View from the water at the Jolly Beach Resort

When I think about Antigua, I think of the color blue. The shallow water surrounding the island is a florescent turquoise like nothing else I’ve ever seen before. It’s so blue that even the seagull’s bellies look turquoise from underneath as they soar over the water. The teal of the slightly deeper waters where we saw starfish below the surface and swam with stingrays was everything you’ve imagined seeing in a travel brochure to paradise.

Jolly Beach Resort

The deep, choppy, indigo waters on the Atlantic side of the island are mysterious and exhilarating. I was recently chatting with a co-worker and fellow travel enthusiast about a trip to Antigua we took a few years back. While bragging, I went to show her some of the photos I have online and realized that I’ve hardly posted any photos of my trip, which is a real injustice to Antigua and all of you. So its time for me to tell you why you need to go here and experience the rainbow of blues you’ll find in Antigua.

Seagulls at the beach

Sunset at the Shirley Heights lookout point party

Husband and I were looking for something a bit more special when we booked this one. We’d been to Mexico a few times. Cuba and Jamaica were beautiful representations of the Caribbean, but for this trip, we wanted something a bit more unique; a bit less popular. We had it narrowed down to Barbados and Antigua. Antigua came up for a few reasons. It’s not that hard to get to. Lots of smaller, less popular destinations have poor connections and require lots of additional transfers to get to. Antigua has direct flights from Toronto at just over 4.5 hours long. While Antigua is tropical, its in a weird zone in the West Indies that makes it a bit less humid and more dry than a lot of other islands in the Caribbean. It opens up travel dates a bit more with less of a rainy season. For that reason, its also a bit different geographically and definitely has a dry season where things look desert-like and brown. Antigua boasts a slogan of “365 beaches; one for each day of the year”. That combined with a glass of wine and searching photos of the sunsets and husband and I had our minds made up.

Looking west: Endless sky

The mysterious indigo of the Atlantic side of the island

Antigua did not disappoint and I’m ashamed I have not shared more photos of this truly special island. The Caribbean has a certain charm that is unlike anywhere else. It really is a thing; time moves slower, interactions are more friendly, life seems to be lived more fully and authentically.  Here, in Antigua, it was still something more than that; the people were so warm and relaxed, the geography was so interesting, the wildlife was abundant and beautiful, and the ocean and beaches; simply stunning.

Swimming with stingrays

We went in June, which is during Antigua’s low tourist season. That only meant that tours ran on a less frequent schedule, were smaller and more intimate and the resort was slightly less busy. Antigua isn’t bustling though no matter when you go, not the same way as Cancun, Puerto Vallarta or Havana. It’s less touristy and more simple. Some very picky people might say it’s a bit run down in spots, but that’s the true Caribbean; chipped paint from the salty, humid air, and a more relaxed way of living.

Exploring caves on Barbuda

We were worried upon booking Antigua that we wouldn’t have enough to do during our week there. We love the beach but we also love to explore when we’re visiting a new place. Antigua is one of two very small islands in the nation of Antigua and Barbuda. I wrote about Barbuda (the smaller of the two islands) previously due to the direct hit the island took by hurricane Irma during the summer storm season of 2017. You can find that article here. Barbuda has a population of about 2000 people and will likely take years to rebuild after the damage caused by Irma. Besides the hurricane, Barbuda previously made news because the late Princess Diana used to vacation here with Harry and Will. Antigua, the bigger of the two, is also a tiny island. With an area of only 281 kilometers and a population of 80,000, it’s just quaint. However, Antigua has so much to do; it’s steeped in history.

As a former British colony, there is history galore, both good and bad, from a political view. Shirley Heights, an old British military lookout is where the tall sailing ships of the late 1700s and early 1800s used to dock. You can actually picture them floating there in the harbor in your mind’s eye. The capital of St. Johns is a livelier place than a lot of the other spots on the island and is where the cruise ships dock. There is just so much to do here: shopping, snorkeling at one of the countless reefs, relaxing on one of the numerous white sand beaches, swimming with sting rays, speedboat tours of the island, and these are only just a handful of the adventure you can find here. Tours that we went on all included lots of information about the history of the islands.

SCUBA diving

The food is as fresh as you can get; seafood, fruit, root vegetables, and there are so many places to eat, the trouble is deciding were to go. Antigua is a paradise, a natural wonder and one of the most special places you might ever visit. The wildlife is stunning: just the sheer variety of birds alone is remarkable, but then when you get in the ocean, there is still more to see; stingrays, fish, jellyfish, nurse sharks, and turtles. This is a wildlife paradise.

snorkeling near Nelson’s Dockyard

The Pillars of Hercules

I’ll break down my Antigua trip into a few different blog posts over the next few weeks as it wouldn’t be fair to anyone to just do one post. There is just so much beauty on these two little islands. Please check back to see more. If you have questions or comments, feel free to get in touch. If you are considering curing your winter blues with a trip south this winter, I highly recommend Antigua and Barbuda to you.

Jumby Bay

An secluded beach on Barbuda

Paradise