St Kitts fits into one day. Nevis wants another.
How far up Mount Liamuiga you actually get. What the sugar train costs and which deck to sit on. Whether the water taxi to Nevis beats the ferry. Reviews of every tour you can book on both islands.
Four days out that decide the trip.
The circuit round the island, the climb to the crater, the crossing to Nevis and the dirt-road version of all three. What each costs, and what the people who took it say.
01The whole island at onceFull Island Panoramic Tour of St KittsTimothy Hill, the Atlantic coast road and Brimstone Hill on one loop. Do it on day one and the rest of the week plans itself.
02The long climbSt.Kitts Volcano Hike To Mt. Liamuiga (Highest Peak On Island)Rainforest at dawn, then a rope-assisted scramble to a rim looking down into the crater. Back in town by lunch.
03The crossingNevis Getaway with Free Time at Pinney’s BeachOver The Narrows to Nevis, with the afternoon free on the sand at Pinney’s and the mountain behind you.
04The dirt-road versionATV Tour of St KittsEstate tracks, mill ruins and a beach stop at the end, with you doing the driving.
How far into St Kitts do you actually want to go?
The island goes from sea to crater rim in four miles. Three ways up it: on foot to the top, on four wheels along the estate tracks, or at walking pace under the canopy where it stays cool.
Basseterre, the peninsula, the crater, and the island across the channel.
A capital you can walk in an hour, a fortress the British cut out of the hillside above the sea, a narrow-gauge line built to carry cane, and a second island close enough to see the surf on. Six places to start, and the best day out in each.
On St Kitts the good day still ends on a beach.
Cockleshell Bay looks straight across at Nevis and the water is flat enough to swim out. Frigate Bay keeps the beach bars. The Atlantic side is for looking at, not swimming in. Catamarans work the calm south-west coast, and the snorkelling is best off the peninsula where the two seas meet.
Basseterre takes an hour on foot and an afternoon if you eat.
Everything in Basseterre →
The Circus with its green clock, Independence Square, the old Treasury Building on the waterfront and a grid of streets small enough to lose a ship crowd in. Almost every tour on the island starts here, because the port does.
Goat water, saltfish, and a rum shop
Through the market off Bay Road and the bakeries behind it, stopping for goat water, saltfish and johnnycakes, and finishing where the rum is still poured by the local measure.
The last working cane railway in the Caribbean
Track laid from 1912 to bring cane down to the Basseterre factory, circling the whole island. The sugar went in 2005 and the rails stayed; double-deck cars now run the northern arc.
Timothy Hill and the two-sea ridge
Up to the ridge where the Atlantic breaks on one side and the Caribbean lies flat on the other, then round by Romney Manor and the fortress on the way back into town.
The most popular days out on St Kitts and Nevis.
Every St Kitts and Nevis review →More travellers take these than anything else on the two islands, and what each one gets right.
1
Full Island Panoramic Tour of St Kitts
This 4 to 5-hour round-island tour covers Brimstone Hill Fortress, Black Rocks, Romney Manor, Timothy Hill, Wingfield Estate, Bloody Point, and Basseterre landmarks. You ride in an air-conditioned minivan with guides such as Annie, Joseph, Spooney, or Chiefy. Hotel and port pickup, transport, and entrance fees are included.
From · $68
Read our review →
2
The Grand Tour of St. Kitts
from $75
3
St.Kitts See It All The Local Behind The Scenes Tour Of St. Kitts
from $95
4
ATV Tour of St Kitts
from $110
5
St. Kitts Zipline Experience
from $99
6
Palms Court Gardens and Restaurant Day Pass
from $25
7
Liamuiga Natural Farm Tour – St.Kitts’ Coffee Farm
from $161
8
Self Drive 4×4 Off Road Jeep Wrangler & Beach Chill
from $85
Nevis is two miles away and forty years behind it, in the good way.
One mountain in the middle, one road round the outside, one long beach on the leeward side and a capital of about fifteen hundred people. The ferry out of Basseterre takes forty-five minutes; most day tours use the water taxi and hand you the afternoon on Pinney’s.
- 1Nevis Getaway with Free Time at Pinney’s Beachfrom $52
- 2Nevis Island Tour and Beach Time with Lunchfrom $93
- 3Capital and Beach Tour of St. Kitts and Nevisfrom $37
A St Kitts day runs from a garden pass to a private charter.
Every tour on the site, grouped by price. A good number of the island’s best mornings come in under what a resort charges for dinner.
