Experience the best of Frederiksted

Frederiksted was laid out by the Danes in the mid-eighteenth century on the flat, sunny west coast of St Croix and named for King Frederik V. Fort Frederik, a Danish fort completed in 1760 beside the waterfront, is where emancipation was proclaimed in 1848, and it now holds a small museum. Streets of wooden and stone buildings with fretwork balconies surround it, and a long pier reaches into the clear water.

Snorkellers and divers swim around the pilings of the pier, which shelter seahorses, octopus and reef fish, and the beaches north and south of town are quiet. The island's small rain forest lies in the hills north-east of town, and Sandy Point National Wildlife Refuge, on the south-western tip, is a nesting beach for leatherback turtles.

Crucian cooking turns up in johnnycakes, saltfish, fish with fungi, a cornmeal side, and spiced pates, alongside fresh conch and rum drinks at beach bars. Sunset is the evening event on this west-facing waterfront, and the trade winds keep the temperature steady through the year.