Colourful Caribbean

Go Caribbean:The islands of St Kitts and Nevis are everything a tropical hideaway should be, writes FRANCES O'ROURKE

‘STAND BACK,” the chef at the hotel buffet warns. He opens a bottle and shakes it vigorously over the frying pan and whoosh – the dinner’s on fire. Whatever he did, it worked: the seafood pasta and cornucopia of fresh vegetables and salad is delicious.

There are more flames again on Thursday night at Mr X’s Shiggidy Shack, a restaurant on the beach close to our hotel on St Kitts. It’s bonfire night and the entertainment starts when a man starts to swoosh fire around his body as he limbo dances across the floor.

Visitors get a warm welcome in a place that’s still relatively new to tourism. St Kitts has been working hard in the past decade to get noticed and tourism is now one of the main drivers of its economy.

This little Caribbean island of just 178sq km has great food, beautiful beaches, lots of activities for visitors, a rainforest to hike in and a lot of history.

Its story is written in the handful of plantation villas, some converted to museums, restaurants, small hotels, the ruins of sugar factories, brick buildings and chimneys, incongruous in green fields overlooking the sea. After more than 300 years, the sugar industry closed down in 2005.

You could ignore the history. If you were staying somewhere like the all-inclusive St Kitts Marriott Resort, it would be tempting to spend your holiday idling by the pool, swimming up to the bar for the odd rum punch or Carib beer, or on the beach getting a beach massage from Charlie for just $20 (€14). (Charlie, courteous and un-pushy, like the other beach masseurs, uses the inside of an aloe vera leaf which has a natural cooling gel.) You might even go to the resort’s Emerald Spa, where guests can use all the facilities for $30 (€20) a day.

You might venture out simply to sample the food at the excellent local restaurants. Even in a chain resort, such as the Marriott, there are plenty of Caribbean dishes served. The fare at the buffet breakfast includes such local favourites as saltfish, fried plantain or aubergine and Johnny cake, a kind of savoury doughnut.

At Nirvana, chef Greg Austin, who trained at Le Gavroche in London, talks us through the exotic Creole fusion buffet lunch menu.

The restaurant, which has dramatic views over the sea, is in the grounds of Fairview Great House and Gardens, a restored 18th century plantation house. It costs just $26 (€18) for lunch and admission to the house.

You might never venture out of Frigate Bay, the resort area where the strip of beachside bars and restaurants offers diversion at night.

But it would be foolish not to explore the many attractions of this small island considering it takes an eight-hour flight from Gatwick, with a short stopover on Antigua to get there.

One way to see the landscape is from the Sugar Train, which winds about three-quarters of the way around the perimeter of the island, offering panoramic views of the Atlantic and the Caribbean. The railway line was built in the early 20th century to take sugar cane from the plantations down to the coast.

St Kitts is a volcanic island, with a long-dormant volcano at its centre. Mount Liamuiga soars 1,156m from a rainforest that is apparently still growing, one of the few left in the world that is. The island’s water supply comes from the rainforest, we are told, making it pure and drinkable.

You can see the rainforest close up, too: there are organised hikes through it for the energetic and zip-lining over it at the Wingfield Estate for the adventurous. (Zip-lining is best described as sliding along a cable over tree tops.) For those who like some action, there’s no shortage of activities on St Kitts, including diving, kiteboarding, sailing, snorkelling and quad biking.

The climate is tropical, which means it is very hot all year round. The average year-round temperature is 28 degrees and in May, it is very humid.

If you want to experience the rainforest in comfort, you could visit Ottley’s Plantation Inn, a magical boutique hotel and restaurant owned by an American family. They have paid huge attention to detail in restoring the plantation built in the 1700s by Ottleys from Yorkshire.

The hotel occupies a commanding position over the Atlantic, with high peaks as a backdrop. It sits on lush manicured lawns with exotic plants and trees on one side, and a rainforest ravine on the other.

It is impossible to ignore the history of this small island as you drive through villages brightened by houses painted in vivid greens, yellows, reds and purples.

There are traces of its past everywhere: an Anglican church here, a Methodist church there, Georgian architecture in the dusty, bustling small capital, Basseterre.

Christopher Columbus discovered St Kitts in 1493, but it wasn’t settled until the early 1600s, first by the British in 1623, then by the French a year later. Kittitians call it the mother colony, since it was the first of the Caribbean islands to be settled, becoming the base from which other islands were colonised. The British and French fought over the island, shared it peaceably for a while, in the process massacring the indigenous Carib people at a spot on the Caribbean side of the island called Bloody Point.

The British took control in 1783 after a treaty that carved up north and south America between European powers following American independence.

Slavery on St Kitts ended in 1834 and most of its 35,000 people are the descendants of Africans brought to the island to work in the sugar trade in the 17th century.

The federation of St Kitts and Nevis became an independent country in the British Commonwealth in 1983.

Some of America’s founding fathers had roots in St Kitts and Nevis. A beautifully restored plantation house called Romney Manor, now the Caribelle Batik craft shop, was the home of Samuel Jefferson, the great great great grandfather of US president Thomas Jefferson. Alexander Hamilton, the US’s first secretary of the treasury, was born on Nevis in 1757.

Brimstone Hill Fortress National Park offers a vivid glimpse into the lives of wool-uniformed soldiers from Scotland and Yorkshire sweltering under the sun in pursuit of empire.

Work was begun in 1690 on this forbidding-looking edifice and finished more than a century later. It was designed by British army engineers and built by African slaves. Now a Unesco World Heritage site, it is an extremely well restored part of the island’s history.

