St Kitts and Nevis Travel Guide
What You Need To Know: The Bare Bones
Size: 269 km2
Population: 40,000
Currency: Eastern Caribbean Dollar
Language: English
Getting Through Customs
Citizens of the UK, Commonwealth and EU countries must produce passports and a return ticket but no visas are required for up to 6-month stays. US and Canadian citizens don't need passports if they have proof of citizenship for stays up to 6 months.
Health & how to maintain it
Drink only bottled, boiled or purified/filtered water. This is just to be on the safe side. Avoid ice cubes unless you know they come from a 'safe' source.
Try and only eat food that is properly prepared and cooked if you are away from main resort areas.
You shouldn't need any inoculations but ask your doctor well in advance of departure for advice regarding this. A yellow fever or cholera vaccination certificate must be produced if you are travelling in from an infected area.
Take anti mosquito measures, especially at night.
Take normal precautions against the heat and sun.
Make sure you have enough insurance to cover any eventuality including medical evacuation back home.
Driving and Getting Around
Travel by car is possible providing you are at least twenty-five and have a credit card.
Drive on the left and be careful, the local bus drivers all think they are competing at Le Mans.
The Bus system is comprehensive and well priced. Do not expect a punctual service but an entertaining one!
There are several flights daily between the two islands and there are up to three ferries a day.
Keeping out of Trouble
Do not carry, use or traffic in narcotics of any kind. The authorities have a low tolerance for drug offences and even minor misdemeanours can attract a jail sentence.
The islands have a very low crime rate. Despite this, take normal precautions especially in at night. Listen to local advice on where to avoid. Pickpockets and bagsnatchers work the busy tourist areas and theft has been on the increase so conduct yourself accordingly.
Insurance
Make sure that you have full and comprehensive insurance that covers any eventuality. You need cover for loss or theft of all money and documents, cover for theft or loss of luggage, full medical and accident insurance. Make sure you are covered in the unlikely event of a hurricane striking.
Cash and Plastic
Traveller's cheques are easily exchanged in the resorts and credit cards are readily accepted. Hole in the wall cash machines are available but check to make sure your card is supported, most of the big ones are. In the more remote areas ATM machines become rarer. Dollars in the form of cash and travellers cheques will attract the best exchange rates. Dollars are generally acceptable as a cash alternative to the EC$.
The Best Time to Go?
The weather is typically Caribbean all year round rarely averaging 27 degrees every day. There is hardly a rainy season so any time is a good time to visit.
So What's it Really Like?
Very, very tiny. The two islands comprise one of the smallest nations in the world. And if Nevis achieves the goal of many to gain independence from St Kitts the whole issue could become smaller yet.
This is the place to go for an out and out relaxing time. Do not go looking for high-octane holiday adventure, this is not the place.
The two islands offer different but exotically stunning landscapes from rainforest to black volcanic sandy beaches and climbable mountains.
There is a variation on the basic theme of colonial strife in the history of the islands. The British and the French worked together. (A historical first and last?) They did so in order to wipe out the natives - the usual methods of slavery and disease having clearly failed to work in this case - a feat achieved in a vicious battle in 1627. Thereafter French and British returned to their usual squabbling which continued until the British were granted control in 1783.
Nevis did not involve itself in any of this but got on with the business of becoming a very profitable cane producer and early holiday resort. Lord Nelson was an early visitor, whilst there he indulged in something that continues to this day. He married and honeymooned briefly on the island in 1787.
The two islands only joined formerly as a nation in 1983 but there are distinct rumblings from Nevis and I don't mean the volcano.
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