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Antigua
 Overview

Come Sail Away
Antigua is an island that has always lived by the wind. In the late 18th century, when Horatio Nelson was still a captain, he made the island Great Britain's most important Caribbean naval center. Today the superbly restored dockyard that bears his name at English Harbour is home base for April's Sailing Week, the Caribbean's premier yachting event -- and its most boisterous beach party. As for beaches, Antigua's promoters like to say that the island has 365 of them, one for every day of the year.


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ISLANDS editor Matthew Miller recently returned from Antigua, where he visited the Verandah Resort & Spa and saw the beauty of Devil's Bridge, a storied natural feature near the resort. The site earned a place on our list of the Best of the Caribbean 2008.

See photos from Matthew's trip, here
Experience Antigua: Virtual Destination Tour

 Plan Your Trip

Stay at the Verandah Resort & Spa, where every room has a deck and every deck has a spectacular view. The resort is just a short walk away from Devil's Bridge, a storied natural feature where sea foam is launched into the sky. verandahresortandspa.com

Go to the beaches. Several of Antigua's more popular beaches, Dickenson Bay among them, can get crowded, especially when cruise ships are in port. To find new terrain, hail a taxi or rent a car and head to the windward, eastern side for beachcombing and snorkeling at Long Bay or Half Moon Bay, arguably the island's most beautiful stretch of sand. Between those two lies Nonsuch Bay, where you'll undoubtedly find a secluded stretch of beach to call your own.

Sail almost anywhere. Cruisers and bareboaters alike will find friendly waters and full marine supplies here, and at most hotels small craft are available for guests. There are also round-the-island day sails and catamaran cocktail cruises for those who don't want to hold the tiller themselves. But these really are racing waters: Competitions are held on Thursdays and Saturdays all year long, and major regattas dot the calendar. Sailing Week, the grand- daddy of them all, takes place at the end of April, when hundreds of boats from around the world converge on the island for ten fun-packed days of races and parties.

Climb to the gun emplacements of Shirley Heights and survey one of the great historic sites in the West Indies - Nelson's Dockyard and the fortifications of English Harbour, which these days is filled with yachts rather than British warships. The spectacular vista extends to the neighboring isles of Montserrat and Guadeloupe. Down at the waterfront, the displays of antique sextants, compasses, and other nautical gear at the Dockyard Museum evoke the age of wooden ships.

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