This is the Antigua, Barbuda & Montserrat chapter from Lonely Planet’s Caribbean Islands guidebook.

On Antigua & Barbuda, life is a beach. This improbably shaped splotch of land is ringed with beaches of the finest white sand, made all the more dramatic by the azure waters, while Barbuda is a beach: one smooth, sandy low-rise amid the reef-filled waters. A series of volcanic eruptions beginning in 1995 devastated the lower half of Montserrat – today, most tourists come for volcano-related day trips.

• flash back to colonial times at Nelson’s Dockyard, a restored 18th-century naval base
• hike or kayak to secluded Rendezvous Bay, Montserrat’s only white-sand beach
• maps
• marvel at the magnificent winged denizens of Barbuda’s Frigate Bird Sanctuary
• transportation
• restaurants & accommodations
• traipse through the thick rainforest to the shimmering sands of deserted Rendezvous Bay

Coverage includes: Understand Antigua & Barbuda, History, Culture, Landscape & Wildlife, Survival Guide, Directory A-Z, Getting There & Away, Getting Around, Antigua, St John’s, Fort James, Runaway Bay, Dickenson Bay, North Shore, Five Islands Peninsula, Jolly Harbour to Cades Bay, Fig Tree Drive, English Harbour, Half Moon Bay, Nonsuch Bay & Harmony Hall, Long Bay, Betty’s Hope, Barbuda, Codrington, Frigate Bird Sanctuary and West & South Coasts. Understand Montserrat, History, Culture, Landscape & Wildlife, Survival Guide, Directory A-Z, Getting There & Away, Getting Around and Montserrat.