I participated in the Nevis to St Kitts Cross Channel Swim this year for the third consecutive time. Last year I used the swim as an excuse to island-hop my way from Nevis to Anguilla and wrote a trip report about the experience. This year, after consulting my spreadsheet of Caribbean routes and ScubaBoard for reviews of dive operators, I decided to continue on from St Kitts & Nevis to Antigua (with the possibility of day trips to Barbuda and/or Montserrat) and Barbados.
At the moment, both St Kitts and Nevis are easy to get to from St Thomas: Cape Air (9-seater) flies to Nevis daily and St Kitts multiple days a week. I decided to stay on St Kitts this time, largely because it's cheaper than Nevis and because I was meeting up with swim friends who would definitely be flying to St Kitts. However, when I learned that there would be a reception for swim participants on Nevis that coincided with the time the Nevis flight would get in, I decided to fly to Nevis instead. As it happened, the flight to Nevis was slightly cheaper than the flight to St Kitts, so even with the additional cost of the ferry to St Kitts, I still came out slightly ahead. Also, walking is a challenge for me, and the Nevis airport is conveniently small.
From St Kitts I had a few options to get to Antigua and Barbados. Caribbean Airlines, LIAT20, Sunrise, and Winair were all options to fly to Antigua, and Caribbean Airlines and interCaribbean were both options to Barbados.
I used Google's flight tracking to track flight possibilities and prices for weeks before I booked. (Note: Google does not currently include LIAT20 flights.) For travel between Antigua and Barbados, my options were Caribbean Airlines, interCaribbean, and LIAT20. I ended up going from St Kitts -> Barbados -> Antigua on interCaribbean. The airline was chosen based on schedule and price, and the order of islands was chosen because one of my swim friends decided to accompany me to Barbados to dive. Amusingly, the flight from St Kitts to Barbados made a brief stop on Antigua. Overall, I was happy with interCaribbean. The planes were ~50-seaters. The first flight was slightly delayed, but not by much, and they provided water which I wasn't expecting for such short flights.
Returning to St Thomas would be trickier, as there was no direct flight option from either Antigua or Barbados. My choices were to go back to St Kitts and take Cape Air again (which I decided against because while Cape Air is a nice airline, it's usually the priciest), or to fly back via Puerto Rico or fly+ferry back via Tortola; both Antigua and Barbados have multiple carriers flying to both Puerto Rico and Tortola. I initially looked at flying to Tortola and spending some time in the BVI before returning to St Thomas. In particular, I was interested to go to Anegada (and maybe Virgin Gorda, since I'd have to hop through). However, I wasn't confident in the ferry schedule to Anegada (which is only scheduled some days and could be interrupted by weather), and it would make for a longer trip, so I decided against tacking on Anegada. I also considered tacking on Culebra and/or Vieques to a Puerto Rico trip, at which point I discovered a direct flight between St Thomas and Vieques, and decided it would be easier to fly directly to Vieques on a separate trip then to get to Vieques from San Juan.
Possibly I should have chosen to fly through Tortola, even with the need to get from the airport to the ferry, because the San Juan airport is far too large for me to walk. However, I went with cheapest flights and best timing (making sure I had time to make my connection, including clearing customs, even with significant delays) and booked Frontier from Antigua to Puerto Rico and Cape Air from Puerto Rico to St Thomas and rely on wheelchair service at the airport to somehow get me between the two segments on different airlines. It worked out very well, and I was able to catch the second flight ~2 hours after the first flight landed, but I was prepared for the possibility of taking a later flight. (Actually, I was more than prepared for the possibility of taking a later flight: I booked the second-to-last flight to St Thomas and confirmed they'd put me on an earlier flight assuming availability. I ended up on the third-to-last flight of the day.)
I'd hoped the other airports would all be small enough that I wouldn't need a wheelchair, but after seeing the size of the Barbados and Antigua airports, I changed my mind. Arrival in Barbados was doable for me, but Antigua (at least where I arrived) involved a long ramp up and down, and departures usually involve longer walks and an unknown amount of time in lines.
I researched the possibilities of going from Antigua to Barbuda (Barbuda Express ferry or BMN Air) or Montserrat (FlyMontserrat or a helicopter tour), and was leaning towards taking the ferry to Barbuda for a day. However, while I knew I need to book a tour in advance, I failed to account for the fact that I needed to book the Barbuda ferry more than a day in advance, and by the time I went to do so, it was full -- oops!
