Antigua has 365 beaches. You have about six days.
Which stingray trip actually reaches the sandbar. Whether the Sunday lookout is worth the taxi. What a day on a catamaran really costs. Every tour on the island, reviewed.
Six days that define an Antiguan week.
A sandbar full of stingrays, a lap of the whole island, a beach a day, the reef at Cades, the Sunday lookout above English Harbour and a kitchen full of jerk smoke. Most trips are built from these six.
What a cruise morning in St John’s actually buys you.
Almost nothing worth doing in Antigua happens on Heritage Quay. The boats, the jeeps and the taxis leave from the pier and take you across the island: the sandbar on the north-east coast, Fig Tree Drive, the forts, the reef. Here is what leaves from there, and how long each one really needs.
Antigua’s most popular tours.
Every review →The trips that fill up first on an island of 108 square miles, and what makes each one worth a whole day of a short holiday.
1
Adventure Antigua – The Xtreme Circumnavigation
Review of Adventure Antigua’s Xtreme Circumnavigation, with stingrays, snorkeling, beach lunch, rum punch, history, and practical booking advice.
From · $221
Read our review →
2
Turtle Beach Power Snorkeling Adventure
from $132
3
Scenic Full Day Tour of Antigua
from $142
4
Snorkel – Lobster Lunch Cruise to Bird Island and Paradise Reef
from $185
5
Adventure Antigua – Eli’s Original Eco Tour
from $142
6
Antigua Round Island Tour
from $93
7
Antigua VIP Tours – Private Platinum Tour
from $170
8
Private Snorkeling and Sightseeing Tour of Antigua
from $125
Antigua is a coastline with an island attached.
All snorkelling trips →
Reef, sandbar or open sea: the water day you choose decides the whole trip. These three carry the most travellers between them, and the full list splits the rest by boat size and where it drops anchor.
Cades Reef and Paradise Reef
Antigua’s south-west shelf is shallow, warm and busy with fish. Boats moor over the coral, you slide in, and the crew keeps a rope in the water for anyone who wants one.
Bird Island and a lobster on deck
North-east past the reef line to Great Bird Island, where the anchorage is calm and the galley is already cooking. Climb the bluff for the view, then eat on the way home.
Mangroves by kayak, reef after
The north-east mangroves are flat and green and almost silent. Paddle the channels, then swap the boat for a mask at the reef on the far side.
One beach a day for a year, and you still would not finish.
Antigua claims a beach for every day of the year, and the arithmetic almost holds. Dickenson and Fort James are the easy ones near town. Ffryes, Darkwood and Valley Church run down the west coast within a taxi fare of each other. Half Moon Bay is worth the drive east on its own.
What a day in Antigua actually costs.
Every tour on the site, grouped by what you hand over. The cheap end is not the thin end here: a beach transfer and a mask cost less than lunch in the marina.
Beach runs, city walks, a taxi to the lookout and back. The island at local prices.
The standard Antiguan day out: island laps, stingray trips, reef boats, a cooking class with the meal at the end.
- 1Turtle Beach Power Snorkeling Adventurefrom $132
- 2Scenic Full Day Tour of Antiguafrom $142
- 3Adventure Antigua – Eli’s Original Eco Tourfrom $142
Private boats, chartered jeeps and the once-a-holiday days with a skipper and a cooler of your own.
Three things Antigua does that the next island does not.
Reef and rum exist all over the Caribbean. A Sunday night above a Georgian dockyard, a sandbar you can stand on with rays circling your knees, and a distillery that hands you the still are Antiguan.
The Lookout
Shirley Heights is an old gun battery on the ridge above English Harbour, and on Sunday afternoons it turns into the best party on the island. Steel pan first, then a brass band, barbecue smoke, and the whole harbour laid out below as the light goes orange. It runs on Thursdays too, smaller. Taxis fill up from three; go early and stay for the second set.
- 1Sunset party at Shirley Heights – SHARE round trip★★★★★★★★★★ 4.5 · 71 reviews
- 2Taxi to Shirley heights lookout Sunday social package★★★★★★★★★★ 3.5 · 18 reviews
- 3Shirley Heights Sunset Party Taxi (Other packages are available)★★★★★★★★★★ 3.0 · 11 reviews
The Sandbar
Off the north-east coast the water shallows to chest height over a sand shelf, and southern stingrays have been coming to the same spot for years. You stand, they glide past your legs, and a guide shows you how to hold one flat across your forearms. It is calm, it is not deep, and it works for people who do not swim.
- 1Stingray City Antigua for all the ages – ROUND TRIP INCLUDED★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · 196 reviews
- 26-Hours Tour East Coast of Antigua: Stingray City, Lunch & Beach★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · 109 reviews
- 3Stingray City experience, Devils Bridge and Long Bay Beach★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · 59 reviews
The Masterclass
Antigua grew sugar for two centuries and the ruined mills are still standing in the fields. The rum sessions on Galleon Beach put two people on a station with a small still, walk you through the cuts, and let you blend and bottle what you make. You leave with the bottle and a much better answer to what rum actually is.
- 1Rum Making Masterclass Galleon Beach Antigua 2 People per Station★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · 165 reviews
- 2Nicole’s Table – Cooking with Rum★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · 112 reviews
- 3Rum Making Masterclass Galleon Beach Antigua for 1 Person★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · 68 reviews
Antigua does not stop at sunset.
All evening tours →
Sunset party at Shirley Heights – SHARE round trip
Read our review →
Antigua Sunset Catamaran Cruise From St. John’s
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Four Antiguan bookings that will not wait for you to land.
Most of Antigua can be arranged at the hotel desk the night before. These four cannot. They run on one day of the week, one small kitchen, the tide, or a handful of harnesses.
- 01Sunset party at Shirley Heights – SHARE round tripThe big night is Sunday, once a week. Every taxi on the island is going the same way at the same hour.
- 02Nicole’s Table – All about JerkOne kitchen, one table, a handful of seats per session. It sells out further ahead than anything else on the island.
- 03Stingray City Antigua for all the ages – ROUND TRIP INCLUDEDTrips are timed to the tide and to whichever ships are alongside. The good slots are taken before the gangway drops.
- 04Antigua Zipline Canopy Adventure from St John’sA fixed number of harnesses per departure on a single canopy course. Walk-ups get whatever is left.
On a rough-sea day, Antigua goes inland.
The Christmas winds blow hard from December to February and the north-east swell can knock the reef boats out for a morning. It is not a lost day. The interior is where the sugar mills, the rainforest road and the fort walls are, and none of them care what the sea is doing.
By format — how you are getting around
Leaving from St John’s29 tours
Round the island14 tours
In the water11 tours
By boat9 tours
On foot in town10 tours
Forts and mills8 tours
Off the tarmac5 tours- The whole Antigua list →
By experience — beach, boat, buggy or kitchen?
Six days on Antigua, in the order that works.
West coast
The sandbar
The LookoutThe newest Antigua reviews.
All recent →
St. John’s,Antigua Horse Back Riding & bareback swim & Fort beach
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Shared Roundtrip Taxi Transfer from Antigua Airport to Royalton Antigua Resort
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St. John’s: Rum Cooking Class with 6 Rum Tastings
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Under the Sea snorkeling(Stingray/Kayak/ Power Snorkel available)
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Private Antigua Airport Roundtrip Transfer to Hammock Cove
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Half-Day Small-Group E-Bike Guided Tour in Antigua
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St. John’s, Antigua Kayak, Snorkeling, & Beach Bird Island
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From St John’s: Half Moon Bay Beach Half-Day Trip by Van
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