Dorado Beach, a Ritz-Carlton Reserve, Puerto Rico

One of my favorite destinations in the world is the Caribbean with its warm waters, sandy shores, and great cocktails. With so much destruction during Hurricane’s Irma and Maria over a year ago, I am thrilled to report most of the best beaches and waterfront hotels are back in action with quite a few of them better than before. The perfect retreat for millions of tourists worldwide, the Caribbean not only offers up an amazing escape from cold winter climates but also creates memories to last for a lifetime.

Situated on Puerto Rico’s Caribbean coast yet worlds away from typical luxury beach resorts, Dorado Beach, a Ritz-Carlton Reserve is an intimate retreat offering a true sense of barefoot elegance. Blending Laurance Rockefeller’s novel environmental design philosophies and modern, yet minimal décor, this Dorado Beach resort blurs the boundaries between outside and in, creating an open-air enclave that embraces the natural splendor and diverse culture of an unspoiled corner of the world. With acclaimed chef José Andrés at the helm of his first Caribbean restaurant, Mi Casa, guests can enjoy an epicurean adventure that reflects Puerto Rico’s heritage as the crossroads of Spanish, Caribbean and American cuisine.

Some of my finest memories include floating in the bathtub-warm waters of Aruba, sailing in the British Virgin Islands, deep sea fishing in Nicaragua and countless others. I have included several destinations like Bermuda, Turks & Caicos and the Bahamas that are not in the Caribbean but are an important part of the area, and also feature stunning beaches.

I have become a bit of a beach aficionado having personally visited most of Caribbean beaches. Another of my best childhood memories were to wake up very early on the morning with my uncle in order to do some beach scavenge, personally I found it a really fun and relaxing activity, if you want to try with a beginner metal detector here are some tips:

Wet sand metal detecting

When metal detecting below the high water mark there are a few golden do’s and don’ts.

• Do not rush out and buy the cheapest metal detector available, you must have the right machine for the job, being stable on the wet sand in conjunction with deep seeking capabilities.
• To find the gold and coinage in quantity, the type of beach composition you must be looking for is: brown sand on black sand, black sand, hard pack, stone beds on black or hard pack sand, all these mediums must be within the depth range of your machine.
• Look for iron-infested patches, the art in working this type of beach is to use the all-metal mode on your detector and isolate each signal with a circular motion of the search coil. Now test the signal on discriminate whilst being careful not to overlap to another signal. I found an Edwardian purse full of coinage; three of the coins we took them to Gainesville Coins and their latest silver spot price and we have found that there were two Sovereigns and a Crown, from this type of area.

Dry sand metal detecting

By this we mean above the high water mark, will produce lots of recent losses in the form of coins and jewelry. If you find any piece of jewelry, try to find the owner by starting at the local police station, ask them if anything has been reported lost within the last few months in the area you found it. The look on someone’s face when you return a lost ring or trinket is worth every penny.

Look at the beach during the day or find a postcard showing the beach at the height of summer, this will show the ‘hot spots’ to search where you have the greatest numbers of people congregating.

Try and detect before people are on the beach and after they have left, this causes the least inconvenience to other beach users and you won’t feel like the ‘pied piper’ with hoards of kids trying to dig your every signal.

Last and by no means least, please remember to fill in any holes you have dug, even on the beach, leave everything as you found it and take any litter home or dispose of it thoughtfully, it’s a great hobby, let’s keep it that way!

You can’t argue with the beauty, popularity, and price of admission of Puerto Rico’s beaches. One of its most alluring assets, the island’s beaches (over 270 miles of them!) are a main draw for millions of tourists. Note, however, that not all beaches are free. At public beaches, called Balnearios, you’ll have to pay a parking fee, but in return, you get amenities like lifeguards, picnic areas, and restrooms. The vast majority of the island’s beaches, however, are unspoiled, idyllic spots where the warm Caribbean water meets the sun-kissed Puerto Rican sand.