Antigua-et-Barbuda : activités et visites

Antigua, the larger island, is a dry, rolling land of coves and white-sand beaches in the Leeward chain. St John's, the capital, rises behind a busy harbour; its Anglican cathedral has two white towers, and the old courthouse holds the national museum. Five Islands, a village on the west coast, looks over a bay of the same name.

On the south coast, English Harbour holds Nelson's Dockyard, a Georgian naval base of stone storehouses and masts that is listed by UNESCO, and the lookout at Shirley Heights above it gives a view over the bays. Barbuda, a flat coral island to the north, has a great lagoon where frigate birds nest and long beaches with a pink tinge.

Pepperpot, a stew of greens and meat, is eaten with fungee, a cornmeal dumpling, and the local black pineapple is small and very sweet. Sailing shapes the year, with a week-long regatta each spring, and carnival fills St John's with costumes and steel bands at the turn of July into August. The dry months run from December to April.