It was a good start. The stamp on my passport read: 'The beach is only the beginning.' Antigua is probably best known for its beaches and as a honeymoon destination; an American Express survey in the summer found it is the third most popular sunny overseas destination for Britons wanting to marry, after St Lucia and Barbados.
There is a lot more on offer than that, however. Antigua was first sighted by Columbus in 1493 and colonised by English planters in 1632. It remained British until 1981 when, with neighbouring Barbuda, it achieved independence.
Hurricane George swept through Antigua in 1998, but most of the island seems to have recovered. The all-inclusive holiday seems the most popular way of spending time on the island. The upside of this is you can put your wallet away and work your way through your hotel's cocktail menu with unbridled joy. The downside is that it's easy not to leave the hotel complex, which means missing out on what the rest of the island has to offer. Each hotel has a security barrier and guard, although it isn't clear whether these are to keep tourists in or locals out.
Foreign investors own many hotels, so it's hard to see how the island benefits, other than from seasonal jobs for local people. Holidays are taken seriously here. Big government road signs read: 'Tourism is everybody's business' and each of the large hotels has 'adopted' a school to educate its children about it.
Inland Antigua is best seen by Jeep. We drove through the capital, St John's, on market day and south-west to Fig Tree Drive and the lush vegetation of the island's rainforest. Orange, guava, coconut, banana and mango trees fight for space, and pineapples burst from the ground next to fragrant wild lemongrass bushes. En route , we passed Antiguans polishing flashy cars, hanging out by their pastel-coloured clapboard houses and drinking rum at roadside shacks.
Then on to Shirley Heights, where people gather each Sunday night for sundown, spectacular views and a party with steel bands, barbecues and dancing. This former British garrison overlooks English Harbour and the restored Nelson's Dockyard, developed in the eighteenth century to shelter warships protecting the Caribbean. Nelson made it his base in the 1780s, when he spent three years on the island.
The pace of life is slow and easy. Small wonder the national obsession is cricket. Lazy days are best spent on a catamaran cruise to Barbuda, where Diana, Princess of Wales, used to hide from the paparazzi, and taking a helicopter ride to Montserrat, where the devastation of the 1997 earthquake is still apparent.
The beach certainly is only the beginning, and you have to look a little further than the end of your rum cocktail to find what lies beyond.
It is all best done from a good hotel:
1. Galley Bay
This romantic, all-inclusive hotel is sited between a wildlife sanctuary and a coral beach. The emphasis is on taking things easy, and the only time I exerted myself was bending down to pick up dusty pink pieces of coral washed up on the white-sand beach. There are no telephones or televisions in the rooms, and service is discreet, apparently to help guests relax.
The cottage-style bedrooms are on the beach, ensuring a morning wake-up call from the waves. Although it is sold as a 'couples, singles and children over 16' hotel, the place was full of couples holding hands, walking up and down the beach, just as you see in all the holiday brochures.
Galley Bay is not for tragic singles. I was the only person to have breakfast alone one morning and got sympathetic looks from the other guests, who perhaps imagined I had left my (non-existent) snoring, rum-punch drunk partner in bed.
A seven-night all-inclusive package in a Gauguin room costs £1,271 in December and £1,734 in March, including flights.
2. Blue Waters Hotel
Fourteen acres of bougainvillaea- and hibiscus-lined gardens are the backdrop to this newly post-hurricane restored hotel in a secluded corner of Soldier Bay, in the north of the island. Rooms are large and airy, with fresh flowers placed on the beach towels provided. The royal yacht Britannia moored here last year and modern royals Posh and Becks booked the hotel's private cottage, but cancelled at the last minute.
However, we were provided with alternative entertainment in the form of a wedding held at the hotel on the only day it rained. It was magnificent. The bride was 30 minutes late and three sheets to the wind; so was the rest of the wedding party. Apparently, it was the groom's fourth (and finally successful) attempt at getting her down the aisle, after she'd had several attacks of pre-wedding nerves at less exotic destinations.
The more conventional entertainment includes two outdoor pools, watersports, a gym, tennis, sauna, steam bath and an extensive rum punch menu.
A seven-night, all-inclusive stay in a 'Superior room' is £1,282 in December, £1,781 in March.
3. St James's Club
This newly refurbished hotel, tucked away on the south-east tip of Antigua, has more of a family feel than the other hotels, having abandoned a couples-only policy, although it does offer a free weddings service through Kuoni.
There's a separate supervised activity and play centre area for children aged between four and 12, so parents can leave their charges while they relax by one of the many pools, play tennis or hang out in the outdoor Jacuzzi.
The hotel is in a secluded bay, with a number of palm-tree- lined beaches, all of which have loads of watersports on offer. Apparently Whitney Houston and Bobby Brown once stayed here.
A seven-night room only stay is £899 in December and £1,173 in March.
4. Hawksbill Beach
This was one of the hotels worst damaged by Hurricane George, although there is no evidence now of any of that havoc. Thirty-seven acres of palmy gardens surround this Kuoni-owned property, which is in a bay of the same name near St John's, in the north-west of Antigua.
With four beaches to choose from, it's no effort to languish and read something from The Observer summer reading list. Alternatively, you could just head off to the secluded nudist beach and try to tan those lily-white bits that rarely see daylight. Most of the rooms are in Caribbean-style cottages close enough to the beach for guests to fall out of bed straight into the bathwater-warm sea.
Seven nights room-only in a standard room is £642 in December and £1,070 in March.
5. Allegro Resort Pineapple Beach
Another popular wedding spot, with a colonial feel. The manager told us they were seriously considering setting up a webcam link for guests who are getting married so their relatives can watch them tie the knot. Evenings can be spent either listening to the tree frogs burping in the palm trees, or to the rather loud band in the informal restaurant.
A seven-night, all-inclusive stay in a standard room is £1,037 in December, and £1,324 in March.
· www.allegroresorts.com/allegro_s/antigua
6. Jolly Beach
The laid-back, party-style atmosphere lives up to this hotel's name, run by welcoming staff, dressed in bright, Caribbean-coloured uniforms. Low, white buildings with tropical gardens have been built by a gorgeously long stretch of white sand.
Guests are younger, louder and larger than anywhere else we visited. After breakfast and a huge buffet lunch, most were still to be found queuing in mid-afternoon for burgers at the beach and the ubiquitous rum punches. Not for the shy and retiring.
Seven nights, all-inclusive in a Super Saver Ocean View room is £768 in December and £889 in March.
· www.wheretostay.com/islands/resorts/451.html
7. Rex Halcyon Cove
This is set back from Dickinson Bay, one of the island's most popular beaches in the north of Antigua. Most of the catamaran trips to neighbouring Barbuda leave from here. It's a good place to people-watch, get your hair braided, eat curried conch or listen to reggae. Guests at the hotel are distinguished by their wristbands, presumably so they can be identified after one too many cocktails and carted back to their rooms. We ate a fine dinner at the hotel's restaurant at the end of a wooden pier.
A week, room-only in a standard room, is £639 in December and £823 in March.
8. Royal Antiguan
A large, multistorey hotel complex with tennis courts, watersports and a small casino, found between a half-mile-long beach and lagoon. It probably didn't help that we visited during a heavy rainstorm, but the only memorable things about this hotel were the man reading the One-Minute Manager in the outdoor restaurant and my tuna sandwich that disappointingly came out of a tin and was mixed with mayo.
A seven-night, room-only package is £687 in December and £769 in March.
All the packages listed above are with Kuoni (01306 747 000) and based on two people sharing. BWIA West Indies Airways flights and transfers are included.
