In 1903, Edwin Binney and C. Harold Smith developed a combination of pigments and wax that resulted in the first Crayola Crayons in eight separate colors -- black, brown, blue, red, purple, orange, yellow, and green. Today the company produces 120 different and nuanced hues. There are almost 40 shades of blue in the Crayola rainbow and it’s my guess that when you stand on the beach in front of the Cap Juluca resort in Anguilla, you could find all of them as you look from the Robin’s Egg shallows all the way out to Homer’s own Wine Dark horizon.

“My mother used to bring us to this beach as children,” says Merlyn Rogers, director of marketing and research for the Anguilla Tourist Board, “because it sloped so gently outward to where it gets deep.”

With only 12,000 people on the island, you’ll find that Anguillans have the same kind of intimate connections that Rogers has with almost every corner of their island. Their pride of home and the simple beauty of the place are why so many people call Anguilla their top choice in the Caribbean. There’s a kind of elegant simplicity about the island that startles you at every corner. It’s the genuinely friendly people, superb dining, quality accommodations, the sea in sublime shades of blue, and the beaches as white as confectioner’s sugar that all conspire to melt away stress and set your motor to Caribbean time.

On Valentine’s weekend, I found myself among a group of industry invitees on the inaugural flight from San Juan on Anguilla Air Express, a new service that flies passengers on an eight-seater King Air Turboprop 100 to Anguilla’s Wallblake Airport. Our flight was given a high energy, red carpet welcome with speeches and an eager local press there to record the event. Anguilla’s Chief Minister, Osbourne Fleming, came out onto the tarmac to greet us and make us feel immediately at home. It was the first, but not the last time we heard, “Welcome Home,” which Anguillans in all walks of life seem to say to visitors again and again.

“This new service is a big step in improving direct access into Anguilla, and helps fill a major void,” says Donna Banks, special advisor for tourism in Anguilla’s Ministry of Tourism. “Travelers now have three daily options for a safe, reliable and easy connection between San Juan and Anguilla, and most importantly, it gets our visitors to Anguilla early enough for them to relax and enjoy their first day of vacation.” The flight departs San Juan daily at 11:30 a.m., 2:45 p.m. and 5:45 p.m., with departures from Anguilla at 8 a.m., 1 p.m. and 4 p.m., scheduled to meet the U.S. mainland flights into San Juan.

The new service, operated by Rainbow International Airlines Inc. (866-966-1881, www.anguilla-vacation.com), a local charter company, includes an agent who meets all passengers at the gate in order to escort them through security and to the departure gate in San Juan, and through immigration and customs on arrival in Anguilla, with the same service on the return trip to San Juan. It delivers the ease of private jet service with ticket prices at $399 per person round trip, including taxes. And if you’re wondering whether there are enough customers willing to pay that kind of money for a private jet style experience, consider the fact that a record 215 private jet flights landed in Anguilla between Dec. 19 and Jan. 5 with celebrity and VIP passengers staying at the signature luxury resorts and villas that dot the island.

We stayed at the Sheriva at Sheriton Estates (264-498-9898, www.sheritonestates.com), a 20-room boutique villa hotel set on 10 acres on Anguilla’s West End with views of neighboring St. Martin. Though its villas are not located directly on the beach, Sheriva provides golf carts for the short ride over to a beautiful strand at Maundays Bay Beach. Sheriva is comprised of three fully staffed villas. The identical 14,000 square-foot Infinity and Harmony villas feature seven bedrooms, 8.5 baths, two private pools, a gaming and entertainment room, and a workout nook. Villa Mystique, the island’s largest villa at 21,000 square feet, has four Grand Villa Suites, a Loft Junior Suite, a Garden Suite, three pools, and its own fully equipped workout facility. The suites can be booked separately or the entire villa can be reserved for families or small groups. The villa hotel’s full Conference Suite offers boardroom, classroom and theater-style seating for up to 40 persons.

Situated on Maundays Bay Beach, Cap Juluca (888-858-5822, www.capjuluca.com) recently reopened after completing the first phase in its $80 million enhancement program. Adam Aron, former chairman and CEO of Vail Resorts, purchased the resort last April and has accentuated its Moorish elegance by personally exploring the souks of Marrakesh with designer Paul Duesing to bring back authentic objets d’art, including the magnificent lobby chandelier, assembled from Moorish lanterns that they collected on their grand shopping spree. Throughout the 179-acre retreat you feel like you are walking an edge between Morocco and the Caribbean as the 18 whitewashed Moorish villas sprout their turrets, domes and parapets.

Cap Juluca also features Chef Rene Bajeux, one of only 50 Certified Master French Chefs in the U.S. and the Caribbean. Dinner at Pimms combines tables overlooking the sea with meals that are both creative and made of high quality produce. The resort also offers Spice, a restaurant serving Pan Asian cuisine. Cap Juluca is currently featuring a Quick Getaway package with an $800 resort credit, continental breakfast daily on the guest’s private beach terrace and a bottle of champagne upon arrival. Rates start at $1,345 per night for a four-night stay through April 12. And just to be sure that Anguillan hospitality is as thorough as it is natural, the hotel employs a staff-to-guest room ratio of four to one.

If your clients are seeking dome down home Caribbean food and culture, you can suggest they visit the Dune Preserve Beach Club over on Rendezvous Bay. Run by Anguilla’s biggest name in reggae, Bankie Banx, the bar feels like the ramshackle home built by a Caribbean-style Swiss Family Robinson out of old fishing boats and drift wood. Every year, it’s the setting for the Moonsplash (www.bankiebanx.net) festival (March 26-29).

The nearby CuisinArt Resort & Spa (800-943-3210, www.cuisinartresort.com), also located on Rendezvous Bay, reopened its spa and fitness center in December after a $10 million expansion that tripled the size of the pre-existing facility to 27,000 square feet. It now has 16 treatment rooms, Men’s Club Room, VIP suite, an expansive fitness center and a relaxation room with sea views. The 93-room and suite resort has a Mediterranean feel with villas that face out from the beach across to St. Martin. If your clients want to try a meal at another resort besides their own, the Santorini Restaurant features traditional Mediterranean cuisine accented with a Caribbean flare.

Your clients don’t have to stay at the highest end of the accommodation chain in Anguilla to fully appreciate the island. The beautiful, 17-cottage Arawak Beach Inn (www.arawakbeach.com) is available at $245 per night through April 13. The Arawak Beach is one of 14 hotels, villas and inns that can be accessed at the new Charming Escapes website (www.charmingescapescollection.com). The site describes each property along with activities, culinary and cultural offerings available on the island. It also features a booking mechanism with an exclusive travel agent login that pays commission at 11 percent.

As with everywhere else in these fierce economic times, Anguilla has seen its arrivals and occupancy rates plummet. Thus your clients will most likely find ample space and favorable rates at every tier of accommodation on the island. Anguilla is a great place for customers looking for the simplest Caribbean pleasures at their very best. You won’t find better beaches, seas more mind-bogglingly blue or a people more hospitable than you will on this island.

For more information, call 877-4-ANGUILLA or visit www.anguilla-vacation.com.

James Ruggia
Executive Editor-Destinations
jruggia@pmgemail.com

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