Welcome to Antigua and Barbuda!
This Caribbean nation is surrounded by crystal clear turquoise waters.
Antigua has 365 beaches.
A new one for every single day of the year.
Here, you find delicious food,
music and arts,
and history,
and adventure.
All set against the backdrop of Antigua’s incredible natural beauty.
In this video, we’re sharing some of the top things to see and do in this sunny island paradise.
Let’s go!
TOP 8 THINGS TO DO IN ANTIGUA & BARBUDA
ENJOY THE BEST SUNSET VIEW (AND PARTY!)
If you’re in Antigua on a Sunday night,
then honestly there’s only really one place I think you’ll want to be.
It’s right here.
I’m at a place called The Lookout at Shirley Heights.
This is formerly a military complex.
It’s a historic site.
It overlooks all of beautiful English Harbour
and now every Sunday night, it’s where you find
what a lot of people have called the best party in town.
Everyone gathers here at the lookout point to look at the beautiful view.
There’s music,
there’s food you can smell,
delicious chicken and ribs and fish in the air.
People are enjoying themselves in every way
and it’s just a fantastic way to spend a Sunday evening in Antigua.
ISLAND HOP OVER TO A TINY PARADISE
We’re on this tiny island called Prickly Pear.
As if it could be any cuter named Prickly Pear.
You take a boat from the main island of Antigua over at Hodge’s Bay Hotel
across these gorgeous turquoise waters,
get off at this tiny little island.
There’s lots of birds here.
Far more birds than you’ll find other human beings.
There’s a restaurant so you can order food.
There’s lots of places to just lie out and enjoy the sun.
Such warm water.
It’s like taking a bath if you want to swim or snorkel,
or just look out and enjoy this paradise on top of paradise.
SWIM WITH WILD STINGRAYS
We’re up early this morning in Antigua to come down here to Stingray City.
I’m not entirely sure what to expect but I’m prepared for the sun.
I am less prepared for the stingrays that I know we’re going to encounter
once we head out on the boat.
They can come and go as they please.
From what I hear, we’ll have a chance to interact with them,
maybe pet them a little bit.
I hear that they’re extremely soft and just gentle giants
so this will be a first.
I’m really excited to see what it’s all about so we’re going to head out on the water.
After an 8 minute boat ride, we are here.
We’re officially at Stingray City where we’re going to find all of the stingrays today.
The water looks absolutely incredible, it is so clear.
And I cannot wait to get off this boat and into that water.
There’s one right beside you. -Oh my god, it’s enormous!
Oh my god!
I can’t believe it.
Stingrays are everywhere.
They are quite large.
Larger than I expected.
Way larger.
They’re super, super soft
when they kind of glide by you
and just touch your leg as they’re passing by.
And we’ve been told to shuffle our feet
because the main thing you don’t want to do,
of course, is scare them
or step on their barb
or cause any disturbance.
So if we just shuffle, shuffle,
then we eliminate all of that. -We’ll be alright.
Yeah.
Your first time holding?
Yes.
Wow, wow, wow!
How cool was that?
That was unbelievable.
I feel like I had this zen moment just for a moment
where I could just sort of calm down
because they can feel your heartbeat and your energy and everything.
Even the tension in your elbows. -Yeah.
Like you just have to be so relaxed because they can feel it.
So it really forces you into this calmer state.
It has a really…I’m actually finding it really calming,
which is not what I expected to feel.
Right. -You know?
And I just can’t get over how soft they are.
So soft!
So soft.
And you can feel the power as well though, the muscle.
Yes.
It’s like 100% muscle.
Yes!
And the way they move is so other for us.
Graceful. -It’s so different.
Just gliding through the water.
Yeah.
Amazing.
You’re so beautiful.
You’re so beautiful!
So beautiful!
TRY DELICIOUS LOCAL CUISINE
We’re at a local restaurant serving Caribbean food.
The whole menu looks delicious.