I should note that this is the first time I've traveled with my own dive gear. Amazingly, I managed to squeeze my extra-small BCD and everything else (I don't use fins) into an international carry-on sized rollaboard and my backpack. Cape Air allows 1 personal item (36 linear inches) + 1 carry-on (45 linear inches, 50 lbs), so no problems there. interCaribbean allows 1 carry-on (12x9x16 inches, 10 lbs) + 1 checked bag (50 lbs); my carry-on was more than 10 lbs, but no one asked to weigh it. Frontier only allows 1 personal item (8x18x14 inches) and charges for any additional bags, so I purchased a carry-on (10x16x24 inches, 35 lbs); I was concerned that my backpack might have been too large, but they didn't say anything.
I brought UK-style power adapters/converters (having read that St Kitts has 230V/60Hz power and D/G power plugs, Barbados 115V/50Hz with A/B plugs, and Antigua 230V/60Hz with A/B plugs), but all three hotels I stayed at took US A/B power plugs, so I didn't need them. (On the flip side, people coming from the UK will likely need an adapter.) I brought a cigarette lighter to USB adapter for charging my phone in the car, but most of the cars I rented didn't have a place to plug it in. I always travel with a USB power bank, so I used that instead to keep my car charged while I was using it for directions. I brought an eSim which I'd purchased and tested activating in advance; it worked on all three islands. I also brought some Eastern Caribbean Dollars from past trips, although this isn't necessary as the currency is pegged to the US dollar (US$1.00 = EC$2.70) and most places in St Kitts & Nevis and Antigua accept US cash. Similarly, the Barbados dollar is fixed at US$1.00 = BB$2.00, and US cash was often accepted in Barbados. I was also pleasantly surprised at how many places took credit cards (and, unlike in the VI, none of them added a credit card processing fee).
There are online customs & immigration forms to be completed before arriving in St Kitts & Nevis and Barbados. Antigua has a paper form, which is given out before arrival.
As I had done last year, I looked up all the dive operators on each island using Google Maps, PADI, and SSI, and noted their prices, locations, etc. I checked their facebook pages to confirm that they were active and looked for reviews on Google Maps, ScubaBoard and Tripadvisor. Positive signals for me included having smaller groups and more experienced divers; red flags included, short dives, taking safety risks, and being extremely unresponsive.
I ended up doing 18 dives on this trip (divelog):
First, here is probably more than you wanted to know about the geography/geology of these islands. If you look at some maps of the Caribbean, especially the tectonic maps, you'll notice a clear arc of volcanoes that form most of the islands of the Lesser Antilles, including St Kitts and Nevis (and uninhabited Redonda, and the active Soufrière Hills of Montserrat, ...); then there's another arc of small islands just northeast of the arc, including Antigua & Barbuda (along with, I'd say Anguilla, St Martin, and St Barths); and then Barbados lies even further east than those, so far east that it is, in fact, technically a continental island entirely in the Atlantic, rather than bordering on the Caribbean Sea.
St Kitts, which rises to almost 3800ft above sea level, is composed primarily of volcanic rock and considered potentially active. In contrast, while Antigua does have remnants of a volcanic crater (at a comparatively low 1300ft, 200ft lower than the highest point on St Thomas), it is considered inactive and the island is mostly characterized by old limestone. It has a very wiggly coast line with dozens of small bays. Here's an interactive nautical chart centered on St Kitts, Nevis, Antigua, and Barbuda. Barbados and the surrounding underwater ridge (the Barbados Accretionary Prism) is not volcanic at all, but is made of sedimentary rocks resulting from the subduction of the American Plate scraping below the neighboring Caribbean Plate. As a result, Barbados, which more gradually rises to 1100ft, has caves, gullies, and other unique geological features. Here's the nautical chart centered on Barbados.
I dove with Pro Divers (fb, Tripadvisor), since I'd had good dives with them the previous year. Auston, the owner, has been diving in St Kitts for decades. They have cheaper packages for multiple dive days, but for one day diving with my own gear, I paid $167 USD cash, including VAT. He also picked us up and dropped us off for no extra charge, which was really nice. Pickup was at 8:40 for a 9:30 dive from Port Zante, ending around 13:00.
