Beach & Sun Saint Vincent and the Grenadines

The water is the first thing. Walk down to Friendship Bay on Bequia at 7am, before the day’s heat builds, and the Caribbean is so clear you can count the seagrapes on the seabed five metres below the surface. The colour is not a single colour. It is a gradient that runs from foam-white at the shore through pale aquamarine over the white sand, to a deeper turquoise at the reef line, and into open-ocean indigo where the seabed drops away.

Saint Vincent and the Grenadines has 32 islands and roughly 100 named beaches. Some are deserted — uninhabited cays inside the Tobago Cays Marine Park where the only footprints are turtles’ from the night before. Some are sociable: Princess Margaret Beach on Bequia at 4pm with the steel pan playing at the bar end, locals on shore for the sunset, yachts bobbing in Admiralty Bay. Some are completely private — the cliffs of Mustique, the south-facing curve of Friendship Bay, the impossibly thin spit at Saltwhistle Bay where you can stand with one foot on each ocean.

Trade winds blow from the northeast December through June and the Caribbean side stays calm. Water temperature sits between 26 and 28°C all year. The sun is direct — UV index 11+ in the dry season, even at 8am. You will need shade, you will need reef-safe sunscreen for the Tobago Cays Marine Park, and you will need to slow down. The pace here is set by the trade wind.

Bequia — the gateway beach island

Bequia is the largest of the Grenadines and the easiest one to reach — a one-hour fast ferry from Kingstown on Saint Vincent. The island is small enough to walk across and big enough to hold five distinct beaches.

Princess Margaret Beach is the most famous — named after Queen Elizabeth II’s sister who reportedly swam here in the 1950s. White sand, calm water, sea-grape shade. Reach it via the Belmont Walkway from Port Elizabeth (a 20-minute scenic walk past harbour bars) or by water taxi for a few EC dollars.

Lower Bay is the local favourite — cleaner sand than Princess Margaret, fewer day-trippers, and the best sunset on the island. A handful of beach restaurants (De Reef, Keegan’s) serve fresh fish lunches under the seagrape trees. Walk over the headland from Princess Margaret in 15 minutes.

Friendship Bay on the south coast is a kilometre of crescent-shaped white sand with the silhouette of Mustique on the horizon. Quieter than Admiralty Bay because there is no harbour and no walkway access — you need a taxi to get here. Best for couples and long stays.

Industry Bay on the windward side is wilder, with stronger surf and almost no people. Combined with a visit to the Old Hegg Turtle Sanctuary next door, it makes a peaceful half-day away from the harbour scene.

The Tobago Cays — uninhabited paradise

Five small islands, two wide reefs, no roads, no buildings, no permanent residents. The Tobago Cays Marine Park is a 50-square-kilometre protected zone southeast of Mayreau, accessible only by boat. The five islands — Petit Bateau, Petit Rameau, Jamesby, Baradal, and Petit Tabac — are circled by Horseshoe Reef, which keeps the lagoon water glassy calm even when the trade winds are blowing.

The Baradal Turtle Sanctuary on the western edge is the highlight. Green and hawksbill turtles graze the seagrass in chest-deep water; on a good morning you swim alongside ten or fifteen at once. Marine park entrance is a $15 day fee per person, cash only at the ranger boat.

Most visitors arrive on a day sail from Bequia, Mayreau, or Union Island. The classic route departs Port Elizabeth at 7am and returns at 5pm with stops for snorkelling at the reef, lunch on Petit Bateau, and beach time on Petit Rameau. Reef-safe sunscreen is mandatory inside the marine park boundaries.

Anchor overnight if you have a yacht. Sleep with the trade wind through the rigging and wake to a beach with no footprints. There is genuinely nowhere else in the Caribbean that looks like this.

Saint Vincent — the mainland coast

Saint Vincent itself is the volcanic main island, with two distinct coastlines. The leeward (Caribbean-side) coast holds the safest swimming and the snorkelling. The windward (Atlantic) coast is dramatic, black-sand, and dangerous to swim — powerful currents and shore breaks; admire from a distance.

Villa Beach & Indian Bay, twenty minutes south of Kingstown, are the main hotel beaches. White sand, calm reef-protected water, and a string of restaurants with verandas over the sand. Look across to Young Island and Fort Duvernette — the volcanic plug with stairs cut into the rock for the colonial-era cannon battery.

Buccament Bay, an hour up the leeward coast, is small black-sand cove with exceptional snorkelling — the bay is reef-protected and the water rarely ripples. It featured in Pirates of the Caribbean as a backdrop and the original wooden set props are still standing on the beach next door at Wallilabou Bay.

Cumberland Bay, further north, is a deep crescent of black sand backed by coconut palms and the leeward jungle. Quiet, scenic, with a few beach restaurants run by local fishermen. The water is deep and clear.

Owia Salt Pond on the far north of the island is a natural ocean swimming pool sheltered from the Atlantic by a wall of volcanic rock — the only safe windward-coast swimming spot. Worth the two-hour drive from Kingstown for the geology alone.

The southern Grenadines — remote sand

Continue south past Bequia and the islands get smaller, quieter, and stranger. Mustique, Canouan, Mayreau, and Union Island all have their own beaches and their own characters.

Macaroni Beach on Mustique is the most photographed beach in the country — a perfect arc of pale sand reachable only if you are staying on the island or visiting on a registered day-sail. Princess Margaret built her villa above the bay; Mick Jagger is a regular guest in the next house. Crystal-clear, undeveloped, and sleepy.

Saltwhistle Bay on Mayreau is a 50-yard-wide spit of sand with turquoise water lapping on both sides — in some places you can stand with one foot in each ocean. The whole island has a population of 250. There is one beach restaurant and one tiny resort. Yachts moor here through the year. The walk over the hill to the village church gives one of the best panoramic views of the Tobago Cays.

Chatham Bay on Union Island is a deep horseshoe of pale sand backed by uninhabited green hills. Reachable only by boat or a 45-minute hike from Clifton, the bay holds a handful of barefoot beach restaurants and a marine sanctuary just offshore. Try the lobster lunch at Aquarium beach bar.

Canouan’s south beaches — particularly Godahl and L’Ance Guyac — are powder-fine white sand below the cliffs of the Pink Sands Club resort. The reef just offshore is part of the same Horseshoe system that protects the Tobago Cays.

🌟 Top Beach & Sun Experiences