ironmanjt

I'll be the first admit - I don't "do" relaxing well. Why would I spend a whole week visiting the same country, when there are so many other places to go? You mean there's another country only 50 miles away? We're not making a daytrip there WHY?!

After 157 countries visited, I'm slowing down in some ways, and speeding up in others. There are some countries I have very little interest in, and I'm content with one or two nights, getting a feel for the place, and moving on so I can meet my goal of every country by September, 2016. However, there are other places I'm now choosing to do more in depth time and finances permitting.

Which, is how we get to the Federation of Saint Christopher and Nevis aka St Kitts and Nevis...or just plain St Kitts. Somehow, it's the last of the small islands I have yet to visit in the Caribbean, and it just never quite fit into my other trips. People had told me it was a bit sleepy and boring, so I went into the trip with the attitude that I was going to LEARN to relax, have a good time, and come back rejuvenated. It would also be my 158th country visited, leaving me with just 38 to go.

The relaxing? That didn't quite happen. I had a few very jam-packed days, but also had an absolute blast!

I plan to break this report down into four parts:

Day 1: Washington DC to St Kitts on United and Seaborne Airlines
Day 2: Scuba diving, and daytrip to the island of Nevis
Day 3: More scuba diving, relaxing at the pool, and a surprising dinner
Day 4: St Kitts to Washington DC on Seaborne Airlines and United

If you'd like to see my other trip reports:

I. London to Iran and Afghanistan in a mix of C, F, and LCCs
II. Above the Arctic Circle with UA/CO/LH and SK in whY, C, and F
III. Around the World in 40 Days for 40 Years
IV. 8 Places People Who Are Right in the Head Do Not Spend New Years
V. 12 Countries, 10 Airlines, 4 Islands, 27,080 miles, 11 Days
VI. 6 Countries in 6 Days - Caribbean Island Hopping and first AA Experience
VII. Guyana, Suriname, and French Guyana with an unexpected sidetrip to Caracas!
VIII. To Haïti - for vacation and a milage run!
IX. Around Senegal and West Africa
X. 4th Annual New Years in Dangerous Places - Libya Edition
XI. Kosovo and FYR Macedonia - Milage Run in United Business + TK/LH
XII. Washington to Peru and Machu Picchu on COPA and TACA
XIII. To Johannesburg...for 36 hours!
XIV. Here a Stan, there a Stan, everwhere a Stan Stan....
XV. Air Burkina, Air Cote d'Ivoire and 7 countries in West Africa
XVI. Turkey for Thanksgiving....with a side of Tajikistan, Serbia, Montenegro, and Moscow
XVII. Into the Heart of Darkness... Congo, Angola, Gabon, OH MY!
XVIII. HI! Four Islands, Lots of Planes, Beaches, and Convertibles
XIX. Plenty of Salt, Not Enough Oxygen...a Trip to Boliva, Colombia, and Ecuador

Grab a tropical drink, pull up a beach chair, and enjoy...

BA5E

I am ready and waiting, when does the show begin^

ironmanjt

I'll get part one up tonight, and the rest by the end of the week!

SFO777

Seems a little tame by your standards.

ironmanjt

Don't worry, I have Yemen, Israel, Palestine, and Eritrea coming up later this year

brendog

Lucky b@stard. Your TRs make my twice monthly transcons that much more unbearable. Plus, you seem to stay away from DC far more than I do.

ironmanjt

The day started early. Very early. So early it might still have counted as the previous night...I'm not entirely certain. What I am certain of is that I'd had lots of caffeine quite late in the afternoon, and getting up in time to not only make a 6am flight...but in time to check luggage for one, was not likely to be a whole lot of fun. Even though I'm only about 2 miles from the airport, by the time I manage to get an Uber, etc etc, it still takes time...and with the 45 minute baggage cutoff, there was no way I wasn't leaving at least 90 minutes before the flight...and that meant getting up at least two hours before...yes, 4am. NO THANKS.

