usvi-on-line
Nevis (pre-STJ) 2011 TR
-
SOonthebeach
- Posts: 1707
- Joined: Tue Jan 19, 2010 10:01 am
- Location: Texas
Nevis (pre-STJ) 2011 TR
So, we just got back from our trip to Nevis and STJ. I decided to do a separate TR on Nevis since it really felt like two different trips. I am posting on the STJ forum since that's where I post everything 
. This is the Nevis TR- STJ soon come!
We have wanted to go to Nevis for a while now- just to check it out- as we heard that if we like STJ, we'll LOVE Nevis. We tacked 4 days on to the beginning of our 8 Tuff Miles trip to STJ, and headed to Nevis first for some chillin'.
Tons of pics below. I'll summarize here. Nevis (and St. Kitts, where we flew in - similar to the STT/STJ set up) are beautiful islands, with really sweet people. We did not spend any time on St. Kitts, but I could tell it is obviously bigger and more populated. Nevis is REALLY laid back, pretty rural. Unfortunately, you can still see damage from the hurricane that slammed them a few years ago, but they are definitely building back. The main town was not far from our hotel, but we made the mistake of trying to go "downtown" on a Sunday- the whole place was shut down. It did not look like there was a lot to do there, however. We wanted to get back to check it out later, but "pool gravity" sunk in and we didn't.
We spoiled ourselves and stayed at the Four Seasons. It was fantastic. It has been closed for a few years after massive hurricane damage, but I saw nothing of that now. Great food, beautiful rooms, gorgeous golf course (hubby played almost every day). We only went to one restaurant there, Mango, which is right on the water. It was excellent. A few issues with service at the pool (ie NONE unless you hunted them down repeatedly), but they're working one it, we were assured.
Other than golf, some runs up in the hills above the hotel (to get ready for 8 Tuff), and lazing by the pool, we took one day to cruise the island (we rented a car) and check out all of the plantation inns that Nevis is famous for. Pics below.
So, we went to see if there was some greener grass on the other side of that STJ fence. Our opinion? No. Nevis is beautiful and really laid back. The people are fantastic. I would recommend going to check it out, but it does not come close to STJ in our hearts!
Leaving St. Kitts, and approaching Nevis (that's the Four Seasons you see- we were taken straight to the hotel dock):
Around the hotel- lobby, pool, beach, etc. Our room faced the dormant volcano in the center of the island. Had GORGEOUS moonrises and sunrises, then watched the sun set over the water from the pool/beach. Easy to be REALLY lazy here. Notice how brown the sand is- very different that STJ:
One morning I rode along in the golf cart to get pics of the course, some ruins, and the green vervet monkeys. Those guys are CUTE! We did not see any iguanas on Nevis, but the monkeys were a good substitute:
Since we never met a beach bar we didn't like, we had to check out Sunshines on Pinney's Beach (just down from our hotel). It is famous for it's Killer Bee drink. I wanted to see if it measured up to my beloved Painkiller (yes, it is my beloved). It was as good drink, and Sunshines is a cool place (again, really great people). But, it was no Painkiller in my book, and Beach Bar, SBD, Foxy's, Ivan's and all of our other favorite beach bars on STJ and in the BVI are still tops in my book.
Driving day. We cruised around to check out the plantation inns, and circumnavigated the island. The inns were all so different. The first one, Oualie Beach, is not really considered a plantation inn, I don't think. The second, Nisbet, is the only one on the beach (besides Oualie). The rest are up in the hills. The Nisbet beach was much whiter, and really windy- great for windsurfing- we sat at the restaurant on the beach for lunch and watched a guy flying around out on the water. The next one we visited was Golden Rock- it was REALLY cool and sort of modern- shots of red, the restaurant in an old stone ruin. Beautiful. Then Hermitage- all wooden and very "old fashioned"- like a big old rambling house complete with piano, dining room, library. Very cozy. Last was Montpelier, where we made friends with a cute pooch and saw glimpses of sunset from their beautiful restaurant (we just had a drink). There were a few we missed, but we got a really good sense of the ones we saw. I loved how different they all were.
Oaulie:
Nisbet:
Castle Rock:
Hermitage:
Montpelier:
Back to the Four Seasons- a few more shots around the hotel. I love that huge black cloud behind he pool. We only got a few spots of rain (one downpour on the golf course when I rode along- freezing!)- this giant gray cloud ended up in only a little sprinkle.
Our table at Mango. LOVED being able to eat right above the waves crashing on the rocks below.
One food porn shot. This was at Mango- really the only "restaurant" we visited (we snack alot at bars). This butternut squash soup was AWESOME. I highly recommend Mango if you are in Nevis. It is at the edge of the Four Seasons property, so technically it's at the resort, but it has a separate parking lot and entrance, so really felt like a stand alone restaurant to me.
