Anguilla
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.
Where we'd stay
A note: Cap Juluca is above the VV sweet spot. We cover the gap between Hampton Inn and Ritz-Carlton, and Cap Juluca is operating in an entirely different conversation. We are including it because some hotels exist outside price-point arguments. This is one of them. Go once. You will understand.
Cap Juluca, A Belmond Hotel
MAUNDAYS BAY · WEST END · FROM ~$1,200/NIGHTWe'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.
Restaurants
Three tables that matter on a thirty-five square mile island.
To do & see
The Beach & The Water
ALL OVER THE ISLANDHere is the honest truth about things to do in Anguilla: the beach is the thing to do. All thirty-three of them. The island's genius is that it never tried to be anything other than the best collection of beaches in the Caribbean, and it succeeds so completely that any itinerary beyond 'find water, get in it' starts to feel like missing the point. Swim. Float. Walk the sand at Maundays Bay or Shoal Bay until you forget what day it is. Snorkel where the water goes glass-clear over the reef. Take a boat to a sandbar and have lunch with your feet still wet.
Worth skipping
Every recommendation, mapped.
We've pinned every hotel, restaurant, and beach from this guide into a single Anguilla map. One tap and it lives in your Google Maps — ready for the trip.
Open the Anguilla Map →Opens in Google Maps · Save to keep offline