Dickenson Bay

Antigua: Horseback Riding at Royalton or Dickenson Bay

An hour on horseback along the north-west coast, which is exactly the right length: long enough to feel like a proper ride, short enough that nobody who has never been on a horse regrets it. Groups are small, the guides lead nervous riders, and the setting — flat sand, calm water, the low green headlands behind — is what people imagine when they imagine the Caribbean. Rated a full five stars.

• Ride along the sand on Antigua’s sheltered north-west coast
• Small groups with experienced guides and calm, well-handled horses
• Suitable for complete beginners — this is a walk, not a gallop

Antigua: Transparent Boat Tour to Bird & Hell’s Gate Islands

Antigua’s North Sound is a maze of uninhabited islets and reef inside a protected marine park, and the transparent-hulled boat is a smart way to see it — the coral, rays and fish are visible from your seat, which suits mixed groups where not everyone wants to swim. Great Bird Island gives you a ten-minute climb to a cliff edge with tropicbirds wheeling below, and Hell’s Gate is the arch every Antiguan photograph eventually gets around to.

• See-through hull, so the reef is visible without getting in
• Great Bird Island — nesting red-billed tropicbirds and a short cliff walk
• Hell’s Gate, a natural limestone arch standing out of the sea

Antigua: Small-Group Island Highlights with a Local Guide

If you only have a morning — a short cruise call, a departure day, a first orientation — this is the sensible choice. A local guide takes a small group around the island’s highlights, filling the drive with the kind of context you cannot get from a map: which villages grew from which sugar estate, where people actually swim, what the cricket means. At around $60 it is the cheapest way to get properly oriented before you strike out on your own.

• A genuinely local guide rather than a script
• The island’s headline sights in a single, efficient loop
• Small groups, so questions actually get answered

St John’s

The capital, the market and the quays

A working Caribbean capital of about 22,000 people, where two white baroque towers rise above a grid of shopfronts and rum shops. Heritage and Redcliffe Quay bring the cruise crowds; the Saturday public market, the Museum of Antigua and Barbuda and the back streets are where the city actually happens.

Great Bird Island

An uninhabited islet in the North Sound

A small, empty island 15 minutes off the north-east coast, with a beach on one side, low cliffs full of nesting red-billed tropicbirds on the other, and shallow reef in between. It is also the last refuge of the Antiguan racer, once the rarest snake on earth.

Jolly Harbour

Marina village and the long west beach

A purpose-built marina village on the west coast with a supermarket, a golf course, restaurants around the docks and the long sweep of Jolly Beach next door. The most practical base on the island for self-catering, boats and families who want everything walkable.