The Grenadines Are the Caribbean's Great Sailing Secret, and They Intend to Stay That Way

A necklace of small islands between St Vincent and Grenada has become the region's finest cruising ground by keeping the runway short and the crowds down.

Between St Vincent and Grenada lies a scatter of small islands, Bequia, Mustique, Canouan, Mayreau, Union and the uninhabited Tobago Cays, that together form the best cruising ground in the Caribbean. There is no mass airport, no wall of high-rises, and that is the entire strategy.

The Grenadines sell scarcity. Bequia keeps its boatbuilding and its whaling heritage and a harbor of yachts; the Tobago Cays are a marine park where the anchorage is the attraction; Mustique prices privacy at the very top of the market. The through-line is deliberate under-development, the choice to stay small.

It is a model the rest of the region studies and rarely copies, because it requires turning business away. For the traveler with a boat and time, the Grenadines are the argument that less, kept less, is worth more.