Successfully promoted itself as a popular destination for jetsetters and snowbirds fleeing the North American winter. Nassau, the sprawling, crowded capital, has become nearly indistinguishable from many US cities. Yet there are lots of places among the country's 700 islands and 2500 cays to disappear into a mangrove forest, explore a coral reef and escape the high-rise hotels and package-tour hype.

The 18th-century Privateers' Republic has become the 20th-century banker's paradise, at least on New Providence and Grand Bahama. On the other islands - once known as the Out Islands but now euphemistically called the Family Islands - the atmosphere is less oriented toward the North American tourist and more toward the rhythms of West Indian life. You'll certainly be more in tune with the local environment listening to a rake 'n' scrape band in a bar on a backwater cay than sunning by the pool at a Paradise Island resort.

Think Bermuda and images of tidy pastel cottages, pink-sand beaches and quintessential British traditions like cricket matches and afternoon tea spring to mind, plus of course those professional gents going about their business in jackets, ties and Bermuda shorts, as if they forgot to put their pants on. For once the stereotype matches up to reality, though you may be somewhat disoriented if you mistakenly thought Bermuda was somewhere in the Caribbean. The island is, in fact, situated in the western Atlantic Ocean, nearly 600 nautical miles off the coast of North Carolina.

The majority of visitors to Bermuda come from North America for short stays, and most consider the island to be quaintly British; the Brits, on the other hand, come in much smaller numbers but tend to consider the island highly Americanized. It is, of course, uniquely Bermudian - a product of nearly four centuries of British colonial history and an equally long reliance on American trade.

Dotted with deal-cutting characters with briefcases and cell phones, scuba divers in electric wetsuits and English folk checking the cricket scores over a g&t. The Caymans are colorful: coral reefs, bright orange frogfish, sociable stingrays and reggae beats on the street. They're mellow: leaf blowers are noisier than the traffic, and most of the smoke comes from cruise-shippers plugging their faces with Cuban cigars. Hell, even Hell's chilled out in the Caymans.

The islands have long been a haven for bankers and divers, but travelers of all stripes are now flocking there in growing numbers. As a result, resorts and condos have sprung up all over, and you can count on air-con, cold beer and ESPN. But if you want to get away from it all (well, except the cold beer), there are lots of places in the Caymans to escape satellite dishes and slickness, not least of them underwater.

The string of islands to the south of Miami were once underwater coral reefs, and they're still recognized for their great diving and marine life today. Linked to Miami by a precarious island-hopping 135-mile (216km) highway, the string of islands ends at Key West, the legendary land of Hemingway, sunset celebrations and Key Lime Pie.

Key West's reputation as a tropical paradise with gorgeous sunsets and sultry nightlife is well-earned. It's been overrun by tourists, but if you look carefully you'll find fleeting images of the Key West of the past: walking through the narrow side streets away from the action, you'll see lovely Keys architecture and get a sense of how the locals who aren't there to sell you a T-shirt or book you on a glass-bottomed boat ride live.

Key West is roughly oval shaped, with most of the action taking place at the western end. Mallory Square, at the far northwestern tip, is the site of nightly sunset celebrations. The best diving is off Key West's southern shore.

Key West is the most populated and touristed of the islands. It lies about 160 miles (258km) from Miami along the Overseas Highway. Greyhound buses leave Miami's Bayside Station for the 5 hour trip several times a day. American Airlines, Chalk's International Air, Gulf stream Air and USAir all have several flights a day between Miami and Key West. Key West's airport is at the southeastern end of the island.

A traveler's paradise, crammed with a multitude of opposing identities: desert landscapes, snow-capped volcanoes, ancient ruins, teeming industrialized cities, time-warped colonial towns, glitzy resorts, lonely beaches and a world-beating collection of flora and fauna. The bursting megalopolis of Mexico City is a one-hour flight from the tropical rainforests and Mayan villages of Chiapas. Up along the northern border, Mexico's tumult of heritages merge with the air-conditioned cultures of California, Arizona, New Mexico and Texas.

Mexico's profusion of people and landscapes reflects the country's extraordinary history - part Amerindian, part Spanish. One look at this country is enough to remind visitors that there is nothing new about the so-called New World. Despite the considerable colonial legacy and rampant modernization, almost 60 distinct indigenous peoples survive, largely thanks to their rural isolation.

This mix of modern and traditional, the clichéd and the surreal, is the key to Mexico's immense popularity as a travel destination, whether your passion is throwing back margaritas, listening to howler monkeys, surfing the Mexican Pipeline, scrambling over Mayan ruins or expanding your Day of the Dead collection of skeletons.

A cosmopolitan capital city, incredible rainforest and some of the finest snorkeling, birding and deep-sea fishing in the world, so it's hard to figure out why travelers tend to steer clear of this country or just whiz through. It may have something to do with the fact that Panama is known internationally for its canal, the 1989 US invasion and the name it donated to a style of headgear, but this does it no justice.

The reality is a proud prosperous nation that honors its seven Indian tribes and its rich Spanish legacy and embraces visitors so enthusiastically that it's difficult to leave without feeling that you're in on a secret that the rest of the traveling world will one day uncover.

The spiky lizard-shaped island has a rambunctious past peppered with the exploits of men named after their facial hair. You'd think the stomping ground of Blackbeard and the mythical Bluebeard would be the last place to turn into the quintessential American beach suburb, but a fine port is a fine port whether you're unloading booty, slaves or cruise ship passengers. St Thomas is overly developed and fixated on shopping but it's also strikingly pretty, thanks to a spine of hills whose forested ridges form headlands separating bays and coves filled with turquoise-blue water. There are more than forty beaches fringing the island, and snorkeling and dive spots galore.