Any Barbuda adventure begins with a boat trip to Codrington Lagoon National Park. The national park stretches approximately 16.5 miles and encompasses the entire west coast of Barbuda. Codrington Lagoon supports the largest magnificent frigatebird colony in the Caribbean (approximately 2500 pairs). Brown boobies often loiter in the colony, and laughing gulls nest on the sand that collects beneath the mangrove islets. Frigatebirds banded in this colony have been seen are far north as Florida. Codrington Lagoon is the only RAMSAR site in the country.

The lagoon itself is marvelously pristine. There are few mangrove lagoons in the Caribbean that are as preserved as Codrington, and for that reason alone this site is of global importance.