"Antigua - on a shoestring " a Antigua and Barbuda Travel Page by Airpunk

Antigua is not on the map of most low-cost tourist, but one of the reasons is surely the missing of adequate information. My page is surely NOT the ultimative low-cost guide to this beautiful island. You may surely find more possibilities to shrink your budget, but it is the first step to make Antigua open for more cost-conscious travellers. It means that you are not going to find daytrips on a luxury yacht, but tips how to get from A to B, see a lot and pay only a couple of pennies. So, any comments are welcome and perhaps, I’ll return to Antigua one day to try out how low-cost tourism has improved in Antigua.

Again, this trip started with a couple of days off work and a cheap airline ticket. If I travel on my own, that’s how most of my trips start. In that case, my days off were in February, so I decided to visit a sunny destination. And having a soft spot for the Caribbean, the decision for Antigua was made quickly. I was asked, why I would chose a place where there’s “nothing to see and nothing to do”. Well, these people were wrong. Yes, you can turn a trip to Antigua into a beach, sun and fun thing. Or you can try to enjoy the landscape by walking to places which most toursist coming to the island miss. I chose the latter option and had 10 enjoyable days.

Antigua is part of the nation of Antigua and Barbuda since the declaration of independence on November 1st 1981. Several tribes have inhabited the island, prior to the arrival of the Europeans. In that time, the island was known as Waladli, a name still used in its modified form “Wadadli” on many ocassions to promote the island (including the island’s most famous beer mark). Christopher Columbus sailed past the island on his second trip in 1493 and named the island after a church in Seville “Santa Maria de la Antigua”. However, he has most probably not landed on the island. In 1632, the British took posession over the Island and so Antigua was a British colony until 1981. Antigua played an important role in the British Empire as it served as the main naval base in the Caribbean. The island was also an important role of trade and so, many slaves were brought in from Africa to work on the sugar plantations. The nation has a population of around 70 000 inhabitants, with most of them being descendants of former slaves. Immigrants from the Dominican Republic and some West-African countries like Ghana and Nigeria also form an important group. Of the 70 000 people, less than 2 000 live on the sister island of Barbados. The largest settlement in Antigua is the capital of St. John’s which has 25 000 inhabitants. The second most important agglomeration is in the southeast of the island, called english harbour. Officially, it counts only around 1000 inhabitants. But as many smaller settelments are nearby and it has developed into an important center of tourism.