Anguilla vs St Barts: Two Very Different Ideas of Caribbean Luxury

Twenty minutes apart by boat, and almost opposite in temperament. One is beaches and quiet; the other is Saint-Tropez with better weather.

Beaches: Anguilla, by a distance

Anguilla's thirty-three beaches are the best collection in the Caribbean, and it is not a close argument. Shoal Bay East, Meads Bay, Rendezvous Bay and Maundays Bay are broad, powder-soft and quiet even in high season. St Barts has lovely beaches — Saline, Gouverneur, Flamands — but they are smaller, busier, and often reached down a steep track. If the beach itself is the point of the trip, go to Anguilla.

Food and atmosphere: St Barts

St Barts is a French overseas collectivity and behaves like it. Gustavia has genuine French restaurants, proper wine lists, and shopping that would not look out of place in the 8th arrondissement. Evenings have an energy — Nikki Beach, Bonito, l'Isola — that Anguilla deliberately lacks. Anguilla's food scene is better than its reputation, with Blanchards and Veya both excellent, but it is a handful of good restaurants rather than a scene.

The hotels

In Anguilla: Belmond Cap Juluca on Maundays Bay, Four Seasons Resort and Residences on Meads Bay, and Zemi Beach House. All beach-led, low-rise and relaxed. In St Barts: Cheval Blanc St-Barth Isle de France, Le Barthélemy, Rosewood Le Guanahani and Hotel Christopher — smaller, more design-conscious, and priced accordingly. St Barts also has far more villa stock, which is how most repeat visitors stay.

Getting there, and cost

Neither is direct from the US mainland. Anguilla is reached via St Maarten (SXM) and a twenty-five-minute ferry or a short hop to AXA; St Barts via SXM and a ten-minute flight onto its famously short runway, or the ferry. Both are expensive islands. Anguilla runs roughly $900–$2,200 a night at the top properties; St Barts $1,000–$3,000, with villas often better value for four or more. St Barts spikes hard over Christmas and New Year, when rates can triple.

Do both

The two islands are twenty minutes apart by boat, and a split week is the answer we give most often: four nights in St Barts for the food and the evenings, three in Anguilla to lie on a beach and recover. Do St Barts first — Anguilla is the better place to end.