We had good dives and were given a lot of freedom to stay further away from the rest of the group (my dive buddy on St Kitts was a divemaster herself). The first dive was a cool and shallow wreck, The Wreck of the River Taw. Our second dive was at The Rock, a somewhat deeper site where we attracted some Caribbean reef sharks. My dive buddy got some good photos (links to all photos at the very end of this page).
Barbados has many dive operators. Conveniently, I found a webpage summarizing multiple dive operators. I narrowed it down to shops that were in the southwest area, since that seemed like a good area based on the location of dive sites and the airport and land-based activities. There were multiple dive operators with good reviews, but Seahorse Divers stood out as having entirely positive reviews (Scuba diving in Barbados, Scubaboard, Tripadvisor, Google).
I'm pleased to report that they lived up to their reputation. Seahorse Divers was a small, locally-owned shop. The owner David (Chucky) was extremely knowledgeable about the sites and reef life and was happy to share his knowledge. Most days my dive buddy and I were the only divers. Max depth on all the sites was 50-60 feet and our dives were mostly around an hour long (one was 78 minutes). It was a bit difficult getting on and off the boat, since we had to wade through waves, but they were very accommodating with my mobility. There were outdoor rinse showers at the beach where the boat was, and they kept our gear and cleaned it every day, including the last day. Dives started around 8:30 (suggested arrival time of 7:30 at their shop the first day, then we met at Worthing Beach), and we returned around 12:15. I paid for a 4-day package using my own gear, which with VAT came out to about $119 USD/day. Note that they are a cash-only operation.
Carlisle Bay was an especially excellent site, with many intentionally sunk wrecks in shallow water; it could even be done as a shore dive (or snorkel, as we saw many snorkel boats). In general, there was lots of life on all the sites we saw, both in quantity and variety, including flying gurnards and sharptail eels, neither of which I'd seen before, hawksbill turtles 3 out of 4 days, a seahorse and an octopus on one dive, and stingrays that wanted to interact with us. Our DM took video footage of the dives and sent it to me, which was an unexpected bonus (e.g., the flying gurnard). Yes, there were signs of coral death, as there is pretty much everywhere these days, and it sounds like the reefs were healthier a few years ago, but not knowing what I was missing, I thought it was pretty good. Even though Hurricane Beryl passed near Barbados and did some reef damage there, it was nothing comparable to the damage from, e.g., Irma and Maria on other islands. Being considerably further east, Barbados has historically been spared from most hurricane activity (which was clearly evident topside from the fact that there were much taller trees than I've seen elsewhere in the region).
I looked at a dive map of Antigua and then at a handful of dive operators on Antigua. Of these, Dive Carib was the cheapest for multiple days of diving when bringing equipment: 4 days of diving, including VAT, cost me $129 USD/day. (They also offered Nitrox for $10/tank, which I declined.) DiveCarib was also the only one with rooms onsite (and reasonably priced lodging at that), which was a huge draw. Their reviews (Tripadvisor, Google) were quite favorable, though most of the operators had comparably good reviews, and it was really the convenience of staying onsite that made it an easy decision for me.
Staying at the Lodge and just rolling out of bed to dive was really nice, as was the fact that I could rinse everything, including my swimwear, and leave them out on their racks to dry. We met at 8:30, had very thorough briefings, and were back before 13:00. The dives, all of which were close to the harbor, were decent, but not absolutely amazing, especially after Barbados. I suspect that's more a reflection on the reef health of Antigua, not the dive operator. On the other hand, a dolphin checked us out while we were diving Pillars of Hercules, and that is always fabulous. (Thank you to one of the other divers for sending me their dolphin photo.) One of the days it was just me and the divemaster, Mona, which was great because we could take our time and, for example, watch a slipper lobster crawl around for a while. The other days were with 6 other divers, which is on the crowded side for me (yes, I'm spoiled), and some of the dives felt kind of rushed. I ended up with 50-60 minutes of diving time on all the dives, but that was only because I stayed at a shallow depth until everyone else was back on board before surfacing, and I came back with well over half a tank of air on every dive (which granted, isn't that unusual for me).
