Crystal clear turquoise waters lap at perfect white sand. Candy coloured huts border the beach selling anything from the ubiquitous Caribbean Rum to Inflatable Unicorns. Steel Drum music floats through the air and you can hear locals laughing and playing in the water. Rolling hills covered in emerald coloured foliage look down over the beach as the late evening sun flares just over the top of them. I’m standing on a beach in Antigua, it’s been almost 17 years since I was last here when I was a kid and it’s exactly how I remember it. Anitgua has 365 beaches, and they are all pretty perfect.
I am back in the Caribbean for a travel conference with thirty something other travel influencers (Bloggers, Youtubers, Photographers) and it’s a special one. I’ve never been in such a big group of amazingly creative and talented people and I am really enjoying collaborating with them all.
Antigua isn’t the sort of place I usually travel for my landscape work, but I have found it a refreshing challenge. Most of my favourite shots have been from my drone. We have special permission from the tourist board to fly them. The coastline and bays look like something out of this world from the sky. The water is so clear and colourful it almost glows bioluminescent. We have spent several days in a rental car just exploring every beach and bay we can find. Here’s a collection of my favourite shot from the trip.
Carlisle Bay
One of my favourite beaches was at Carlisle Bay. It just had a bit of everything with the perfect beach and sand, a lagoon just behind the beach and the perfect backdrop. We spent a couple of mornings here photographing this exquisite view.
Ocean Reefs
I really enjoyed sending my drone out over the ocean reefs, exploring the colours and textures and trying to compose the shots with yachts in the area.
Shirley Heights
Shirley Heights is a must if you are travelling to Antigua. It has the best views on the whole island. The best time to get up there is at sunset, and ideally on a Sunday when they have a party night full of music, great food and rum. We even hang around late to photograph it under the night sky.
We unfortunately couldn’t make it over to Barbuda (which is the other island of the nation). I’ve heard it has some amazing pink sand beaches but it was also hit pretty bad by the hurricane recently and needs a little time to repair.
Another bay I was really fond of was the below Deep Bay Beach on the West of Antigua.
If you are interested in seeing a little behind the scenes to our trip, check out my vlog below –
