The top 3 sites to see in Basseterre, St. Kitts
St. Kitts was the first stop on the Celebrity Summit cruise and it’s an easy port to explore in the time you have at port. My plan when disembarking is always to let the early birds off the ship first and then slowly make my way into town. Since every destination we visited had a beach, I wanted to explore the quaint downtowns before heading out to the beachfront.
In exploring Basseterre I stumbled upon a craft market that I apparently owned in another life! The Amina Craft Market features pastel-pink stalls hung with batik fabrics and clothing as well as locally made pottery, bags, jewelry, and keepsakes. One of the great aspects of the market is that you can see works of a number of different local artisans all in one place and it’s a nice alternative to all of the duty free shops you see when you first disembark. Basseterre’s compact downtown enabled me to see most of the sites in about an hour which left time to take a “Safari Jeep” tour before heading to Frigate Bay.
Top sites to see:
We left the cruise port and walked past my market (!) and went to see The Circus. Circus is a roundabout inspired by London’s Piccadilly Circus. It’s anchored by a green clock tower, the Victorian style Berkeley Memorial Clock and is surrounded by kiosk and shops. Because we were at port on a Sunday most of the shops were closed but since we’d discovered the craft market and a food court with lots of different types of local and international cuisines we were set.
Independence Square- in the 1790’s slaves were transported from ships off the coast of St. Kitts through underground tunnels to what is now called Independence Square before being sold at auction. The square is now a place for locals to catch up and pass through on their way to and from town. The Immaculate Conception Cathedral sits on the east side of the square and has a barrel vaulted wooden ceiling that’s meant to evoke a ship’s hull.
Old Road Town- I kept wanting to call this Old Town Road! There were a few stops that we visited in the Old Road Town. Built in 1625, St. Thomas Anglican Church is the oldest Anglican Church in the Caribbean. The current stone building dates to 1860 and the great-great-great grandfather of Thomas Jefferson is buried in the cemetery. Our final stop before hitting the beach was the Wingfield Estate. My sister married into a family of Wingfield’s so it was quite interesting to see one of the island’s oldest sugar plantations shared their family name. There are parts of the plantation that were recently excavated and there is a good amount of signage explaining the history and the sugar processes that took place. The last sugar factory in St. Kitts closed in 2005.
Beach time was spent on Frigate Bay at the Carambola Beach Club. Frigate Bay is an isthmus dividing the Caribbean side from the Atlantic side of the island. Carambola is a beachfront day club on the Caribbean side where you can rent beach chairs and umbrellas and spend the day ordering rum punches from the beach attendants. Since I went later in the day it wasn’t super crowded and although we didn’t eat there other cruisers who did said the food was delicious. I opted to hold off and instead got grilled lobster at the food court near the port which was delicious. We picked up some Brinley Gold Rum which is distilled in St. Kitts and it was the perfect end to the fun exploration of St. Kitts. A day trip to Nevis is also an option and it’s about a 45 minute ferry each way so it’s challenging to see both Nevis and St. Kitts in one trip.
As one of the oldest cities in the Eastern Caribbean, there is a lot of history is St. Kitts so I highly recommend booking a guided tour so you can learn from a local and also ask questions about their daily life. St. Kitts had been on my wanderlist for a while and I’m glad that I finally got to experience it!