My wife and I honeymooned on both St. Kitts and Nevis at the end of April/beginning of May. I researched the vacation diligently, extensively reviewing the various reviews posted on the site. I was going for a "vacation of a lifetime" experience and can definitely say it was achieved. I have traveled through much of the Caribbean--Aruba, Bahamas, Puerto Rico, St. Thomas, Cancun, Curacao, blah-blah-blah, you get the point. Hads down, St. Kitts was the best experience I have had. Note: this is not perjorative or judgmental, but if you are lookig for a typical "tourist" experience, that is you enjoy American restaurants, beaches you'd find in Florida, mall shopping, etc., skip St. Kitts and go on a cruise. If you're more adventurous, like less developed/commercialized locations, a slower pace, go to St. Kitts/Nevis and you'll be rewarded with great restaurants and terrific service, eautiful unspoiled natural beauty, extremely accomodating and pleasing people. I loved this island immensely-as if you couldn't tell.
First, we stayed for a total of 10 days, seven at the at the Marriott (Sun.-Thurs.; Sat.-Wed.) and three at the Nisbet (Thurs.-Sat.) I'll post my Nisbet review under that location. (short version: it was absolutely perfect, I loved it, would go back in a heartbeat, but again, know what you like. If you're at home in Times Square, don't go.) We stayed in one of the suites in teh garden houses/villas. It was more of an apartment than a suite. I've stayed in some mack-daddy suites before, but this took the cake. (The suite at the Nisbet was very comparable.) Humongous spa bath, with jacuzzi, glass enclosed shower stall, twin sink vanity, large bedroom, king bed--with perfect softness and firmness, a living room you could throw a party in, kitchen and washer dryer. Oh, and a poolside patio with an ocean view.
The resort itself was impecably decorated with marble tile/travertine and the most intricate hand laid tile mosaics I've seen in a hotel. The beach was very nice. I prefer more waves, so the breakers they put in were a bit of a bummer for me, but they made the water more calm for those who may not like vigorous surf--the resort is on the Atlantic side. The view of the surrounding hills, cloaked in dense green really lets you know you're in a special tropical location.
The island is very tropical and has rain forests and cloud covered volcanos--elevation is like 4000 feet. Which brings me to another point: leave the hotel grounds for crying out loud. And I'm talking about going into town (Bassetterre) or walking down to the pizza shack or golf course. This island has tons of natural beauty. I'm not one for "being one with the earth" or something like that, but this place is has so much natural beauty--when are you going to hike through a rain forest? ride horses through sugar cane fields?--you really should take it in. Definitely go on the catamaran tour. You go sailing to a great snorkeling bay, then sail to one of the best beaches on Nevis for swimming, barbeque, and relaxing. Just beware of the open bar and especailly the rum punch: it's got more "punch" than you might think. Word to the wise, though: schedule your tours early; go on your first day and find out the schedule. I made the mistake of waiting and trying to set up some of my tours the day before or two days before and found that they don't leave every day and it screwed up my plans. Find out the schedule early and plan around that. (Many people take Greg's Safari's. We took a tour with O'Neill's Tours. He's great. Very knowledgable, experienced. Wa s a teerrific guide. He's a friend of Greg of Greg's Safaris.)
Absolutely take a taxi tour of the island. It's three hours, but closer to four, but very nice. You see all the locations on the island, learn its history, great some great pictures. In a word: perfect. Don't rent a car--the roads are very tricky and windy, not to mention you're driving on the wrong side of the road. Our taxi driver was DuPont--EVERY body knows him. Ask the bellman for him, they have his nmber, and you will not be unhappy. His van is impecably cleaned, he's knowledgable, great conversationalist, he's very successful (he does the taxi on the side, he has three stores, owns some nice real estate, and is building a hotel.), and provides excellent service. The guy wil make you feel like you have your own limo and driver. He'll pick you up whenever you'd like, you pay when he brings you back to the hotel, he's great. My wife loved him. He even gave her a set of earrings from his jewelry store before we went home.
The food: I noted many of the best restaurants people have mentioned and we pretty much went to them all. It's expensive, but it was my honeymoon so I didn't care, but don't eat at the hotel. The food is mediocre-okay, not great--though the breakfast buffet is nice, though go to Blu, not Calypso: the crowd is smaller, the view is better, and I think the fod was better too. You're cheating yourself if you don't go to Marshall's. It was one of the best meals I've eaten, period, let alone in all of the Caribbean. And the location/view is priceless. (Note: go at sunset, which in the Caribean is earlier in St. Kitts because you're closer to the equator and the sunsets much faster; so go earlier, rather than later.) We ate our first meal, dinner, at Ottley's and were decidely hapy with that choice. I liked Marshall's slightly more, but either one is a terrific choice. Sprat Net: GO! GO! GO! Go on a Friday or Saturday night when they have live music, have a great, feeshly caught dinnerand live it up. It's in expensive--I had the lobster and rib platter and it was THIRTY BUCKS! And these aren't run of the mill lobsters, but monsterous spiny lobsters, split in half, lightly coated with butter and char-grilled. De-Li-Cious! (Story behind the place: it's run by two brothers, they come from a family of fishermen, they catch everything themselves--no middleman, that's why it's so cheap. Your lobster was probably swimming in the ocean the night before.) Fisherman's Wharf, another local restaurant like Sprat Net. Great seafood. Not expensive. Bobsy's/Island Spice, not that great. Didn't go to Rock Lobster--never seemed to be open. Didn't eat at the steak house on the property, but did eat dinner at Blu. Like I said, okay, not great, espcially after having great seafod off property. Had lunch at Ballahoo, food there was pretty good too. Wished we had eaten dinner there because many of teh menu item looked great.
Shopping: go to Port Zante (I think that's the name.) Many very good jewelry stores and shoping for other items--i.e., leather, etc. My wife got my wedding gift there--an awesome Tag (they have Breitling, Ebel, etc too.) and was very inexpensive compared to back at home. Many of the jewelry pieces were exquisite: tennis bracelets, necklaces, pendants, blue diamonds, yellow dimanods, rubys, sapphires, etc. Everything.