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Antigua & Barbuda travel guide
Sink your toes into powder-soft sand and stare into the dazzling turquoise waters of Antigua and Barbuda. Made up of two main tropical islands and many smaller islets, Antigua and Barbuda is a small nation located at the eastern edge of the Caribbean, with some of the Caribbean’s most beautiful beaches, cute little coves and rich reefs. If you can drag yourself away from the dreamy white sand beaches, you will be rewarded with candy-coloured villages, wonderful wildlife, historic forts and a bustling capital city.
Beaches in Antigua & Barbuda
If at least one local doesn’t mention the nation’s 365 beaches – one for each day of the year – we’ll eat our sunhats. They have the right to be proud, as the hundreds of bays and coves that clip the coastlines are worth shouting about from the traditional tin rooftops.
Classic Caribbean shores are the order of the day in Antigua and Barbuda: white sands, reef-protected waters with barely a wave in sight and swaying palms and sea grape trees. They’re all open to the public, and with this number of beaches to choose between, crowding is rarely a problem. View the top 10 beaches in Antigua and Barbuda.
Best beaches in Antigua & Barbuda
Dickenson Bay, Antigua
Most beaches are found on Antigua’s Caribbean west coast, with the more developed stretches near the capital around Dickenson Bay and further south near Jolly Harbour – within easy reach of the marinas and offering a bundle of beach activities from boat trips to paddleboarding.
Half Moon Bay, Antigua
Antigua’s east coast is the Atlantic side, where the breeze provides excellent conditions for windsurfers and kitesurfers on the beaches to the north. This is also where you’ll find some of the most beautiful bays in the Caribbean – Half Moon Bay and Nonsuch Bay.
Pink Sand Beach, Barbuda
Mile after mile of sand stretches from Spanish Point to Palmetto Point, forming the longest and, most likely, loveliest beach in the Caribbean. This isn’t any old sand… it’s bright white sand striped with powdered pink conch shells which gives the shore a rosy tint when the water (coloured the most dazzling turquoise) washes over it. Bright green dunes, driftwood, corals and shells complete the postcard perfection. Look out for the tracks of baby turtles who’ve scuttled into the waters, gallop along on horseback, snorkel among tiny tropical fish or stare through binoculars – just to confirm there really is no one else for miles around.
Antigua & Barbuda geography
Antigua & Barbuda history
Wildlife in Antigua & Barbuda
Activities in Antigua & Barbuda
Watersports
Diving in Antigua & Barbuda
There are dozens of incredible wrecks and reefs off the south and west coasts of Antigua and all-around Barbuda. And with warm, clear water and visibility of up to 140 feet, they’re well worth exploring.
Cades Reef off Antigua’s south coast has some fabulous shallow dive sites, including Pillars, Passage and School House. You can also dive around the Pillars of Hercules, which has shallower bits for snorkellers and beginner scuba divers, and deeper sections for experts – lookout for incredible coral coated boulders, sergeant majors and snappers.
Barracuda Reef is another favourite – a wall dive with coves, cracks and ledges and common sightings including turtles and nurse sharks. Off the west coast, the Andes Wreck sank in (not-so-deep) Deep Bay in 1905, and remains in an upright position for snorkelling and scuba diving around. You can also meet, touch and swim with stingrays in a natural pool at Stingray City to the east.
For PADI courses, equipment and tours, companies include Jolly Dive and Indigo Divers at Jolly Harbour and Dockyard Divers, Dive Carib and Soul Immersion in English Harbour. Though Barbuda has 70-something shipwrecks and countless reefs, diving companies haven’t set up shop here yet. There are places to hire tanks from though, as well as qualified locals who’ll take you on a tour if you ask around and some Antiguan companies will also provide trips on request.
Surfing in Antigua & Barbuda
Antigua and Barbuda’s conditions lend themselves more to kitesurfers than surfers, but when the wind whips up a storm swell (November – March is your best bet), you’ll see locals bring their boards to Antigua’s Galley Bay and Turtle Bay and Barbuda’s Palmetto Point to make the most of the waves. Half Moon Bay in Antigua also has a shore break which is great fun to bodysurf, and if conditions are right you can surf the reef outside.
South African Chris Bertish paddled 7500km to Antigua from Morocco in 2017, and SUP conditions around the islands are pretty perfect. Companies like Turtle’s surf shop run by the lovely Adrian at the Antigua Yacht Club Marina, Salty Dogs at Jolly Harbour and SUP Antigua on Dickenson Bay provide board hire and ACA certified instruction, as do a lot of the bigger resorts. For the blissful feeling of being the only paddleboarder on the planet, head to the famously empty, calm and beautiful stretch of Low Bay on Barbuda.
Windsurfing & kitesurfing in Antigua & Barbuda
The warm, insanely clear water and gentle breezes on Antigua’s Atlantic coast make for some incredible windsurf and kiting conditions. Nonsuch Bay and Jabberwock beach are the main spots for kiting – on the former, 40 Knots provide IKO lessons and rentals, while Kitesurf Antigua (run by Olympic windsurfer Eli Fuller) operate at Jabberwock. Elsewhere, Green Island, Dutchman’s Bay and Half Moon Bay also often have good conditions.