Curiously, they have two dive boats, which were both the (second?) largest dive boat I've been on and the smallest dive boat I've been on. The small boat, which we used the first day, was an inflatable and not particularly comfortable, although it didn't matter much for the amount of time we were on it. There was so little room on the boat that we had to offload the tanks from the first dive to make room for the tanks for the second dive. The second boat was large enough to have fully-shaded cushioned seats and even a sleeper cabin. The only downside of the larger boat was that the back of the boat swung a fair distance when it was moored, which meant some of the divers were chasing the ladder on the surface to get back onboard. (After the first dive, I avoided the problem by waiting just below the surface until it was my turn to get back on the boat.)
I've taken to booking most of my hotels via hotels.com because it's convenient to have all my preferences and billing information saved and because I can usually find hotels that allow for cancellation until the last three days or so. In addition to reading their reviews, I often check Tripadvisor and Google Maps for reviews and to get a sense of the immediate location.
My price point was about $150 USD per night, including taxes. The rooms in St Kitts and Barbados were both between $150 and $160 per night, and the room in Antigua was about $125/night. (I actually ended up spending not much more than $100/night since I had a roommate for half the trip.) Obviously someone with more or less money to spend would choose different hotels.
Here are the hotels I ended up choosing:
I stayed at Timothy Beach Resort last year when I was on St Kitts, and really liked the hotel and location. It's right on Frigate Bay, which is a good beach for swimming, has its own restaurant, and is within walking distance (even my short walking distance!) of many beach restaurants and bars, as well as another cluster of reasonably-priced international (mostly Asian) eateries. Last year I had a suite with a full kitchen, whereas this year the suites were already taken so I booked a smaller room, but it was still fine. It's not the most accessible hotel though, as it's built into a hill, and additionally some of the rooms are up a flight of stairs.
Harlem B & B in southern Barbados was definitely a budget hotel, more of an inn really. It was situated in a residential area that, when we arrived in the dark, my travel companion was somewhat leary of (it didn't look that different to me from St Thomas, which probably says more about my norms than the place). It was also less than a block from a strip of fancier hotels along the beach and a bunch of outdoor food places. The room itself was a pretty large size and sufficient; my only complaint was that the narrow entry with a step into the shower was a bit of an accessibility challenge.
I'd booked the room to be close to the dive shop, but morning traffic was such that it took us at least 15 minutes to drive the mile to the boat. (Apparently anywhere in Barbados even remotely close to the capital city Bridgetown has commuter traffic, quite a change from the smaller and sparser islands.) Ultimately, the place was fine for what we needed, and about as convenient of a location as we were going to find for the dive shop, but if/when I go again, I'll probably spend at least part of my time in a less crowded part of the island, possibly somewhere in the Speightstown/Holetown area to see some of the things around there.
I booked The Lodge in southern Antigua because it was recommended by and co-located at the dive shop. Although further from the airport and capital cities than the places I stayed on the other islands, it was a great location: a peaceful spot on the harbo(u)r, convenient to many good restaurants and the historic sites of English Harbour, and of course maximally convenient for diving. However, unlike the places I stayed on St Kitts and Barbados, it was not walking distance to a beach, so if that's important to you, this might not be the right place for you. The room itself was basic, but more than sufficient, including a mini-kitchen area with a mini-fridge, sink, microwave, hot pot, and dishes. I would definitely stay again.
Rental car companies I used:
(Prices are in USD and include taxes and license fees.)
All three islands had been claimed as British colonies at one point in time, and so have inherited British driving customs: driving on the left-hand side of the road and using cars with right-hand steering. Meanwhile, I come from one of the few places with left-hand side of the road driving while using American (left-hand steering) cars.
I don't usually think that much about driving while traveling, but the combination of right-hand steering (which I have driven less than handful of times before) and having a passenger who wasn't familiar with roundabouts (thank you Massachusetts for all the practice driving through "rotaries") made me more aware of driving. And, as in the Virgin Islands, the road surfaces weren't always in the best condition. This was especially true in Barbados, which also had by far the most cars (at least in the areas I was driving). By comparison, driving on the other islands was easier: although there were some exceptions, particularly on side roads, the vast majority of roads on St Kitts and Antigua were in much better condition, and the roads were quite empty.
