A mile west of The Valley,
Sandy Ground is the island's main low-budget hang-out area, with a number of inexpensive places to stay and eat and a friendly and relaxed atmosphere. There's a nice beach, and the tiny village backs onto a large salt pond popular with local birdlife; islanders used to rake salt here for export to the Americas until the costs became prohibitive. Offshore, visible from Sandy Ground,
Sandy Island is a tiny deserted isle with a handful of palm trees, just six hundred feet long and a great place for snorkelling and swimming. If you go in the early morning, before any of the day-trippers from St Martin arrive, you may well have the island to yourself. Boats (US$10 round-trip) leave from the pier between about 9.30am and 4pm whenever there's demand and there's a beach bar on the island that sells lunch and drinks.
South of Sandy Ground the road leads down through the residential area of South Hill to Blowing Point, where the ferries from St Martin dock. There's little to see in either of these places, but just east of Blowing Point, the sparkling white sand that fringes Rendezvous Bay offers one of the island's most spectacular beaches - the two-mile crescent is a great place to find shells. Head past the Anguilla Great House Beach Resort for public access to the beach.
Further west still, there's more blindingly white sand at Maunday's Bay , home to exclusive Cap Juluca , one of the island's top-notch resorts, while west of here Shoal Bay West is another curve of lovely white sand that's worth a visit if you're touring the island.
