Here are the available villas for rental in Antigua.

Who needs a tan?

From the Mail on Sunday

On my previous visits to the Caribbean, the nearest I've got to the local culture is a proposition from a Rent-a-Rasta. On my Leeward Island tour round St Kitts, Nevis and Antigua I was deluged with history and local colour, as well as all the banana daiquiris a girl can drink.
I flew into St Kitts, then took a seven-minute flight to sister island Nevis. The plane was surely first used by Amelia Earhart. My pilot had a limp and a cataract but seemed calm. This was, after all, the local taxi service. The Nevis airport is a large hut.
'St Kitts is bigger, so they get the lion's share of the money,' explained English expat Margaret Carson, steering her jeep around potholes and donkeys. 'That's why we might split. We'll be the world's smallest country. Only 8,000 people.'
Margaret took on Old Manor, a former sugar plantation, five years ago. Most hotels in St Kitts-Nevis are the old houses of British slave-owners. My palatial suite was once occupied by Chanel model Stella Tennant, although she probably didn't make as big a dent in the bed as I did. From my veranda I could see Mount Nevis. The hotel is in the hills, where it benefits from a cooling breeze.
Margaret runs a shuttle service to the beach, but that wasn't on my itinerary. My days were spent imbibing the island's historical past, my nights imbibing G&Ts with its expat present. I lunched at the Montpelier Inn, made famous by Princess Diana when she stayed here in 1992. Two hundred years previously, it was the site of Nelson's wedding to governor's daughter Fanny Nisbet.
There's not much in the capital, Charlestown, apart from a smelly fish market, a few shops full of tourist tat and some stalls selling breadfruit and yams. The locals shop in St Kitts. Earla, a guide who is writing a book about local plants, took me on a nature trail round Gingerland. Virtually every plant on Nevis can be used in tea or dumplings. 'Soursop is good for men,' she said. 'Calms them down.'
Once a week Margaret holds a plantation dinner, where locals and tourists come to eat and dance to a steel band. Here I met former Guardsman Nigel, a handsome 72-year-old straight from a Jilly Cooper novel. Twice divorced, he still takes a keen interest in the opposite sex.
My next social event was dinner down the hill at The Hermitage Inn. Here, Maureen and Richard from Philadelphia, who have lived on the island for 30 years, have created a sophisticated family atmosphere.
The island has two night-time bars, Eddies and Tequila Sheila's. The daytime bar is Sunshine's, on the beach. Here I drank a Crazy Bee cocktail and listened to reggae artiste Bankie Banks playing as part of his world tour. The sting of a Crazy Bee is sharp. Half a glass had me ready to lie down on the sand and die. ... more

The joys of Jumby

From the Daily Mail

A trade wind caressed the pink oleander trees and carried the birdsong of the Antillean crested hummingbird across to Hawkshill Bay, where the endangered sea turtle has bred in peace for centuries. All is tranquil on Jumby Bay Island, a 300-acre paradise retreat, shaped like a horse's head, two miles north-east of Antigua in the Caribbean.
Today there is nothing to endanger the life of man or God's animals. No cars are allowed - transport is by golf buggy - and until recently, bringing children under 14 was discouraged. And in high dudgeon while looking for an extra buck, the previous owners of the resort, a couple of Italian-American vintners, once threatened to cut off the water and electricity supplies to the 18 local homeowners.
They included supermarket grocer Lord Sainsbury, who has colonnaded Candover House, and thriller writer Ken Follett. Thanks to a millionaire's co-op including the above and Robin Leach (American TV's Rich And Famous interlocutor) the island was bought lock, stock and ferry for a rumoured £20 million two years ago.
Its time-stands-still ambience has attracted celebrities such as ex-Beatle George Harrison, model Claudia Schiffer and actor Liam Neeson. Across the scalpel-trimmed lawns, as smooth as a tee approach at St Andrews, to the detergent-white arc of the beaches, the sun-blessed scene is of gently swaying palms with scarlet and yellow hibiscus lighting up the green undergrowth.
Jumby Bay has been British since King Charles I granted it to the present Earl of Carlisle's ancestor in 1627. The gift was made three years before the British settled in Antigua, ushering out the Spanish and French. Christopher Columbus did not land on the Antiguan mainland on his second voyage to the New World, but on passing, and a trifle arrogantly, christened it after the Virgin in Seville Cathedral, Santa Maria de la Antigua.
I remember coming to the Antiguan independence ceremony nearly 20 years ago when Princess Margaret handed over independence on behalf of the Queen in a borrowed tiara (on loan from Lord Glenconner's family). It is still in the Commonwealth with the Queen as Head of State.
And its enormous support by British tourists (it has 40 hotels with 4,500 beds to fill) testifies to its safety, lushness and the beauty of its beaches (one for every day of the year).
Some 28 miles across the turquoise sea, joined by a submarine platform (millions of years ago it was one island), is the 14-mile by eight-mile sister island of Barbuda.
This heavenly spot is where wild pigs and deer outnumber the human population of 1,500. For us, our daily bread came from Tilly's Bakery, a lean-to of a shack in the capital Codrington, where slaves once lived semi-free in their own cottages which still stand. ... more

It's five star

I went there in November 2002 for a 40th birthday party. The people were really friendly and helpful. A community that are genuinely glad to welcome you to their magical island.
It was five star and I'm going again in 2003.

Intoxicating and laid-back

Antigua is one of the most charming of the Caribbean islands. The weather is obviously magnificent and the people have a laid-back air, unhurried but always helpful.
If accosted by a person hawking T-shirts or coconuts, for example, you can politely decline and will not be aggressively pestered, as is perhaps the case in some other Caribbean countries.
Generally the islanders' homes look as if they are about to collapse. Compact and humble, they are obviously satisfactory for the dwellers, but would not be able to withstand a hurricane.
Sunday nights one can visit the highest point, Shirley Heights and enjoy a barbecue, drink beer and dance to the local musicians. And be prepared, loads of people cram into a small place, enjoying the local colour and atmosphere. It's intoxicating - a bit like being in Camden Town at the weekend.
There is little in the way of upmarket or sophisticated shops, but then you're not there for them. You're there to swim in that beautifully clear blue sea and to lounge on the beach and get a suntan. Antigua delivers, with full marks. ... more