St. Kitts has become one of our favorite Caribbean islands we visited. We cruised through Carnival in March of 2022. St. Kitts is a beautiful but relatively small island. It’s only 23 miles long and 5 miles at its widest, encompassing an area of 69 square miles. It’s home to around 45,000 people.
The island is beautiful as its green mountains are surrounded by strikingly blue water. We kept our eyes peeled as we traveled throughout the small island and were constantly amazed by the natural beauty.
St. Kitts is home to green vervet monkeys… actually, our tour guide let us know that there are more monkeys on the island than there are humans! We saw several along the roads as we traveled through the island.
When we arrived at St. Kitts, we knew we wanted to explore the island as we had a beach day planned at Grand Turk in the following days.
We attempted to create our own excursion but continued to run into difficulty with distances between the places we wanted to see. The top two places we wanted to see? Why Brimstone Hill Fortress National Park and Timothy Hill of course.
We elected to book an excursion through the cruise as it would be the cheapest way to see the places we wanted.
The Excursion
Through the Carnival website, we booked the “Top 10 Best of St. Kitts” excursion. Our expectations were relatively low, and we originally only booked it to see Timothy Hill and Brimstone Hill Fortress. However, we were pleasantly surprised. Our driver and guide were very informative, and we stopped at several locations that we didn’t even anticipate. One of the locations that surprised us was Romney Manor which was included in the trip. Some of the other stops include the Palm Court Gardens and some stops you can view from the car.
We will highlight some of our favorite views and stops on this excursion. Plus, we will fill you in on the place we stopped to eat following the excursion. Justin still talks about how good the food was at this place!
Romney Manor
Learning about the history of St. Kitts was one of our favorite parts of visiting the island. This area is approximately 8 acres and holds a lot of history. This place dates back to the 1600s! Romney Manor has only had 5 family owners to date with the first being Sam Jefferson II who is the great, great, great grandfather of Thomas Jefferson. Most of the activity on the property has been growing and distilling sugar cane. The property is now a Batik enterprise.
While at Romney Manor, be sure to check out the Saman Tree also known as the “Rain Tree” which was over 400 years old! You can find him in the middle of the Manor and truthfully, he is pretty easy to spot as he is massive. His limbs extend to a half-acre and the circumference of the trunk is 24 feet. His name is Sammy and he is the oldest living organism in St. Kitts.
Brimstone Hill Fortress National Park
This location is probably our favorite stop in all of St. Kitts. This fortress not only has a ton of history, but it is absolutely breathtaking. When you arrive, you’ll be asked to watch a brief video on the history of the fortress. The video is somewhat old but very informative. You can walk through several buildings on the premises and we recommend seeing it all! We began our exploration by walking up the main building to see an amazing overlook of the island. At the top, you can see amazing views of the blue water and the mountainous landscape of this beautiful island. Be sure to visit the other buildings to the left as well!
Just a brief history lesson on what you will encounter when you witness Brimstone Hill. History truly comes alive here. Brimstone Hill Fortress was used in 1690 by the European Military to drive out the French. The 800-foot walls and battlements took almost 100 years to fully complete. In 1853, it was dismantled. In 1987, the National Conservation and Environment Protection Act of St. Christopher and Nevis declared Brimstone Hill a National Park.
Timothy Hill
Timothy Hill is a famous place to visit and for good reason. It is gorgeous!! It’s actually the picture we have on our main page! It really is that pretty. To this day, it’s probably the prettiest landscape we’ve seen. Although, that’s truly hard to determine. While observing this beauty, check out some of the souvenirs that the locals are selling. We got a magnet for only $2! In addition to the famous overlook, check out the beautiful view of the beach from an overlook behind the Timothy Hill overlook.
Sweet Cane's
If you are in St. Kitts, a stop at Sweet Canes is necessary. It’s one of the places that we intend to visit again if we ever return to the island! Justin had a chicken sandwich that he still talks about to this day. He states it is the BEST chicken sandwich he has ever had. In addition to the great food, the staff were so pleasant and really went out of their way to make sure you had an amazing meal.
We hope this information was helpful to you when planning your trip to St. Kitts and Nevis! If you have any questions drop a comment below or message us on Instagram. We are happy to answer any questions. Safe travels y’all!- Justin & Caitlin