Amiga Island

Île-à-Rat, marketed as Amiga Island, is a low sand island a short boat ride from Labadie village on the northern coast, small enough to walk around in fifteen minutes. It has palms, a beach that runs most of the way round, and shallow clear water with patch reef offshore. Local operators run boats out with grilled fish and drinks, and it has become the standard day trip from Cap-Haïtien. When a cruise ship is in at Labadee nearby, it gets busy.

Highlights

• The sand island - a low palm-topped island walked around in a quarter of an hour.
• The shallows - clear warm water on all sides, waist deep a long way out.
• The patch reef - coral offshore, snorkelled from the beach.
• The boat trip - twenty minutes out of Labadie village along the coast.

When to go

November to April is the dry season and the calmest water. Cruise-ship days at Labadee spill over and make it crowded; asking locally which days those are is worth doing. Hurricane season runs June to November.

Practical notes

The island is tiny and there is no shade beyond the palms and no facilities. Everything is brought by boat, including your drinking water. Prices for boat hire are negotiated and rise sharply when a ship is in.

Nearby

Labadie village and the Labadee cruise peninsula are on the coast opposite, and Cap-Haitien is half an hour east.