Nevis: The Quieter Half of the Country
One volcano, one road round it, plantation inns and no cruise pier.
Why Go
Nevis is the smaller of the two islands that make up St. Kitts and Nevis, and it is almost a different country in temperament. A single dormant volcano rises out of the middle of it, one road runs round the edge, and the whole circuit takes about an hour to drive. There is no cruise pier, no strip of bars and no high-rise anything. What there is instead: restored plantation houses turned into small hotels, a beach that runs for three miles, and a pace that visitors either take to immediately or find maddening.
The Experience
The island is green and steep in the middle and flat around the rim, with Nevis Peak in cloud most afternoons and the coast road passing through villages that have not changed shape in a long time. Charlestown, the capital, is a small Georgian town on the west side. Pinney's Beach runs north from it for three miles of pale sand with the big resorts and the best-known beach bars along it. Gingerland on the south-east and the villages around it are the agricultural half. The old estates in the hills — sugar works turned into inns, with stone mills still standing in their gardens — are the island's signature accommodation and are unlike anything on St. Kitts. Wild green vervet monkeys are everywhere and outnumber the people. The absence of a cruise pier is doing more work than any single decision on the island. Without one there is no daily surge of several thousand people, so the shops are shops rather than souvenir outlets, the beach bars serve residents on a Tuesday, and the whole place runs at the speed of the people who live there.
What to Try
Drive the island road, which takes an hour without stops and half a day with them. Climb Nevis Peak if you are experienced and take a guide: it is a genuinely hard scramble on ropes and roots, not a walk, and it is frequently wet. The Nevis Botanical Garden on the southern side is the gentler alternative and very good. Eat along the coast: Bananas Restaurant up in the hills is a long-standing favourite, Kaiso Bar and Lounge and Passion Bar and Grill cover the beach end, and Esme's Sunrise Snackette is the local plate. Sand Dollar Divers handles the water. Sunshine's and the Pinney's Beach bars are the famous evening. Charlestown has Alexander Hamilton's birthplace and the ferry to St. Kitts.
Insider Tip
Stay in a plantation inn for at least part of a trip. They are the reason people who love Nevis love it — restored eighteenth-century estate houses in the hills with gardens, stone sugar mills and about a dozen rooms each — and they are a completely different experience from a beach hotel, cooler at altitude and quiet in a way the coast is not. Combine one with a few nights on Pinney's if you want both halves, and hire a car, because taxis between the hills and the beach add up quickly.
The Practical Stuff
Nevis is reached by passenger ferry from Basseterre to Charlestown in well under an hour, by water taxi across The Narrows to Oualie Beach in a few minutes, or by regional flights into Vance W. Amory International. Most long-haul visitors come through St. Kitts. Driving is on the LEFT and a temporary local permit is required; the island road is a single circuit of about twenty miles. There is no useful public transport, so a car is close to essential. Shops keep weekday hours, close early on Saturdays and mostly shut on Sundays. Nevis is in the hurricane belt, roughly June to November, with December to April the drier and busier season.
Common Questions
How do you get to Nevis?
By passenger ferry from Basseterre to Charlestown in under an hour, by water taxi across The Narrows to Oualie Beach in a few minutes, or by regional flight. Most long-haul visitors arrive through St. Kitts.
Is Nevis quieter than St. Kitts?
Considerably. There is no cruise pier, no equivalent of the Frigate Bay strip and far fewer visitors. It is a single volcano with one road round it and a population under fifteen thousand.
What is a plantation inn?
A restored eighteenth-century estate house in the hills, usually with about a dozen rooms, gardens and a stone sugar mill still standing. They are Nevis's signature accommodation and unlike anything on St. Kitts.
Can you climb Nevis Peak?
Yes, but it is a hard scramble on ropes and roots rather than a walk, frequently wet and slippery, and a guide is strongly advised. The Botanical Garden is the gentler alternative.
How long does it take to drive around Nevis?
About an hour without stopping, on a single road of roughly twenty miles circling the island. With stops it fills a comfortable half-day.
Do you need a car on Nevis?
Close to essential. There is no useful public transport, and taxis between the hill inns and the beaches add up quickly over a stay.
Pair It With
- Nevis Botanical Garden Guide — The island's gentlest good half-day.
- Bananas Restaurant Guide — Dinner in the hills rather than on the sand.
- Sand Dollar Divers Guide — The water off the north-west coast.