Time to leave. Sigh. But we were headed to STJ- YEA!!! It really felt like we were headed "home", and it was STJ. That felt great.
This is Mango, the restaurant, from the water. Can you tell I liked this place?
Is it just me or does it look like that cruise ship is eating St. Kitts?
Bye, St. Kitts and Nevis!
A few of my favorite sunset shots (we saw a gorgeous one every day):
So, it was a great beginning to our week in STJ. I loved arriving to STJ already relaxed and in island mode. Nevis was beautiful and we had a great time. It will never replace STJ for us, but we would like to go back. However, we have now decided this whole "short island hop before STJ" is great, so we may try to "hop" to a different one before our next trip.
I have a TON more pictures- so if you are interested in seeing more of Nevis, PM me and I'll send you a link. Hope you enjoyed the report... STJ report soon come!
. This is the Nevis TR- STJ soon come!We have wanted to go to Nevis for a while now- just to check it out- as we heard that if we like STJ, we'll LOVE Nevis. We tacked 4 days on to the beginning of our 8 Tuff Miles trip to STJ, and headed to Nevis first for some chillin'.
Tons of pics below. I'll summarize here. Nevis (and St. Kitts, where we flew in - similar to the STT/STJ set up) are beautiful islands, with really sweet people. We did not spend any time on St. Kitts, but I could tell it is obviously bigger and more populated. Nevis is REALLY laid back, pretty rural. Unfortunately, you can still see damage from the hurricane that slammed them a few years ago, but they are definitely building back. The main town was not far from our hotel, but we made the mistake of trying to go "downtown" on a Sunday- the whole place was shut down. It did not look like there was a lot to do there, however. We wanted to get back to check it out later, but "pool gravity" sunk in and we didn't.
We spoiled ourselves and stayed at the Four Seasons. It was fantastic. It has been closed for a few years after massive hurricane damage, but I saw nothing of that now. Great food, beautiful rooms, gorgeous golf course (hubby played almost every day). We only went to one restaurant there, Mango, which is right on the water. It was excellent. A few issues with service at the pool (ie NONE unless you hunted them down repeatedly), but they're working one it, we were assured.
Other than golf, some runs up in the hills above the hotel (to get ready for 8 Tuff), and lazing by the pool, we took one day to cruise the island (we rented a car) and check out all of the plantation inns that Nevis is famous for. Pics below.
So, we went to see if there was some greener grass on the other side of that STJ fence. Our opinion? No. Nevis is beautiful and really laid back. The people are fantastic. I would recommend going to check it out, but it does not come close to STJ in our hearts!
Leaving St. Kitts, and approaching Nevis (that's the Four Seasons you see- we were taken straight to the hotel dock):
Around the hotel- lobby, pool, beach, etc. Our room faced the dormant volcano in the center of the island. Had GORGEOUS moonrises and sunrises, then watched the sun set over the water from the pool/beach. Easy to be REALLY lazy here. Notice how brown the sand is- very different that STJ:
One morning I rode along in the golf cart to get pics of the course, some ruins, and the green vervet monkeys. Those guys are CUTE! We did not see any iguanas on Nevis, but the monkeys were a good substitute:
Since we never met a beach bar we didn't like, we had to check out Sunshines on Pinney's Beach (just down from our hotel). It is famous for it's Killer Bee drink. I wanted to see if it measured up to my beloved Painkiller (yes, it is my beloved). It was as good drink, and Sunshines is a cool place (again, really great people). But, it was no Painkiller in my book, and Beach Bar, SBD, Foxy's, Ivan's and all of our other favorite beach bars on STJ and in the BVI are still tops in my book.
Driving day. We cruised around to check out the plantation inns, and circumnavigated the island. The inns were all so different. The first one, Oualie Beach, is not really considered a plantation inn, I don't think. The second, Nisbet, is the only one on the beach (besides Oualie). The rest are up in the hills. The Nisbet beach was much whiter, and really windy- great for windsurfing- we sat at the restaurant on the beach for lunch and watched a guy flying around out on the water. The next one we visited was Golden Rock- it was REALLY cool and sort of modern- shots of red, the restaurant in an old stone ruin. Beautiful. Then Hermitage- all wooden and very "old fashioned"- like a big old rambling house complete with piano, dining room, library. Very cozy. Last was Montpelier, where we made friends with a cute pooch and saw glimpses of sunset from their beautiful restaurant (we just had a drink). There were a few we missed, but we got a really good sense of the ones we saw. I loved how different they all were.
