This year I became a temporary islander on Anguilla, a 35-square-mile speck between the British Virgin Islands and St Kitts and Nevis, when my partner moved here to work with the tourist board. I’ve been lucky enough to experience the island — pronounced “An-gwi-lla” — in near-silent mode.
It’s a quiet place anyway and the spectacular beaches (all 33 of them), with their blinding white sand, are the main draw. The gentle sounds of the waves and the cooing of turtle doves lull you into a kind of meditation. It’s an early-to-bed, early-to-rise kind of place, and I feel more relaxed than I have in years.
Anguilla’s borders are open at present, with strict protocols in place. In normal times, about 70 per cent of visitors come from the US, a fairly short hop to the north. UK travellers usually make up just over 4 per cent of the total — 4,077 Britons visited in 2019.
The island, which has a population of 15,000, seems to be largely overlooked by UK tourists, despite being a British Overseas Territory. But now it has been added to the government’s green watch list, hopes are high here that this may change.
Covid has hit Anguilla hard. Not in terms of illness, thankfully — only 109 cases have been recorded so far, with no deaths, a fact for which the Anguillians are thankful and rightly proud. Strict entry requirements for visitors and residents are in place and on June 28 the island was officially categorised by the World Health Organisation as having no Covid cases.
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But the reach of the virus goes beyond case numbers. About half of the island’s workforce is directly employed in tourism, with thousands more involved indirectly. When visitor numbers dwindled, many businesses had to close.
On the spectacular stretch of beach that makes up Shoal Bay East, outside the Shoal Bay Villas hotel, I meet Judy and Gary Pearson from Rhode Island. They’ve been coming to Anguilla for ten years and love it more than anywhere else in the Caribbean. “Don’t tell anyone about this place, we don’t want it getting crowded,” Gary says with a smile. Sorry, Gary. Crowded, though, is a relative term. Even in high season you can have a stretch of sand to yourself. But some more visitors to Shoal Bay wouldn’t go amiss. On a sunny day, I’m one of the few on the beach.
Over at Gwen’s Reggae Grill, a cheery yellow beach shack also in Shoal Bay, I’m the only customer. When I depart at 3.30pm, Gwen closes for the day. No one else is likely to come at this time, she tells me, so she may as well go home. I’ve spent only £3 — not much to sustain a business.
Away from the beaches, Anguilla is not as obviously pretty as other Caribbean favourites such as St Martin, the green mountains of which you can see across the water. It’s a low-lying, dry place without the dramatic landscapes of some of its neighbours. But it has beauty; you just need to look a bit harder for it.
At weekends we go with friends to Round de Corner in the Keys, just up the hill from Island Harbour, for Anguilla’s best seafood breakfast. On a backstreet leading out of the main fishing village, this place is somewhere we would never have found on our own. Tramayne, the owner and cook, gets up at 4.30am to stew conch, shellfish and “old wife” (the local name for triggerfish), sauté potatoes, and fry plantains and Johnny cakes (small flatbreads). You can digest all that on a short but challenging hike across knife-edged shards of limestone to the remote Goat Cave, then hop over to Scilly Cay, a tiny island just a few minutes’ boat ride northeast from Island Harbour.
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Sandra Wallace and her late husband, Eudoxie, opened their restaurant here in 1985 offering barbecued treats, drinks and a laid-back vibe. Before the pandemic, visitors would fly over by helicopter from St Barths, landing on the Cay’s helipad for a lunch of grilled lobster and the famous (and famously potent) £4 rum punch. On our visit, the jet set have yet to return.
Over in Meads Bay in the west of the island, however, the buzz is back. Jacala, a French restaurant, is busy with locals and visitors, who are there not only for a fabulous Sunday lunch but also for the beachside location. Dining in your swim shorts or bikini isn’t frowned upon, and you can snooze off your meal on a sunbed. A little further along the beach is a local favourite, Leon’s — the bar to be in on a Sunday afternoon, in the kind of spot Britons have been pining for this year. As the band plays, the rum punches flow and the sun starts to set.
Getting to the island from the UK is not straightforward, but that’s part of its charm. The most direct option at present is to fly via Antigua on British Airways or Virgin Atlantic and connect with one of the inter-island carriers to Anguilla.
“We like that it’s a little bit difficult to get here,” says Kenroy Herbert, the chairman of the Anguilla Tourist Board.
“When people come, we know they really want to come.”
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Nor is the island a budget destination. Herbert explains that high-volume tourism wouldn’t work here; there just isn’t the infrastructure to support it. That’s why Anguilla doesn’t accommodate cruise ships and doesn’t go in for the all-inclusive stays that other Caribbean destinations have built their holiday offering around.
During the busy peak season in 2019 it wasn’t unusual to have 60 private jet arrivals per day. Because it caters to the rich and discerning, it’s home to some of the Caribbean’s loveliest resorts and, as of this week, most hotels are open again. Malliouhana on Meads Bay is often affectionately referred to as the island’s hospitality college, given that everywhere you go you’ll find staff who started out there. Allana Connor, the events manager, seems positive about the future, telling me that many of the weddings that were cancelled last year have since been rebooked.
