St. Kitts & Nevis (a relaxing stay)
- sunflowerstops
- 3d
- 4 min read
Updated: 2d
It's been a hectic month and a half since we visited St. Kitts but I just needed to find the time to document our amazing and relaxing visit. Dave and I decided on St. Kitts because we really just didn't want to do anything but sit by the pool and beach. He didn't even bring his camera, only cell phone pics for this one.
Keeping with the theme of just hanging out we decided to stay far away from the town on the northside of the island at Belle Monte Sanctuary Resort of Kittitian Hill. Belle Monte is a beautiful resort with 50 individual cottages and villas, most with their own private pool. The larger villas are privately owned and rented out; however, we stayed in a one bedroom cottage overlooking the neighboring island of St. Eustace. Our cottage was absolutely beautiful and the epitome of relaxation. Including the side porch and outside bathroom our cottage was about 1,400 square feet.
Our hotel was approximately 40 minutes from the St. Kitts & Nevis airport. After paying an entrance fee of $36 to get us into the country we breezed through customs. Once we made our way outside we were greeted by Mehala, our taxi driver. Mehala was super friendly, grew up on the island and knew practically everyone and everything there is to know about St. Kitts. In fact, we ended up hiring her to take us back to the airport on our final day and show us a little more around the capital, Basseterre.
Our stay included a delicious breakfast at Belle Monte's restaurant, The Kitchen. Dave and I were always the first people to sit down and were lucky enough to always sit at the same table that overlooked the property and ocean. Each morning our waitress would open up the big windows so we can get a better look (and more breeze). During our 4 night stay I think we only saw 4 other couples and it was always during breakfast.
Belle Monte also has a beachfront restaurant called, Arthurs. It's a 10 minute shuttle ride down the mountain. Arthurs has the absolute best seafood chowder. They call it, "Dieppe Bay Fisherman's Chowder". We visited Arthurs twice and had the chowder delivered to our cottage on our second day at the hotel since we were pretty much confined to our room due to the heavy winds and rain. Dave also loved the grilled lobster, which he enjoyed on both of our visits to Arthurs.
Belle Monte also had a wonderful and accommodating staff. Upon our arrival we were greeted by Floyd who remembered our names throughout our stay as did Eugene. In fact, on one of the evenings Eugene took us to a local restaurant called Sprat Net Bar & Grill in Old Road Town. He recommend the snapper which I had and Dave went with the lobster again.
St. Kitts has approximately 38,000 residents on the island. Surprisingly, it is also home to over 60,000 SK Vervet monkeys. And, the island is only 18 miles long by 5 miles wide! The monkeys are not indigenous to the island but were brought over by the early settlers in the 17th century.
Everyday, Dave and I would see numerous monkeys surround our cottage and eat from the guanabanas trees. We were told that there was also no avocados available at the restaurant because the monkeys ate all the ripe ones. The SK Vervet monkeys were also pretty big with a long tail. Much bigger than our cat Brandi. They were quiet and pretty much just ignored us when we took a ton of pictures and videos of them.
For our last day Mehala picked us up early and took us to town before dropping us off at the airport. She pointed out her old school, the school her children were attending, her old house where her parents still live and the walking route she took to get to school as a kid.
We stopped at the Hard Rock Cafe to pick up some merch and dropped Dave off at the police station so he can trade patches. While waiting for Dave, Mehala and I drove around and picked up some boiled peanuts and chopped sugar cane which I ate on the plane ride home. She also took us to do some quick souvenir shopping. I found a local batik clothing store (Caribelle Batik) among the touristy stores and bought a few items to take back. Unfortunately, the time had come to be dropped off at the airport for our 3 1/2 hour flight back to Miami. Since we did not check on any bags we bought a couple of bottles of their local rum at the airport after checking through TSA.
St. Kitts was a beautiful island and we plan to return some day and explore more. Maybe even try Nevis as well. Until the next trip!!
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