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WHAT TO SEE AND DO IN ANTIGUA AND BARBUDA

ANTIGUA

Antigua’s capital, ST JOHN'S, is tucked into a sheltered bay, about 5 miles west of the airport. Most hotels and resorts cluster north of here along Dickinson Bay and south in historic English Harbour. The best beaches hem the west coast between Jolly Harbour and Old Road Town. The wind-swept east is sparsely settled and has only a few beaches.

Intriguingly tatty, St.John's, is worth a spin for its cafes, restaurants, shops, cute museum and bustling market. The town all but shuts down at night and Sundays. North of here, the middle market of Antigua’s holidaymakers finds fun in the sun along Dickenson Bay, which has good swimming and plenty of aquatic activities.

Sparsely populated EASTERN ANTIGUA gets few visitors. There's plenty to keep you pondering Antigua’s colonial past while poking around the stone windmills straddling a quiet hill south of Pares, off the road to Long Bay where you will find the Great House and the distillery of Betty’s Hope, the island’s first sugar plantation, built in 1674. Continuing east, you’ll soon reach the turnoff to Seatons, home of Stingray City Antigua, where you can feed and swim with friendly stingrays and snorkel around a coral reef. Just before Long Bay itself, a rough 1-mile dirt road (better with a 4WD) veers off to Devil’s Bridge (near Willikies, Long Bay), a windswept bluff ringed by rugged cliffs shaped by the relentless crashing of powerful waves. If the tide is right, you can see the powerful blowhole at the far end in action. Views from the bluff are especially dramatic at sunset.

A short drive south of St John’s, JOLLY HARBOUR is a busy marina and dockside condominium village with a supermarket, ATM, pharmacy and a few restaurants and bars. South of here, the coastal road winds past some of Antigua’s best beaches, which are popular with locals on weekends - but otherwise often deserted.

Down in CADES BAY, the road passes a pineapple farm before cutting through rainforest as Fig Tree Dr which culminates in Swetes. From here, you’re back in St John’s in 20 minutes.

Nowhere does Antigua flaunt its maritime heritage more than in ENGLISH HARBOUR. It sits on two sheltered bays, Falmouth Bay and English Harbour, where salty boats and ritzy yachts bob in the water. The era when the British Navy was based here is still encapsulated in the beautifully restored Nelson’s Dockyards, the island’s top historical attraction.

BARBUDA

Barbuda’s only village, sleepy CODRINGTON, is home to most residents and the minuscule airport. It’s about 3.5 miles north of the ferry landing on the eastern edge of the lagoon with its famous frigate bird colony.

There is no such thing as a bad beach in Barbuda. All of them are hypnotic strips of pristine powdery white sand perfect for strolling, swimming, chilling and picnicking. The longest one is 17-Mile-Beach, also known as Palm Beach, which stretches along the western side of the narrow strip of land hemming in Codrington Lagoon. Coco Point in the south, next to the eponymous luxury resort, is just as sublime.