St. John's, AG

Restaurant and bar at the top of Shirley Heights — BBQ, pasta, Caribbean dishes — with the unbeatable view over English Harbour. Sunday-night BBQ-and-steel-band party is the country's defining event.

Clifftop tapas restaurant at Cocobay Resort on the west coast — Mediterranean small plates, dramatic plunge pools at every table, the island's most-photographed sunset terrace.

French beach cafe-restaurant on the sand at Pigeon Beach — French-Caribbean menu, rose by the bottle, feet-in-sand dining. Long-running expat favourite near Nelson's Dockyard.

Cult St John's seafood-and-rum shack in a residential street — fresh fish (whatever was landed that day), zillion-bottle rum collection, no menu beyond the chalkboard. The unmissable local meal.

Long-established colonnaded restaurant on St. Mary's Street near Heritage Quay — Caribbean menu, balcony seating overlooking the harbour, walk-in friendly. The reliable downtown lunch.

Restaurant in the Admiral's Inn at Nelson's Dockyard — historic stone-pillared room, Caribbean-Mediterranean menu, sailor crowd from the marina. The atmospheric dinner at English Harbour.

St John's downtown lunch shack doing rotis — Caribbean curry wrapped in soft flatbread — chicken, goat, fish, vegetable. Cheap, fast, the proper local lunch.

Long-running Redcliffe Quay pizza-and-pasta restaurant in a restored warehouse — wood-fired pizzas, pasta, big portions, walk-in friendly. The reliable downtown family dinner.

A Dickenson Bay institution under the palms — a French chef cooking Caribbean-inflected seafood at sand-side tables facing the bay. The classic north-coast sunset dinner if you have a rental car.

Mid-priced restaurant at the Hodges Bay Resort north of St John's — Mediterranean-Caribbean menu, sunset terrace over Prickly Pear Island. Walk-in friendly outside high season.

Short walking trail from Nelson's Dockyard along the rocky shore to Fort Berkeley at the harbour entrance — 30 minutes one way, easy underfoot, panoramic views of English Harbour from the fort.

Longer hike from Shirley Heights down to the dramatic Pillars of Hercules rock formations at the harbour entrance — 90 minutes one way, moderate effort, the most dramatic coastal walk on the island.

Antigua's oldest forested area in the hills above John Hughes village — short loop trails through tropical evergreen forest with bird life, freshwater dam, ruined sugar mill. Pocket of the island that doesn't look like the rest.

Walk along the wild east-coast cliffs from Indian Town Point to Devil's Bridge — limestone shelves, blowholes, Atlantic swell. About 45 minutes one way.

Short coastal path between Pigeon Beach and the calm-water Galleon Beach inside English Harbour — 20 minutes through tropical scrub. Combines two beaches in one visit.

Compact museum in the old 1750 Court House on Long Street — pre-Columbian artefacts, colonial history, Vivian Richards' cricket bat. Small but well-curated.

Half-day boat tour to the shallow sandbar off the north-east coast where southern stingrays gather and can be fed and stroked. Friendlier than the sister operation in Cayman; smaller groups.

Annual late-July to early-August carnival in St John's — calypso competitions, costume parades, food and music in Carnival City. The country's biggest cultural event.

Annual late-April racing regatta around Nelson's Dockyard — yacht racing by day, parties at the dockyard by night. The biggest event in the Caribbean sailing calendar.

Full-day catamaran cruise combining Stingray City with snorkel stops, a beach lunch and an open-bar rum-punch sail back. The classic full-day on Antigua's water.

Hilltop bar with one of the island's best sunset views and a craft-beer programme. Casual, walk-in friendly, the quieter alternative to Shirley Heights.

UNESCO-listed 18th-century Royal Navy dockyard at English Harbour, restored and still working as a marina — Dockyard Museum (Nelson's telescope on display), historic buildings, restaurants and a few small hotels in the precinct.

Hillside fortification with panoramic views over English Harbour and Falmouth Harbour, on a clear day as far as Guadeloupe and Montserrat. Sunday-evening BBQ-and-steel-band party is the island's defining weekly event.

Twin-towered cathedral on the rise above St John's, the third church on the site (rebuilt 1845). Free entry, dramatic wooden interior, the city's defining skyline element.

Two adjacent harbour-front shopping precincts on the cruise side of St John's — Heritage Quay duty-free shopping, Redcliffe Quay restored 18th-century warehouses with shops and restaurants. The capital's tourist core.

Most-developed beach on the island — calm water, white sand, multiple resorts and beach bars. The default Antigua swim beach for visitors not at a specific resort.

Crescent of white sand on the wild east coast, declared a national park. Strong Atlantic surf on one side, calm shallows on the other end. The island's most beautiful beach and far less developed than Dickenson.

Natural limestone arch on the wild east coast, carved by Atlantic swell — dramatic blowholes, sea cliffs, no facilities. The historic sites' counterweight if you want raw geology.

Restored colonial sugar plantation with two preserved windmills and an interpretive centre on the slave-labour, sugar-economy story. Small, sobering, the island's best historical lesson.