I think of having a car as a requirement, but someone who is more walking-capable than me and doesn't like driving could have relied on taxis and gotten around all the places I stayed without renting a car, although they wouldn't have gotten to see nearly as many things (especially in Antigua, where I stayed the longest and was on my own, I did a lot of random driving around). Possibly renting a car for a day or two in each place would be a good compromise.
Last year I had a car window broken in Grand Case, St Martin; this year I had two authentic Caribbean car experiences. First, I got a flat tire driving over a pothole on Barbados the first full day there. The rental car company came promptly with a spare, and then the next day with a new tire. It did, however, cut into our sightseeing time and confidence, and I expect we would have seen more of the island otherwise. Then I got a parking ticket in Antigua. It turns out that there is no street parking in St John's on cruise days, despite the lack of signs and all the other parked cars I saw. My understanding is that it is common for rental cars to be ticketed, presumably because visitors are unlikely to be able to show up in court to contest the ticket. This was mildly annoying, but I took it as a rite of passage. The ticket was about $50 US, and the rental car company charged my card for it and took care of paying it.
Before I got to each island I did some background reading and checked out Tripadvisor for ideas of where to go. I spent a bunch of time looking at maps, made sure I had downloaded relevant Google maps to my phone for use navigating offline, and in a few cases pre-saved links to driving directions to multiple stops (especially for Antigua where I was driving solo). I also used Google My Maps to create maps of places of interest:
St Kitts (indigenous: Liamuiga), just 2 miles from Nevis with which it shares the country of St Kitts & Nevis, is mountainous and volcanic in origin. It is 67 square miles and has a population of around 35,000 people, almost half of whom live in Basseterre, the capital city and a major cruise ship port. The shape of the island reminds me a bit of a whale, with the northwestern head and body making up most of the island, and navigable by a ring road, and a southeastern peninsula tail that was only relatively recently connected by road, and which has little besides beaches and access to Nevis. Basseterre is at the southern end of the main part of the island, just before the tail.
St Kitts was settled by Ciboney, Arawakan (Saladoid, Eastern Taino, and/or post-Saladoid Igneri), and Kalinago (Island Carib), and then colonized by both the English and the French from the 1620s, who after massacring the local Kalinago in 1626, divided the island between themselves. (Interestingly, English Governor Thomas Warner subsequently had a son with a Kalinago woman, known as Indian Warner, who he raised through childhood.) Within the next 40 years, sugar cane was introduced, along with enslaved people from Africa, and England and France went to war with each other. Land changed hands several times until 1713 when the French gave up claims to "Saint-Christophe" (although they did briefly occupy the island again in the 1780s). Slavery was abolished in 1834 and phased out with "apprenticeships" for the next four years. Sugar production, although in decline since before the end of slavery, continued until 2005, well after St Kitts & Nevis became independent in 1983.
I'd already been to St Kitts multiple times, so I didn't spend as much time there this trip and didn't do as much exploring. This year I swam at both Reggae Beach/Cockleshell Bay (the end of the swim race) and South Frigate Bay, and I went back to Brimstone Hill Fortress, where I could tell how much I've improved at walking since last year. And once again, I saw the UNESCO World Heritage Site green vervet monkeys driving down the hill. (I also saw monkeys on Barbados, the only other place in the Caribbean besides St Kitts & Nevis where these introduced monkeys have taken over to the extent that they are mostly considered a pest; incidentally, these monkeys played a critical role in eradicating polio.) I spent a couple hours at the lovely Bougainvillea Books & Gifts, which had a small, but thorough, selection of literature from St Kitts and other islands. The National Museum was still closed, which seems to be par for the course, as not only was it closed the last time I visited, but the national museums were closed on all three islands I visited this trip.
Barbados (indigenous: Ichirouganaim) is considerably further southeast and larger than the other islands where I have been scuba diving. It is an island of about 170 square miles (more than five times the size of St Thomas) with 282,000 inhabitants, making it one of the most densely populated island nations. Barbados appears to have been settled later than the other islands, probably because of its more remote location. There is evidence of Arawak Amerindian settlements (Saladoid and Troumassoid) on Barbados, and it is possible that Kalinago (Island Caribs) visited the island. The Portuguese navigator Pedros Campos sailed by the island en route to Brazil and gave it the name "Barbados", possibly after its "bearded" fig trees.
