Falmouth and English Harbour. Where a Caribbean charter usually begins.

Antigua's south coast does something no other Caribbean island manages: it puts deep, sheltered water, a proper superyacht marina and a full technical support industry within a few minutes of each other. Falmouth Harbour is the big one, a wide natural bay with the Falmouth Harbour Marina on its western side taking yachts up to around 163 metres alongside or stern to, and the Antigua Yacht Club Marina on its eastern side, closer to the shops and the restaurants. Over the headland to the east is English Harbour, narrower and almost entirely enclosed, with Nelson's Dockyard at the head of it: a restored Georgian naval yard and a World Heritage Site, where a yacht lies against stone quays built for the Royal Navy in the eighteenth century.

For a guest arriving by car those three quays are genuinely different addresses. Falmouth Harbour Marina and the Antigua Yacht Club Marina sit on opposite sides of the same bay, with the road running around the head of it, and the dockyard is over the hill and through the national park gate. Give us the marina by name and the berth if you have it. A driver who arrives at the wrong side of Falmouth Harbour has a ten minute drive to correct it, which is a long ten minutes when the tender is waiting.

V. C. Bird International sits about 8 km north east of St John's, on the opposite corner of the island from the harbours. It takes long haul aircraft directly, which is the reason Antigua works as a start point for a Caribbean charter in a way that most of the neighbouring islands do not: your party can leave London in the morning and be on the yacht for dinner without an island hop, a ferry or a daylight limit. Signature Aviation, one of our partners, operates on the field, so the private arrival and the handling are straightforward.

The part people underestimate is the drive. Twenty two kilometres across Antigua is not twenty two kilometres across Hampshire. Thirty five to forty five minutes is the normal range and an hour is realistic when the roads are busy or the weather is heavy, particularly when the party needs two or three vehicles and everyone has to arrive together. For the flight see private jet charter, ultra long range jets and heavy jets. If the itinerary continues north, St Barths is the other main embarkation point and works completely differently.

In an ordinary week a car reaches the head of the dock at Falmouth Harbour Marina or the Antigua Yacht Club Marina, sets down with crew present and then parks. The docks themselves are working quays with carts, provisioning vans and crew moving along them, so vehicles are directed rather than left to find a space. At Nelson's Dockyard the position is different again: it is a national park and a heritage site, vehicle access is controlled and the set down point is a short walk from the historic quays. None of that is difficult. It is simply worth agreeing in advance rather than discovering at a gate.

Antigua drives on the left, which is comfortable for a British party. Roads outside the harbours are narrow with unlit stretches and speed bumps, and the run back from a restaurant across the island after dark is slower than the daytime figure, so hold the cars for an evening out rather than releasing them. If the yacht is at anchor in Falmouth Harbour or off Pigeon Beach rather than alongside, the tender landing becomes the fixed point of the day. It is agreed between the captain and the marina for that stay: confirm it the night before and tell us, so the driver goes to the right quay first time.

The Caribbean season runs from December to April. The week that defines Antigua's year is the Antigua Charter Yacht Show, held across Nelson's Dockyard, Falmouth Harbour Marina and the Antigua Yacht Club Marina. The 2026 edition runs from 4 to 9 December 2026 and marks sixty five years since the first yachts gathered in English Harbour. For that week the quays are given over to the fleet, the marinas are full, and cars, drivers and accommodation on the south coast are committed well in advance. If you are visiting to see yachts rather than to cruise, that is the week to be here and the week to book earliest.

Two other dates change the harbours. The Antigua Classic Yacht Regatta fills the dockyard with classic sailing yachts in April, and Antigua Sailing Week follows at the end of April into the start of May, when the whole south coast turns into a race village. Between those, January to March is the settled heart of the season: reliable trade winds, warm water and harbours that are busy without being full. The wider picture is on the Antigua and Caribbean pages, and the mechanics of an itinerary on how charter works.