Tuesday, August 08, 2006

Anguilla Rental Cars

One thing that everyone who visits Anguilla should do is get a rental car and cruise the island. I should re-phrase that - get a rental JEEP and cruise the island.

When I visited in 1994 we had what I call a jeep-jeep. No frills, five speed, although we didn't get much past fourth gear due to the conditions of the roads, no AC, convertible roof. My S.O. and I went wherever we wanted free as the wind. I remember the horrendous sun burn I got on my right arm having it hanging out of the passenger window for a week. Over the next few vacations to Anguilla when I traveled alone I developed the same horrible burn on my left arm while driving. Gee, a few years ago during a vacation on Anguilla in one week I put something like 472 miles on a jeep - and that's on a 16 x 3 mile island. I explored every single dirt road I found, and drove some of them twice.

Today, I prefer an air conditioned Jeep and they seem to be the norm on the island. Anguilla is doing lots of repaving of the roads now, making driving much easier and smoother. I do believe that some of the larger resorts actually give cars as rentals for their visitors. What's the fun in that? I also hear that some people don't even rent cars, they use the resort's bicycles to explore the island. If you want to find the lovely deserted beaches on Anguilla you need to be able to go off the beaten path and you have to have a jeep to get you down the bumpy dirt roads.

You always read about Shoal Bay East when you read about Anguilla. I say that Shoal Bay East is way too busy now. It has all the daytrippers from St. Martin and those that come in on the very small and exclusive cruise ships that dock off of Sandy Ground on Anguilla.

To see the real Anguilla get a jeep and do some exploring!!