Nine islands. One Caribbean spirit.

Beauty

St Vincent is the verdant heart of the archipelago — a dramatic island of rainforest-cloaked mountains, black-sand beaches and waterfalls that tumble straight out of the jungle. La Soufrière, an active volcano, looms over the north, while the Mesopotamia Valley unfurls in a patchwork of breadfruit, banana and nutmeg below.

Defining features

Home to the capital, Kingstown, and the oldest botanic gardens in the western hemisphere (founded 1765). Trinity Falls, the Vermont Nature Trails and the Tobago Cays sailing fleet all set sail from here.

People & culture

Vincentians (often called Vincy) are warm, soca-loving and fiercely proud of their Garifuna and African heritage. Vincy Mas, the summer carnival, is the cultural heartbeat of the island.

Wildlife

The endemic St Vincent parrot (Amazona guildingii) — the national bird — lives only in the rainforest interior. Look out for the whistling frog and agouti in the foothills.

Food specialities

Roasted breadfruit and fried jackfish is the unofficial national dish. Also famous for callaloo soup, buljol and the rum-and-coconut sweetbread known as ducana.

Beauty

A seven-square-mile gem of turquoise bays, white-sand beaches and laid-back rhythm. Princess Margaret Beach and Lower Bay are postcard-perfect — calm, clear and ringed with sea-grape trees.

Defining features

Admiralty Bay is one of the great natural harbours of the Caribbean and a magnet for cruising yachts. Port Elizabeth's Belmont Walkway hugs the waterfront in a string of bars and galleries.

People & culture

Bequians have deep seafaring and boat-building roots — many trace ancestry to Scottish whalers, French settlers and freed Africans. Model boat building is still a celebrated local craft.

Wildlife

The Old Hegg Turtle Sanctuary on the north coast protects endangered hawksbill turtles. Frigatebirds and brown boobies wheel above the bays.

Food specialities

Fresh-grilled lobster, conch souse and lambi (conch) roti. Bequia is also known for its rotis and rum punch sundowners at Jack's Bar.

Beauty

A privately owned island of rolling green hills, immaculate beaches and a hush you rarely find in the Caribbean. Macaroni Beach is famed for its powdery sand and unbroken Atlantic horizon.

Defining features

Owned and managed by the Mustique Company, with private villas dotted around the island — many designed by Oliver Messel. Basil's Bar, perched over the water, is a global cocktail institution.

People & culture

Long associated with Princess Margaret, Mick Jagger and David Bowie, Mustique balances a tiny resident community of staff and homeowners with a steady drift of well-known guests.

Wildlife

Wild tortoises roam freely, alongside herds of horses kept for the island's equestrian centre. Rays and reef sharks glide through the surrounding shallows.

Food specialities

Refined Caribbean — line-caught wahoo, lobster thermidor and Basil's signature jumbie punch made with island rum and fresh fruit.

Beauty

A crescent-shaped island ringed by one of the longest barrier reefs in the Caribbean. The east coast crashes with Atlantic surf; the west melts into glassy, sheltered bays like Godahl and L'Ance Guyac.

Defining features

Home to a Jim Fazio-designed championship golf course, a deep-water marina and a small but growing collection of ultra-luxury resorts.

People & culture

A close-knit village community of around 1,200 islanders, many descended from fishermen and small farmers, who share the island with a quiet luxury hospitality scene.

Wildlife

The reef teems with parrotfish, eagle rays and nurse sharks. Iguanas sun themselves on the dry hillsides.

Food specialities

Conch, fresh-caught snapper and lambi water (a spiced conch broth). Coconut bake — a slightly sweet flatbread — is a local breakfast staple.

Beauty

Just 1.5 square miles, Mayreau is all gentle hills, twin beaches and a single hilltop village. Salt Whistle Bay is a near-mythical horseshoe of white sand with the Caribbean on one side and the Atlantic on the other, separated by a thread of palms.

Defining features

Reachable only by boat. The 19th-century Catholic stone church on the hill offers a sweeping view across the Tobago Cays.

People & culture

Around 300 residents, descendants of the Saint family who originally settled the island. Life moves at the pace of the tide.

Wildlife

Brown pelicans dive in the bays; the surrounding reefs shelter green turtles and stingrays.

Food specialities

Whatever came in on the boat that morning — grilled mahi-mahi, lobster in season, and the island's beloved barbecue with rice and peas.

Beauty

Jagged volcanic peaks rise straight from the sea, earning Union its nickname. Big Sand and Chatham Bay are wide, lonely sweeps of beach; the Mount Taboi summit rewards hikers with a 360° view across the southern Grenadines.

Defining features

The southern gateway to the country, with its own airport at Clifton and a famously vibrant kitesurfing scene at Frigate Island. Happy Island — a tiny bar built entirely from conch shells — sits on the reef just offshore.

People & culture

A lively, music-loving community of around 3,000. Big Drum dancing, a Garifuna-rooted tradition, is still performed at weddings and harvest festivals.

Wildlife

The critically endangered Union Island gecko (Gonatodes daudini) — found nowhere else on earth — lives only in the Chatham Bay forest. Frigatebirds nest on the offshore cays.

Food specialities

Goat water (a peppery goat stew), fried jackfish with bakes, and freshly grilled lobster at the beach shacks of Chatham Bay.

Beauty

Once a mangrove-fringed sandbar called Prune Island, it was transformed in the 1960s by John Caldwell — who planted thousands of coconut palms — into one of the most photogenic islands in the Grenadines. Five beaches ring just 135 acres.

Defining features

A single private-island resort with no cars and barely any roads. Reachable by a short boat hop from Union Island.

People & culture

No permanent village — the island is inhabited by resort staff and guests, many of whom return year after year.

Wildlife

Resident iguanas wander the gardens, and the surrounding reefs are nursery grounds for hawksbill turtles and spotted eagle rays.

Food specialities

Elegant Caribbean–European fusion: seared tuna with passionfruit, coconut-poached lobster and locally caught snapper.

Beauty

A 115-acre private island of low coral stone cottages set among sea grapes and frangipani. Two miles of white sand beach ring the island, and you can walk the entire perimeter at low tide.

Defining features

No phones, no TVs, no Wi-Fi in the cottages — guests raise a yellow flag for service and a red one for privacy. The island is the southernmost inhabited point of St Vincent & the Grenadines.

People & culture

A tiny community of resort staff, many from Union Island and Carriacou, who have worked on PSV for generations.

Wildlife

Pelicans, frigatebirds and the occasional pod of dolphins offshore. The reef at neighbouring Mopion is a snorkelling highlight.

Food specialities

Island-to-table dining: grilled lionfish, coconut curries, breadfruit chips and rum-soaked tropical fruits.

Beauty

A 35-acre tropical hideaway just 200 yards off the southern coast of St Vincent. Dense with palms, hibiscus and bougainvillea, it feels a world away from the mainland despite the two-minute ferry crossing.

Defining features

A single boutique resort of thatched cottages climbs the hillside. Just across the channel is Fort Duvernette, a 17th-century cannon fort carved into a rocky islet.

People & culture

Inhabited entirely by the resort and its team, many of them long-serving Vincentians who row guests across in small wooden launches.

Wildlife

Hummingbirds and bananaquits flit through the gardens; the channel between the island and the mainland is home to seahorses and reef fish.

Food specialities

Classic Vincentian cooking elevated — callaloo soup, curried goat, fresh-caught kingfish, and rum punches served in halved coconuts.