Pekelmeer Flamingo Sanctuary

It is one of only a handful of places in the Caribbean where flamingos nest, and several thousand birds use it.

You cannot go in, and that is the point: the colony abandons nests when it is disturbed. What you can do is watch from the public road along its edge, or from Pink Beach a little further north. Binoculars or a long lens are not optional — the birds keep their distance and at that range they are pink specks to the naked eye.

Early morning and the hour before sunset are when the birds move most and the heat haze is least. Free to watch from the road. Twenty minutes if you are passing, an hour if you are serious about the birds — and combine it with the salt pans and the slave huts, which are on the same road.