Bequia

Bequia is the first and the most beloved of the Grenadines: an island of seven square miles an hour by ferry from St. Vincent, whose people have built boats for two centuries — whaleboats, schooners, and now the exquisite model ships of the Sargeant brothers — and whose harbour, Admiralty Bay, is where the yachts of the Caribbean season come to anchor and, as the islanders say, learn some manners. Port Elizabeth curls around the head of the bay with the Belmont Walkway at the water's edge; the beaches lie just south; and the pace is that of a place that never needed an airport of any size.

The traveller comes on the morning ferry and walks the waterfront to the model-boat workshops; swims at Princess Margaret Beach and Lower Bay, reached by the path over the headland or a water taxi from the town dock; climbs to Fort Hamilton for the bay at sunset; visits Old Hegg, where a retired fisherman raises hawksbill turtles and releases them; eats lobster in season and fish every day at the bay's open-air tables; and, if it comes at Easter, watches the regatta fill the harbour with local double-enders and visiting yachts alike.

The Guide's honesty: Bequia keeps a whaling tradition — a small subsistence quota, taken by hand from open boats — that some visitors find hard and the island considers its own; the ferry from Kingstown is the honest way in and runs to a schedule that the sea occasionally revises; the island is small and unhurried, and its charm is exactly that, so bring a book; the yachting season fills the bars from December to April and empties them after; and the Grenadines beyond — Mustique, Canouan, the Tobago Cays — are a day-sail away and a different budget.