ANGUILLA, BRITISH WEST INDIES | Great food and drink are as plentiful as sunshine at Aurora Anguilla. And as good as the rum punch that served as my welcome cocktail was, I found the pineapple negroni that bartenders prepared for me in subsequent days to be even tastier. And though the cocktail menu included a number of other well-considered concoctions, I kept going back to what became Old Reliable.
The wine list was modest yet well-chosen, and there was a vast selection of rums, as I would expect in this part of the world. I was also happy the resort had plenty of Red Stripe beer on ice. It paired especially well with the lobster rolls served at the turn on the International one day.
As for the restaurants, I am a sucker for seaside repasts, which is why I fell hard for Breezes. Nothing pleases me more than dining barefoot in the sand while listening to waves lapping onto a beach. And for my last night at the resort, I savored a splendid seafood paella full of squid, lobster, shrimp and chorizo there as a local band played island music.
Speaking of music, the most popular import from Jamaica next to Red Stripe is reggae. And a couple of locals, Bankie “Banx” Banks and his son Omari Banks, have developed worldwide followings. And they often perform live on Anguilla. For the past three decades, the territory also has hosted an annual reggae festival called Moonsplash.
Nothing pleases me more than dining barefoot in the sand while listening to waves lapping onto a beach.
Getting to Anguilla was not an easy task in years past, and back in the day, travelers flew in a commercial airliner to nearby St. Martin and then boarded either a ferry for the 20-minute crossing of the Anguilla Channel or a puddle-jumper that may or may not have included barnyard animals as passengers for a five-minute flight. But things have improved greatly since Anguilla initiated in 2021 regular commercial jet service to and from the United States. American Eagle is the carrier, in and out of Miami, and that development makes the trip so much more convenient.
Another bonus is that the resort is only a 15-minute drive from the Anguilla airport.
Even better is the charter jet service to and from the U.S. that the Aurora Anguilla is operating for guests during the high season from late fall to late winter.
While golf is a very big part of the allure, Aurora Anguilla strives to be a true family getaway by offering a wide range of activities. An amphitheater that holds 700 guests is used for concerts as well as movie nights. The resort also offers coastline hikes and horseback riding as well as afternoon tea, as a nod to its British heritage. And by the end of this summer, it will have completed work on an entertainment center featuring tennis, swimming and pickleball as well as climbing walls and a water park.
Aurora Anguilla owner Dick Schulze is the sort of person who likes to help others, and he does that through the resort in a lot of different ways. Buying laptops for a local school, for one. And supporting a local health clinic catering to uninsured residents living below the poverty line, for another.
Schulze has turned to Salamander Hotels & Resorts to manage his retreat. Founded by Sheila Johnson, the concern runs a number of luxury properties including Half Moon in Jamaica, Aspen Meadows resort in Colorado and the Hotel Bennett in Charleston, South Carolina.
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Photo courtesy Aurora ANguilla