11.18.2017

OUR VISIT TO ANGUILLA



We sailed on Royal Caribbean's Oasis of the Seas back in June. One of the port stops was St. Maarten, my favorite Caribbean island, and the one we have cruised to the most. Since we had visited the island five previous times, we decided to be adventurous, visit a new country and take the ferry over to the island of Anguilla.

From the cruise port terminal it took several legs of transportation to arrive in Anguilla: 

Water Taxi from cruise pier to Philipsburg ($7 roundtrip);
Taxi from Philipsburg to Marigot ($25);
Ferry from Marigot to Anguilla ($53 each roundtrip);
Taxi from Anguilla cruise pier to Rendezvous Bay Beach ($34 roundtrip).
Taxi from Marigot back to Philipsburg ($25).

But it was so worth it!

Anguilla has so many beautiful beaches to choose from. I had researched a couple of them, but as we went through customs, I asked the official which beach she recommended since we only wanted to stay for a couple of hours. She recommended Rendezvous Bay Beach: it was close by and tended to be less crowded. So we took her advice (thank you Ms. Customs Official for the perfect choice!) and hired a taxi driver for the round trip to and from the beach.

Rendezvous Bay Beach is located in front of the Anguilla Great House Beach Resort. Note: if you are interested in actually visiting Anguilla instead of a day-trip, their accommodations are these cute West Indian style cottages.

After the taxi dropped us off we just had to walk directly through the main office building and straight down the sidewalk to the beach. No fees or charges to visit the beach.
WOW!  Here is our first view...can it be any more perfect?
Since it was low season (mid-June) the beach was nearly empty!  A look to our left...



 







































To the right there were just a handful of tourists. The catamaran sailed into that spot about a half-hour after we arrived but the passengers stayed near the boat to snorkel.






















This was definitely the highlight of our cruise. When have you ever been nearly the only people on a spectacular white-sand beach?

 









































































































If you want to research ferry schedules from St. Martin to Anguilla, you can click here and here.

All photos were taken by my husband and me during our visit to Anguilla in June, 2017. Unauthorized use is prohibited.