2 Days in Anguilla: First-Timer Itinerary
2 Days in Anguilla: First-Timer Itinerary
Two days on Anguilla is not a warm-up for a longer trip you should have booked instead, it is a genuinely complete first visit. This route puts Shoal Bay East on day one and both Meads Bay and Rendezvous Bay on day two, three beaches that keep landing on real “best in the Caribbean” lists, closed out with one proper beach-bar meal. Anguilla is a British Overseas Territory, not a slice of neighboring St Martin, even though almost every visitor arrives through Sint Maarten’s Princess Juliana Airport (SXM) and finishes the last leg by ferry. Prices run in East Caribbean dollars pegged at EC$2.70 to the US dollar, though menus quote USD directly, and this island is upscale by deliberate policy, not a cheap one. Want more time on the ground? The 3-day itinerary adds the first offshore cay day, and 4-day through 7-day build out Scilly Cay, a full island loop, and a St Martin day trip of your own. Our Anguilla travel guide covers the rest of the planning details.
Book these before you go:
- Compare stays on Booking.com : Meads Bay and Rendezvous Bay rooms go fast in the December to April dry season, Anguilla’s busiest and priciest stretch
- Book snorkeling on Viator : the reef sits right off Shoal Bay East, so a guided session beats renting gear and guessing on day one
- Check American’s Miami nonstop : the only direct long-haul flight into Anguilla’s own airport, confirm this week’s frequency before building day one around it
Day-by-day at a glance
| Day | Focus | Travel time | Daily cost (approx) |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | SXM arrival, ferry over, settle in, Shoal Bay East | Ferry 20-25 min Marigot to Blowing Point; taxi hops 15-20 min | roughly $150-250 |
| 2 | Meads Bay morning, Rendezvous Bay beach-bar evening | Taxi hops 15-25 min around the West End | roughly $150-300+ |
Day 1: touchdown, the ferry hop, and Shoal Bay East
Land at Princess Juliana International Airport (SXM) on Sint Maarten first, not on Anguilla itself, a genuine first-timer surprise, then grab a taxi to the ferry pier at Marigot: the airport sits on the Dutch side and the boat leaves from the French side, so budget a separate transfer between them. The public ferry runs eight scheduled crossings a day, takes 20 to 25 minutes, and costs roughly $30 for an adult one way plus a departure tax that genuinely varies by source, so confirm the current figure at gov.ai or anguillaferrytimes.com before you budget the day. Landed American’s nonstop from Miami into Clayton J. Lloyd instead? Then you skip the ferry entirely, that flight is the booking above.
Clear customs, collect a rental car if you want one (a temporary local driving permit is required, roughly $25 for three months or $15 for a short stay, bought straight through the rental company), and remember driving here is on the left, the British-territory rule that catches first-timers off guard given right-hand-drive St Martin sits a short ferry ride away. Drop your bags at a West End base near Meads Bay or in Sandy Ground, then get straight to Shoal Bay East for the afternoon: a two-mile run of powder-white sand with reef right off the shore and a line of beachfront bar shacks for lunch. Stay put for dinner at one of those shacks rather than driving back to the hotel, day one works best when you don’t overplan it.
Day 2: Meads Bay’s glossy morning into Rendezvous Bay’s beach-bar sunset
Spend the morning at Meads Bay, the glossiest stretch of sand on the island and home to Blanchards, whose casual Beach Shack arm runs 11:30am to 8pm and skips Sunday, no reservation needed, though the main restaurant next door does want one. By early afternoon, move to Rendezvous Bay on the south-west coast, a long, quiet beach with a clear sightline across the channel to St Martin and two genuine destination bars of its own, Sunshine Shack and the Dune Preserve, the latter owned by reggae musician Bankie Banx and home to the annual Moonsplash festival. Either one works for a late lunch or an early dinner, and if your two days happen to land on a Sunday, several beach bars island-wide run a weekly “jump-up,” a live-music beach party worth chasing down rather than treating as a scheduled stop.
Skip the offshore cays this trip. A Sandy Island or Prickly Pear day is genuinely worth doing, but on two days it is a straight trade against beach time, not a free add, and the three beaches above already earn every hour you have.
Should first-timers fly straight into Anguilla or take the SXM ferry?
Whichever one actually fits your dates. The ferry from Marigot is the default for most visitors: cheap, frequent, and only 20 to 25 minutes, though it adds a taxi transfer on the Sint Maarten side. American Airlines flies Miami direct into Anguilla’s own Clayton J. Lloyd airport, skipping the ferry, but confirm the current weekly frequency before building a first-timer schedule around a flight that has historically run just twice a week.
Is 2 days actually enough for a first Anguilla trip?
Yes, and treating it as just a preview undersells it. Anguilla has no interior sights, no mountains, and a roughly 45-minute end-to-end drive, so three headline beaches plus one real beach-bar meal makes a genuinely complete short trip for a first-timer. A longer stay buys pace and cay-day variety, not a longer list of checklist sights the island simply doesn’t have.
Is Anguilla part of St Martin?
No, and this is the mix-up worth clearing up before you land. Anguilla is its own British Overseas Territory, separate from both the French and Dutch sides of St Martin/Sint Maarten and from independent St Kitts and Nevis, despite a shared colonial history and the fact that nearly every visitor transits through Sint Maarten’s airport to get here. The governments, currencies in practice, and identities of the two islands stay entirely separate.
Is Anguilla safe for a first-timer?
Mostly yes, with one caveat worth stating plainly rather than glossing over. The UK Foreign Office’s current advisory for Anguilla flags a documented 2025 uptick in gang-related gun crime and robbery alongside its otherwise routine guidance, so check the current advisory before you go and keep ordinary city-level caution. Day to day, strong sun, rip currents on the windier north coast, and cost are the more likely issues for a first-time beach visitor.
What to sort before you land
The East Caribbean dollar (EC$/XCD) is the official currency, pegged at $1 to EC$2.70 since 1976, but US dollars work everywhere and most tourist prices are quoted in USD directly, so you rarely need to think in EC$ at all. What you do need to plan for is cost: Anguilla runs no cruise ships, no casinos, and no high-rise hotels by deliberate policy, which keeps it upscale and genuinely pricier than most of its neighbors, not a budget stop. Check ivisitanguilla.com for current beach and cay-transfer details before you lock the schedule in, and keep a bit of physical cash on hand: Clayton J. Lloyd’s departure tax runs roughly $28 for adults and is cash only.