Grenada

St. George’s — a horseshoe harbour ringed by pastel-painted colonial buildings climbing the hillside, with the Carenage (the inner harbour) below and Fort George (1705, British colonial fort with cannon pointing over the harbour) above — is consistently described as the most photogenic small capital in the Caribbean. The fish market on the Carenage is the social heart of Grenada.

💡 Grenada was the site of the only US invasion of a Caribbean island in the Cold War period — Operation Urgent Fury (October 1983), launched after a violent coup within the Grenadian government. The US cited the protection of American medical students and concern about Cuban military construction (an airport runway). The invasion is still debated; the Grenadians were asked to vote on it in a referendum in 1984 and largely approved.

Grand Anse — a 3km arc of white sand on the southwest coast, with calm Caribbean water and the hills of the interior visible above the palms — is consistently listed among the finest beaches in the Caribbean. The Grenada Underwater Sculpture Park (the world’s first underwater sculpture park, 26 cast concrete figures at 3–5m depth, covered in coral after 20+ years, accessible by snorkel from Grand Anse Beach).

💡 The Grenada Underwater Sculpture Park (created by British sculptor Jason deCaires Taylor beginning in 2006) contains 70+ sculptures at 3–8m depth, now entirely colonised by Caribbean coral, sponges and fish. The figures — a ring of life-sized people holding hands, a man at a desk, a woman reading — have become the most visited underwater art installation in the world.

Grand Etang National Park — a volcanic crater lake at 530m altitude in the centre of the island, surrounded by intact cloud forest (the largest surviving primary forest in the Eastern Caribbean), with Mona monkeys (Cercopithecus mona, introduced from West Africa by enslaved people in the 17th century, now naturalised) and the Seven Sisters Waterfalls (a series of 7 cascades, accessible by a 45-min forest hike).

💡 The Mona monkeys of Grenada were brought from West Africa by enslaved people in the 17th century — possibly as companions, possibly accidentally. They have been on the island for 350+ years and are now fully integrated into the forest ecosystem. Grenada is one of only three Caribbean islands with wild monkeys.

Grenada produces 20% of the world’s nutmeg and significant quantities of mace, cinnamon, cloves, ginger and cocoa — the Island of Spice. The Gouyave Nutmeg Station (the largest nutmeg processing station in the Western Hemisphere, open to visitors, with the hand-sorting of nutmeg shells from mace by workers who have done this their whole lives) and the Belmont Estate (a working cocoa estate, 17th-century, with tours of the cacao drying and fermentation process).

💡 Grenada’s nutmeg industry was devastated by Hurricane Ivan (2004) — which destroyed 90% of the island’s nutmeg trees — and took 15 years to recover. Before Ivan, Grenada produced 40% of the world’s nutmeg; the share has settled at approximately 20% after replanting. Nutmeg appears on the Grenadian flag — one of only a handful of countries to feature a spice on their national emblem.

2h30 ferry from Grenada. Carriacou — a small island (34km², population 8,000) with the finest boatbuilding tradition in the Caribbean (the wooden sloop boats of Carriacou, built without plans by eye from local cedar, have been racing since 1882 in the Big Drum Dance festival tradition), the Big Drum National Dance (an African-derived ritual dance and feast performed at boat launches, weddings and the anniversary of death) and the pristine coral reefs of Sandy Island.

💡 The Carriacou boat-building tradition uses a technique of “building by eye” — no plans, no drawings, entirely from memory and measurement by feel, passed from master boatbuilder to apprentice over generations. The Carriacou model sloops are considered the most graceful working sailing vessels in the Caribbean.

Sandy Island — a tiny uninhabited cay of white sand surrounded by clear water, 10 min by boat from Hillsborough, with snorkelling on the coral garden — and the Harvey Vale boatyard (where traditional wooden vessels are still built and launched in ceremonies accompanied by the Big Drum Dance, one of the most alive living boat-building traditions in the world).

💡 The Big Drum Dance of Carriacou is one of the most directly African-derived cultural practices in the Caribbean — the rhythms, ritual structure and cosmology trace to specific Akan (Ghanaian) and Igbo (Nigerian) traditions, surviving 300 years of cultural pressure. It is performed at boat launches, house warmings and the anniversaries of ancestors’ deaths.

30 min from Carriacou by water taxi. Petite Martinique — an island of 1km² and 900 people, with no cars and no tourism infrastructure — the most remote and quiet inhabited island in the Grenadines, where fishing and boatbuilding are still the primary occupations. Return to Grenada for departure. Fly from Maurice Bishop International (GND).

💡 Petite Martinique is almost entirely dependent on fishing and the small ferry trade — it has one guesthouse, one restaurant, a primary school and a church. The island has no airport and no car road; everything arrives by boat. It is as close to a pre-tourism Caribbean community as exists in the Eastern Caribbean.