I'm still not sure why I didn't just fly American one-stop via Miami instead of United. It was a paid business ticket anyways, so it's not like I had any particular reason to give Uncle Jeff my money...oh well, lesson learnt. Oh, and did I mention I had managed to leave myself a 70 minute connection in San Juan? Add that to the fact that upon check-in I learnt United doesn't have an interline agreement with Seaborne...and I was looking to be screwed. No way I would get my checked bags, find out where Seaborne is located (turns out, in a different terminal) and check my luggage...while still making it to the gate on time...in 70 minutes. Yeah. Not one of my brighter travel decisions.

Despite having access to the 1K/elite/whatever line at DCA, it took me more than 20 minutes to get to an agent. .United was woefully understaffed this morning, and something as simple as checking a bag as a top-tier elite should not take 20 minutes. .Ever. .Fortunately, there was no line at TSA PreCheck, and I made it to the gate just as we were about to board.

United Express, Operated by Skywest, flight 5249
Washington, DC, National (DCA) to Chicago O'Hare (ORD)
Depart 6:00, Arrive 7:00, Flight Time 2:00
Embraer ERJ-175, Registration N113SY, Manufactured 2014, Seat 2A

Skywest just recently started flying this route for United Express, and their E175s are a dream for elites. .Only about 75 seats total, of which 12 are in F, giving them probably the best upgrade chances in the fleet. .I was on a paid business fare today, and until four days before the flight was the only one in the first cabin. .By takeoff, there were three uniformed pilots, and all the other seats were taken as well. .My usual shot of the Pentagon upon takeoff:



I'd made the incredibly risky decision not to have any coffee before the flight in the hopes I might catch a little extra sleep. .Anyone who's seen my pre-caffeinated in the morning will understand the risks we're talking here. .Fortunately, shortly after that Pentagon pic, I completely passed out and managed another hour of sleep.

Into gate B20 at Chicago, and my departing flight was from the C gates. .We were a little early, so no huge rush and I decided to stop at Starbucks. .Now, Starbucks rarely gets my name right. .I've been Justin, Jasmin, Jensen, Jackson, you name it, but rarely Jason. .Today, they were really butchering names, and I have no idea how they pulled this one off. .If it wasn't for the "grande in a venti cup extra ice" I would have assumed it was someone else's:



Happily beginning to caffeinate, made it to the gate with plenty of time to spare:

United flight 1688
Chicago O'Hare (ORD) to San Juan, Puerto Rico (SJU)
Depart 8:10, Arrive 13:55, Flight Time 4:45
Boeing 737-900, Registration.N69818, Manufactured 2013, Seat 2E

Pre-departure beverage was a.Coke Zero.with lime...mainly to test if they had limes...which they did! .I'm not sure what I was thinking on the caffeine front (probably the Starbucks hadn't quite hit yet so I wasn't thinking) but I was bouncing off the walls by the end of this.



Breakfast choices? ."Scrambled eggs" or the "Giant Plate o Carbs." .Eggs on planes scare me, so I decided to go with the carbs. .Carbs, carbs, and even more carbs. .I think I'm about to go into a diabetic coma just looking at this pic....and yes, there was more Coke Zero.



There was no way I was getting any more sleep after all that caffeine, so I stayed up and finished off season 2 of House of Cards. .There was a dedication plaque



Landing was about 5 minutes late into San Juan, meaning I was going to be running for it. .Baggage claim area was adequately signed, and I had no problem finding it. .However, there was no clue which bags were coming out on which belt. .The first skycap I asked didn't appear to speak a word of English, but a "donde esta el equipaje de United?" managed to point me in the right direction. .Miraculously, the priority tags worked, and mine was first on the belt...less than 15 minutes after pulling into the gate. .DO YOU HEAR THAT DULLES AIRPORT? .15 MINUTES DOOR TO BAGS.

