GAY’S PICKS
T W PHO TOS B Y GA Y NAGLE M YERS
St. Kitts’ Scenic Railway tours the sugar cane route around the island.
harbor, marina village, private beach club
and golf course.
What’s open now are four one-bed-room Turtle Beach Bungalows, originally
built next to the development’s Pavilion
beach club and restaurant to house prospective buyers, but also are rented out
for $450 a night in season.
The project already has created a lot of
attention from second-home investors as
well as affluent travelers seeking a new vacation destination, according to Spencer Nash,
director of operations and development.
As Thenford Grey, part guide, driver
and island historian, navigated switchback roads heading northwest to Kittitian
Hill, a 400-acre, master-planned, sustainable resort with villas and cottages managed by Arizona-based Sedona Resorts,
he pointed out remnants of St. Kitts’ 200
sugar mills.
“Sugar was king for 350 years, but tourism now reigns,” Grey said.
The ghosts of sugar can be seen everywhere in former plantation houses, broken-down windmills and neglected fields
where cane still grows naturally.
Kittitian Hill broke ground in late 2010
and will total more than 500 rooms when
completed and will feature a village with
a center for creative arts.
The first phase of construction includes 84 hotel cottages, 69 luxury villas,
an 18-hole golf course and clubhouse, a
100-room village inn, a beach club, pool,
restaurants, bars and shops.
I saw several of the cottages. Charming,
cozy yet airy, bright and light, and 30 will
open in the first quarter of 2013.
There are some neat features. Instead of
a flatscreen TV, each cottage has a large
See ST. KI T TS on Page 52
• Don’t miss the national dish of
St. Kitts and Nevis, a mix of stewed
saltfish, spicy plantains, coconut
dumplings and seasoned breadfruit. Top it off with the locally made
hot sauce, Ms. Greaux’s, served
in all the restaurants and beach
shacks.
• Rumor has it that the best place
to see the elusive Green Flash,
which occasionally occurs for a
split second just as the sun dips
below the clear horizon, is from St.
Kitts’ Shipwreck Beach Bar, on the
southeast peninsula on the Caribbean side.
Check out the famous signpost
at the bar. For those who are directionally challenged, it points the
way and cites the distance to London, Addis Ababa, Vienna, monkeys
( 20 feet) and mongooses (25 feet).
• Hang out (known as limin’) with
the locals on the Frigate Bay Strip
in St. Kitts, a sandy stretch of beach
with bars, shacks, lounge chairs,
picnic tables and live music at Shig-gidy Shack, Cathy’s, Monkey Bar
and Buddies.
• Don’t leave without a trip to Caribelle Batik on St. Kitts, a colorful,
one-of-a-kind store where artisans
use wax and dye to create fabrics
for fashion items and home accessories.
• The black-faced vervet monkeys with a white fringe of hair and
grizzled gray bodies are all over
the place on both islands. They’re
known to raid local bars for a drink
or two, especially rum punches,
and are apt to imbibe at pools and
beaches when tourists aren’t looking.
St. Kitts’ national dish is a mix of stewed saltfish, spicy plantains, coconut dumplings and seasoned breadfruit.
The signpost at Shipwreck Beach Bar on St. Kitts points the
distance to far off destinations and close-up critters (monkeys
and mongooses).
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NOVEMBER 5, 2012
