The tiny island of Bequia has a unique, magical charm which is hard to find anywhere else in the Caribbean. With fewer than six thousand inhabitants, it feels like home from the moment you arrive; friendliness is the watchword, and the pace is relaxed and easy-going. Don't be surprised if you are greeted with a warm hello as you walk along the street - a centuries-old dependence on inter-island shipping and trading has meant that Bequians have been eagerly welcoming visitors to their shores for generations.
The island's enduring seafaring heritage is one of its most striking features. Virtually every Bequia family has some connection to the sea either past or present, and today's fishermen, sailors and boat-builders are quietly proud to share their marine traditions with newcomers to the island.
Bequia fulfils many dreams of the perfect small Caribbean island: beautiful sandy beaches where more than ten people may constitute a crowd, lush green hillsides, attractive little villages, intimate, well run hotels and guest houses, hardly any traffic, places to get together and places in which to find that perfect solitude. Variety and choice on so small an island may come as a surprise - but there are both wherever you look.
Choose a holiday of total beach relaxation or exhilarating sailing and diving in some of the most beautiful waters in the world. Get to know the island on foot, or hire a car and discover so much more than just the golden beaches; take day or overnight trips to neighbouring isles or simply fill up another perfect day doing what is increasingly necessary to unwind - nothing! Your choice of holiday home could be a luxury hilltop villa, air-conditioned self-catering apartment or first class small hotel, a friendly beachfront guesthouse or a privately chartered yacht swaying quietly at anchor off a deserted beach.
A choice of nightlife too awaits you - gourmet international cuisine, or delicious local cooking; elegant cocktails or sundowners in a local bar; a lively jump up to steel band music or a wonderfully romantic candlelit dinner far away from it all.
And then of course there are the warm tropical nights, with an orchestra of singing cicadas and gently murmuring surf, and the brilliance of the star-studded sky which tells you, if you didn't already know, that this is where you have always wanted to be.
Bequia is the largest island in the Grenadines at 7 square miles (18 km2). It is part of the country of Saint Vincent and the Grenadines and is approximately 15 kilometres (9.3 mi) from the nation's capital, Kingstown, on the main island, Saint Vincent. Saint Vincent and the Grenadines is an island country in the Lesser Antilles chain, in the southern portion of the Windward Islands, which lie at the southern end of the eastern border of the Caribbean Sea where the latter meets the Atlantic Ocean. It is aproximately 108 miles (175KM) from Kingstown to Bridgetown, Barbados and 61 miles (99KM) from Kingstown to Casteries, St. Lucia.