The Valley: the small capital of perfect beaches

Capital of the British territory of Anguilla, The Valley overlooks some of the Caribbean's most photographed white sand beaches.

The small capital overlooking perfect beaches is easily explored on foot.

The Wallblake House, the only eighteenth-century plantation that survived on the island, tells the colonial history of Anguilla through its restored rooms.

Just minutes away, the beach of Shoal Bay, with its finest white sand and turquoise waters, remains among the most award-winning beaches in the entire Caribbean archipelago, almost always not crowded.

Continuing along the coast one reaches Sandy Ground, a fishing village where excursions to the small islands offshore, often uninhabited, depart.

Toward evening, a grilled fish restaurant along the beach offers one of the most celebrated sunsets of the eastern Caribbean.

Anguilla, lacking major mineral or agricultural resources, built its economy almost entirely around high-end tourism, maintaining more contained urban development compared to other Caribbean islands.

Shoal Bay is often cited among the world's best beaches by major international travel guides, thanks to the near-total absence of seaweed and dangerous currents.