Managed to find a helpful airport employee, who explained where the check-in for Seaborne was. ."Go outside, turn right, walk down until that yellow wall, take the stairs two flights up, and walk over to the next terminal." .Sounds easy, right? .It was also 90F and humid, and I was lugging a giant heavy bag of scuba gear. .By the time I found the Seaborne check-in I was a hot sweaty mess (remember Cancun pics from my last post? .Same thing. .Lesson to self: changing planes terminals in the caribbean is a hot and sweaty experience and you're going to hate it.)

Despite my lousy Spanish, the Seaborne agent preferred to keep speaking it even when I tried twice to switch to English, so I just rolled with it. .Practice is practice. .Had to pay $25 for a checked bag, but I'd made it...and I still had 40 minutes until departure! .Security line was a bit slow (no PreCheck for Seaborne) and when I got to the gate 15 minutes before departure there was no plane. .I sat and waited, and played translator for a family from rural Quebec who not only spoke not a word of English, couldn't really speak much spanish either. .Translating from Spanish in Quebecois was a new challenge for me...but unfortunately for them the translation was "your flight to Beef Island is canceled today due to high winds." .I felt bad I couldn't help them more since they would be stranded on San Juan overnight, but I'm not sure how they expected to get by in the BVI either.

At that point, it was announced our flight was delayed "at least 30 minutes" so I asked the gate agent if it was ok to go over to the American Lounge for 20 minutes to wait. ."Sure, no problem." .About 15 minutes later, the Aadmirals Club agent paged me frantically "hurry up, the plane is about to leave without you!" .Ugh! .Communication people! .Ran to the plane, and was the last to board. ."Take any open seat" was easy, as there were only 10 people on the whole plane.

Seaborne Airlines.flight.BB4580
San Juan, Puerto Rico (SJU) to Basseterre, St Kitts (SKB)
Depart 15:05, Arrive 16:30, Flight Time 1:25
Saab 340B, Registration.N353SA, Manufactured 1993, Seat 11A



Decided to choose a window in the very last row, to get a bit of a view.



...and we're off!



Full drink service, along with Famous Amos cookies. .Yum! .



Flight was just under an hour, and soon we were landing on St. Kitts. .The flight stopped for 15 minutes, and then would continue on the 15 mile flight to Nevis. .A pic getting off the plane - it wasn't really as cloudy and ominous as it looked:





No trouble getting a taxi, which was actually a minivan. .I've since forgotten my driver's name, but she was intent on giving me the entire history of St Kitts on the 15 minute drive to the hotel. .She was absolutely awesome, and I wish I'd gotten her number so I could have given her more business when I was there.

I'd pre-booked a "Royal Golf One Bedroom Suite" at the Marriott, which I kind of expected would be like a bungalow for some reason. .Nope, just a regular hotel room, but for the fantastic rate I got I was seriously impressed.

The room's living/sitting area, complete with a sink/fridge/half-kitchen:





Bedroom:



On the way to the pool, there was a replica ship. .I've unfortunately forgotten the details about it:



It was late afternoon and the sun was beginning to set, so I camped out at the beach bar, and watched the sunset:



I then made the genius decision after five weeks of not drinking to have a rum punch...and it was lethal. .Made with extra-strong local rum, just one knocked me absolutely flat...but was delicious and a nice welcome to the islands:



Sunset:



I'd done a bit of walking right after arriving at the hotel, and found several promising looking restaurants within walking distance. .I settled on a place called Rock Lobster which had really good reviews on TripAdvisor.

Nice seat on the lanai, and a rum punch to start:



Asked for a recommendation on a starter, and was told I had to have the Poke, which was a local sashimi appetizer. .Good call - it was a mix of salmon and tuna sashimi, and was absolutely delicious:



For the main, I went with the local lobster, which was absolutely amazing as well:



...and to finish it off, bananas sauteed in rum with a bit of ice cream.



By this point it was 9pm, and I was exhausted from a long day. .This, combined with an early morning to dive had me headed back to the hotel and absolutely passed out cold by 9:30 for a solid 10 hours of sleep.

ironmanjt

I make it a priority. That said through the end of October, I'm in DC an unusual amount...we should grab a pint and talk travel....

brendog

Yes, beer good. Beer very good.

