Enlarge Photo

Photo by: Zach Stovall

Antigua is an island that knows how to live it up. Of course, the maritime madness of Sailing Week and the thumping rhythm of summertime's Carnival festivities get most of the attention, but this is a place where having a good time is a year-round pursuit. Here it seems you're never more than a stone's throw from a party, and despite last year's financial scandal (courtesy of alleged Ponzi schemer Allen Stanford), Antiguans are bursting with national pride and are happy to pass the rum to a foreign visitor. Of course, Antigua knows how to relax too, thanks in no small part to its famously plentiful - and famously pretty - beaches. And if you're looking for someplace even more secluded than Antigua's quiet corners, sister isle Barbuda lies only 26 miles to the north and makes a terrific day trip or a singularly sensational multiday getaway. 

Read the feature Three Sheets to the Wind: Antigua Sailing Week... 

NIP/TUCK

The world's fiscal funk may have curbed construction of new resorts throughout the Caribbean, but it hasn't stopped a few prominent hotels from renovating and expanding. On Antigua's north coast, "four-star-plus" Blue Waters resort recently opened its grand new Cove Suites: 24 airy one-bedroom suites and four three-bedroom penthouses, all with first-class amenities and glorious sea views. The resort itself, which also includes 77 sumptuous rooms, stretches out on 17 acres along Soldiers Bay, fronting a pair of white-sand beaches.

Over on the island's southeast coast, the all-inclusive St. James's Club Resort & Villas has unveiled its new Royal Suites. Each of these 50 finely appointed spaces features a sunken living room with a 37-inch flat-screen TV and a wet bar, his and hers showers with a soaking tub, and a private balcony that overlooks serene Mamora Bay.

A couple of miles to the west, the posh Inn at English Harbour is fresh from a face-lift that brought crisp style (marble or mahogany floors, canopy beds) and new technology (Wi-Fi, flat-screen TVs) to its 28 rooms and suites. The resort's picture-perfect 19-acre grounds have been spiffed up too, as has its private beach and two restaurants - the breakfast-and-lunch Reef and the candlelit-dinner Terrace. There's also a brand-new spa and an upscale boutique to keep you feeling and looking good.

With its Dec. 1 opening, brand-new Sugar Ridge, on Antigua's west coast, puts forward 60 hillside rooms with terrific views and chic contemporary decor. The boutique resort also boasts a small shopping mall, two restaurants - the Caribbean-continental Carmichael's and the Caribbean-Mediterranean Sugar Club - and the island's only Aveda spa. 

HAPPY BELLIES

Antiguans know how to eat, and their island is brimming with outstanding places to pull up a chair and chow down. To wit, along the road near the village of Crab Hill, on Antigua's southwest coast, utterly laid-back OJ's Bar & Seafood Restaurant serves up reliably terrific fish - definitely try the grilled red snapper - and an easygoing, right-on-the-sand ambience. Care for a dip in the sea before dinner? No big ting. They'll even lend you a beach towel. Oh, and don't leave without a glass or three of owners Oliver and Angie Joseph's old-fashioned rum punch.

Near English Harbour, proprietors Simon and Caroline Tranter are causing a culinary stir at colorful Trappas Bar & Restaurant. For such a petite place, the handwritten menu covers a lot of ground; the starters section alone includes everything from a Greek salad and chicken wings with blue cheese sauce to fresh hummus, tuna sashimi and deep-fried Brie with blackcurrant jelly. Caroline's picks: "Start with our fried calamari, then go for the grouper as your main course, and finish with slice of our homemade banoffee pie."

Higher up the foodie chain, the elegant Cove Restaurant at Blue Waters, completely reimagined this year by chef Graham Singer and likely open by the time you read this, is going back to basics. "We're putting the emphasis on classical simplicity," he says. Singer starts with superb ingredients - local seafood, organic produce, and fresh herbs grown right in the restaurant - and prepares them in refreshingly unfussy ways, with no heavy sauces or overpowering spices. He's even crafting some dishes right at diners' tables. "The idea," he says, "is to take the chef out of the kitchen."  

Read more Antigua content... 

LAND, SEA & AIR

Antigua was once blanketed in dense forests, and although most of its wilder parts were cleared out centuries ago to make room for sugar cane, there remain some lush tracts in the island's hillier sections, particularly along serpentine Fig Tree Drive. Don't bother looking for the fig trees (fig is Antiguan for banana), but do look for the green-topped building that's home to Antigua Rainforest Canopy Tour. The company offers a range of excursions into the bush, including the 2 1/2-hour full canopy tour, which includes short hikes between suspension footbridges and zip lines - nine of them, as long as 300 feet and as high as 350 feet.

When you're hankering for the water but not for getting wet, Subcat Antigua offers a 40-minute undersea tour aboard its 28-passenger catamaran submarine. The vessel dives to almost 100 feet as it runs along a small but lively reef off Antigua's southwest coast. Expect to see a nice variety of sea life through your porthole, including barracuda, stingray and some tasty-looking snapper. Tours depart from Subcat's outpost on Carlisle Bay Beach. At $100 per person ($70 for kids), the Subcat tour isn't exactly cheap, but it is a great way to give children and nondivers a glimpse down under, no fins required.

Above it all, Caribbean Helicopters  offers expertly narrated full- and half-island aerial tours of Antigua, 30 minutes and 20 minutes long, respectively. An intriguing (albeit pricey) alternative is the tour of nearby Montserrat, featuring a flyover of the Soufrière Hills Volcano and the ash-covered "exclusion zone," including the island's former capital, Plymouth.  

Learn more about Montserrat... 

Read our blogs about Antigua... 

THE AGENDA

STAY

Blue Waters
800-557-6536; bluewaters.net
Rooms from $656 
all-inclusive in low season ($1,087 high); Cove Suites from $945 all-inclusive in low season ($1,554 high) 

St. James's Club Resort & Villas
800-345-0356; stjamesclubantigua.com
From $520 all-inclusive in low season ($625 high) 

Catamaran Hotel
268-460-1036; catamaran-antigua.com
From $145 in low season ($170 high) 

Sugar Ridge
866-591-3881; sugarridgeantigua.com
From $360 all-inclusive in low season ($480 high)

Inn at English Harbour
268-460-1014; theinn.ag
From $450 in low season ($600 high) 

EAT

OJ's Bar & Seafood Restaurant
268-460-0184
Entrées from $9

Trappas Bar & Restaurant
268-562-3534
Entrées from $15

Cove Restaurant at Blue Waters
800-557-6536
Entrées from $70

PLAY

Antigua Rainforest Canopy Tour
268-562-6363; antiguarainforest.com

Subcat Antigua
268-562-7333; subcatantigua.com
40-min underwater tour $100 for adults, $70 
for children

Caribbean Helicopters
268-460-5900; caribbeanhelicopters.com
30-min full-island tours $165 per person; 20-min half-island tours $115 per person; 45-min Montserrat tours $240 per person