Anguilla in 3 Days on a Budget (With Daily Costs)

Three days in Anguilla on a budget: the honest costs

Anguilla is not a cheap Caribbean island: no cruise port, casinos or high-rises, and prices follow suit. Three days covers the headline beaches plus a genuine offshore cay day, a real trip. Only two days? The 2-day plan skips the cay; a 4-day plan or 7-day plan adds Scilly Cay, a car loop and St Martin.

Day Focus Travel time Rough daily cost
Day 1 SXM arrival, public ferry to Blowing Point, Shoal Bay East, beach-bar dinner 20-25 min ferry crossing plus a taxi to base $90-150
Day 2 Meads Bay, Rendezvous Bay, a second beach-bar meal short fixed-rate taxi hops between beaches $60-100
Day 3 Sandy Island or Prickly Pear cay day, grilled seafood lunch 5-10 min boat transfer from Sandy Ground $70-120

Book these before you go:

Day 1: SXM, the public ferry and Shoal Bay East

Land at Princess Juliana International Airport (SXM) on Sint Maarten, not on Anguilla itself; the island’s own Clayton J. Lloyd airport has limited direct service, so most visitors arrive this way. Taxi across to the ferry pier at Marigot on the French side, then take the public ferry to Blowing Point: roughly 20-25 minutes, about $30 per adult one way plus a departure tax that different sources quote differently, so confirm the current fare at anguillaferrytimes.com before you fly. A private charter runs from the Dutch side and skips the Marigot taxi, but starts around $65 per person one way, more than double the public fare, so the ferry is the real saving here.

This British Overseas Territory sits a short ferry ride north of St Martin/Sint Maarten but is not part of either the French or Dutch side, a separate country under a separate flag. Settle into a base at West End or Sandy Ground, then spend the afternoon at Shoal Bay East, a two-mile run of white sand on the north coast with reef close enough to snorkel from the beach itself. Entry is free, same as all of Anguilla’s 33 beaches; the only real spend is a rented lounger or a drink from one of the beachfront shacks. For dinner, skip the fine-dining tier and eat at a casual beach bar, Sunshine Shack or the Dune Preserve on Rendezvous Bay both work, where a grilled-catch plate and a rum punch cost a fraction of the same meal at a resort restaurant.

Day 2: Meads Bay and Rendezvous Bay on a beach-bar budget

Spend the morning at Meads Bay, the glossiest strip on the island and home to Blanchards, Anguilla’s best-known splurge restaurant. Walk the beach and admire the resort row for free, but eat at Blanchards’ more casual Beach Shack rather than booking the main dining room, which alone can eat past a two-day food budget in one sitting. The afternoon belongs to Rendezvous Bay, long and quiet with clear sightlines across the channel to St Martin, closed out with a second casual beach-bar meal.

Get around by fixed-rate taxi rather than a rental car. A rental requires a temporary local driving permit on top of the car itself, roughly $25 for three months or $15 for a short stay, an extra cost this trip length skips by sticking to taxis. The East Caribbean dollar (EC$/XCD) is pegged at US$1 to EC$2.70, but nearly every price you actually see on a menu or a taxi fare card is already quoted in US dollars: a $20 lunch works out to roughly EC$54, math you will rarely need to do beyond spotting the odd bill still written in EC$.

Day 3: your first offshore cay, Sandy Island or Prickly Pear

Day 3 is where a three-day trip earns its keep over a two-day one: a short boat transfer from Sandy Ground out to an offshore cay, arguably a better use of a day than a third beach. Sandy Island is a tiny sandbar islet about five minutes out, with its own restaurant and bar, loungers, hammocks and, on some days, a resident masseuse; Prickly Pear is a larger cay with two long-running beach restaurants, Agatha’s and Johnno’s, plus better snorkeling and free shade under thatch umbrellas. Neither cay publishes a fixed national boat fare, so confirm the current round-trip price with your hotel or the operator directly, figure the boat plus a seafood lunch and a couple of drinks at roughly $70-120 for one person.

If you land back on Anguilla with energy left, the small Heritage Collection Museum near The Valley covers the island’s history from its pre-Columbian roots through the 1967 revolution, though its current hours and admission price are worth confirming locally rather than assumed. Otherwise, a slow walk through The Valley itself, the capital and administrative center rather than a resort town, closes out the day for free.

Is three days enough for Anguilla?

Yes. Three days covers Shoal Bay East, Meads Bay and Rendezvous Bay plus one offshore cay, the combination that defines an Anguilla trip, without feeling rushed. Skipped: Scilly Cay’s grilled lobster lunch, a full island loop by car, and a St Martin day trip, all of which the 4-day plan adds next.

How much does three days in Anguilla actually cost?

Budget roughly $220-370 per person across three days for ferries, boats, taxis, food and drink, lodging separate. That is not cheap by Caribbean standards, and it is not meant to be: no cruise port, no casinos, no high-rises, built around staying upscale, not high-volume. Accommodation is the biggest lever; a room booked outside the December-April dry season costs less.

Is Anguilla safe for a short trip?

Yes, for the ordinary beach-and-cay trip, but not on a blanket claim of zero crime. The UK FCDO’s latest update flags a 2025 spike in gang-related gun crime and robbery, serious enough that Anguillians held a public anti-gun-violence march in August 2025. Ordinary caution applies, but crime targeting tourists on the beach and cay circuit remains rare. Check the current advisory at gov.uk and the beach and cay listings at ivisitanguilla.com before you fly.

One thing to sort before you land

Confirm your ferry crossing and your cay-boat operator against their current schedules before you fly; Anguilla’s own airport has limited direct service, and Sandy Island and Prickly Pear both run on small-operator timetables rather than fixed daily hours. Skip the rental car and its driving permit for a trip this length; a fixed-rate taxi covers all three days for less hassle and less cost.