While we're talkin' vacations... give me the island of Tortola in the British Virgin Islands. Unspoiled, beautiful, safe (oh, ok...ONE person was killed there in recent years, but probably by someone who popped over from St. Thomas).
The people are amazing and they welcome tourists because they actually BENEFIT financially from tourism. It's not unusual to go somewhere for lunch, chat with the waitress, and then have her serve you dinner at a completely different restaurant later that night.
We would lay on this beach in Cane Garden Bay, leave our stuff (including our cameras) to stroll down the sand to Stanley's Welcome Bar for a drink and some spiny lobster or conch fritters.
By 5PM, you have to decide on a place for dinner and make reservations, but not because the restaurants will fill up. It's because if you don't call, they just won't cook! When you call, they say "chicken or fish?", you place your order and when you arrive your table is set and they already know what you're having. Too cool.
The US Virgin Islands cannot shine the shoes of the BVIs. Pure unadulterated paradise.
(This was a Polaroid, taken in 1983, hence the funky color. But I like it. I have not been back since, but I understand that everything I've described remains true today.)
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