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For the island hunter in 1961, there are still other highly promising domains, close to the U.S. as well as at a tantalizing distance. The Caribbean, though much of it is almost as well traveled as Florida, retains a great many surprises. It still has the most arresting sunsets, the softest nights, and the most magical sea in the Western Hemisphere. Antigua, Trinidad and Barbados are rapidly being overrun; Martinique, with its magnificent French cuisine, cockfights and occasional battles between a mongoose and a fer-de-lance, has been discovered, and the prices are a little high. But there are pinhead islands hidden on the maps where the weary can find cool contentment. Saint-Barthelemy, for instance, a rugged little volcanic island, has handsome beaches, good fishing and snorkeling. and the old-world attraction of dry-rock fences and brightly painted cottages. For $10, a local taxi mistress, who speaks French only, will Jeep visitors around the islands, where old, gaunt-faced women, peering out from under their white, cowl-shaped bonnets, look like reproductions of Millet paintings.
The island of Nevis, just a $50 charter flight from Antigua, has an exotic West Indian flavor and a wild coiffure of bougainvillaea and hibiscus. Granada, a lively mountainous island made livelier by native dancing and steel bands, has flying fish, and an ice-cold lake for the valiant.
Barbuda is a flat oval that was made for sportsmen—tarpon, bonefish, guinea fowl, blue-winged teal—and the Coco Point Lodge offers a complete package deal that is a sure lure: room, meals, liquor, use of small fishing boats, water skiing, snorkel equipment, guides, hunting and fishing licenses, ammunition, and all air and land transportation from Antigua and return —all for $90 a day (double), reduced after the third day to $70. Best swimming is off the pink sand of the leeward side of the island; the windward end, choppy and reef-ridden, is treacherous, but skindivers and beachcombers like it that way.
For those who get no tingle from a snorkel, the Indian Ocean islands that nestle off Africa provide the sounds and smells of unexpected revelation. Madagascar, now called the Malagasy Republic, was once the property of France, but the colonials had the decency to leave behind their fine Parisian chefs, who know their escargots. Best restaurants in the hilly capital city of Tananarive: La Taverne at the Palais Colbert. Cafe de Paris, Relais Normand (minimum meals are under $3 for lunch or dinner, but the sky's the limit a la carte). Rates at the Colbert for a two-room suite, full board, and tips: $16 per person. The night life and beach life on the island are equally French: Parisian dancers for one, Band-Aid-sized bikinis for the other. Says one very Frenchman: "We observe the barest of conventions here."