Central America: the quiet Caribbean

How can vacationers enjoy the quiet, soul-restoring pleasures of the Caribbean -- the pristine beaches, swaying palms, turquoise waters and sleepy villages -- in the face of massive commercial development?

It’s getting harder.

The tropics are turning into a giant, crowded mall. To see this, visit Charlotte Amalie, U.S. Virgin Islands; San Juan, Puerto Rico; or Montego Bay, Jamaica, on a day when five giant cruise ships are in town, disgorging thousands of shoppers onto the quays and docks of these once-picturesque ports.

Remember Cancun? It was planned as a controlled ecological resort with widely spaced hotels along the shore that would avoid the wall-to-wall congestion of Miami Beach. Today, Miami Beach has arisen anew -- in Mexico. New in Cancun: a 5,000-person nightclub called the City; a 5,000-guest addition to the hotel strip called Riviera Cancun; an 11,000-room hotel project called Puerto Cancun; a district of condos and stores called Malecon Cancun; a nearby 700-room La Herradura project; a 371-room Grand Aqua Hotel, with conference space for 1,000 conventioneers; and a $100-million Formula One racetrack.

All this is in addition to 27,000 hotel rooms that predated the current construction.

This isn’t the only place. Book a room in a Caribbean high rise and you may look down onto row after row of lounge chairs filled with dozing tourists. Some of the lounge areas are as large as football fields.

So where do you go to enjoy the Caribbean that once was?

You might try deep in Central America, where Costa Rica has avoided the sprawling resorts by following a careful zoning policy of spacing hotels and restricting their size. It has preserved its quiet beaches and rain forests. It continues to provide, in each of its Caribbean-related areas, an authentic tropical vacation. For a variety of Costa Rican beach vacations, you might try Tico Travel at (800) 493-8426 or www.ticotravel.com.

Nicaragua is even more interesting. Because memories are still fresh of the civil war that raged there in the 1980s, some Americans are still reluctant to visit the country. Yet a recent United Nations survey called Nicaragua one of the safest countries in the region.

For unique beach vacations in Nicaragua, log on to www.toursnicaragua.com and scroll down to the “Beach Holidays” section, which tells about the peaceful Corn Islands off Nicaragua’s Caribbean coast -- little gems of white sand and clear, bathtub-warm water.

Says the tour operator: “The difference between the Corn Islands and other Caribbean pearls is simple. On Corn Island there are no fancy resorts, no perfume shops, supermarkets, golf courses or hordes of people lining up for all-you-can-eat buffets.... You are a visitor among the people of the island. You share the pace of their life.”

Another company offering Nicaraguan tours is G.A.P Adventures, which has a comprehensive, 15-day tour by bus, river ferries and local flights, making use of locally owned lodgings of a modest but adequate level, from $795 per person (not including airfare to Managua, Nicaragua).

Call (800) 465-5600 or log on to www.gapadventures.com.