A number in the sand

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Steve Macnaull / POSTMEDIA NEWS A local boy hams it up for the camera at Dickenson Bay Beach in Antigua, ranked No. 4 in the world. (POSTMEDIA FREELANCE)

IF YOU GO

Air Canada (aircanada.com) flies to Antigua non-stop from Toronto and Montreal and Air Transat (transatholidays.com) has non-stop Montreal-Antigua service.

Nights at the adults-only Sandals Grande Antigua (sandals.com), the winner of the World Travel Awards world's most romantic resort for 13 years, can be purchased separately or packaged in an all-inclusive package through Air Canada Vacations or Transat Holidays.

Sandals also has a family friendly all-inclusive on Antigua called Grand Pineapple Beach Resort.

General information at antigua-barbuda.org.

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Steve Macnaull / POSTMEDIA NEWS Moon jellyfish are virtually harmless and the sting is like a mosquito bite. It and dozens of other colourful creatures live amid the coral beneath the sea. (POSTMEDIA FREELANCE)

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Tour guide Alex Browne is the first to cast suspicion on the claim that Antigua has 365 beaches.

"I don't think anyone's actually counted," he says with a laugh.

"But it sure is a convenient number. A different beach for every day of the year."

In fact, the official tourism agency for this 300-square-kilometre paradise in the Caribbean's West Indies bandies about the 365 beaches figure liberally in all of its promotions and literature.

Our tour group takes this as a challenge.

The maps come out. We count.

As the tour van passes white sand beach after white sand beach, we tally.

We stop to swim at Darkwood Beach, a popular crescent where we count one more and experience that meeting of powdery sand and baby blue water.

Soon we're splashing and laughing and we forget what number we're at.

And we don't really restart. Somehow it doesn't matter anymore.

Our tour also takes us to Shirley Heights, the vantage point where you see how this undulating irregular-shaped island with a plethora of bays, inlets and points certainly has the shoreline to accommodate beach after beach.

We admire, but don't bother counting. It's just safe to say Antigua has a lot of beautiful beaches, more than you'll every be able to swim at during a holiday to the idyllic island.

Who cares if the number's been fudged a bit and it could be 358 or 371.

As we arrive at Sandals Grande Antigua, the luxury all-inclusive adults-only resort we're staying at, public relations manager Anne Harawood brings up the numerical game again.

"I just know there are so many beaches that I've only had time to get to about 20," she says.

"And that's a good thing because Antigua is all about the beaches. It's why we're on Dickenson Bay Beach, which was ranked the No. 4 beach in the world by (popular travel website) Expedia.com. The only way to improve an Antigua beach is to build a Sandals on it."

We don't just blindly take her word for it. We head to Dickenson Bay Beach in front of the resort to lounge, swim, eat, drink, haggle with souvenir sellers and catch the boat that will take us snorkelling to Paradise Reef.

It's unabashedly called Paradise Reef because it is paradise.

Only a 10-minute boat ride from the shore, the reef announces itself as a slice of aquamarine water contrasted to the surrounding dark blue.

The three-metre deep water over coral is crystal clear and punctuated with coral heads where all the colourful sea creatures congregate -- from parrot fish, sea urchins and grunts to tangs, angelfish and moon jellyfish.

No need to fear the moon jellyfish, boat captain Sherman Timothy tells us.

"They're not too big and their sting is like a mosquito bite," he says.

"But if you get stung I can still pee on the bite if you want me to."

The other options, of course, being to simply avoid the jellyfish, or the more risky move -- pushing it away with the palm of your hand so its stinger can't get at you.

After all the buildup, we only see two jellyfish -- one at a distance and one close enough for our guide to demonstrate the palm push.

The most memorable meals at Sandals are at Barefoot by the Sea, the restaurant that's right on the sand close enough to the Caribbean Sea to hear the gentle lapping of the waves.

During the day it's a lunch pit stop. Try the jerk barbecued chicken.

For dinner it's transformed with white tablecloths and candlelight into fine Caribbean fusion dining where you're encouraged to kick off your shoes and dig your feet into the cool sand.

Try the surf and turf seafood curry and filet mignon finished off by the richest, moistest chocolate rum cake you'll ever have.

If you want to keep your shoes on, Sandals has nine other buffet and à la carte restaurants to choose from.

The man who keeps this beach pristine is Tristan Hines, who has the all-important contract with Sandals.

Dealing with a time change and wanting to continue my daily runs to work off all the extra food and wine, I encounter Hines on the beach at 6:45 a.m.

He's dragging a doubled-up old chain-link fence with a rope to rake and clean the beach to icing sugar consistency before resort guests even wake up.

"This is my invention," he says, nodding at his fence and rope contraption. "I used to rake, but it took too long."

Republished from the Winnipeg Free Press print edition November 5, 2011 D5