Travel in Anguilla: an island reached through its neighbour

How travellers reach Anguilla through Saint Martin

Anguilla lies about nine miles north of Saint Martin, across the Anguilla Channel, and about 150 miles east of Puerto Rico. The Anguilla Tourist Board names three air gateways for the island, Puerto Rico, St Maarten and Antigua, and the nearest of them sits on the neighbouring island. Princess Juliana International Airport, on the Dutch side of Saint Martin, is served by most major international carriers in the Tourist Board's words, and from there Anguilla is a channel away.

The crossing has two forms. The public ferry runs from Marigot, on the French side of Saint Martin, to the Blowing Point Ferry Terminal on Anguilla's south coast, a crossing of about 20 minutes, with departures through the day from early morning to early evening. It takes no advance reservations. Private ferry companies run from a terminal opposite Princess Juliana airport on a seasonal schedule, roughly between nine in the morning and five in the afternoon from Saint Martin, and there is a less frequent public route to Philipsburg, the Dutch side's capital. The government's ferry page notes that a valid passport is needed to clear immigration in Saint Martin, and that holders of passports other than Anguillian, British and American should check with the immigration department first.

By air the same crossing takes seven minutes. Anguilla Air Services and private charters fly between Princess Juliana and Anguilla several times a day.

Which flights land at Clayton J. Lloyd airport

Anguilla's own airport, called Wallblake Airport until 4 July 2010, is Clayton J. Lloyd International. Its main runway is 1,665 metres long, and it can take narrow-body jets of the Boeing 737 and Airbus A320 class as well as a growing number of private jets. In December 2021 American Eagle, flying for American Airlines, began nonstop Embraer 175 service from Miami, the island's first regular commercial jet service to the mainland United States.

Most scheduled flights are regional, and they are short. Tradewind Aviation and Cape Air fly to San Juan in Puerto Rico, about an hour away, and the Tourist Board lists daily service from St Thomas and seasonal nonstop flights from Baltimore, Boston and Newark in the winter of 2025 to 2026. From Europe the usual route is two connections, through Paris or Amsterdam to Saint Martin, or through London to Antigua and on by a small aircraft.

The airport is being rebuilt, and has been for several years. The Eastern Caribbean Central Bank recorded the completion of a new terminal building in 2025, and the government's budget for 2026 set aside EC$87 million for the airport's continued redevelopment, a project the IMF and the BBC both connect to the island's .ai domain income. The economy article, what Anguilla earns, explains that income.

Who comes to Anguilla and for how long

The central bank estimated 240,983 visitor arrivals in 2025, split almost evenly: 121,463 stay-over visitors and 119,520 excursionists, who come for the day and leave without spending a night. American residents made up 69.7% of the stay-over visitors. In June 2026, according to Statistics Department figures reported by Anguilla Focus, stay-over visitors averaged 6.2 days on the island, the same as a year earlier, and 22,111 of that month's 26,838 visitors arrived by sea.

The growth is recent. In 2013 the Caribbean Tourism Organization counted over 69,000 stay-over tourists and 82,000 day visitors and most visitors still arrived by boat, on day trips from Saint Martin. The BBC, citing the Statistics Department, gave a record 111,639 visitors for 2024, which matches the central bank's stay-over figure for that year. In June 2026 Americans made up 79% of stay-over tourists and 80.7% of day visitors, and visitors from the Caribbean made up 6% of those who stayed.

The island markets itself at the expensive end. Its tourism caters to high-end and luxury visitors, in the central bank's description, and the Tourist Board describes the island as sitting off the main tourist routes, which it presents as protecting its exclusivity. Every month of the first half of 2026 set a record, Anguilla Focus reported from Statistics Department data, and the half-year total was the highest since the series began in 1993.

When the weather favours a visit

The main season is the northern winter. The central bank places the peak in the first and last quarters of the year, when the United States market is in winter. The 2015 Important Bird Areas survey put the peak months at December to April, and noted a range of activities stretching the season beyond them. February and March are the driest months, and daily maxima rise from about 27 °C in December to 30 °C in July, with the trade wind keeping the heat moderate.

Hurricanes can arrive from June to November, and the peak runs from August to mid-October. Hurricane Irma in September 2017 closed hotels through the following high season, and the damage assessment counted tourism losses running into 2019. September and October are also the wettest months. The geography article, how Anguilla's land is made, describes the island's climate in full.

