7 Days in Anguilla: First-Timer Itinerary

7 Days in Anguilla: First-Timer Itinerary

Seven days in Anguilla is not seven days of new sights, the island simply doesn’t have that many, and pretending otherwise turns an itinerary into filler. What seven days actually buys you is the same route a shorter trip already nails, the headline beaches, a first offshore cay, and Scilly Cay’s grilled lobster, stretched out with a St Martin day trip and a day where the whole plan is picking a beach and staying on it. Anguilla is a British Overseas Territory, not a corner of neighboring St Martin, and almost every visitor arrives through Sint Maarten’s Princess Juliana Airport (SXM) before finishing 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. Shorter on time? See the 2-day , 3-day , 4-day , 5-day and 6-day itineraries. Our Anguilla travel guide covers the planning details this post doesn’t repeat.

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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+
3 First offshore cay: Sandy Island or Prickly Pear Boat transfer 5-15 min from Sandy Ground roughly $200-300
4 Scilly Cay lobster lunch, full island loop by car Drive loop roughly 45 min end to end roughly $200-350
5 Little Bay snorkel, repeat your favorite beach Whatever’s closest, or nothing at all roughly $100-200
6 St Martin/Sint Maarten day trip: shopping, casinos, a livelier dinner Ferry roughly 20-25 min each way roughly $150-300
7 Second cay (whichever you skipped) or a fully open beach day Boat 5-15 min, or none at all roughly $100-250

Day 1: landing, the ferry hop, and Shoal Bay East

Most first-timers touch down at Princess Juliana International Airport (SXM) on Sint Maarten, then taxi across to the ferry pier at Marigot: the airport sits on the Dutch side, the boat leaves from the French side, so budget a separate transfer between the two. 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, confirm the current figure at gov.ai before you plan the day’s spending. Flew American’s nonstop from Miami straight into Clayton J. Lloyd instead? Then you skip the ferry entirely, at least until day six.

Clear customs, collect a rental car if the day four island loop is on your list (a temporary local driving permit is required, roughly $25 for three months or $15 for a short stay, bought through the rental company, and driving here is on the left, the British-territory rule that catches out first-timers 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 head 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 and let day one set the pace for the whole week.

Day 2: Meads Bay’s morning into Rendezvous Bay’s beach-bar evening

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. If your dates land on a Sunday, several beach bars island-wide run a weekly “jump-up,” a live-music beach party worth chasing down.

Day 3: your first offshore cay, Sandy Island or Prickly Pear

This is the day a week-long trip earns its keep over a shorter one. Sandy Island is a tiny sandbar islet roughly a 5-minute boat ride from Sandy Ground, with its own restaurant, hammocks, and loungers right on the sand. Prickly Pear is a slightly bigger cay with two long-running beach restaurants, Agatha’s and Johnno’s, plus better snorkeling and shade under thatch umbrellas. Pick one for now, book the crossing above rather than showing up and hoping for a spot, and save the other cay for day seven.

Back on the mainland by mid-afternoon, swing through The Valley, the low-key capital, and the Heritage Collection Museum if it’s open, hours and admission for this small, locally-run museum aren’t reliably published, so treat a visit as a bonus rather than a fixed plan. Close the day with dinner near your base, you’ve earned a quiet one after a full day on the water.

Day 4: Scilly Cay’s lobster lunch, then a full loop of the island

Head to Island Harbour on the quieter east end for Scilly Cay, the island’s classic wave-it-down lunch spot: stand on the pier and a dinghy motors across to collect you, no phone booking involved. Grilled lobster and crayfish are the reason people build a day around this place, but it historically opens only a few specific days a week, commonly cited as Wednesday, Friday and Sunday, so confirm the current open days before you commit an afternoon to it.

Spend the rest of the day taking the rental car (with that temporary permit from day one) on a full loop of the island, an easy 45 minutes end to end, swinging past Maundays Bay’s exclusive curve of sand on the far west end and back along the East End’s quieter fishing-village stretch. With a week to work with, there’s no need to rush this one.

