The first week of Summer this year, I had a little adventure! I was able to travel to the caribbean and stay on the lovely island of St Kitts. I HIGHLY recommend it! This is a travel guide for anyone who may plan to travel to this same island in the near future!
First things first, where to stay? Definitely the Marriot Vacation Club. Any other hotel on the island is pretty, well, ghetto. The Marriot is very accommodating and quite perfect when you have time shares. With three large pools, beach front property, and any touristy thing you would like to do whenever, Marriot made me feel like a princess staying at a castle :)
Next, what is the great "view" spot of the island? Every island has them, just a spot to see the most beautiful point of the island or even sometimes the whole island! St Kitts has one about a mile away from the hotel. You pretty much drive up... that sounds weird but it is true! You drive up the hills and you cant miss it. At this point you can park you car and enjoy the view it gives you. On the left is the Atlantic ocean and on the right is the Caribbean, it is quite breathtaking. If you hike up a little trail off to your left you can find dozens of gorgeous cactuses and get an even lovelier aerial view. There is even a white "X" painted on the rocks to mark the spot.
Now, what everyone always wants to hear, where are the best beaches? Well, to be truthfull none of them are perfection at the moment because they are having a bit of a seaweed problem right now (as shown below) but down worry, they are still very enjoyable! Marriott's beach is very good with actually really awesome snorkeling and if you walk about a mile down it you can find black sand! They have very handy showers right on the beach too so you can go take a walk down the beach, then clean of your feet and go have a nice dinner without even having to go back to your hotel room! To find the best beaches you really have to go exploring. They have a turtle nesting beach, where it isn't the best swimming because there is lots of seaweed but turtles can sometimes be found nesting there because they love the seaweed. Cockelshell bay is a really nice beach but it can also be kind of crowded. If you wanting to collect good shells though, that is the place to go! The best beach we found while exploring was a tiny but amazing one! We went driving on past Cockelshell bay and found a little turn off and there was a tiny strip of sand. We set up camp and tried it out. it ended up that there was a ship wreck from the eighties just off the shore and it was an easy swim to get to! There was tons of cool wildlife like starfish, sea urchins, coral, and your normal assorted fish.
I have to admit that my favorite day there was the day we went to the British fort. This is a definite must do. Unlike any historical site in the united states, you can go ANYWHERE YOU WANT TO! We were climbing all over these cannons and brick structures from the early 1600s! It was awesome! It was just this huge fort that needed lots of exploring, and a bonus of totally gorgeous sights! You can't go to St Kitts and not see this fort.
And of course, where to eat? Thats an easy one because there are so many great places to eat that you can pretty much go anywhere. One that you totally have to do is "Sprat Net" Its a totally local owned restaurant and it is perfection! You get to sit outside on wooden picnic tables with the waves crashing right next to you. All the fish are completely fresh, caught that afternoon. Thats the reason that it opens at 6, because they are all out fishing until then! Another place that might not look like much, but sure is delicious is "Bobsies Super Wings". It is a little red shack right by the marriot and they sell the randomest (yet most delicious) assortment of chicken wings I have ever seen! Get the peach and mango chicken, it is the best.
Last but must least, the jungle. When you first fly in St Kitts may seem really dry and thats because it is pretty dry on the outside... but if you go driving into the middle of the island (like towards the volcano) you find a lush rainforest, swinging vines and all. The roads going up there are a little sketchy but don't worry, it is all worth it in the end :)
In closing remarks, I want to tell you to just go exploring! There are dozens of old churches to explore, tons of guys that would gladly let you hold their pet monkey, crazy nice locals that love to teach you about the island and give you fresh food, brightly colored houses everywhere, and even black rock! St Kitts is gorgeous and put it on your bucket list right now!
