Shoal Bay East

Shoal Bay East is on the northern coast of Anguilla, a British overseas territory in the Lesser Antilles. It is around three kilometres of white coral sand on a reef-protected shore, and it is the island's best-known beach among thirty-three of them.

Anguilla's geology is why the water looks the way it does. The island is flat limestone with no mountains, no rivers and no streams, which means no sediment reaches the sea; combined with a reef offshore and a shallow shelf, the result is water of a clarity that is exceptional even by Caribbean standards. There is no agriculture of consequence and no runoff.

The beach is broad and pale with a gentle entry and calm shallow water inside the reef. Snorkelling is good at the eastern end where the reef comes close in. The island sits in the hurricane belt and was hit very hard by Irma in 2017, which destroyed a great deal of its infrastructure; rebuilding took years and is visible in what is new and what is not. Anguilla is a flat coral island with no rivers and no runoff, which is why its water is as clear as it is, and why the island has thirty-odd beaches of this quality on a landmass of ninety square kilometres.

Development is low and spread: a handful of beach bars and small hotels along the sand, with the island's larger resorts elsewhere. Anguilla is expensive, has no cruise berth and no large-scale tourism, and has protected that position deliberately. Its restaurant culture is disproportionate to its size and is a genuine reason to go.

Anguilla is flat coral with no rivers, which is why the water is what it is, and it has thirty-odd beaches of this standard on ninety square kilometres. Shoal Bay East is the famous one; drive twenty minutes to Rendezvous or Meads and you get the same sea with nobody on it.