I have the Azores and Panama coming up (Country highpoint collecting) before the end of the year, but that's it.

AhogZ

Tempting beginning, thus subscribe

Mrtrash757

Nice TR!

I'm curious, how expensive in Nevis? It seems like a far off corner of the carribean that is hard to get to.

Also interesting that UA has a ORD-SJU non stop... Now we have 3 players on the route. AA, UA and B6 ( )

ironmanjt

I wasn't on Nevis long enough to make a judgement, but considering the one major hotel is a Four Seasons....I'd say it's definitely upper end.

St Kitts I didn't think was bad...it's not as cheap as Jamaica, but also not nearly as bad as Anguilla for example. They're relatively new to the tourist scene compared to other islands too, so

Bretteee

I went to St Kitts in 1980 on Pan Am from New York.

Did you like the Marriott?

In Nevis we stayed at the Nisbet Plantation. The water was cold and rough. However they now have a pool.

I would not mind checking out the Nevis Four Seasons.

ironmanjt

Woke up a bit before seven after more than nine hours of glorious sleep, despite the fact the room was slightly on the warm side - it never got much below 71/72 in the room despite the air being on full blast. Just cool enough to be sleepable, but barely. Headed straight out the hotel and down the main road to grab coffee and breakfast at Rituals Coffee Shop right when they opened at 7am. Rituals is a caribbean chain, and sort of like the Starbucks of the Caribbean. Nothing fantastic, but a good reliable source of caffeine, which is just what I needed. They had no trouble making a triple shot over ice, and also got a ham, egg, and cheese breakfast sandwich on the bagel.

Walked the half mile or so back to the hotel, and packed up the dive gear, since the dive shop was picking me up at 8am sharp for a morning of diving. While waiting in the lobby I spotted another person with diving gear, and we started chatting, and turned out he was there with the family and lived just a few miles away in Virginia. Small world indeed - and lucky for me because he helped me remember I'd forgotten my dive computer in the room so I ran up and grabbed it quickly.

We were picked up just a few minutes late by Dive St Kitts, which operates complimentary transfers for their divers between hotel and the the dive shop. Nice added bonus! They do a two-tank boat dive every morning, and I'd signed up for just one day to start since I figured I might want to use the second day to play tourist. The ride to the shop was maybe 15 minutes, and when we got there we sorted out paperwork while the crew prepared the boat. This was a full service operation, with them doing all the work for you. They hooked up BCDs, regs, and tanks, and all you had to worry about was diving - quite nice!

We did a very thorough dive briefing in the shop before heading out - and it was definitely the most comprehensive briefing I've had anywhere. Details about the dive sites we'd be doing, details on the boat including entry and exit to the water, etc. Although the shop is basically a older one-room seaside building, the quality of the crew was definitely amazing to see. Our divemaster for the day was also fantastic, and I'd be remiss if I didn't mention their infamous boat captain, known as Captain Crabby. We got him to crack several smiles, however, so I'm pretty sure there's a softy under that sarcastic exterior!

One more note...Jeff, the guy I'd met earlier in the lobby, turned out to be a fantastic photographer. I'd decided to dive without a camera since it had been nearly 18 months since I'd been diving, and I really just wanted to focus on enjoying it as opposed to fussing about pictures all the time. Turned out to be the right call, because Jeff was an amazing photographer and more than willing to share photos...so thanks to Jeff, I got these great shots from the first day of diving:

Wreck of the MV Corinthian:



Turtle just hanging out:



Marine life on the wreck:





Staring contest with the world's laziest turtle:



Stingray just hanging out in the sand:





Mmmm, lobster:



Me on the right, swimming towards the wreck of the MV River Taw on the second dive:



Couple more turtle shots:





A whole pod of lobsters, just hanging out:



By the time we got back to shore, it was around 11:30. .Dried off packed up the gear, and decided I'd come back the next day since I'd had so much fun and the diving was really top notch. Of course, we couldn't head back to the hotel, because every dive with Dive St Kitts is followed by a complimentary rum or fruit punch by the pool! Can't beat that...plus it's a chance to chat with Captain Crabby!

