St. Kitts & Nevis - Culture

St. Kitts and Nevis, like no other islands in the Caribbean, seem to embody a kind of lush tropical paradise usually associated with the South Pacific. The atmosphere here is palpably luxuriant, an intoxicating blend of sunlight, sea air and fantastically abundant vegetation. At the center of St. Kitts stands the spectacular, cloud-fringed peak of Mount Liamuiga (pronounced Lee-a-mweega), a dormant volcano covered by dense tropical forest. And on Nevis, too, the ground rises upward into a cloud forest filled with elusive green vervet monkeys and brilliant tropical flowers. For ecotourists, or simply anyone who enjoys stunning natural beauty, St. Kitts and Nevis cannot fail to exceed expectations.

And yet nature is only a small part of the wonder of these small, relatively undiscovered destinations. Long ago, St. Kitts and Nevis were the pearls of the British Caribbean, rich and enormously important islands that were celebrated throughout Europe. Nevis, the "Queen of the Caribbees", possessed unimaginable wealth from its super-productive sugar industry, while on St. Kitts the impregnable fortress of Brimstone Hill stood as the Gibraltar of the West Indies. In this venerable history is plenty of romance as well, for it was on Nevis that the dashing young Horatio Nelson met, courted, and wedded Fanny Nisbet, all the while attending to the whirling social life of the island's prosperous plantation estates.

Today these islands are esteemed more for their long stretches of sugary sand than for their sugar cane. Basseterre and Charlestown, the islands' capitals, are among the most captivating and picturesque of the Caribbean's colonial harbour towns. The law here holds that no building here may be taller than the surrounding palm trees, and on both St. Kitts and Nevis natural preservation is a major value. Activities include outstanding hiking through the islands' rain forests, golfing on internationally ranked golf courses, fishing, boating and diving or snorkelling through underwater reefs and unexplored wrecks. There is also an exceptional wealth of historic points of interest, including restored fortresses, haunted plantations, and ancient petroglyphs. In the midst of all of these attractions are many of the finest and most welcoming plantation inns in the Caribbean. Still largely undiscovered, despite their extraordinary beauty, their remarkable history, and their unmatched charm, St. Kitts & Nevis offer a rare opportunity to visit the "Secret Caribbean".

St. Kitts, officially known as St. Christopher, lies in the northern part of the Leeward Islands in the eastern Caribbean. The federation's capital city, Basseterre, is located on the South Western side of the island.

The high central body of the island is made up of three groups of rugged volcanic peaks split by deep ravines. The vegetation on the central mountain range is rain forest, thinning higher up to dense bushy cover. From here the island’s volcanic crater, Mount Liamuiga (pronounced Lee-a-mweega), rises to a high of 3,792 feet. The foothills, particularly to the north, form a gently rolling landscape of sugar-cane plantations and grassland, while uncultivated lowland slopes are covered with thick tropical woodland and exotic fruits such as papaya, mangoes, avocados, bananas and breadfruit. To the southeast of the island, The South East Peninsula, on which there are many excellent beaches, stretches towards Nevis.

St. Kitts offers its visitors a wide variety of attractions, some of which include Brimstone Hill, Romney Manor, Black Rocks, and beautiful beaches. Come take a virtual trip to St. Kitts and see this island in all its beauty.

With genteel plantations and scenic pastoral vistas, Nevis offers a taste of the old Caribbean. Companion to St. Kitts, Nevis is the quiet one, shunning the extravagant Kittitian casinos for the leisure of a quiet drink on the veranda of a 200-year-old inn.

To tell the truth, Nevis is a very beautiful island, rich in culture, history and natural beauty. With the excusive Four Seasons Resort on Pinney's Beach—one of the most beautiful strands in the Caribbean—and other tourism related projects, tourism is now coming to Nevis. What you find on Nevis are genuinely hospitable people, willing to share the quiet charm of their tiny island and the seemingly unlimited bank of their natural resources.

Despite the laid-back nature of the island, however, locals have not remained lax in regard to ecology; in fact, Nevis boasts some of the strictest ecological laws in the world. For that reason, the hundred cruise liners that stopped in Nevis in the past years did little to upset the island's perfect ecological balance.