Dominica's Southwest Attractions

Canefield is a small village north of Roseau with Dominica's main airport and a cultural center.

Performances and art displays are offered in the old stone building at the side of the road. It is one of the sites of the World Creole Music Festival.

The Canefield Airport is a 10-minute drive from Roseau.

The largest plane it can accommodate is a DC6.

It operates 15 minutes before sunrise to 15 minutes after sunset.

Champagne is a large area in the sea where volcanic activity causes thousands of bubbles to emerge from beneath the rocks a few ft/m from shore.

150 species of plants are on view in the 40ac/16ha Dominica Botanical Gardens, founded in 1891 as an annex to London's famous Kew Gardens.

A bird sanctuary featuring Dominica's rare endemic parrots is included as is a cricket pitch. A crushed bus with a tree growing from it is a testament to the destroying force of Hurricane David in 1979.

Geneva Estate was founded in the 18th C by a Martinican Jesuit father and was once the home of author Jean Rhys, famous for writing "The Wide Sargasso Sea".

Although called Coulibri, the estate figures in her novel.

The original 1,000ac/400ha plantation produced sugar, molasses and rum.

Affording panoramas of Dominica, Morne Anglais at 3,683ft/1,105m is the easiest of Dominica's high mountains to climb.

Morne Bruce with its huge white crucifix above the Botanic Garden's aviary offers panoramic hilltop views of Roseau. It's a rather exclusive hillside suburb that has a few places to stay.

The southwest coast has some beaches, but the sand is black and studded with rocks. Nonetheless, snorkelers and scuba divers frequent Soufrière Bay Beach and Scott's Head Beach for the clear waters and the dramatic underwater walls.