St. Kitts and Nevis

Basseterre, St. Kitts
Copyright Andy Richards 2012 - All Rights Reserved

I DIDN'T know about Nevis at the time. In fact, I think the cruise line simply designated this port of call as "St. Kitts" on their itinerary (which is accurate, because the cruise ships always dock on the island of St. Kitts). The tiny, independent, island nation consists of the two islands and is officially designated The Federation of St. Christopher and Nevis. Everybody knows it as St. Kitts, however. As of this writing, we have visited the St. Kitts cruise port 5 times (and still going, with a 6th and 7th visit planned for 2026 and 2027). The commercial - touristy part of the port has grown since our first visit there in 2012. Our first visit may have been our most educational and eventful. Since then, I bought a watch and a t-shirt. 😑

St. Kitts Cruise Port - Basseterre, St. Kitts
Copyright Andy Richards 2012 - All Rights Reserved

NEVIS IS perhaps best known as the birthplace of American Colonial "Founding Father," Alexander Hamilton. But the tiny nation has more history than that. Situated in the West Indies, it is one of the Leeward Islands of the Lesser Antilles. It was the first place that was colonized by Europeans and the place of the first British and French colonies in the Caribbean. It is widely thought that Columbus first sighted one of the islands in 1493 and named it St. Christopher (hence, St. Kitts). The smallest nation in the western hemisphere (just over 50,000), it is today a part of the British Commonwealth - currently under King Charles III. It gained its independence as a sovereign nation in 1983, and is currently administered by a Prime Minister.

I bought a watch and a T-shirt 😀

FOR OUR first visit, my amateur travel agent - wife found us an island tour with a small vehicle around the capital city of Basseterre, where we learned about the seat of government, the local currency (the Eastern Caribbean Dollar - currently equal to about $0.07 American), and the primary industry of the country other than tourism (light manufacturing of electronics and, offshore banking).

St. Kitts Cruise Port - Bassetere, St. Kitts
Copyright Andy Richards 2024

WE WOULD return to St. Kitts the very next year. Those first couple stops in St. Kitts will be always etched in my memory. At that time, other than some trips through Canada on the way somewhere else, I had never been out of the U.S. So this was my own first touch of new parts of the world. In a short time, we would ramp this travel up significantly, traveling numerous times to Europe, the Mediterranean, and parts of Asia, and those adventures would out do these. But for then, it was something of a new and different adventure. In the coming years, we would visit the Caribbean multiple times and I would develop a comfortable, but relaxed, malaise about Caribbean Cruises.

St. Kitts Abandoned Sugar Planation
Copyright Andy Richards 2013 - All Rights Reserved