One of the greatest challenges for an American head of household is to pull off a family vacation.
First of all is the expense. It’s expensive enough to pay for a one-person vacation. Add in an entire family and the cost skyrockets. Life is expensive.
When I was growing up, our family vacations involved camping in a tent for a few days at a nearby lake. Very affordable.
Times change. It seems in this day and age, failing to take your children to Disney World could get you accused of child abuse. As our standard of living has risen, so has the cost of family vacations.
In my perfect world, taking the family to the beach and to the ski slopes once a year would be ideal. But, unfortunately, I have not yet reached that level of affluence.
But this summer, we did go to the beach, and a very nice beach at that, Anguilla in the Caribbean.
How did we pick Anguilla? My son John got obsessed with Anguilla about six years ago. As a British territory, he decided it was the perfect place to live. He studied every inch of the 16 mile by 3 mile island on Google Maps. He wanted to move there.
That didn’t happen, but when our family of five could not pick a family vacation destination, John’s obsessiveness won the day.
Helping us make the pick is that several of our friends had been to Anguilla and said nice things about it, including Dan Brady, a member of our Sunday school class, who recently passed away. A trip to Anguilla, which he loved, seemed a fitting tribute.
Unlike a lot of Caribbean islands, Anguilla is relatively affluent. Its 16,000 residents enjoy a per capita GDP of $30,000, compared to Mississippi’s $40,000.
Anguilla is the Italian word for eel, which describes the long eel-like shape of the island. Unlike nearby Saint Martin which has 1,400-foot hills, Anguilla is flat with a maximum elevation of 240 feet. It has a reputation for some of the prettiest beaches in the world, which I can confirm.
Anguilla is 85 percent African American, five percent Hispanic and five percent Anglo. It’s had a small indigenous native population since 500 AD and was sighted by Columbus on his second voyage.
Europeans planted tobacco in the 17th century. Then sugar plantations dominated. Slaves were brought in to work the plantations and came to dominate the population.
There was a revolution in Anguilla in 1967, but it wasn’t about independence from Britain. Anguilla didn’t want to be part of an island federation that included the islands of Nevis and Saint Kitts. Britain sent 300 troops to restore control and in 1980, Anguilla was allowed to become an independent British territory with its own local government.
We were able to fly from Jackson to Atlanta and then Atlanta to Saint Martin. From there, Anguilla is a 25-minute ferry ride. The Atlanta-Saint Martin flight was three and a half hours and $800 with taxes.
We rented an AirBNB house. The whole family spent months vetting every house to rent on Anguilla. To me, getting the right house is the most important single factor in the success of the vacation. It’s a time consuming task but worth the effort. Air conditioning and a pool is a must.
Most people think the summer weather gets hotter as you head south but actually just the opposite is true. As you go south, the summer days are shorter and the temperature highs are lower. Anguilla in August has average highs of 88 degrees compared to 82 degrees in January.
Anguilla gets about half the rainfall as Mississippi. They don’t get the thunderstorm deluges that are common for us. Anguilla rainfall is more light sprinkles.
Anguilla seems more humid than Jackson, if that’s possible. And the nightime temps only drop a few degrees whereas Mississippi nightime temps typically drop 15 degrees from the daytime highs.
Not surprisingly, tourism is the dominant industry in Anguilla. The U. S. dollar is the main currency and restaurant prices were more expensive than the U.S. Our food costs went over budget.
Restaurants are everywhere. Dozens and dozens. The island is scattered with dozens of gorgeous white sand beaches. About half the beaches are uncommercial and quiet. The other half are lined with restaurants and bars. Eat at the restaurant and you’ll get access to their beach lounge chairs and umbrellas.
Our typical day involved sleeping late and drinking coffee in the morning and enjoying the gorgeous view from our temporary home. Then when we got hungry, we’d lather on the sunscreen and pick a beach for lunch.
Lunch was a relaxed, long affair, followed by beach lounging. It took about 20 minutes to get sufficiently warm to warrant a brief cooling dip in the crystal clear blue water.
It’s hard to overstate how nice the beaches were. No seaweed. No rocks. No bugs. No jellyfish. No sharks. Just crystal clear water and white sand. Very little wave action. Great reef snorkeling wherever you went.
In the high season, winter, conch and lobster abound and the temps are a bit more pleasant. On the downside, the water is quite chilly and the restaurants are crowded.
In the summer low season, we had no lobster and conch but I ate enough mahi mahi to sink a small boat. And getting a table at a restaurant was no problem at all.
Another negative of the summer low season: potential hurricanes. I was happy to see nothing but a good weather forecast when we departed. But no sooner than two days into our vacation, a tropical storm emerged and went right over us with 50 mile per hour winds.
It turns out it was more wind than rain and we actually were able to go out and about in the storm, visiting the famous natural rock arch and hanging out at the seafront Four Seasons bar with the winds blowing strong. It was the only bar open because of its strong structure. That night we played Uno for three hours and had a great family bonding time. The next morning was bright and sunny.
The next day the storm turned into Hurricane Ernesto, hit nearby Puerto Rico and knocked power out for half the island.
So now I can add “rode out a hurricane on a remote Caribbean island” to my personal life adventures resume.
There were two more downers on our trip. Everybody got a mild cold, probably covid, but with lots of meds and willpower, we all punched through and didn’t miss a beat.
Our expensive deep sea fishing day was a bust, catching only a small bonita. That happens. Probably due to the hurricane passing through.
We boated one day and jumped off rock cliffs and had lunch on an uninhabited sand island. Great fun.
Now I’m back with big bills and invaluable memories. As my children graduate and take jobs, family vacations could be harder to make happen. You’ve got to strike when the iron is hot. Or as I like to say, “The banks can’t foreclose on your memories.”