What happens on the island through the year

The calendar is built around the sea and the summer. Festival del Mar is held over the Easter weekend and the Anguilla Culinary Experience in May, and the Welches Festival falls around Whit Monday. The boat racing season opens around Easter, Anguilla Day on 30 May commemorates the expulsion of the St Kitts police in 1967, and the Summer Festival, or Carnival, begins on the first Friday after the first Monday in August with calypso, j'ouvert, parades and boat races.

Music has its own dates. Moonsplash, a reggae festival at the Dune Preserve on Rendezvous Bay, has run every year for more than three decades, and the Tranquility Jazz Festival is held annually; in November 2025 the island hosted a Music Tourism Convention that drew hundreds of participants from abroad. Sport adds a few more: the John T. Memorial cycle race in July and the Anguilla Cup, a week of tennis each November at the Anguilla Tennis Academy's courts.

The birds keep a calendar too, and it is the one visitors to the outer islands follow. Seabirds breed mainly from April to July, when laughing gulls and most of the terns arrive on the outer islands, while boobies may breed all year. In winter blue-winged teal gather on the inland ponds, and Road Salt Pond at Sandy Ground holds between about 500 and 750 wetland birds on average over a year.

How visitors get around the island

Anguilla has no public transport other than taxis, and no railway. Cars drive on the left, and most roads are unsealed. The main island is about 26 kilometres long and 5 kilometres wide at most, so no drive across it takes long. The Tourist Board notes that the ground is fairly flat, with quiet side roads and one main road, which makes the island easy to cycle; road and mountain bikes can be hired from most hotels and local outfitters, and the eastern end is the quieter and less built-up.

Porters and van drivers who carry luggage between the ferries and the terminal work for tips. In The Valley, Ronald Webster Park, the ground where the meeting before the expulsion of the St Kitts police was held in 1967, has two public tennis courts, and the Anguilla National Museum took over the island's heritage collection in 2024.

What visitors go to see on land

Beaches and bays line the coast, among them Barnes Bay, Little Bay, Rendezvous Bay, Shoal Bay and Road Bay, and coral reefs lie close to shore at Shoal Bay East. Much of what else there is to see is small in scale and depends on the limestone.

Where the caves and salt ponds are

The Fountain Cavern near Shoal Bay holds as many as 33 Amerindian petroglyphs, used by the island's first inhabitants from around or before AD 400; archaeologists first recorded its significance in 1979, and a steel ladder installed in 1953 leads down to its pools. The Big Spring at Island Harbour is an open sinkhole with more than 100 petroglyphs on its ledges. Road Salt Pond, beside the village and port of Sandy Ground, is best seen from the ridge of South Hill to the south; its restored pump-house recalls the salt industry that ran there until the 1970s. Katouche Canyon holds a 32-hectare stand of mature dry forest, and at Windward Point, the eastern tip, Pope's Head cactus covers the limestone.

How the boat races fit a visit

The races run from around Easter week through the spring and summer and end with the Champion of Champions, a race round the island in August at the end of Boat Racing Week, Spectators watch from beaches, roads and hilltops, and race days come with barbecues and music. An Anguilla Day boat race is held on 30 May. The culture article, why Anguilla races open boats, explains how the boats are sailed.

How the outer islands are reached by boat

The uninhabited outer islands are seabird colonies, and most of them are visible from the main island. Sooty and bridled terns are rarely seen from the mainland, and the 2015 survey recommends a boat trip round Dog Island or Sombrero to see them. Dog Island lies 13 kilometres north-west and held more than 135,000 pairs of sooty terns in 2013. Prickly Pear East and West lie 8 kilometres north, and Scrub Island sits across a channel 500 metres wide off the north-east tip.

Sombrero is the remote one, about 54 kilometres north-west, with no beach; the only way ashore is a ladder up the cliff. Tours are run there, and the island has been a protected Ramsar site since 2018, with an endemic ground lizard and the ruins of its guano mines and lighthouse keepers' quarters.

What changes for a visitor arriving from abroad

Everyone arriving by ferry clears customs and immigration at Blowing Point, and everyone arriving by air does so at the airport. Anyone arriving by private boat or yacht clears at Road Bay in Sandy Ground, and needs a local yacht agent to handle the entry. A departure tax is charged at both the airport and the ferry terminal. Customs allowances for visitors aged 18 and over are set out in the Integrated Customs Tariff regulations of 2014 and cover food, tobacco, spirits, wine and perfume. Belongers and residents returning after more than 72 hours abroad have a separate allowance for purchases and gifts.

The currency is the East Caribbean dollar, fixed at EC$2.70 to the US dollar, and American dollars are widely accepted. English is the language of government and daily life, spoken beside the island's own English-based creole.