365 Beaches in Antigua and Barbuda: Where to Go

There are 365 beaches in Antigua, one for every day of the year. It’s a catch phrase you’ll hear a lot when visiting Antigua and Barbuda.

Antigua is located in the West Indies of the Caribbean near St. Kitts & Nevis and Guadeloupe. It’s a decent sized island–about 14 miles wide and 12 miles long. Though because of the layout of the island, it takes some time to get across it.

The island is mountainous with beautiful views of the harbors and beach coves. You can spend a lot of time exploring beaches especially since there are 365 of them.

After spending a couple weeks on the island and going to quite a lot of different areas–I do wonder who counted the beaches and might be a little skeptical that an island of this size does indeed have that many beaches, but I’m not about to count them myself.

365 Beaches in Antigua and Barbuda

It’s funny what you read online before going to some of these beaches, because a lot of them were referred to as either amenity beaches or remote beaches. I’m more of a remote beach person myself, but somehow had a hard time finding any that I’d say are really that remote.

Most of the beaches have a beach bar & grill nearby and some locals selling beach chairs. And a lot of the beaches have resorts off to the side as well.

All beaches in Antigua are public, however, resorts sometimes try to sidestep this rule by building around the beach. You can technically still access it but they make it rather hard for outsiders to visit. So it will vary by location.

The beaches are one of the top things to do in Antigua and Barbuda so here is a guide to some of the 365 beaches in Antigua to see (or skip) depending on your beach preferences:

This beach has beautiful turquoise water but is one of those scenarios where the beach is blocked off by the resort. They won’t let you in with your car, but you can park on the road (past the first gate, right before the road takes a sharp right) and go in a small green door in the gate there. The path leads straight to the beach.

The beach is beautiful but you do feel like you’re trespassing a little. A security guard asked if I was staying there and I said no but that I was staying nearby and she just nodded and walked off.

There’s also a second beach you can pop over to from the end which is a small cove overlooked by Giorgio Armani’s house. There is a sign up that says it’s private property and I asked the security guards there if I needed to walk around but they said no and to just walk on through. It’s a 20 second walk to the cove and I just went over to look.

Fort James is all the way down the end of a long strip of land and along the way is where you’ll find Fort James Beach. There’s a restaurant called Beachlimerz near the end and what seemed like a cow pasture the first time I went, though the cows were missing the next time I went.

It’s a very chill area and you can park right up next to the sand. The water was pretty though had some constant waves and there wasn’t a lot of sandy area to lay down a towel. The water created a small ridge where the waves would hit and beyond that was a grassy area/where you would park.

This is another beach where you can park right up to the sand. It’s along the same area as Fort James Beach, so the water looked the same, if not a little less appealing. But there was a better area for towels.

If you’re looking for a secluded area, you can find that here with little parking pull-ins and brush on the beach creating some private sandy areas also.

It took me awhile to go to Dickenson Bay Beach because I sort of had an idea in my mind of what it would be like and I wasn’t wrong haha. This is a very busy beach, with most of the sand occupied by beach chairs and umbrellas. It’s also a narrow beach so it can seem a lot more crowded.

Of the 365 beaches in Antigua, this is probably the most popular. It’s also probably the nicest beach nearest the capital so likely where cruise passengers go. You’ll also find two major resorts here: Sandals and Royalton. It’s not that it’s not pretty (you won’t find a Sandals on a beach that isn’t pretty)–it’s just got a lot going on.

This beach is just south of Jolly Beach and had beautiful water and a beautiful view. When I went, there was hardly anyone there but within 10 minutes, a Mystic Cruise boat pulled up within feet of me. I ended up relocating to the other end of the beach to get a quieter spot and stayed here for most the afternoon.

There were a handful of chairs to rent along the middle and more towards the end where there’s a restaurant and bar called The Nest. Once the Mystic Cruise boats left, they started pulling chairs off the beach and there was no one at the restaurant. I was still able to get some food but the restaurant was kind of a ghost town when I went.

Hawksbill Beach, also called Landing Bay Beach on maps is next to the Hawksbill Resort on Five Islands. It’s a fairly small cove with beach chairs available, a nice grassy area and parking lot on the side. It’s an uncrowded beach and a peaceful area to go–at least it was the first two times I went.

Five Islands isn’t a huge tourist area or anything but twice when I visited, there were a handful of tourist vans that showed up and dropped off groups of people. They even set up more chairs and umbrellas for the occasion and there were multiple people around with tour staff shirts on so it was a huge organized thing. The problem was that they pretty much monopolized any available sand area.

To get to Eden Beach, you’ll need to ask for permission at the gate to let you in. It’s also located on Five Islands down from Hawksbill. It’s the only clothing optional beach on Antigua, so something to keep in mind if you are/aren’t comfortable with that. I didn’t end up going to this one, but not for any particular reason.