An English expedition arrived to a basically unihabited island in 1625, and they established their first settlement in 1627 near Holetown, bringing enslaved Africans with them, and another settlement in Bridgetown in 1628. The island was also settled in 1628 by a significant number of Dutch Jews from Brazil, who, along with Jews who subsequently migrated from Cayenne and Suriname, soon built a cemetery and two synagogues. Sugar cane was introduced to Barbados in 1637, earlier than on the other islands, and by the early 1640s was grown on large plantations, mostly with enslaved labor. One of the islands Jews introduced the technology to use windmills to crush sugar, and for a time, Barbados was the largest sugar producer in the Caribbean. An estimated half a million slaves (including Olaudah Equiano) were brought to Barbados from Africa, mostly in the 1700s. In 1816 there was a large, but ultimately unsuccesssful, slave revolt, now celebrated as Bussa's rebellion, after one of the leaders, the African-born Bussa. As in St Kitts, emancipation was declared in 1834 with "apprenticeships" until 1838. Barbados became indepedent from Britain in 1966, and continued decolonization by becoming a republic in 2021.
In addition to being a larger island, I had less time for exploring Barbados, since I didn't have any dedicated non-diving days. I stayed in one area of the island, and I can't even pretend to be qualified to give thorough Barbados recommendations. I can only share what I did on this trip, as well as some other things I researched or saw on past daytrips.
I primarily hung out in St Lawrence Gap near my hotel and the dive boat, which means I went to Worthing Beach and Dover Beach repeatedly. I didn't swim at either, but both were pretty beaches that I would have swam if I'd had more time. Despite being on the calm side, it was exceptionally windy while we were visiting, and there were waves everywhere (although if there was an offshore reef, the waves would break there, leaving a more protected area around the beach). I drove a short distance east to the southernmost point of the island, stopping at Miami Beach and Freights Bay. I dove in Carlisle Bay and had been there years prior; the clear blue color of its shallow water is absolutely stunning. I spent one afternoon in the vicinity of the UWI Cave Hill Campus, primarily to go to Black Rock Books, which is a large used bookstore that specializes in Caribbean books. While there, I also stopped at Batts Rock Beach, which is the closest beach to the bookstore, and watched the sunset and had dinner there before driving back.
I avoided Bridgetown proper on this trip, since the Parliament Museum (and, in fact, the entire Parliament Building) was closed. I had walked around some of downtown before on a cruise, seeing the Lord Nelson Statue, Parliament Building, Nidhe Israel Synagogue (originally built in 1654), and St Mary's Church (1825, though St Michael's had been built on that site previously in 1665). I attempted to go to the Barbados Museum & Historical Society just on the edge of Bridgetown, but that too was closed. I did go to the George Washington House, though only to the cafe rather than the house tour; the GW House virtual tour looked more accessible. (You might be wondering: What is a George Washington House doing in Barbados? In 1751, George Washington sailed to Barbados with his half-brother who had tuberculosis. While his half-brother was recovering, George himself came down with smallpox and stayed somewhere, possibly on the property of the current George Washington House attraction.)
If I'd had more time or hadn't had the flat tire setback, I probably would have done at least one or two of: the beaches of Bathsheba on the east coast to see the famous surf spots and rock formations, driving up the west coast to Speightstown to explore the second largest town in Barbados, and/or going into the center of the island to some of the gardens and other nature areas.
Antigua (indigenous: Wadadli or Waladli or Oualadli) is about 100 square miles in area and home to about 100,000 people, almost a quarter of whom live in the capital, St John's. With Barbuda (and Redonda) it makes up the country of Antigua & Barbuda. There is considerable evidence of Amerindian settlements, such as one at Jolly Beach by Archaic (pre-ceramic) Amerindians (sometimes called Ortoiroid), Arawak (Saladoid and post-Saladoid, here the terminology of tribes and their pottery styles gets fuzzy, as this could include Elenoid, Eastern Tanio, Troumassoid, and/or Igneri) settlements, such as at Indian Creek that was settled from about 0 AD-1000 AD. Much later, the Kalinago (Island Carib) arrived, and the continued to raid Antigua's Amerindian and later European settlers well into the 1600s. (One of the sites of their raids was the now dried-up Indian Creek near where I was staying.)
