Beyond Mustique:
The Grenadines' Lesser-Known Islands

Mustique gets most of the attention when people talk about the Grenadines, largely because of who owns villas there. It is one island out of more than thirty, and the others have their own, often more accessible, character worth knowing about.

Mustique, briefly

Mustique is a private island managed by the Mustique Company, home to more than 100 privately owned villas and a longstanding reputation as a retreat for royalty and celebrities. Private jets are not permitted to land, preserving the island's quiet; most visitors arrive via Saint Lucia or Barbados and a charter flight, or by boat from neighbouring Bequia. Basil's Bar and Macaroni Beach are the island's best-known landmarks, and the Mustique Blues Festival, held in late January and early February, brings international musicians to play at Basil's for a local, unpretentious event given the island's exclusive reputation.

Bequia

Bequia is the largest island in St Vincent and the Grenadines besides the mainland itself, though at roughly seven square miles that is a modest claim. It sits less than 10 miles south of St Vincent and carries a distinct maritime identity: Bequia is one of the only places in the world still permitted by the International Whaling Commission to hunt humpback whales, a small, tightly regulated traditional practice rather than a commercial industry, and Admiralty Bay remains a genuine hub for cruising sailors rather than a manufactured tourist harbour. The island makes a practical base for day trips to Mustique and the Tobago Cays, and a whaling museum on the island tells the story behind the tradition.

Canouan

Canouan has undergone one of the more striking transformations in the region: accounts from sailors visiting fifteen or more years ago describe it as one of the poorest islands in the Caribbean, and it now markets itself at the luxury end of the market, sometimes described as a billionaire's retreat. The contrast is worth knowing for anyone expecting a uniform level of development across the Grenadines chain; Canouan's shift reflects targeted resort investment rather than a broader regional pattern.

The Tobago Cays

The Tobago Cays National Marine Park, protected by Horseshoe Reef, comprises five uninhabited cays plus the small inhabited island of Mayreau, and is widely regarded as one of the best snorkelling destinations in the Eastern Caribbean, with hawksbill turtles a regular sighting on the reef. Access is by boat, either chartered directly or via day-trip operators running from Bequia, Union Island or Canouan, and a modest per-boat entry fee applies to fund the marine park's upkeep. Mayreau itself has just a couple of hundred residents, a handful of accommodation options, and a stone-built Catholic church with views over the Cays that draws visitors independent of the marine park itself.

Union Island

The southernmost of the main Grenadine islands with regular air access, Union Island has just under 3,000 residents and serves as the practical gateway to the Tobago Cays for most yacht traffic and day-trippers. Clifton Harbour is the island's hub, home to Happy Island, a small man-made islet built from conch shells and home to a beach bar, and the island holds its own lively carnival that draws visitors independent of the wider Grenadines season. Union Island's multicultural history, shaped by a mix of settlers over the centuries, gives it a distinct cultural texture from the more uniformly British-colonial character of St Vincent's mainland.

Getting between them

Inter-island transport across the Grenadines runs on small aircraft, ferries and private charter boats rather than a single unified network, and each island named here has at least a small airstrip or reliable boat connection. For a first visit, basing on Bequia or Union Island and taking day trips to Mustique, Canouan and the Tobago Cays is a more practical and considerably cheaper way to see the chain than trying to stay on each island in turn, and gives a genuine sense of how different these small islands are from one another despite sitting within sight of each other across open water.