Buccaneer Cove on Dickenson Bay is a favourite beach for windsurfing, as is Dutchman’s Bay – both with consistent winds and shallow waters. On Barbuda, you may well have the whole of Low Bay to yourself if you bring your own gear, while the conditions around Spanish Point are also worth experiencing. The trade winds here blow best between November and July.
Sailing in Antigua & Barbuda
This nation and sailing go hand in hand and thanks to consistent trade winds, the conditions are first class. Antigua’s marinas include the Antigua Yacht Club, Falmouth Harbour, Jolly Harbour and Nelson’s Dockyard, while in Barbuda you can dock at Spanish Point, Palmetto Point, Gravenor Bay and the Palaster Reef National Park.
Antigua Sailing Week has been taking place for over 50 years in English and Falmouth Harbours, with a world-famous regatta featuring a hundred yachts. Other big events include the Antigua Classic Yacht Regatta in April (don’t miss the Parade of Classics through Nelson’s Dockyard after the race) and the Jolly Harbour Yacht Club Annual Regatta in November.
Bareboats are easy to come by, and besides circuits of the main isles (slow down when passing Antigua’s incredible Devil’s Bridge and Pillars of Hercules) there are over forty offshore islets to explore including Great Bird, Prickly Pear and Green Island. For beginners and improvers, Miramar sailing are an RYA school providing theory lessons and practical courses in Jolly Harbour, while in Falmouth, Ondeck run tours where you can help out onboard as well as providing short and long courses. The bigger hotels often have Hobie cat’s and Sunfish boats for guest to use, sometimes with instructors to show you the ropes.
Fishing in Antigua & Barbuda
One look at the restaurant menus and you’ll see that fishing plays a huge role in Antiguan and Barbudan life. The annual Antigua Sports Fishing tournament has been running for over 50 years, and inshore and offshore fishing are favourite pastimes for locals and tourists alike.
Most deep-sea fishing trips set off from Antigua and can be booked with companies like Mystic Amara in Jolly Harbour and Obsession Sportfishing at the marina in Falmouth. If you’re in Barbuda, Arthur who owns It’s A Bit Fishy! grill provides boat trips and will cook your catch in the restaurant for afters. Big game fish like barracuda, wahoo and yellow and blackfin tuna can be caught year-round, while others are more seasonal (come between January and April for white marlin or May to October for blue marlin).
When it comes to saltwater fly-fishing, you can hunt the elusive permit in the flats of Cades Bay or fish for tarpon at Jolly Harbour and the Darkwood and Galley Bay lagoons. Captain Nick Williams is Antigua’s local expert in this department and provides guided fly-fishing and light tackle excursions from the southwest of the island. On Barbuda, the bonefishing conditions in the Codrington lagoon are some of the finest in the Caribbean.
Canoeing & kayaking in Antigua & Barbuda
The lovely Jennie and Conrad run Antigua Paddles to provide kayak eco adventures, where you can pootle around hidden lagoons, through mangroves and over to diddy islets. It’s an amazing way to discover Antigua beyond the beaches, and your guide will point out all kinds of flora and fauna along the way. Elsewhere, there are dozens of smaller islands to paddle out to, and the bigger Antiguan and Barbudan hotels have a fleet of ocean kayaks for guests to use if you fancy exploring the local waters.
Land activities
Golf in Antigua & Barbuda
There are two golf courses, both on Antigua. To the north and three miles from St John’s is the Cedar Valley Golf Club, an 18-hole (par 70, 6157 yards) championship course. Set on gently rolling hills, it’s surrounded by tropical greenery with sights of the sea in the distance from the 16th and 18th holes. The Antigua Barbuda Open Golf Championship takes place here annually (usually in Feb), when golfers from all over the world compete in events for men, women, seniors and super-seniors.
Newer to the Antiguan golf scene is the Jolly Harbour Golf Club on the west end of the island. This is another 18-hole championship course (par 71, 5587 yards), designed by Karl Litton with seven lakes and cooling easterlies to make play pleasant.
Cycling & mountain biking in Antigua & Barbuda
Asphalt roads and dirt tracks run all over Antigua, and as long as you’re competent in contending with passing cars and traffic, the island’s your oyster. Bikes can take you to some seriously scenic lookout points like Shirley Heights and Monk’s Hill, and being on two wheels is also a marvellous way to explore the landscape of the Atlantic coast - don’t miss the spectacular Devil’s Bridge. The biggest places for bike hire on Antigua are Bike Plus in the capital, and Paradise Boats down at Jolly Harbour.
Barbuda’s small and flat enough to be perfectly cyclable, and a wander around the village will soon show you which locals provide bikes to hire.
Walking & hiking in Antigua & Barbuda
The drier months (December – August) are generally the best time of year for walking holidays, giving you the peak conditions for exploring this nation’s incredible trails. Antigua has some seriously scenic footpaths, taking you up its highest hill – Mount Obama (formerly Boggy Peak) – and its steepest, Sugar Loaf Hill. Gentler routes lead to Green Castle Hill (the ‘Stonehenge of the Caribbean’, with weird rock formations) and Shirley Heights (do this early evening to catch the sunset – it’s amazing). It can help to have a local to show you the way, which can be arranged through companies like Happy Heights and the Footsteps Rainforest Hiking Tours.
Guides can be especially handy if you want to explore Barbuda on foot as footpaths and signposts here are few and far between. That’s not to say this isle isn’t worth exploring though, with some fascinating routes from desert island beaches to historic ruins and incredible caves.