Oaulie:
Nisbet:
Castle Rock:
Hermitage:
Montpelier:
Back to the Four Seasons- a few more shots around the hotel. I love that huge black cloud behind he pool. We only got a few spots of rain (one downpour on the golf course when I rode along- freezing!)- this giant gray cloud ended up in only a little sprinkle.
Our table at Mango. LOVED being able to eat right above the waves crashing on the rocks below.
One food porn shot. This was at Mango- really the only "restaurant" we visited (we snack alot at bars
). This butternut squash soup was AWESOME. I highly recommend Mango if you are in Nevis. It is at the edge of the Four Seasons property, so technically it's at the resort, but it has a separate parking lot and entrance, so really felt like a stand alone restaurant to me. Time to leave. Sigh. But we were headed to STJ- YEA!!! It really felt like we were headed "home", and it was STJ. That felt great.
This is Mango, the restaurant, from the water. Can you tell I liked this place?
Is it just me or does it look like that cruise ship is eating St. Kitts?
Bye, St. Kitts and Nevis!
A few of my favorite sunset shots (we saw a gorgeous one every day):
So, it was a great beginning to our week in STJ. I loved arriving to STJ already relaxed and in island mode. Nevis was beautiful and we had a great time. It will never replace STJ for us, but we would like to go back. However, we have now decided this whole "short island hop before STJ" is great, so we may try to "hop" to a different one before our next trip.
I have a TON more pictures- so if you are interested in seeing more of Nevis, PM me and I'll send you a link. Hope you enjoyed the report... STJ report soon come!
-
Kentuckygirl
- Posts: 1903
- Joined: Sun Oct 08, 2006 10:17 am
- Location: Kentucky
[/url]
.
-
SOonthebeach
- Posts: 1707
- Joined: Tue Jan 19, 2010 10:01 am
- Location: Texas
Yes, I didn't get the sense that there were a whole lot of houses for rent on Nevis- heard mostly about the hotels and some guest cottages. We didn't look at St. Kitts- only had a few days so we knew we could only do Nevis.
We flew LIAT out of St. Kitts, brief stop over in St. Maarten/St. Martin (stayed on the plane), then to STT. Kind of fun to "island hop" on the way to STT, and I got some pretty shots of St. Maarten/St. Martin from the air.
We flew LIAT out of St. Kitts, brief stop over in St. Maarten/St. Martin (stayed on the plane), then to STT. Kind of fun to "island hop" on the way to STT, and I got some pretty shots of St. Maarten/St. Martin from the air.
-
msgcolleen
- Posts: 1497
- Joined: Thu Oct 05, 2006 8:33 am
- Location: Allen, Texas
OOH! Great report and photos! What a fabulous way to get you in the island groove and back home to STJ~~~
I've got 2 tickets to paradise~Pack your bags we'll leave tonight!
[url=http://www.TickerFactory.com/]
[url=http://www.TickerFactory.com/]
Just a correction note:
The photos for "Castle Rock" are actually of Golden Rock Estate which was purchased a couple of years ago by famous American Modern artist Brice Marden. They have subsequently put a lot of money here into building quite a spectacular restaurant.
We have spend @10 years on STJ beginning with camping bare sites at Cinnamon through renting villas. Four years ago we were married on Nevis and purchased a lot there. We have been going back to Nevis since.
Nevis does not have the spectacular "white" sands and snorkeling that STJ has and it lacks the number of night life activities though there are many good restaurants from local to very high end as well as beach bars and local bars for fun times. Not much in the way of tourist shopping though plans are underway for devloping the Charlestown waterfront for such. Hiking, history, boating, fishing, beaches,good food, wonderful, friendly people and a quiet and laid back scene are the benefits of Nevis
For a good selection of home rentals at varying costs and amenities try nevis1.com or vrbo
The photos for "Castle Rock" are actually of Golden Rock Estate which was purchased a couple of years ago by famous American Modern artist Brice Marden. They have subsequently put a lot of money here into building quite a spectacular restaurant.
We have spend @10 years on STJ beginning with camping bare sites at Cinnamon through renting villas. Four years ago we were married on Nevis and purchased a lot there. We have been going back to Nevis since.
Nevis does not have the spectacular "white" sands and snorkeling that STJ has and it lacks the number of night life activities though there are many good restaurants from local to very high end as well as beach bars and local bars for fun times. Not much in the way of tourist shopping though plans are underway for devloping the Charlestown waterfront for such. Hiking, history, boating, fishing, beaches,good food, wonderful, friendly people and a quiet and laid back scene are the benefits of Nevis
For a good selection of home rentals at varying costs and amenities try nevis1.com or vrbo