Day 5: Little Bay, a repeat-favorite beach, and no fixed plans

This is the day that starts proving a week in Anguilla is about pace, not more ground. Anguilla doesn’t have enough distinct headline attractions to fill a fifth day with fresh checklist items, so the honest move is to slow down instead. Start with a Little Bay snorkel if you want one: a secluded north-coast cove with genuinely good visibility, reachable by boat or a rope-assisted scramble down the cliffside, treat the rope route as needing a current-conditions check rather than a guaranteed DIY option.

After that, go back to whichever beach won you over earlier in the week. Loved Shoal Bay East’s reef? Return for a longer swim. Preferred Meads Bay’s sunset or Rendezvous Bay’s beach-bar scene? Do it again, slower, with no boat to catch and nowhere else on the list. A repeat afternoon on a beach you already know beats a rushed first visit to a fourth or fifth beach you don’t.

Day 6: a St Martin day trip, because the pace should change too

This is the day a full week has room for that a shorter trip doesn’t: a ferry crossing back to St Martin/Sint Maarten, purely for a change of scene rather than transit. Sint Maarten’s Dutch side has the casinos and cruise-port shopping Anguilla deliberately doesn’t offer, and the French side around Marigot and Grand Case has its own market and bistro scene worth a slower lunch. The crossing runs the same roughly 20-25 minutes each way and roughly $30 one way per adult, plus the departure tax worth confirming at gov.ai before you go, or book a packaged day trip above if you’d rather not manage two crossings yourself.

Treat this day as genuinely different in kind, not more of the same beach-and-cay rhythm. After five days of Anguilla’s quiet, a livelier restaurant, some shopping, and maybe a casino evening are a legitimate change of pace, not a wasted day away from the beaches.

Day 7: the day with nothing on it, or a second cay if you want one

The honest version of day seven: Anguilla doesn’t have an eighth headline beach or a third museum waiting to be discovered, so don’t invent one. If you did Sandy Island on day three, use day seven for Prickly Pear instead, or the reverse, a genuinely good use of a last morning. Otherwise, go back to Shoal Bay East, Meads Bay, or Rendezvous Bay, whichever one you’ve been thinking about since you left it, and stay until the flight or ferry says it’s time to go.

Build the rest of the day around your actual departure logistics. Flying out of Clayton J. Lloyd, budget the departure tax, cited at roughly $28 for anyone over 12, cash only, confirm the current figure before you go, and leave time for a small regional airport’s boarding process. Heading back out through SXM instead, work backward from the ferry schedule and build in a buffer for the taxi to Marigot. Either way, day seven is proof that a longer Anguilla trip is really the same short trip, just done slower.

Is 7 days too long for a first Anguilla trip?

No, but only if you’re honest about what the extra time buys. The first five days already cover the beaches, a cay, Scilly Cay, and a genuine rest day; days six and seven add a St Martin change of scene and either a second cay or more repeat beach time, not new headline sights the island doesn’t have. Wanting a packed week of fresh attractions? Anguilla is the wrong island for that trip. Wanting to slow down? Seven days works.

Is the St Martin day trip worth giving up a full Anguilla day for?

Yes, more than adding a third or fourth beach day would be. It’s a genuinely different kind of day, shopping, casinos, and a livelier restaurant scene that Anguilla deliberately doesn’t offer, using a ferry crossing you’re likely already familiar with from arrival. Skip it only if avoiding exactly that kind of day is why you picked Anguilla in the first place.

Is Anguilla safe for a first-timer?

Mostly yes, with one caveat worth stating plainly. 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 windier stretches, and cost over a full week are the more likely issues for a beach-focused first-timer.

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 over a full week, not a budget stop. Check ivisitanguilla.com for current beach, cay-transfer, and ferry details before you lock the schedule in, and keep a bit of physical cash on hand for the cay boats, the St Martin ferry tax, and Scilly Cay’s dinghy pickup.