NYTimes.com: "TINY Antigua, 14 miles long and 11 miles wide, is one of those famously paradisiacal islands that actually lives up to the hype. Pristine beaches (there are 365 of them, if you can believe the tourist brochures) fleck the coastline, and everywhere you look there is yet another exhilarating view of sea, cliff or tropical landscape. An array of über-luxurious resorts have cashed in on the lush surroundings, and provide their well-heeled guests with so many hedonistic diversions that many never emerge to see what lies beyond the resort gates. Which is a shame, because if you drive from, say, English Harbour in the south to Dickenson Bay in the northwest, you’ll find another, more intimate, Antigua: small towns bustling with activity, a local cricket game in full swing, inland roads lined with “fig” (banana) trees, and everywhere, the stone remnants of windmills, a legacy of the island’s colonial role as one of the Caribbean’s most prolific sugar producers, when Antigua, a British outpost, was an island of slaves."
Forbes, I have been a long time vacation homeowner on Aruba, the tiny Dutch Caribbean island off the coast of Venezuela. Only 20 miles long and 6 miles across, the cactus-filled, dry island features my favorite beach in the entire world. Endless days spent on the famed Eagle Beach floating in crystal clear, aquamarine warm waters is why massive throngs of tourists return annually to this island paradise.