Salt Cay

Salt Cay produced salt for three centuries - the salinas that checker the little island fed Atlantic trade from the 1600s until the industry died in the 1960s, and almost nothing has happened since, which is precisely the appeal. Balfour Town's white Bermudian houses and the merchant-era White House stand along sand streets patrolled by donkeys descended from the salt works' haulers; the salinas flush pink with brine shrimp and wading birds; and from January to April the deep channel offshore becomes a highway for humpback whales heading to the Silver Banks, watched from shore or met, carefully, by small boats.

The landscape

• The salinas - the abandoned salt pans, pink-tinged and bird-worked.
• Balfour Town - the White House and the Bermudian salt-merchant streets.
• Humpbacks in winter - whales passing close, seen from the bluff or by boat.
• The wreck of the Endymion - the 1790 British warship dived off the south end.

When to go

January to April is whale season and the island's high tide of visitors - a relative term here. Summer is hot, still and utterly quiet. Ferries and flights from Grand Turk are small and weather-dependent in every season.

Things to know

Amenities are minimal: a handful of rooms and small kitchens, limited groceries, cash and patience both useful. Getting stranded an extra day by weather is a real and traditionally welcomed possibility. Whale encounters are regulated - use licensed operators and accept the whales' schedule, not yours.

Nearby

Grand Turk across the channel; the Endymion wreck and the whale channel south.

Key facts