ShareThisTourist information: www.anguilla-vacation.comWhen to go: Although Anguilla's climate averages a temperate 80 degrees and flowers bloom 12 months a year, there are definite seasons when it comes to visitors. The busiest times are mid-December through March. That's especially true during the year-end holidays, when accommodations are at their most expensive. From grand villas to hotels, condos and homes, rates can be half as much from April through September as they are during winter. Some properties close entirely for refurbishment during September and October.Getting there: There are no commercial flights directly from North America to Anguilla's Wallblake Airport, but it does serve scheduled inter-island flights, charters and private jets. Most people fly American, JetBlue or US Airways to San Juan, Puerto Rico, or St. Maarten, and make connections from there.Tip: Anguilla's a 10-minute flight from St. Maarten, but connections can be inconveniently timed. If you find yourself facing a long layover, consider taking a ferry instead. Funtime fast ferry shuttles depart directly from the pier at Princess Juliana airport in St. Maarten daily at 2 p.m., 4 p.m. and 5:30 p.m. and take 40 minutes to the small port of Blowing Hole on Anguilla. Cost is $70 round trip and boats can also be chartered in advance. The public ferry departs every half hour between 7:30 a.m. and 7 p.m. from the pier in Marigot, on the French side of the island, which is a 20-minute cab ride from the airport. Public ferries take about 20 minutes and cost $12 each way, plus a $3 departure tax.Late note: On Easter weekend (March 22-24), Anguilla will hold its first "Festival Del Mar," a community-based event in Island Harbor, the island's primary fishing village. Fishermen and chefs representing the island's full culinary spectrum, from five-star restaurant to beach barbecue pit, will come together to provide visitors and locals with samplings of the island's seafood creations.(Distributed by Scripps Howard News Service, www.scrippsnews.com.)
If you go ...
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