Anguilla is a 35-square-mile piece of paradise offering interliners sun-drenched beaches and plush resorts. Enjoy yourself and enjoy yourself like a local with the ten essential activities on this gorgeous piece of paradise just north of St Maarten and east of Puerto Rico.
A warm and welcoming island destination tucked away in the northern Caribbean. Embraced by unrivaled white beaches and breathtaking turquoise seas, Anguilla is casual and easy, a unique blend of high style and low-key elegance, and the best of the good life set to a slow and casual island tempo. Anguilla is an experience that captivates our visitors and creates friendships and memories that last a lifetime.
Come visit Anguilla this fall and enjoy our endless Summer with near perfect weather, blue waters and balmy trade winds. Quiet, and low key from the end of August to October, the island is yours to explore and experience
Anguilla’s Clayton J. Lloyd International Airport is easily accessible by air, through our main gateways Puerto Rico, St. Maarten/Martin, Antigua and St. Kitts.
From Puerto Rico, Anguilla is just a one-hour direct flight via Cape Air or Rainbow International Airlines. Our closest gateway is St. Maarten/Martin. From here Anguilla’s Clayton J. Lloyd International Airport is just a seven-minute flight via Trans Anguilla, Anguilla Air Services or private charter
St. Maarten is serviced by most major international carriers including American Airlines/American Eagle, US Airways, United, Delta, Jet Blue, Air Canada, Air Transat (charter), Sky Service, West Jet, Air France, KLM, Copa, Corsair, and more.
From Antigua, LIAT provides one scheduled flight per day into Anguilla. Private air charters are also available to and from Antigua, St. Kitts and from various islands throughout the Caribbean.
So once you get to Anguilla what is there to do?
Well there are a number of festivals that take place throughout the year. Due to the limited available air seats these might be times you will find it tough to nonrev in or out of the island. To see the current list of these events click here – http://ivisitanguilla.com/on-island-festivals-and-events/
Now once you get to Anguilla, what is there to do? Here is our list of 8 things you should try to enjoy and experience while on the island. Personal favorite is the Thursday night in Sandy Ground.
1) Beach it on one of 33 of the best white sand beaches the Caribbean has to offer. Many of which you can have to yourself. All of the beaches are public but you will find few touristy happenings on most. If you are pressed for time Meads Bay, Maunday’s Bay and Rendezvous Bay we think are the best of the best on Anguilla.
2) Anguilla’s offshore isles are the perfect places to live out your desert-island dreams. The closest is Scilly Cay, a free two-minute ferry ride away from the village of Island Harbour, though there are more further from shore. Prickly Pear is popular with cruise-ship day-trippers from St. Maarten, while Sandy Island is perhaps the most idyllic. Take a day and ferry over in boats named Happiness, Joy or Bliss and soak up the sun on the white-sand with spit and feast on platters of lobster-like Anguillian crayfish. Anguilla’s.
3) Little Bay, one of Anguilla’s most iconic beaches, is also one of its hardest and smallest be one of the hardest to reach. Explorers will park their cars on the bluffs above Little Bay and use the rope anchored at the top to scramble down the hillside to the compact cove’s almost-always deserted sands. If near-rappelling isn’t your style, you can charter a boat (about $15 round-trip) from a captain Calvin, stationed at neighboring Crocus Bay, and let him drop you off for a few blissful hours of sunning and snorkeling. The big problem with rappelling down to the beach is you have to rappel back up or take a long walk to get to your car. So take the charter boat and save your energy for something else.
4) Head to the Sunset Lounge at the Viceroy Anguilla for live music, a rummy Anguillahattan, and the hippest scene this side of Miami. The only thing more beautiful than the sun descending over Barnes and Meads Bay beaches is the chicer-than-chic crowd. Anguilla has long been a favorite of celebs and the well-heeled (Denzel Washington and Ellen DeGeneres are among its many fans). But since many of them roost in luxe villas and on private yachts, you may never catch a glimpse. If you are lucky here you just might end up mingling with the beautiful people!
5) Don’t miss Thursday Night on Anguilla. If you are lucky enough to be in Anguilla on Thursday night then head for the coastal village of Sandy Ground. Thursday night is the night all roads lead to the coastal village of Sandy Ground. Begin at The Pumphouse, a barn-like tavern where live music from local bands gets the party started. After you’ve danced off your daiquiris, cross the road to Elvis’ where the owner presides over a beach bar made from a converted sailboat festively strung with fairy lights. The specialty of the house is a rum punch that’s equally magical. Just don’t drink and drive. Take a cab or have a driver to be safe.
6) Shop away!!! Despite its small size, Anguilla abounds with lots of shopping options,” locally designed clothing, jewelry and home accessories that make perfect – and packable – souvenirs. Some of our favorites include the Limin’ Boutique when you will find silver jewelry which incorporates local sand and is a big hit with shoppers. Then check out Petals at the Frangipani Beach Resort which carries the locally designed Fashion Cuts collection of laser-cut wood and acrylic earrings, popular with island fashionistas. After that head over to Irie Life, which sells fashion-forward island T-shirts out of a funky rasta-colored cottage in South Hill. Then roam around to check out the others shops to find things you can’t live without! On Anguilla you will find a lot of unique one of a kind items to take home.
7) Performers from the Mayoumba Folkloric Theatre entertain as they educate every Thursday at Anacaona hotel, where they’re the stars of the island-themed evening. A sumptuous buffet ($45) features local dishes, but those are just the appetizers for an evening of singing, dancing and storytelling by one of Anguilla’s oldest heritage organizations, named for the African village from which many Anguillians originally came.
8) Enjoy a pizza patty! Maybe it’s the homemade tomato sauce, seasoned with a secret combination of spices. Or perhaps it’s the ready smile of Papa Lash, the creator of the pizza patty sold at his eponymous food truck in The Valley, Anguilla’s capital. It’s difficult to explain the popularity of the deep-fried cheese-and-tomato pocket he’s been selling for the past dozen years — you simply must sample this uniquely Anguillian ambrosia for yourself.