Garden and beach-club day passes, the half-island circuit, town walks and the run out to the peninsula.
The standards: the panoramic loop, the climb to the crater, the sugar train and the crossing to Nevis.
Private drivers, chartered boats and the small-group days that keep the numbers down.
Three things that only happen on St Kitts.
Every Caribbean island has a beach and a distillery. A garrison the size of a small town, a working cane railway and a crater with a lake in it do not travel.
Brimstone Hill Fortress
The garrison sits eight hundred feet up a volcanic cone, cut from the stone it stands on by enslaved labour over roughly a century. The French took it in 1782 after a month-long siege and handed it back the next year by treaty. From the bastions on a clear morning you can pick out Nevis, Saba, Sint Eustatius and St Barths at once.
- 1Scenic Romney Manor & Timothy Hill or Panoramic Brimstone Hill★★★★★★★★★★ 4.0 · 125 reviews
- 2St Kitts Sightseeing Tour to Brimstone Hill Fortress with Beach Visit★★★★★★★★★★ 4.5 · 31 reviews
- 3Brimstone Hill Fortress & Beach Shore Excursion★★★★★★★★★★ 3.8 · 5 reviews
The St Kitts Scenic Railway
The line went in between 1912 and 1926 to carry cane from the estates down to the factory in Basseterre, and it ran right round the island. Sugar stopped in 2005 and the rails stayed. Double-deck cars now work the northern arc, open on top, Atlantic below the embankment and the mountain above it.
- 1Sugar Train Tour & Drinks|Pick-Up &Drop Off From Cruise Port★★★★★★★★★★ 4.1 · 148 reviews
- 2St Kitts Scenic Train Tour (Hotel or Ship)★★★★★★★★★★ 3.5 · 135 reviews
- 3Saint Kitts Train Trek★★★★★★★★★★ 4.0 · 60 reviews
Mount Liamuiga
Liamuiga is the Kalinago name for the island, fertile land, and it went back on the mountain in 1983. The climb starts at an old estate and works up through rainforest to a rim at 3,792 feet, where the ground falls away into a crater a few hundred feet deep with rainwater standing at the bottom. The last pitch is a rope-assisted scramble.
- 1Liamuiga Natural Farm Tour – St.Kitts’ Coffee Farm★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · 196 reviews
- 2St.Kitts Volcano Hike To Mt. Liamuiga (Highest Peak On Island)★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · 194 reviews
- 3Hiking Mount Liamuiga Volcano in St Kitts★★★★★★★★★★ 4.0 · 90 reviews
Four St Kitts bookings that will not wait.
Most of this island can be arranged from a beach bar the afternoon before. These four run on capped group sizes, a ship schedule and a railway timetable that takes no interest in when you landed.
- 01St.Kitts Volcano Hike To Mt. Liamuiga (Highest Peak On Island)Guides cap the group and the climb leaves before it is light. Miss the pickup and there is no second run that day.
- 02Sugar Train Tour & Drinks|Pick-Up &Drop Off From Cruise PortThe railway works to a fixed timetable built around the ships in port, and the open upper deck fills first.
- 03Nevis Getaway with Free Time at Pinney’s BeachThe crossing goes by water taxi with a set number of seats, and the return time belongs to the boat, not to you.
- 04St. Kitts Zipline ExperienceOne course above the Wingfield valley, small groups on each run, and a queue that builds the moment a ship is alongside.
Two ships alongside in Port Zante and the island gains a few thousand people for the morning.
The big berths work from October to April, and on a multi-ship morning the Circus, Brimstone Hill and the railway all fill between nine and one. The answer is to be somewhere else in that window: up the mountain, out on the water, or across on Nevis, and back in town when the horns go.
By place — both islands
By kind of day — water, mountain, road or table
Basseterre, the ridge, the crater, then the boat across to Nevis.
The beachesJust reviewed on St Kitts and Nevis.
The rest of the new ones →
Private transfer from Park Hyatt & water taxi to R.L.B Airport
Read our review →
Tour de Force: Port Zante and Historic Downtown Basseterre
Read our review →
St.Kitts Sea Glass & Volcanic Black Sand Beach Day
Read our review →
St.Kitts Sugar Train Tour / Pick up & Drop-Off Included
Read our review →
St Kitts Volcano Hiking and Sightseeing Excursion
Read our review →
Private taxi to/from Basseterre (Park Hyatt & Cockleshell Beach)
Read our review →
Hike St. Kitts: Sea Glass Discovery at Volcanic Beach
Read our review →
