For centuries after the British settled the island in the 1600s, it was little more than a giant factory producing sugar and rum to send home. The tall brick chimneys of a hundred deserted and decaying sugar mills scattered around Antigua bear witness to that long colonial era. Today, though, it is tourism that drives the country's economy; dozens of hotels and restaurants have sprung up around the coastline, there's a smart airport and a number of outfits run boat and catamaran cruises and scuba diving and snorkelling trips to the island's fabulous coral reefs. A short flight away, Antigua's sister island of Barbuda is much less visited, but quite a delight in its own right.