Antigua's tourist office boasts that the island has 365 beaches, 'one for each day of the year.' While the count may be suspect, you won't have a problem getting sand in your shoes or finding reefs and wrecks for diving and snorkeling. The island is also laden with a colonial atmosphere, from the old stone windmills of long-abandoned sugar plantations to the renovated naval base of Nelson's Dockyard, which was named after Horatio himself.

On neighboring Barbuda, 25 miles to the north, you can track the island's fabled frigate birds or rub shoulders with the rich and famous at some of the Caribbean's most exclusive resorts. This quiet, single-village island has less than 2% of the nation's population and gets very few independent visitors, mainly ardent bird watchers and a few yachties enjoying its clear waters and tranquil beaches.

St John's is Antigua's capital and commercial center, home to 30,000 people - over a third of the country's population. It's also the island's tourist center, but most of the city remains unaffected by international influence, remaining solidly West Indian in flavor.

St John's tourist activity is confined to the harborfront complexes of Heritage Quay, a favorite with cruise ship passengers, and the more rustic Redcliffe Quay, where shops, restaurants and galleries inhabit restored stone buildings and wooden huts.

The Museum of Antigua & Barbuda, on the corner of Market and Long Sts, occupies the old courthouse, a stone building that dates from 1750. This community-run museum has an eclectic collection of displays on island history. There's a touchable section with stone pestles and conch-shell tools, a reconstructed Arawak house and modest displays on natural history, the colonial era and the struggle for emancipation.

The twin-spired St John's Anglican Cathedral, between Newgate and Long Sts, is the town's dominant landmark. The original church dated back to 1681, but the current baroque-style stone structure was erected in 1847, after a devastating earthquake.

The cathedral interior is unusual in that it's completely encased in pitch pine, creating a church-within-a-church effect that was intended to buffer the structure from damage by natural disasters. The interior can be viewed when the caretaker is around, which is usually until 5pm. At the south side of the cathedral are interesting old moss-covered tombstones, many dating from the 1700s.

Fort James, a small fort at the north side of St John's Harbour, was first built in 1675, but most of the present structure dates from 1739. It still has a few of its original 36 cannons, a powder magazine and a fair portion of its walls intact.

Fort Bay, which stretches north from the fort, is the closest beach to St John's and is thus popular with islanders.