"We're all about beaches", says Bankie Banx, Anguilla's home-grown celebrity. As this popular singer-songwriter-beach bar owner sees it, "These days everybody wants beaches and that's what we've got plenty of!"

You bet. But Anguilla is also loaded with offbeat charms. Unlike vacation stops with "attitude", on Anguilla it is considered just plain good manners to welcome strangers as warmly as family.

Physically, Anguilla is not as lushly tropical and mountainous as Jamaica or St. Lucia. Nor does it have natural deepwater harbors to accommodate huge cruise ships. There are no ancient forts or sugar mill reminders of historic European colonisation. Not does it offer glittering gaming casinos or neon nightlife.

But, as Banx says, there are beaches... a slew of beaches, an embarrassment of gorgeous white-sand strands, most of which you'll have to share with only a sandpiper or two. This natural bounty has not gone unnoticed. New York Post "Page Six" celebs such as Kevin Bacon, Denzel Washington and Janet Jackson love Anguilla because they can slip under the radar and relax in surroundings of total privacy with world-class luxury. Anguilla has become a tropical "Luxury Central", able to offer the rich and famous an extraordinary selection of ultra-sophisticated resorts and butlered rental villas.

High-end cuisine, too, shares center stage in Anguilla's unconventional vacation paradise. A haute cuisine revolution that began with Blanchard's has mushroomed to include what is now an all-star collection of fine-dining restaurants that can hold their own in the company of any Zagat star-rank list.

But what really sets Anguilla apart for true island lovers is its flip side - the parallel Anguilla that blithely ignores these high-life elements, and keeps right on doing its own thing. This is the "real" Anguilla, the disarming island charmer that welcomes us warmly, generously allowing us to experience unedited Caribbean lifestyles in natural settings unmarred by traffic, fast-food chains, high-rise hotels, malls and casinos.

THE ISLAND
A small coral outcropping riding low on the horizon at the northern tip on the Lesser Antilles, Anguilla stretches like taffy to a length of 14 miles and not quite three miles wide. Too dry to support much tropical greenery - other than a few hardy palms - Anguilla's interior is largely sand hills and dusty scrub.

Its history, too, differs from most of its Caribbean siblings. Colonized by England in the 1600s, Anguilla yearned to determine its own destiny. It chafed at being lumped together with Nevis and St Kitts in British-ruled union of islands. Eventually, it gained an acceptable measure of autonomy as a self-governed British overseas territory.

As tourists we're pretty much unaware of this back story. We see a quiet island blessed with more than 30 extraordinarily beautiful beaches, a place suited for relaxing, re-grouping and re-thinking priorities.

BEACH FUN
Even in high season, when the island is sold-out, most beaches remain blissfully crowd-free. For people who need people, there's always a lively scene along beautiful Shoal Bay - a party-hearty atmosphere fuelled by Ankle Ernie's Beach Bar and Madeariman reef, which serve up live music, great local dishes and rum-in-the-sun concoctions.

North Shoal Bay is the direct opposite - a two-mile stretch of Zen-like peace and quiet.

Lower Rendezvous Bay Beach lazes along for miles past a couple of Anguilla's primo resorts and the funky Dune Preserve, the ramshackle beach bar presided over by Bankie Banx. Here on any day or night a rollicking reggae fest can spill out onto the sand, but Banx's annual Moonsplash (held during March full moon) is an all-out blast not to be missed. The Bacon Brother - Michael and film star Kevin - perform here frequently.

Each of Anguilla's beaches has its own appeal: the deserted wildness of Savannah Bay; the manicured blush of Mead's Bay; the remote and inaccessible (OK, yu can get there by boat) allure of Little Bay, a glorious crescent of sand just big enough to hold a beach towel-for-two; and the equally remote Junk's Hole Bay.

Scilly Cay, the party islet just offshore, is as beloved for its lethal rum drinks and barbecued lobsters as for its sandy shores.

DINING
There are many wonderful local hot spots, but trendy ultra-sofisticates generate all the buzz. Blanchard's, with its newsworthy haute cuisine, came first, followed by all-stars including Koal Keel, the Straw Hat and Pimms and Cap Juluca Hotel.

ACTIVITIES
A championship golf course by designer Greg Norman is taking shape on the island. Various resorts have tennis courts. Snorkelling or diving the crystal waters is a pleasure, as are sails and cruises around the island. But vacation favorites will always be lazing on the beach, impromptu dancing on the sand, and chillin' with a rum punch. Sometimes a well-kept secret is the best revenge.