Antigua. Where the Caribbean charter fleet actually lives.

V.C. Bird is a straightforward arrival. It is a full international airport with a long runway, customs and immigration on site and business aviation handling on the field, so any aircraft you are realistically flying can land there. That is the reason Antigua works as a hub: it is where people join a yacht, where crews change over, and where the connections to Barbuda, Montserrat and the rest of the Leewards start.

From London the transatlantic leg is a long one. Ultra long range aircraft fly it nonstop and heavy jets usually can, depending on load and wind. Smaller types plan a fuel stop. Settle that question early, because it sets the departure time and therefore the whole of the first day. See private jet charter, ultra long range jets, heavy jets and Antigua airport.

Almost everyone arriving privately is heading for the south coast, and that drive is the part of the journey worth planning. It is about 22 km from the airport to English Harbour, but the road crosses the island rather than running along it, and it winds through St John's outskirts, over the hills at Liberta and down into the harbours. Forty minutes is realistic on a quiet afternoon. On a Saturday in season, with a cruise ship in St John's and the charter fleet turning around, an hour is not unusual.

If your yacht is lying in Falmouth or at the Antigua Yacht Club Marina, the car goes to the dock rather than to a hotel, which sounds obvious and is still routinely missed. We ask for the berth and the tender arrangement at the enquiry stage. See Falmouth and English Harbour.

The Antigua Charter Yacht Show takes over Nelson's Dockyard, Falmouth Harbour Marina and the Antigua Yacht Club Marina in early December. It is a trade week rather than a public one: captains, crews and charter managers, with the fleet dressed and open for viewing. If you are a charter professional it is the single most useful week of the year to be here, and if you are not, it is a week when berths, cars and rooms are extremely hard to come by.

Antigua Sailing Week falls at the end of April into the start of May and is the other one. It is a racing regatta with a very large social programme attached, based on the same two harbours, and it marks the end of the Caribbean season before the fleet crosses back to the Mediterranean. Both weeks need arranging months rather than weeks ahead. See yacht charter, crewed charter and yacht brokers and captains.

Antigua sits in the middle of the Leewards, so the cruising options run in both directions. North west lie St Barths, St Martin and Anguilla, all within a comfortable day under power. South are Guadeloupe, Dominica and the passages down towards St Lucia and the Grenadines. Barbuda is about thirty miles north and is the day trip that everyone takes.

That central position is also why so many charters start and end here rather than where the guests actually want to spend the week. If you have flexibility, ask about a one way itinerary: the aircraft can collect you somewhere else entirely, and the week gets a great deal more out of the same number of days. See St Barths, the Caribbean and how chartering works.