Antigua's coastline is filled with quiet bays and inlets, providing an extraordinary number of sheltered beaches--365 in all. Today this topography is a major attraction for those searching for that rarest and most basic of all commodities--a quiet, pristine stretch of sugary white sand.

However, for much of Antigua's history as an English naval base and sugar colony it attracted the much less benevolent interest of the French--after all, nothing beats a secluded white sand beach for secretly landing an army. The legacy of British concern is a wealth of crumbling stone ruins scattered along Antigua's coast and the elegant Georgian architecture of Nelson's Dockyards National Park. The restored harbour now serves as the home port for Antigua's celebrated annual Sailing Week.

Other activities and points of interest include tennis (and the international-calibre play of Tennis Week), golf, and diving and snorkeling among the islands' many reefs and shipwrecks. Nearby Barbuda is home to the Caribbean's largest bird sanctuary and mile after mile of wide pink sand beach.

Location

Antigua (pronounced An-tee'ga) and Barbuda are located in the middle of the Leeward Islands in the Eastern Caribbean, roughly 17 degrees north of the equator. To the south are the islands of Montserrat and Guadaloupe, and to the north and west are Nevis, St. Kitts, St. Barts, and St. Martin.

Antigua, the largest of the British Leeward Islands, is about 14 miles long and 11 miles wide, encompassing 108 square miles. Its highest point is Boggy Peak (1319 ft.), located in the southwestern corner of the island. Barbuda, a flat coral island with an area of only 68 square miles, lies approximately 30 miles due north. The nation also includes the tiny (0.6 square mile) uninhabited island of Redonda, now a nature preserve. The current population for the nation is approximately 68,000 and its capital is St. John's on Antigua.

Climate

Temperatures generally range from the mid-seventies in the winter to the mid-eighties in the summer. Annual rainfall averages only 45 inches, making it the sunniest of the Eastern Caribbean Islands, and the northeast trade winds are nearly constant, flagging only in September. Low humidity year-round. Check our weather section to get the latest forecasts. Contents provided by the Department of Tourism of Antigua and Barbuda.