We’ve just ordered a bunch of different food so that we can try them all.
And we’ve come out behind the restaurant to this little park area.
And they’re barbecuing the food and it smells absolutely insane.
I cannot wait to eat here.
It’s so messy.
This is the salt fish cake with the sweet heat sauce.
These are the island vibe tacos.
This is the goat curry, which is super popular in Antigua.
This is the fungi and creole fish.
This was not on the menu officially speaking
but when we went to the backyard behind the restaurant,
they were doing barbecue and we smelled these ribs and just had to order them.
So, here are the ribs,
totally cooked, ready to eat.
And if it tastes half…less than half as good as it smells,
these are going to be really good.
I love the story behind the name of the restaurant.
Harry was the father of the current owner.
I’m Giselle, the owner.
Well my father was the previous owner but he passed
and I’m here to carry on his legacy.
She is now carrying on the restaurant in her father’s name.
Smiling Harry’s — what a wonderful name
and to learn the story behind it makes it even more meaningful I think.
My absolute favourite that I highly recommend was the ducana and salt fish with chop up.
And ducana is a traditional food, it was our first time trying it.
It has a really interesting texture and it’s made of sweet potato,
coconut,
flour,
and cinnamon.
And they steam it in a banana leaf and it is absolutely wonderful.
Other idea, of course, is to come back to behind the restaurant like we did
and see what’s cooking up on the barbecue.
Maybe there’s something that smells delicious,
that catches your attention.
And you can just ask, ‘hey, could I have some of that?’
That’s exactly what we did with the ribs and they were delicious so,
overall we just loved eating here.
STEP BACK IN HISTORY
This beautiful building behind me is the Copper & Lumber Store Hotel.
It was originally, as you might guess, a place for storing copper and lumber.
It was built back in 1784,
and now it’s been converted into a beautiful hotel,
and there’s also a restaurant here, which has a fantastic view of the water,
and the boats and a lovely breeze coming through.
Right beside where I’m standing here at the entrance to the hotel,
look for the Royal Palm.
It’s a tall palm tree planted by Queen Elizabeth II during a visit here to Antigua in 1966.
And the hotel is located here in an area called Nelson’s Dockyard.
If you want to get to know more of the history of Antigua,
and see some of the historic sites and buildings,
this is a great place to come and take a look around.
GET OFF THE BEATEN PATH
We’re doing e-bikes!
I have never been on an e-bike before but it’s a beautiful day, we’re outside,
what better way to get around the beautiful island of Antigua.
We’re at our first stop and the guide is telling us — he has a microphone —
he’s telling us different things along the way.
Points of interest, different parts of the history of the island
so we’re kind of learning as we go.
And we’ve made our first stop here at one beach of 365 beaches that they have in Antigua.
That’s a lot of beaches.
We’ve stopped at another beach and our guide is showing us all of these trees.
They’re called Manchineel trees,
and they’re in the Guinness Book of World Records as some of the most poisonous trees in the world.
If you eat the fruit, it’s fatal.
If these trees were to catch on fire and you were downwind, it could also be fatal.
And apparently they are all along the beaches in Antigua.
I had no idea.
Absolutely fascinating to learn that and then see so many of them as we’re biking along.
We’re off kind of the main road now going through this very lush green area.
There’s a nice breeze, there’s palm trees…
there’s Marc!
Hello!
Hi!
We’ve come across a plant that’s a little bit ticklish.
So when you touch it, the leaves actually move.
I have never experienced that before.
It’s the coolest thing.
And it really doesn’t take much.
You just sort of like place your fingers ever-so-gently on top
and it kind of goes…
This area is big for farming and so we’ve stopped at a farmer’s field
where they’re growing black pineapple, which is special to Antigua
and not just Antigua but the southern part of Antigua.
And it’s called black pineapple because of the soil,
and where we are in relation to the water and some other factors
means that it’s less acidic and so the black pineapple is extra sweet.
