Take your pick of the Caribbean’s paradise islands

WITH 30 major islands – and more than 100 if you include every cay, spit and sandbar that disappears at high tide – the Caribbean offers a mind-boggling variety of destinations. There are volcanic islands smothered in jungle, lively islands and some with just one hotel on them. And then there are the beaches – some deserted, others shoulder-to-shoulder with bars. So which should you choose?

ANGUILLA, THE HIGH POINT IN LOW-KEY SOPHISTICATION

HERE you’ll find the best beaches of them all: blinding white sand gently shelving into gin-clear shallows to a sea so turquoise it would test a Surrealist painter’s palette.

There are strands to stroll at dawn, sophisticated spots for lunch and sandy shacks for a lobster snack. Some are lively by day such as Shoal Bay in the east, others come alive at sunset, such as Sandy Ground, with its stretch of rickety beach bars.

But mostly, Anguilla is about soaking up the sun and cooling off in the waves.

The island is quite expensive and not that easy to reach, but it has a good range of hotels and excellent villas in a fantasyland of architectural styles such as Moorish, Greek and even modernist abstractions in white concrete.

Anguilla also has serious restaurants, with cuisines including imaginative at Hibernia, innovative at Blanchards and equatorial ‘cuisine of the sun’ at Veya. Independentminded Anguillians are laid back to the point of horizontal; their island is the ultimate in low-key Caribbean sophistication. Splash out: Cap Juluca, B&B from £1,054 a night (belmond.com).

Best value: Carimar Beach Club, onebedroom self-catering cottages from £198 a night (carimar.com).

FANCY A COOL RUNNINGS RIDE IN ADVENTURE-FILLED JAMAICA?

MOUNTAINOUS and green, Jamaica has inland waters as cool and inviting as its sea. There are challenging hikes in the Blue Mountains (including to the 7,402ft peak), the John Crow Mountains and the extraordinary Cockpit Country, but also inland pools in which to swim and waterfalls to admire, such as those at Reach Falls and Mayfield. Of course there are ziplines, lumpy, bumpy off-road vehicle tours and even a Cool Runnings-style bobsleigh descent. But best of all is river rafting – quite the opposite of white-water rafting – as you are punted on a bamboo raft along the Martha Brae or the Rio Grande, with a Red Stripe beer in hand and silken water between your toes.

Jamaica is large by Caribbean standards, with a strong island culture – the Jamaicans are demonstrative and lively and at times the streets really do reverberate to a reggae beat.

There’s an exceptional range of hotels in a full range of prices, from the traditional classics to funky modern hideaways.

Independent restaurants are sadly few, due to the effect of all-inclusive resorts, but street food can be fun.

Take a road trip and stop where the Jamaicans

do, for corn soup or jerk chicken and a johnny cake – cornmeal flatbread.

Splash out: Round Hill, B&B from £431 per night (roundhill.com).

Best value: Geejam, B&B from £184 per night (geejamhotel.com).

DRESS TO IMPRESS (AND DANCE ON TABLES) IN CHIC ST BARTS

NOT long ago Caribbean cuisine was hardly something to write home about. Now that chefs and suppliers are up to international speed, you can eat well – if you choose well.

St Barts is French, but classical recipes are reimagined and often steeped in local spices (try L’Esprit Salines). You can also expect Italian (L’Isola), Japanese (Orega and Kinugawa) and trusty French creole food at Eddy’s.

Dine by day, with fashion shows to divert you, in gardens under overhanging greenery (Le Tamarin), and right on the shoreline at Eden Rock’s Sand Bar and La Cabane at

Cheval Blanc’s Isle de France. At night you can overlook the lovely Gustavia harbour from Bonito and La Guerite. Let your hair down at the Ti St Barth club, where dancing on the tables is part of the fun.

The quality of the food is indicative of life on St Barts: chic, stylish and beautifully presented. The island feels more metropolitan than Caribbean, and while it is certainly not cheap, there are excellent hotels and endless villas plus a lively social scene, both on the beach and in the evenings.

People dress up here, not down, so pack summer finery.

Splash out: Eden Rock, B&B from £1,445 per night (oetkercollection.com).

Best value: Hotel Le Village, B&B from £162 per night (levillagestbarth.com).

WHY TINY NEVIS IS A SUCH BIG ATTRACTION FOR HISTORY FANS

CARIBBEAN history may be mired in controversy right now but there’s no question that a beautifully designed plantation house sitting perfectly in its environment looks utterly magical.

Nevis has a handful of plantation house hotels which hark back 50 years to a time before tourism took over the islands. After tiny, charming Charlestown and its miniature museum in Alexander Hamilton House – where the US founding father and subject of the hit musical was born – look out for Horatio Nelson’s marriage register at Fig Tree Church and a museum devoted to Nelsonabilia. Then hike the Upper Round Road and seek out hidden ruins – you will discover windmills with massive iron crushing gear mouldering away, and stone ruins that now only whisper of the island’s elegant past.

Nevis is small, quiet and heart-stoppingly pretty, an island to fall in love with. Development has been quite sensitive, resulting in charming villas.

There is some seaside action, of course. In the light scattering of hotels on the westfacing Pinney’s beach, the beach bars doze by day and come alive at sundown.

Splash out: Montpelier Plantation, B&B from £170 per night (montpeliernevis.com). Best value: The Hermitage, B&B from £130 per night (hermitagenevis.com).

DOMINICA’S ECO WONDERLAND IS BUZZING WITH WILDLIFE

MANTLED in rainforest and so fertile you could almost expect a pencil to take root, everywhere on volcanic Dominica has a soundtrack of twittering, zinging, buzzing and peeping.

There are gardens with explosive tropical greenery and flowers (try Papilotte), scores of butterfly and bird species, two rare types of parrot and insects so large they appear to clank when they move.

Hiking trails venture up into dwarf and cloud forest, then down into the volcanic