Grenada is actually a 3-island nation that includes Carriacou and Petit Martinique, the southern most Windward islands in the Easter Caribbean. It's only about a 20-minute ride by water taxi from Carriacou to Petit Martinique.

Carriacou, 23 miles northeast of Grenada, covers an area of 13 square miles. (Tiny Petit Martinique is just 486 acres.)

The average temperature range varies between 75F and 87F, with the lowest temperatures between November and February. The driest season is from January to May.

Carriacou attracts both day-trippers who come over by boat or plane and those who rent an apartment for a month or more.

A very laid back island, Carriacou's main attraction is its boat building, which takes place both at Windward and Tyrell Bay.

The small postcard-perfect offshore cay known as Sandy Island is a very popular stop for sailboats, and the scuba diving here is interesting but still largely unexplored.

Other attractions include the island's most famous resident, artist Canute Caliste.

His work is available for sale in the Carriacou Museum just off the ferry deck in the main city of Hillsborough. Or you can visit the prolific painter—as many as 16 paintings in a single day—in his studio at L'Esterre.

The island's finest beach is at Anse La Roche , a scenic and undeveloped area; visitors are advised to keep close watch on their valuables there and at all beaches, especially the one near the airport.

Very much an island still steeped in tradition, Carriacou, the May Day celebration still includes the custom of dancing around the May Pole. Hillsborough hosts a two-day regatta starting the first Monday of August.

The Parang Festival held just before Christmas is an occasion for song, street dancing as vendors offer a variety of specialties from their street stalls. Carnival is celebrated in February just before the start of Lent.

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