Antigua was sighted by Christopher Columbus in 1493, then colonized by the English expanding from St Kitts in 1632. As with other islands, sugar cane and sugar technology was introduced from Barbados in the late 1600s; over 100 sugar mill towers remain on the island. Slavery was abolished in 1834, and emancipation was granted immediately rather than being phased out with the "apprenticeships" common to the other islands colonized by the British (although of course the effects of slavery would still continue to be felt). Subsequently, plantation workers were imported from Madeira and Cape Verde.
The British Royal Navy used English Harbour (near where I was staying) as a base of operations, occupying the area for most of the 18th and 19th century. As such, there's extensive fortification in the area, including Fort Berkeley (1704), Nelson's Dockyard (constructed beginning in the 1740s, with buildings being added until the 1850s), and Shirley Heights (around 1790). The area was restored in the 1950s and is now a UNESCO World Heritage Site. While the Navy abandoned the dockyard in 1889, it would take until 1981 for Antigua to gain full independence from Britain.
I had the most time for sightseeing on Antigua and managed to cover pretty much all of the southern half of the island and a good portion of the north as well, all at a leisurely pace. I wandered through English Harbour, Nelson's Dockyard, and Shirley Heights most late afternoons/evenings, since I was staying nearby and it was so scenic and rich in history. It must be completely different during cruise ship tours and party nights, but I avoided crowds and pretty much had the whole area to myself, which was very peaceful. While there were many restaurants to choose from, I mostly ate at Indian Summer (eating Indian food when I'm on British-influenced islands has become my thing) and lounged around on the water at You & Me Cafe when I had time in the mornings. I swam at Pigeon Point Beach, which was the closest beach and had lots of shade.
Antigua is known for having a long coastline and many beaches, and I checked out several beaches. I drove clockwise around the coast stopping at the beaches between English Harbour and Jolly Harbour (beaches listed below). Despite being a Sunday afternoon, most of the beaches were nearly empty, with the exception of Little Ffryes Beach, which seemed popular with local families, I expect because the water was so well-protected. I drove counter-clockwise around the coast to Half Moon Bay Beach. (I contemplated going as far as the limestone formation of Devil's Bridge National Park, but reviews made it sound like a more difficult walk than I thought worth attempting.)
I stopped by Betty's Hope, one of the oldest sugar plantations; I got there too late for the museum to be open, but had a nice view of one of the windmills while I read about the history. And I stopped at many churches on my drives around the island, especially to and from the airport. They were all either right on the main road or a short detour to the center of the towns, and they made good brief photo stops, especially since so many of them were in different colors. (Overall, I found the buildings in Antigua to be very colorful, even by Caribbean standards. A lot of the buildings were also distinctive in using local stone, especially those in Liberta where the stone was greenish.)
I spent one of my non-diving days in St John’s. I'd heard good things about the Museum of Antigua & Barbuda, including their research library, but unfotunately the building was closed for renovations. Fortunately, the other places I wanted to go were all open. These included Best of Books, where I browsed (and bought) local books chatted with the bookstore owner, and Zemi Art Gallery, which had some wonderful paintings and metal sculptures, and where I had a long conversation with the artist/owner about zemis, Amerindians, and Antigua archaeology. I then hid out during the hottest part of the day at the library, where I spent far too long in the Caribbean section discovering books of interest. I left just before the library was closing and drove out to St John's Point, where I walked around the remains of the early 18th century Fort James, I went swimming at the adjacent Fort James Beach.
While I didn't make it to Barbuda (indigenous: Waomoni, Ouahomoni), I did read up on Barbuda and what I would do there, so I'll share some useful links. The Barbudaful site has a lot of information about history (and pre-history) and wildlife. Barbuda boasts having one of the largest frigate bird colonies in the world, so the Frigate Bird Sanctuary is probably a stop on every tour; they also have more than 100 other species of birds, including the endemic Barbuda Warbler. Unlike Antigua, Barbuda is a flat, coral limestone island, so it's coast is basically one long stretch of sand with little interruption. All of the photos and videos I've seen of the beaches look picturesque, but the thing that is extra-special is the (seasonal) pink sand, which owes its color primarily to the skeletons of little-known protists called foraminifera. (Here's a blog with more info and photos of forams in the Bahamas.) A tour operator will know the best places to see the pink sand; at least currently, it seems the sands are pinker near the bird sanctuary and Barubda Belle than at the eponymous Pink Sand Beach. The limestone is responsible for several caves. You can find videos of all of the above on YouTube (e.g., Travel by Dart and Sue WhereWhyWhat).