These days, most of the tourists are from the US or Canada (and US dollars are accepted alongside local Eastern Caribbean dollars.) But native Kittitians have even stronger links through history and emigration with the UK. Many of the people we met had spent some time working there, like so many other citizens of British-owned Caribbean islands. And of course it has cricket: its Warner Park, where the West Indies played Pakistan a few weeks ago, is named after the colony’s founder, Sir Thomas Warner.

ST KITTSIS laid-back, but everyone there will tell you that sister island Nevis is even more relaxed. That's hard to believe, but we discover it is true after a short ferry trip across the sea that divides the islands.

Nevis has a good handful of boutique hotels, and the five-star Four Seasons Resort re-opened recently after a devastating hurricane in 2008. Guests stay in rooms and villas a short stroll from the resort’s golden, sandy beach. For a luxury getaway, this would be hard to beat.

Assistant concierge manager Vanessa Parris, who grew up in England, tells us that one of her ancestors was a Roche from Co Cork by way of nearby Montserrat as she explains all the services available to guests, including direct transfer by its own boat from St Kitts. And should you wish to be reminded of home, the hotel can print out copies of 145 newspapers from around the world: I was presented with a copy of the day’s Irish Times on arrival.

Other memorable places to visit on Nevis include its botanical gardens and Peak Haven, where a returned emigrant, Edward Herbert, has recreated a village that shows how slaves on a plantation lived in past centuries. It includes a picnic area, heritage house, children’s playground, spa and a restaurant.

If you want another eco-experience, back on St Kitts you can go on turtle patrol with a group of volunteers dedicated to maintaining the island’s turtle population (stkittsturtles.org).

There is a surprising number of things to do and see on these islands. But in the end, you might just want to lie down on a golden, sandy beach and chill all day. Tough choices, eh?

Get there: BA flies to St Kitts Tuesdays Saturdays from Gatwick, with a half-hour stop in Antigua. The return airfare from Dublin is about €815 (€915) return. It is good value to book flights and accommodation through BA.com/stkitts. There are also BBs, villas and apartments to let.

St Kitts and Nevis where to . . .

Stay

St Kitts Marriott Resort and Royal Beach Casino, 858 Frigate Bay Road, Frigate Bay, St Kitts, tel 001-869-466-1200 or stkittsmarriott.com. Five-star beachside resort with more or less everything you need for a relaxed holiday. It has pools, bars, restaurants, spa, kids' club, casino and 18-hole golf club. British Airways offers seven nights from £889 (€993) per person in September. This includes return flights from Gatwick based on two sharing (book by July 12th).

Ottley's Plantation Inn, Ottley's Village, St Kitts, tel 001-869-465-7234, ottleys.com. Boutique hotel between the mountains and sea. It has 23 rooms and suites in a restored plantation house and stone cottages with plunge pools. It has a pool beside an old sugar factory, a trail through an adjoining rainforest, spa and restaurant overlooking the sea. BA offers seven nights at Ottleys for £1,019 (€1,140) in September.

Four Seasons, Pinney's Beach, Charlestown, Nevis, tel 001-869-469-1111 or fourseasons.com/nevis. Five-star resort by the sea. Dine by the beach and watch as a man climbs a tree to cut down coconuts. There is golf, tennis and swimming pools. BA has packages at £1,369 (€1,530) per person based on two adults for a week in September.

Eat

Spice Mill, Cockleshell Beach, St Kitts, spicemillrestaurant.com or tel 001-869-6455. Have a cocktail curled up on a large basket chair on the beach as you watch the lights of Nevis before moving into this chic restaurant with its wide range of cuisines, although freshly caught fish is a winner.

Mr X's Shiggidy Shack, tel 001-869-465-0673 or mrxsshiggedyshack.com. This lively beach bar is the place where everyone, locals and tourists, find themselves at the weekend. There is a bonfire on Thursday night with live music, karaoke, and a man who eats fire. Everything from burgers and sandwiches to freshly caught lobster, a fantastic treat for just $32 (€22).

Sprat Net, Main Road, Basseterre. Open air restaurant, very casual, with wooden picnic tables under a roof. It is wonderful for fish-lovers with its freshly caught lobster, mahi-mahi and shrimp, pizzas and chicken dishes.

Reggae Beach Bar Grill, Cockleshell bay, St Kitts. Lobster sandwich? Yum.

Club House, Christophe Harbour, St Kitts, christopheharbour.com. This restaurant on the beach (with an Irish chef) was given a Fodor's Choice selection last year. It has good food and is popular with locals for weddings. (Check out the four Turtle Beach bungalows, costing from $550 per night in Christophe Harbour, a major residential/yachting development being built.)

Go

Brimstone Hill Fortress National Park, tel 001-869-465-2609 or brimstonehillfortress.org. There are spectacular views from this restored 17th century British fort. It has a good museum on life as experienced by soldiers in this outpost of British empire.

Fairview Great House Botanical Gardens, tel 001-869-465-3141 or fairviewgreathouse.com. This recently restored house was built for a French commander. It has vaulted ceilings, and green, blue and red interiors. French doors in the main bedroom open onto a verandah with panoramic views. A museum chronicles its owners, including an Irishman called Walter O'Neale in the 1760s. It also shows that the Irish made up half the population of St Kitts in censuses in 1675 and 1708.

St Kitts Scenic Railway, tel 001-969-465-7263 or stkittsscenicrailway.com. A three-hour journey on a narrow gauge railway built between 1912 and 1926 costs $89 (€60).

Caribelle Batik/Romney Manor, Basseterre, St Kitts, tel 001-869-465-6253 or caribellebatikstkitts.com. Here you can buy local crafts, watch batik demonstrations and see the home of Samuel Jefferson, ancestor of former US president Thomas Jefferson.

Frances O’Rourke travelled as a guest of St Kitts Tourism Authority (stkittstourism.kn).