Sixteen Miles of Coral, Sand and Calm
Anguilla is a slender coral island and British Overseas Territory in the northern Lesser Antilles, known for powder-white beaches, a confident restaurant scene and an unhurried, barefoot sense of polish. It measures about 16 miles by three, with 91 square kilometres of land and around 16,000 residents (2024 estimate). Flat and low-lying, it lets the sky do the work: sunsets run wide and the sea shifts through every shade of turquoise. Anguilla became British in 1667 and separated from Saint Kitts and Nevis in 1980, and a quiet self-assurance still shapes everything from its boats to its beach bars.
That character is felt the moment you land. Boat racing is a national passion, with regattas that draw whole villages to the shoreline, and the language is English with a lilting Anguillan Creole. The national dish, pigeon peas and rice, sits on menus beside spiny lobster, conch and salt cod. Travellers who know St Martin, just across the channel, often find Anguilla the calmer and more intimate sibling, a place where a day is measured in beaches visited rather than sights ticked off.
Shoal Bay, Meads Bay and Sandy Ground
Beaches are the headline. Shoal Bay and Meads Bay are the two names returning guests know best: Shoal Bay a long, shallow sweep of white sand with beach bars along its edge, Meads Bay a broad arc backed by some of the island's best-known resorts. Sandy Ground, the seafront village on the Road Bay waterfront, is where evenings begin, with live music and grilled lobster. For a different pace, the Fountain Cavern and the Big Spring petroglyphs, dating from around AD 600 to 1200, reveal the Amerindian past beneath the sand.
Culture here is as much about sound as scenery. Moonsplash, the island's reggae festival, has now run for more than three decades, and Carnival and boat-racing seasons fill the summer calendar. For a hotel group or villa collection, Anguilla's mix of barefoot luxury and genuine local life makes an easy story to tell. The neighbouring St Barths offers a polished contrast, and the British Virgin Islands a sailing-led alternative, so many guests build a two-island stay.
Read the full Anguilla guide on Visit Travel Group, or see Anguilla.uk on Visit Travel Group.