Search results for "museum of antigua;n"

Mount Desert Island, off the coast of Maine, is widely known as the home of Acadia National Park and the town of Bar Harbor. If we viewed the island from the air (a look at the Acadia map will do), we would notice north and south aligned gouges scooped out of the land as if by a very large hand. Indeed, in this case, the hand was that of a huge, slow moving, continental glacier over a mile high,... 2 miles thick in some places. When this giant glacier finally melted and retreated, it left rounded mountain tops, long lakes, many boulders, and the 7 mile long Somes Sound - the only fjord on the ...

Antigua is an island that has always lived by the wind. In the late 18th century, when Horatio Nelson was still a captain, he made the island Great Britain's most important Caribbean naval center. Today the superbly restored dockyard that bears his name at English Harbour is home base for April's Sailing Week, the Caribbean's premier yachting event – and its most boisterous beach party. As for beaches, Antigua's promoters like to say that the island has 365 of them, one for every day of the year. Certainly there are more beaches than you could ever stroll during a long holi...

Most people who come to Sanibel and Captiva, twin barrier islands off Florida's Gulf Coast, share a single passion: seashells. This is, after all, the home of the “Sanibel Stoop,” a posture folks assume while scouring the sandy shoreline for the more than 200 varieties of shells that wash ashore after storms. Streets here are named for shells, and the leading cultural attraction is a museum devoted to them. In fact, the Bailey-Matthews Shell Museum is the only one of its kind in the United States, with a remarkable collection not only from Southwest Florida but also from around the world. ...

Four decades ago, Cozumel, Mexico's largest island, was a quiet fishing hamlet that received only a handful of visitors each year. Today it's one of the world's top diving destinations – thanks in part to Jacques Cousteau, who introduced the local reefs to the diving world. More than 70 dive shops cater to those who come to enjoy the myriad reefs (including renowned Palancar, which lies just offshore), the more than 200 species of fish that inhabit them, and visibility of up to 100 feet. Not to mention the island's amazing water-filled caves called cenotes. From April t...

Crete could certainly fit into a leisurely, ferry-hopping beach holiday through the Greek islands, but that's giving short shrift to a place that is so rich with history, archaeological treasures, and an intrinsically Mediterranean landscape. Greece's largest island, it has seen burgeoning tourism (and the companion development of major resort areas, particularly on the north coast), but remains a land of remote villages where Zorba the Greek would feel right at home. In summer it's very hot and the number of visitors can be overwhelming in July and August, but a sense of timele...

Like Seychelles, its neighbor to the northwest, Mauritius enters the 21st century as an exotic alternative to more traditional sun-and-fun beach destinations. This Indian Ocean crossroads has seen its share of cultural collisions – Dutch, French, British, Indian, and Creole – and today those influences flavor the island's colorful mix of religious festivals, as well as its spicy cuisine. French colonial buildings line the streets of the capital, Port Louis (where the Natural History Museum exhibits include a replica of the ill-fated, extinct dodo bird), and hikers can explore a world o...

Of the 400 or so islands that make up the nation of Fiji, Viti Levu is the largest – and a cultural crossroads of the South Pacific. But even with its international airport in Nadi (pronounced NAN-dee), Viti Levu is sometimes overlooked by visitors eager to hop off to one of Fiji’s enchanting outlying isles.. Viti Levu is not so much a beach getaway (the best beaches and diving are along the Coral Coast on the west side of the island), as a place rich with the possibilities that come with tropical mountains, rivers, waterfalls, and traditional Fijian villages. Hiking, rafting (including tr...