We went to the island of Antigua, and its nearby neighbor Barbuda, in the West Indies, for the weeks before Christmas and New Years 2004. Antigua is located right in the middle of the Caribbean island chain, and we chose it as our destination this year for the quality of the snorkeling.

For complete information on the island demographics, see the CIA factbook on the island.

We stayed at the Jolly Beach Resort, and all inclusive hotel package located on the southeast corner of the island (see the map below). It was a really nice beach, but the bay didn't allow for off-beach snorkeling. This was in part due to the seashell based sand; it's lighter consistency combined with the small rain showers and somewhat heavy surf caused visibility to be somewhat restricted.