Choosing a Caribbean Island

Anguilla has the finest sea and sand in the islands – I’d say the ‘Caribbean’s best beaches’, but the lack of palms undermines the archetype.  But hey, the water is an unbelievable turquoise and the sand so sumptuous that just walking becomes aerobic exercise...

Famed for her physical beauty – like Helen of Troy, she moved whole armies – St Lucia has recently built a reputation as the Caribbean’s most romantic destination. And it’s true, heart-stoppingly pretty bays and beaches, particularly in the north…

Jamaica is a large and exceptionally beautiful island in the western Caribbean, south of Florida and Cuba, with a lively population of over 2 million, giving it a strong local life and culture.

Nevis, a tiny 6 miles by 8, has unutterable, almost ineffable charm:, arising from a combination of the islanders, who go more placidly than other West Indians, the traditional wood and stone buildings, which create a calm and gracious air, and vertiginous greenery.

St Barts is unlike any other Caribbean island - it feels more metropolitan French than French Caribbean. It is stylish and sophisticated, and well… sexy – what it doesn’t have is the Caribbean’s easy-going character and slow charm, nor even many islanders of colour.

The French island of Guadeloupe, mid-way down the eastern Caribbean chain, is really two islands shunted together: Basse-Terre, the soaring, luxuriant, volcanic western half, and Grande-Terre in the east, the rolling, coral-based half, fringed with white-sand beaches.

Unfeasibly, tiny Saba - a volcanic peak just two and a half miles by three in the north-eastern Caribbean - is the highest point in the Kingdom of the Netherlands. But lots of things about Saba are unexpected: the islanders speak mainly English, their island is impossibly steep and they built a road that engineers said was impossible.

The Bahamas don’t consider themselves to be in the Caribbean – geologically they are not, and they are closer to the States, just off Florida. However people visit for much the same reason. Incredible sand and magnificent sea - the bluest of them all.

An attractive and reliably charming mid-size island, Grenada is easy to fall in love with. It is green and mountainous, and while not as geographically dramatic as other Windwards it is beautiful (particularly its capital, St Georges), immensely fertile and its people extremely friendly.