The pictures above the bar tell the story. Catherine Zeta-Jones snuggles up to Michael Douglas. Sarah Jessica Parker looks bleary-eyed. Britney Spears flashes her full-beam smile and Sarah Ferguson looks startled and pale. It’s a recent photo, too — look how thin she is. This is Sunshine’s beach bar, on Nevis, a ragtag assemblage of planks and corrugated iron held together by Che Guevara posters and snapshots of the A-list celebrities who’ve got themselves drunk here.

Nevis has had celebrity cachet since 1787, when a visiting sea captain called Horatio Nelson married Fanny Nisbet, a local planter’s daughter, and simmered his full complement of limbs in the sulphur springs at the then-fashionable Bath Hotel. More than two centuries later, the island was recently voted one of the world’s top three honeymoon destinations for seclusion. Not much changes on Nevis: that’s its appeal.

Two miles away, across a channel called The Narrows, lies its bigger, blowsier sister St Kitts — more commercial than Nevis, but with plenty to entice you to book a two-centre trip. Most of the island’s tourists congregate around the beach shacks on the narrow neck of land above Frigate Bay, where you can party all night. This leaves plenty of room to escape and explore the rainforest, the coral reefs and some lovely, lonely beaches.

Unless stated, package prices are per person for a week, room-only, in a standard double in February/ May, including flights from London and transfers

BEST BEACHES

Both islands have just a couple of stand-out strands. Pinney’s Beach, on Nevis, stretches four miles along the leeward shore, and it’s a winner all the way, with enough soft beige sand and turquoise water to soak up everyone. For something more intimate, head north to Nisbet — reef-rimmed, hammock-hung, great for snorkelling.

St Kitts’s best beaches spool out along the skinny southern panhandle. South Friar’s Bay is regarded as the best, but for seclusion, drive on along the switchback road and turn left at a broken-down sign beside the Great Salt Pond lake. The track leads to Sand Bank Bay: not a beach shack or sun lounger in sight, just a golden arc tickled by Atlantic breakers.

Still further south, signs lead to zesty Turtle Beach, where you’ll find volleyballing cuties from the island’s American veterinary school, and people of all ages with their caps on backwards. It has live music on Sundays and an all-night bonfire party every Friday.

BEYOND THE BEACH

The boisterous Kittitian capital, Basseterre, is a real pleasure, full of sweet “skirt and blouse” houses (stone lower storeys, wooden uppers) and just the right size for a Saturday- morning mooch. Begin at the market on Bay Road, where farmers pile their wares, fishermen trade their catch on the harbour wall and frigate birds dive for the leftovers. Then wander through the Circus, which pulses with taxis, handcarts and every kind of traffic, and into Independence Square, a stately space with a red fountain where slaves were once bathed before being sold.

Charlestown, the village-sized capital of Nevis, is quainter, with a clock- towered courthouse, cockerels strutting on the quay and excellent lunches at the Café des Arts (00 1 869-469 7098).

St Kitts is scubatastic, with nurse sharks and stingrays on Monkey Reef, novice wreck- diving on the freighter River Taw and snorkellable wrecks off South Friar’s Bay and White House Bay. However fat your logbook, Kenneth’s Dive Centre, in Basseterre (465 2670), can sort you out. The best rainforest hikes, meanwhile, are with Oliver Spencer of Peri- winkle Tours (465 6314). Oliver’s sons run the Spratnet restaurant at Old Road Town, so the on-hike picnic is special, too.

On Nevis, Oualie Beach is a one-stop shop for sporty types, with separate shacks for scuba (469 9518), kayaking (469 8503), sport fishing (469 9690) and windsurfing (469 9682). The last of these also organises mountain-bike tours and rental — and the island is so tiny, you can pedal right round it in a day. Or do the same on horseback with Nevis Equestrian Centre (469 8118; guided rides from £27).

Times recommends

• 10 of Rough Guides' best images
• How to do Florence for free
• The UK and Ireland's 25 best Christmas events