Just up the hill, hidden from view in what may be the greenest garden on the island, filled with palms, frangipani and bougainvillea, is Quintessence Hotel, a “tropical grand mansion” with nine suites and the largest collection of Haitian art outside Haiti.
On the curve of Maundays Bay — a beach that gives Shoal Bay East a run for its money in terms of beauty — the Moroccan-style pool villas at Belmond’s Cap Juluca hotel are some of the most coveted rooms on the island.
Anguilla is a resilient place, and so are the Anguillians. Apart from the pandemic, they’ve survived dangerous hurricanes, the effects of which can still be seen, particularly in the shipwreck on the sand that has become a photo spot.
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Hurricanes and holidays do not go well together, and when I ask if I’m likely to encounter one during my visit, the consensus is that big hurricanes usually come in September, and only once every 35 years. I’m not sure how meteorologically accurate that is, but it puts my mind at rest. One thing you can be certain of is that the island is open for business and longing to welcome back visitors with open arms.
How do you get in?
All adult visitors to Anguilla are required to be fully vaccinated against Covid-19, with their second dose received at least 21 days before their arrival on the island. The only exemption will be for pregnant women. All visitors, including children, will need to produce a negative result of a PCR test taken three to five days before entry, along with proof of vaccination in the form of an NHS Covid pass letter, and must apply in advance for entry through ivisitanguilla.com.
There is no quarantine requirement on arrival but all visitors will be tested at no cost. You will also need to meet the requirements of any country through which you travel on the way to Anguilla.
Six more breaks on green-list Caribbean islands
1. Keyonna Beach Resort, Antigua
This barefoot property on Antigua’s sleepy southwest coast is what most adults fantasise about when burnout approaches. With 27 rooms and zero children, Keyonna can feel more like a well-staffed beach house than a hotel; the place to recharge without interruption. Beyond the blue waters and soft-as-sugar sands, the food here is lip-smackingly fresh, delivered by local fishermen or bought at nearby farmers’ markets. Your dream self is probably lounging in a cabana, with the Antiguan conch fritters and a cold beer.
Details Seven nights’ all-inclusive from £1,899pp, including flights, departing before August 20 (kuoni.co.uk)
2. Silversands, Grenada
Turquoise waters, white sands, locally made rum and chocolate: Grenada ticks many paradise boxes, and nowhere does that seem more apparent than at Silversands. This boutique hotel, which backs on to Grand Anse — the island’s biggest sweep of beach — is so chic it could be straight out of the Balearics; airport pickups are even done in a Tesla. But its minimalist mix of hardwood panels, limestone tiling, grey marble and striking 100m infinity pool belies a distinctly Grenadian feel; the island’s food and spirit flow freely.
Details Seven nights’ B&B from £3,200pp, including flights and transfers (scottdunn.com)
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3. Cooper Island Beach Club, British Virgin Islands
This family-owned eco hotel is the Caribbean version of a pub with rooms. Tucked away on Manchioneel Bay — brilliant for swimming, snorkelling and sailing — it has a sustainable microbrewery on site, a buzzy restaurant that’s popular with locals and visitors alike, the BVIs’ largest selection of rum (280 bottles and counting) and eight airy rooms. The resort is also impressively sustainable: it is nearly 85 per cent solar-powered; has rainwater and waste water recycling systems; and crops are grown on site for the kitchen.
Details Seven nights’ full board from £1,929pp, including flights and transfers (turquoiseholidays.co.uk)
4. Parrot Cay, Turks and Caicos Islands
For many honeymooners, Turks and Caicos means just one thing: Parrot Cay. Nights are so clear on this glamorous private island that the moon casts sharp shadows and — with no light pollution — can illuminate the entire sky. There’s plenty to swoon over at the tropical hotel too: swathes of white-sand beaches, the spectacular, eastern-inspired Como spa, and the rather lovely rooms — light-filled, sea-facing suites and secluded, feet-in- the-sand beachfront villas.
Details Seven nights’ B&B from £3,375pp, including flights and transfers (blacktomato.com)
5. Cobblers Cove, Barbados
While it’s the jet set-appropriate decor at this Speightstown stalwart that leaps out — pink-and-white parasols, glamorous folk eating granitas — a closer look around the hotel’s tropical gardens reveals a quiet commitment to natural health and wellness. Most of its Barbados-meets-Borough-Market menu is local and organic, and is served alfresco, overlooking the sea; the small spa offers planet-friendly Tata Harper facials. Of the property’s 40 suites, the best is Colleton, which has a plunge pool on its rooftop terrace.
Details Seven nights’ B&B from £2,950pp, including flights and transfers, departing between July 10 and 17 (abercrombiekent.co.uk)
6. Secret Bay, Dominica
Hidden amid lush rainforest (Dominica is known as “Nature Island”), its six spectacular clifftop villas overlooking the sea and the resort’s secluded beach, Secret Bay more than lives up to its name. It’s a Relais & Chateaux property so you can expect sustainable and memorable meals — from the resort’s Zing Zing restaurant, where there’s no menu to limit your cravings, or from a private chef who will whip up something delectable in the comfort of your own villa. Wine tastings are accompanied by live jazz. Yes, this is luxury squared.
Details Seven nights’ B&B from £3,999pp, including flights and transfers (caribtours.co.uk)
Shivani Ashoka
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