Mid-ride coconut stop.
Don’t mind if I do.
Oh sweet!
Yeah?
Nice and sweet.
It does not get fresher than that.
Once you’re finished drinking the coconut water,
he chops it in half, cuts off a little spoon from the outside,
and then you can just scrape off the meat
and keep enjoying the coconut long past the straw.
We’re off the bikes — I’ve traded my helmet for my sun hat again.
That was so much fun and involved so much more than I thought it would because,
not only did we get to have the fun of biking around on these e-bikes,
we got to make all these stops and learn about the different plants and animals and history of Antigua.
We got to try fresh coconut.
We had fresh juices, which were…
honestly, we had mango, tamarind, and raspberry juice and they were all some of the best juices I've ever had.
They were made yesterday.
That’s how fresh the juices were.
It just doesn’t get any better than that.
It is so refreshing on a hot day.
Is that mango juice?
This is the mango one.
Nice.
We did a little hike up to a lookout point
so we could get a fantastic view of some of the surrounding islands,
and, of course, the beautiful turquoise waters that Antigua is famous for.
And I just had so much fun!
There was this sandy part where you could really open up the speed on the bike
and just, it was like a big sandbox
and it just made you feel like a little kid getting to play in the sand again.
Totally fun, loved the breeze.
What a fantastic way to just get around and see Antigua.
EXPLORE ANTIGUA’S VIBRANT ART TRAIL
One of the newest activities that you can dO in Antigua and Barbuda is Art Week.
And they’re going to make it an annual event
but you don’t have to be here during the official Art Week to enjoy all of the art that exists here on this beautiful island.
Art Week, of course, is a time for the artists to open up their studios
and you can go and take a look at all of the things that they’re making
but you can do that anytime.
And there’s a self-guided trail — the art trail.
It’s a chance for artists to open up their studios
and for you to talk to them directly about where they take their inspiration from —
all of the things that they’re working on and the process.
And also to just take home a piece of original art —
that you have this lasting connection to.
And, of course, not every artist has a studio that you can visit
so some of the studios also exhibit art from other artists.
So, doing the art trail is a chance not only to see the island itself,
but a chance to meet and interact with the people who help make it so beautiful.
DIVE IN FOR AN UNDERWATER ADVENTURE
We’re here at Galleon Beach.
You can see the gorgeous water behind me.
We’re going to be in that soon because we’re going scooter snorkelling.
If you love snorkelling, then I feel like scooter snorkelling is kind of taking it to the next level.
You get pulled around by a scooter in the water —
You don’t even have to worry about using your arms or your legs,
you just have to hold onto the scooter.
So I just want to be in the water seeing as many plants and animals as we can.
We’ve emerged!
We are back on dry land and that was so much fun.
The water is heavenly — it’s like having a bath.
It’s just so nice and warm.
And got the hang of the scooter pretty quickly.
It really…there are three different speeds.
There’s even two buttons so that if one hand is starting to get sore from pressing the button when you’re tired,
you just use the other button.
It’s perfect.
And I love going on the top speed.
You’re just sort of cruising along in the water.
Super fun and it just lets you concentrate on all of the things that are around you.
We saw some stingrays.
We saw a beautiful turtle just kind of going along the bottom.
There’s a shipwreck
and I guess the shipwreck actually split into two pieces.
So there’s two different sites where you can swim overtop, which was really interesting to see.
And, of course, lots and lots of fish.
And it’s just so neat to be able to look down and see everything that’s going on under the surface
that you wouldn’t get to see if you didn’t have your snorkel mask on.
And I just loved it, I absolutely loved it.
I would definitely go scooter snorkelling again.
If you want to get out in the water, which, really, you have to in Antigua,
definitely come down to Galleon Beach and do the scooter snorkelling.
I literally just got out of the water and I’m ready to go again.
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Thank you so much for watching and we’ll see you in our next video.