Currently there's only one ferry operating to Barbuda: Barbuda Express. The ferry runs daily, leaving St John's at 6:30AM (9:00AM on Sundays) and returning at 3:00PM. Tickets must be booked in advance, which you can do online. Once on Barbuda, you will either need to have booked a tour in advance, such as Hillside Tours, or to arrange for a taxi to take you around for the day and bring you back to the ferry dock.
None of the islands I visited could reasonably be described as accessible destinations for people with limited mobility. I'm much more mobile than I was last year. I was particularly aware of this on St Kitts, where things that were at the limits of my abilities last year were so much easier now. Walking is still a chore though, which made Barbados in particular difficult because between the traffic and limited parking in our area, we walked to our meals. I continue to get much use out of my cane seat, with many people commenting on it, and in some cases recognizing me by it. All of the islands had some beaches with water entrances I could manage. As before, some other beaches and attractions were non-starters, and I can't imagine hiking in St Kitts & Nevis will ever be a thing I can do. I had no real problems with hotels, though I do wish Timothy Beach were more accessible and that the shower in Harlem B & B were easier to get into. At this point I've gotten pretty good at managing showers with my cane seat, so I don't worry about booking accessible rooms, which greatly increases my options for lodging.
I was surprised at how big the airport was on Barbados, and even on Antigua. I knew they'd have to be pretty big airports since they have flights from Europe, but I thought perhaps the regional flights would be sufficiently separated to minimize walking. I'm not ready to stop using a wheelchair in airports, even if I'm not traveling with my own wheelchair for destinations.
I am so much better at dive boats -- both getting on/off them and balancing while onboard -- than I was a year ago. I attribute that largely to the physical therapy I did last summer, which involved a lot of ankle range of motion and balance.
The Nevis Channel swim race wasn't designed with limited mobility in mind. As for accessibility of the race itself, one of the volunteers was happy to take my cane and shoes from me once I got to the water at the start of the race and handed my cane to me as soon as I arrived at the end of the race so I could use it to walk up the incline to the finish line. However, since the race starts on Nevis and ends on St Kitts, there is the challenge of getting to the start and finish lines. There is water taxi service provided between the two islands for race participants, but there's a short, yet substantial for people like me, walk between the water taxi docks and the start and finish lines. This hurdle could easily be addressed by the organizers by providing a driver or two. This year I didn't have to walk back to the water taxi dock on St Kitts because my travel companion brought the car over to our exit spot for me, which was quite nice. However, this year the boat I took to Nevis was a larger ferry, and so disembarking involved a set of portable stairs without railings; if that had been the case last year, someone probably would have had to lift me off the ferry. As in previous years, there was limited seating before the start of the swim race, and there were multiple check-in stations to pass through, which involved walking to and waiting at those stations, one of which was up a couple of steps. Getting the food at the end of the race also involved going up steps, and the path the signs sent us on to retrieve our belongings involved going up and down steps and ramps, despite the fact that there was a perfectly good shorter level path. These types of things are quite frustrating to me, because it would be so easy to improve the accessibility, and it's so obvious to me, that I have to remind myself that other people aren't being deliberately cruel, but rather are oblivious to these challenges because they don't think about every step they take or understand that there are people who do.
Then again, the organizers still don't seem to have figured out just how inconvenient and expensive it is to require people to pick up their race kit (swim cap, temporary tattoo, tracking anklet) at the start or end point on the afternoon before the race, as people who don't rent cars are paying taxi fare and depending on flight arrival time, it necessitates people flying in two days before the race rather than just one. If they really need everyone to get those items before the morning of the race, maybe they could have them delivered to the hotels people are staying and/or offer a later pickup time.
One of the things I've been doing on my Caribbean trips is visiting libraries and bookstores. I also read several local books before and after my trip. These included:
For more books, bookstores, and libraries (including photos), see my virtual library of Caribbean books.
(Sara Smollett, Apr 2025)