In this part of the world they love a double-barrel country name. So far we have been to ‘Trinidad & Tobago’ and ‘St Vincent & the Grenadines’, and continuing the trend the next two countries on our Caribbean adventure were ‘Antigua & Barbuda’ followed by ‘St Kitts & Nevis’. It’s like getting two for one in a sale!
Our flight into Antigua (pronounced An-tee-ga) was of course delayed by 5 hours because its the Caribbean, and thats how they roll here. A member of the Commonwealth, Antigua is a small island of approx 440 square kilometres and you can circumnavigate it in a few hours if you aren’t tempted to stop at the amazing beaches along its coastline, which would be impossible given there are apparently 365 in total! Mother Nature was certainly in a great mood when she worked on Antigua.
We really liked it here. On the whole island there is only one behemoth all-inclusive resort that stood higher than four floors, with the majority of other options sensitively designed to fit in to the environment. We hit the jackpot too with both of our accommodations – our first at a B&B run by an Italian couple where we had a house, pool and kitchen almost to ourselves, and proper cappucinos with breakfast which were much appreciated, even in the heat. The second we had a splash out on a beachside room on the stunning Dickinson Bay with one of the island’s top restaurants on site.
In terms of food Antigua delivered the goods on a number of fronts. We were still paying Sydney prices but getting better quality here than previous islands. English Harbour in the south east corner delivers the best value and range of restaurants that we have seen in the last month, and its a great spot with its lovely beaches and beautiful sunsets. Also the ‘tourist supermarket’ on the island was unbelievable for quality and range (and yes price……AU$8 for a punnet of cherry tomatoes, or AU$9 for a box of crackers!), making it possible for us to enjoy a few home cooked healthy meals also.
The icing on the cake was our day trip to Barbuda – Antigua’s little sister at just 160 square kilometres, and a location said to have been a refuge for Princess Diana in the 90’s due to its remote location. 90 minutes on a catamaran and we were delivered to Low Bay beach and you could hear the collective “wow” as the stunning 15km long beach came into view. Our group was the only one on the beach and the staff on board could not have been more hospitable, literally delivering rum punch to us in the shallows while lunch was being prepared. An amazing day for sure, cementing Antigua & Barbuda as our favourite Carib country so far.
By now of course we don’t expect the flights to be on time, so when we checked on our flight out of Antigua and discovered it had been cancelled altogether we weren’t that surprised. (Note to future Caribbean travellers: plan for a changing plan!). As it turns out one night less in St Kitts and Nevis didn’t bother us so much anyway. Four days spent across both islands didn’t really give us anything to write home about to be honest – the beaches are nowhere near the calibre of Antigua or St Vincent; the accommodation range is limited; and some of the restaurants are off the charts in terms of pricing (we’re talking AU$45 for a basic risotto).
Our accommodation on both islands was decent value, and of course we found a few happy hour locations to watch a sunset and enjoy a rum punch, but we just weren’t getting the ‘wow’ factor of some of the previous islands. In an attempt to unearth the gems of St Kitts we rented a car for the day to circumnavigate the island, but an old fort and a terribly kitsch fabric printing factory didn’t really rock our world.
We have reflected often this year about the fact we have been so fortunate to travel to so many incredible places around the world, and perhaps if we had visited St Kitts years ago we may have been more enamoured by it, but as country #84 on our list we have labelled it the most underwhelming destination we have tavelled to. Ironic then that as we were trying to leave our flight was delayed by 7.5 hours, resulting in a 10 hour stint in the very underwhelming St Kitts departure lounge. Karma is a bitch!
no fixed address... 