’s something Spanish here, but not really. It’s a place of its own.” Instead of cruise-ship passengers and vendors hawking dreadlock wigs, you’ll find pro windsurfers and Venezuelans from the mainland on duty-free shopping sprees.