An honest guide · February 2025

Anguilla

The Take

Anguilla is not trying to impress you. That is the first thing to understand.

By Albert & Nouri Beesemer — independently visited. No sponsored placements. Ever.

There are no casinos, no celebrity residences open for tours, no DJs imported from somewhere louder. The island is thirty-five square miles of coral, scrub, and the kind of beach that makes you wonder what you have been doing with your life. It accomplishes this without making a fuss about it, which is more than can be said for most places with good beaches.

The second thing to understand is that Anguilla runs on a different clock. Not Caribbean-lazy — genuinely unhurried, in the way that signals confidence rather than indolence. The people who come back every year understand this distinction. The people who arrive frustrated tend to leave the same way, which is largely the island's point.

Hotels

✦ VV Pick

Cap Juluca, A Belmond Hotel

We'll be honest about where we stand: Cap Juluca sits above the tier we usually cover, and we went back and forth about including it at all. We're glad we didn't talk ourselves out of it. Some hotels you remember for the room. This one we remember for the people — which is the rarer thing, and the reason it earns its place here despite the price. It began before we'd even landed. The concierge reached out ahead of the trip to arrange the crossing from SXM. When we arrived, it was Eleonore — the General Manager herself — who met us at the door. Not as a performance, but because welcoming guests in person is how she runs her hotel. The property is all Moorish-white architecture along Maundays Bay, which is the most beautiful beach on the island. Our room opened through a foyer into something generous and calm: a wide balcony with two loungers and a table where we took slow breakfasts watching the water. Claudia, our concierge, was the heart of the stay. Whatever we asked, her answer was a warm 'yes, of course, I can make it happen.' By the second day we'd stopped thinking about logistics altogether. Uchu, the Peruvian restaurant on property, was the meal of the trip and one of the best we've had at any hotel, full stop.

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Restaurants

Three tables that matter on a thirty-five square mile island.

Blanchards

WEST END · FINE DINING

The institution. Blanchards has been on this island since 1994 and wears it with the confidence of a restaurant that knows it doesn't need to update its logo. White tablecloths, candles, the sound of the trade winds through open walls. The lobster is the reason to come. The wine list is longer than the island's main road. Reserve well in advance.

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Sharky's

SANDY GROUND · BEACH BAR

The anti-Blanchards, in the best possible way. Sharky's is the beach bar that the travel magazines describe as a 'hidden gem' so reliably that it is no longer either hidden or a gem in the undiscovered sense — but the fish tacos remain beyond reproach and the rum punch is priced for the island rather than for the guest. Go for lunch. Stay longer than you intended.

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Sunshine Shack

ROADSIDE · LOCAL

A roadside operation that should not work as well as it does. Jerk chicken, ribs, sides that arrive in quantities calibrated for people who have been swimming all day. The queue at peak hours is the most reliable quality signal on the island. Join it.

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