Antigua & Barbuda - Overview

Antigua is a tropical paradise located in the Leeward Islands of the Caribbean. It is one of the most important holiday destinations in the sailing year as well as being one of the top holiday destinations in the world.

Antigua is an exotic paradise where cooling Trade Winds and warm hospitality ensure the perfect island getaway. This eclectic mix of Caribbean beauty, European history, and international gaming excitement is also simply called "heaven" by anyone who's been here. And that includes the French and the Dutch who fought over this slice of paradise 4 or 5 centuries ago, as well as the British who created a major naval center called English Harbour when they settled here in 1632. The name of the game in today's Antigua can be anything from slot machines to stud poker at King's Casino, to the annual Antigua Classic Yacht Regatta, to cricket matches. This Caribbean jewel of an island has enough culture, action and beaches for you to discover something new everyday. In fact, Antigua has 365 beaches, one for each day of the year. 

With sand so pure it casts a pinkish hue as a colorful backdrop for some of the most radiant suntans anywhere.

Barbuda

Barbuda is one of those very few islands in the Caribbean that remains--and probably will remain for some time--so undeveloped as to seem positively deserted at times. With the exception of the guests of the island's small number of accommodations, the population seems largely to consist of the graceful Fregata magnificens, or frigate bird. As the birds possess a marked preference for the northwest lagoon, Barbuda's seemingly endless white and pink sand beaches are left to the peaceful wanderings of those lucky enough to sojourn here.

Activities on Barbuda are appropriately relaxed, including beachcombing (on the northeastern Atlantic coast), fishing and hunting and, at the island's resorts, golf, tennis, snorkeling, diving, or simply soaking up the sun and the calm. Points of interest include the Frigate Bird Sanctuary, the truly noteworthy pink and white sand beaches, and an abundance of shipwrecks and beautiful reefs. Barbuda can be reached easily from Antigua, either by air (a 20-minute flight, twice daily) or by boat (in three hours). The island is home to the luxurious K-Club, Coco Point Lodge and Hotel Palmetto resorts, as well as to a number of other hotels and comfortable guest houses.

Barbuda's history has been intimately tied to that of Antigua for centuries. The first early attempts to settle Barbuda (by both the British and French) were failures, and it wasn't until 1666 that the British established a colony strong enough to survive the ravages of both nature and the Caribs. In 1680, four years before he began cultivating sugar on Antigua, Christopher Codrington was granted (with his brother John) a lease to land in Barbuda. With subsequent leases that granted them additional rights to the substantial wreckage along Barbuda's reefs, they became the island's preeminent family. For much of the eighteenth century the Codrington land on Barbuda was used to produce food and to supply additional slave labour for the Codrington sugar plantations on Antigua, and so the Barbuda's fortunes rose and fell with those of its larger neighbour. Testament to the influence of the Codringtons remains today, both in the island's place names and in its architectural remains. On Barbuda's highest point (124 feet) are the ruins of the Codrington estate, Highland House, and on the island's south coast still sits the 56-foot high Martello castle and tower, a fortress that was used both for defense and as a vantage from which to spot valuable shipwrecks on the outlying reefs.