Deep Bay Beach is right at the foot of Fort Barrington. You’ll cross a little bridge from the parking lot and there are two paths to take. The path to the left takes you to the beach and the one on the right takes you up to the fort.

You should definitely hike up to the fort while you’re there, but be forewarned to maybe wear some decent shoes. I was told it was an easy hike up, so I had on sandals and didn’t anticipate scaling rocks. At one point, there’s a rope to hold on to as you rock climb ha. I made it in my sandals but definitely would have preferred actual shoes.

You get a great view of the beach above and can go inside the fort a little bit to explore.

The beach is nice and was fairly empty when I went apart from the several Mystic Cruise boats that dump people on shore and play loud music. There aren’t a lot of amenities here but there is a resort on the far side of the beach.

Ffryes Beach is another beach that I read was more remote but it definitely has amenities. There are beach chairs, kayak rentals and a restaurant on the end. The water here was pretty and really calm. Another beach that I spent a decent part of the afternoon at.

Down the road from Ffryes Beach is Darkwood which is right off the road and is a smaller, narrower beach. You can park right up near the sand to hop out but might not be as enjoyable if you want to be a little further from the road and any traffic driving by.

The water was nice here, though there were some rocks towards the middle of the beach you’d want to avoid. There’s also one or two beach bars here but neither was too lively when I was here.

Just further down the road from Darkwood is Turners Beach, but much longer and wider than Darkwood. Like most of the beaches on the west coast, it also has pretty water, a restaurant and several resorts/hotels nearby.

And really the only notable difference for me was that it had a steep slope on the sand to get to the water. I’m sure it wasn’t that way for the whole beach, but definitely on the one side.

Half Moon Bay is located all the way on the east side of the island. If you’re staying on the west side, it’s probably about a 40-minute drive over here. If you’re going to some other places on the east, you can swing by but there’s not much else around it to justify the roadtrip.

It’s definitely a pretty bay and more ‘remote’ but you can always seem to find someone who will rent you chairs. There were still a good amount of people at this beach even without resorts nearby (I photographed the less busy side). There’s a restaurant called the Beach Bum Bar & Cafe that has good (and affordable) food.

Long bay is up towards the northeast side of the island and if you’re heading to Devil’s Bridge or taking an island tour to this side, those will likely be stops on your tour. It’s just a few minutes down the road from Devil’s Bridge National Park.

I came here on the day after Christmas which is also a holiday I think and it was pretty busy. The water here was stunning and shallow to swim in, but the beach is fairly narrow.There’s a restaurant on the end called Long Bay Restaurant & Bar but also a few others nearby because of the hotels/resorts off the beach.

This beach is located near English Harbour and is a small cover with a beautiful view of mountain peaks and boats. The water is shallow and calm here–perfect for swimming.

While I didn’t notice many (if any?) beach chairs, the parking area here was the busiest I had seen, with cars lined along the beach up until the resort. It’s also not a very wide beach, so it seemed a lot more packed. Lovely place to spend an afternoon.

One of the best beaches in Antigua is Jolly Beach. This long cove of sand has plenty of beach space and stunning light blue water. There are several hotels and resorts off the beach which have their own sections of beach chairs/umbrellas. It’s a longer beach though and pretty wide, so there’s plenty of space for beach goers.

You’ll also find sports rentals and the like here. It’s a lively area and you’ll also find several restaurants in the vicinity as well.

One of the more remote beaches is Rendezvous Bay Beach. This is one that I probably would have really enjoyed, but didn’t get to. Mostly because I had read that the road there is very rough, even if you have a 4×4. Looking back, I probably should have done it.

It sounds like the majority of the road is very bumpy and most people stop at the Spring Hill stables to hike the rest of the way in. If you make it there, you’re likely to have it to yourself.

Another beach on Five Islands is Yepton Beach. The parking area is designated for condo owners but you can park either between the lamp posts further down or on the other side of the trash bin.

Apart from the cottages on the end and a handful of chairs reserved for those staying there, there’s nothing else on the beach. It had pretty water, though it definitely had some waves and there was a good amount of seaweed on the sand. There also wasn’t a large amount of sand area to lay a towel as the water comes up pretty far.

When I first drove by this beach, it looked like the water was really pretty, but it’s not a great beach. There’s hardly any sand here and it does have some litter. You’ll likely drive by it on the way to some of the other Five Islands beaches, so just adding this one so you know what it looks like.

Things to Know

• Beaches in Antigua are all public. If it’s behind a resort, you can ask the gate if you can drive in. If they won’t let you drive in, you should be able to walk in somewhere.
• If you want to rent beach chairs and umbrellas, make sure you have cash on hand.
• Beach parking is typically pretty easy and most of the time you can park right near the sand in the grass.

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