I’ve lived in the Caribbean all my life and believe me when I say that I know a good beach when I see one and Antigua has many. In fact, Antigua and Barbuda has 365 beaches. I think everyone knows this by now. It’s a very famous saying about Antigua. Unfortunately I’ll probably never get to see even half of them.
But, the good news is, you don’t need to visit them all. You only need to choose a few that you like and spend your days there. After spending a few days in Antigua, renting a car and driving to beaches all over the island, I think I am qualified enough to make a list of the best beaches in Antigua and Barbuda, based on my experiences.
Antigua is a very small island in the Caribbean and that makes traveling around the country even easier and more accessible. In order to experience all these amazing beaches and things to do here in Antigua, I rented a car for the duration of my trip here and I totally recommend you to do the same.
Access to the beaches in Antigua is free. There is free parking and some of the beaches even have umbrellas and chairs for you to use for free. When I visited Antigua, there were no crowds at all, so we had all the beaches to ourselves mostly.
All of these beaches on this list I visited personally and spent hours relaxing on.
Skip Ahead
Valley Church Beach
Valley Church Beach was the very first recommendation we got from the locals. I asked the rental car company guy at the desk which beach he thinks is the best and that we should visit and without hesitation he said that we must check out Valley Church Beach.
Fortunately for us, Valley Church was really near to our Airbnb in Jolly Harbour. The way to access this beach is not very clear at first, so I’ll try my best to explain it. When you arrive at the beach according to your maps there’ll be a large gate and a long fence that basically blocks off the entire beach. We drove up to the gate and parked slightly to the side. On the right, we saw a little track through some bushes. Walk through there and we ended up on the other side of the fence. Now you’re truly at the beach.
It’s hard to explain in words how flat and calm the water at this beach was. The water was bright blue with white sand. It was so mesmerizing I actually left my hat behind and only realized when I was unpacking my luggage.
What I like most about this beach was that there were trees just before the sand where you can get shade from the sun. There was also no commercial activities going on here. Just complete nature and beautiful beach vibes.
Princess Diana Beach
I was really glad I ended up taking the ferry over to Barbuda to see this amazing beach. I think this is the most aesthetically beautiful beach in all of Antigua and Barbuda. It’s a pink sand beach because of all the shells in the sand and the water is crystal clear and turquoise in color. We had such an amazing time here. Once again we were the only people on the entire beach, surprisingly.
This beach isn’t as accessible as some of the others on this list. I personally thought that getting to Barbuda was stressful, because I really didn’t like the ferry ride over here. It was longer than they said, cramped and warm. But, I still think everyone should do it at least once, to see Barbuda and the amazing beaches here.
Deep Bay Beach
Deep bay is one of the first beaches I went to when I arrived in Antigua. I believe we hadn’t even check into our hotel yet or gotten a chance change into beach clothes. But, who cares, we went anyways.
The reason Deep Bay is so high up on my list, is because at this location there is also an amazing view and a hike up to a place called Fort Barrington. It’s an abandoned fort, perched high up on a mountain and it overlooks the ocean. I made an entire article about hiking Fort Barrington.
You can access Deep Bay Beach in multiple ways. If you’re staying in one of the resorts on this beach then you just need to step outside and you’re here. But, if you’re just exploring like everybody else, then you need to come from where I accessed it.
There is a bridge you have to cross after parking in the little parking area. Now, you can either go up and to the right towards the fort or you could go left, through some bushes and eventually to Deep Bay Beach.
I visited Deep Bay twice, once in the daytime and once at night. Swimming here at night was out of this world. The water was very warm and the sun setting in the background was amazing. You can also walk all the way up the beach and check out the resorts.
Half Moon Bay
I really loved the fact that Half Moon Bay was sort of out of the way, yet it’s one of the most popular beaches in Antigua. This is a really long beach that forms a half-moon shape and that’s why it’s called Half Moon Bay. This beach had layers of different colors to the water. It looked light blue, then deeper blue, then even lighter blue and different layers.
Like most beaches in Antigua, the sand is clean and white, the water was really warm and refreshing. One of the things I look for at beaches is a natural place to set up a little mini base to put all of our things or some form of shelter. There was almost no shelter from the sun on this beach nor were there any chairs and umbrellas. Just plain beach.
There’s a very cool bar and restaurant right on the beach that seemed to be extremely popular with the tourists. The car park was absolutely full and the place was packed with people eating and drinking. I strongly recommend putting this beach on your itinerary. It’s on the other side of the island so it makes for a nice half day trip too.
Jolly Beach
Jolly Beach was where we spent most of our time swimming and relaxing. We stayed at an Airbnb in Jolly Harbour and also a resort here too. Jolly beach is located in Jolly Harbour, which is one of the main hubs in Antigua. Most people who visit this island mainly stay in either Jolly Harbour or English Harbour on the southern side of the island.
There were chairs and umbrellas here which is a huge plus when the sun was as hot as it is in Antigua. The sand is white and the water is turquoise blue and it stretches as far as the eye can see. There are also quite a lot of tour operators promoting tours like jet skiing, kayaking, Shirley Heights tours and other stuff.
One of my favorite things about Jolly Beach was these circular floating beach chairs that they put out in the water. I would grab a drink and go out there and sit in it to relax. It was bliss and made me forget anything else in the world.
I also saw so many fish and birds here on this beach. I even caught a fish with my bare hands. When you visit Antigua, definitely come to Jolly Beach.
Fort James Beach
I think this was the very first beach I walked on when I arrived in Antigua. We visited Fort James for a bit, then a few minutes away is Fort James Beach. This beach, just like the others had the perfect type of sand and water that we are used to by now in Antigua and Barbuda. The beach here is not flat. There is a big drop down of about 6 feet in the sand, so look out for that.
There is also a place called Millaz Beach Bar and Restaurant that we used as our base for our time here. The staff there were so happy to see a group of tourists enjoying their island. They put out chairs on the beach for us and brought drinks over. I thought to myself, what better way to be introduced to a new island? Everyone here was super friendly and helpful. We were literally the only people on the entire beach.
Fort James Beach stretches really far. From the tip of the island by the fort, all the way past the restaurant and bar area. You could probably spend half an hour strolling down the beach.