By the time I got back to the hotel, I thought if I rushed I could still catch the 2pm ferry from Basseterre over to Nevis, giving me a chance to get at least a very quick glimpse of the other island. Hurried and cleaned up, threw on some clothes, and got in a taxi from the Marriott to the Basseterre ferry port. No need to rush, because I still got there with nearly 40 minutes to spare. Plus, I was starving. .At the port I had my choice of the fine establishments below "Up All Night," "Fashion Mart," and "Queen of Peace" among others. They seemed to be more drinking places, although there was a guy just beginning to grill up whole chickens as well...but no way they'd be ready in time.



This left one option: KFC. However, one small problem. .The line was 50+ people deep and was moving about as fast as a sloth. I waited 10 minutes before giving up, and resigning myself to being starving when I got to Nevis. It didn't bode well that this car was parked in the ferry terminal parking lot:



Boarding my ferry, the "Sea Hustler," to Nevis:



Relaxing on the deck of the ferry:



Approaching Nevis after approximately 50 minutes:



Found a taxi at the port - apparently the only taxi, and negotiated with him. .I'd found out a friend was currently on Nevis, so I was going to meet him at Sunshines Restaurant for a lunch and then a 45-60 minute drive around the island. We agreed on a fair price, and were off.

We'd picked Sunshines because it was right next to his hotel, and because the Marriott Beach Bar bartender told me the one thing I had to do on Nevis was go to Sunshines for a "Killer Bee" which is their signature drink. I have to say it was really nothing special, basically just passionfruit juice and local strong rum. That didn't stop me from trying a second, however, just to be sure! Finally got some food with a lobster roll, which was pretty tasty.



After lunch I drove around the island for about 45 minute and got a decent little taste of it. It would be the perfect island for a nice relaxing vacation if you just wanted to get away from it all.

Based on timings, the ferry that would work best for my return trip over to St Kitts was the "Sea Bridge." It's a much shorter ride of only about 20-25 minutes, but goes to the far eastern tip of St Kitts, which is a much longer drive back to the Marriott. I'd been warned by the hotel I'd never get a taxi there, so I had arranged with the driver who dropped me off to pick me up when it arrived.

The Sea Bridge:



Got a seat on the upper deck, and was ready to go about 5 minutes before departure time:





However, we ended up leaving nearly 30 minutes late. .This was kind of lucky, however, because it meant some great sunset views:



We arrived about 30 minutes late and I felt bad making my driver wait, but he was just pulling up as we arrived. "I knew it would be late - it always is. Everyone knows it is, so they don't show up on time." Ah island time!

Got back to the hotel, and I was incredibly thirsty from being out on the water and in the sun all day, so it was time for a sundowner. There's a common local grapefruit soda called "Ting" and a local drink called "Ting with a Sting" is this soda with a shot of rum in it. It was quite tasty:



It was already getting late, so I went with Trip Advisor and took a short walk to Bombay Blues restaurant. Yes, Indian food in the Caribbean - why not? Was greeted by the owners, and when they found out I'd actually visited India multiple times they were thrilled. Yes, they could do spicy, and yes, they would just take away the problem of ordering and bring me what they recommend. After "How hungry are you?" ."Very" ."How spicy do you like it?" "Very" we were set.

To start, samosas:



This was followed by a delicious chicken tikka appetizer:



Followed by some garlic naan and a delicious mutton curry:



Finished off with some galub jamun and local berry ice cream. .Yum!



By this point I was absolutely stuffed, but it was easily one of the best Indian meals I've ever had. What a great surprise find!

Back to the hotel, and crashed by 9pm again. All the sun and go go go had worn me out!

hauteboy

Great dive photos! I really need to get back to St. Kitts... my visit there was pretty much a cheater. Got there @ 5:30PM and left by 8:30 the next morning. Nevis was a cheater too as the plane stopped there enroute from Antigua to SKB.