Caribbean calm,
NeVIS does not have a harbour for cruise ships and air services are limited — which is terrific news. Most people get to it by boat from neighbouring St Kitts and this relative inaccessibility has made sure it remains largely undeveloped. Christopher Columbus, inspired by the clouds shrouding the mountain, called it Nuestra Senora de las Nieves ( Our Lady Of The Snows), which became Nevis. Fittingly, there are more than 50 churches, one for every 250 people. Outside shops in Charlestown, the tiny capital, you come across blackboards chalked with Bible texts for each day. Meanwhile, to put you on the right spiritual track, there are roadside signs that ask, ‘ Will it do harm?’ or, as I spotted on the route that leads to the depot where everyone stocks up with booze, Will it ‘ bring good fellowship?’ Nevis’s history involves Nelson and slavery, which feature on the signposted heritage trail that takes in three sugar plantation hotels. We stayed at one of these, the Golden Rock Inn, run by my wife’s cousin and owned by New Yorker Brice Marden, one of America’s most highly regarded abstract artists. Sotheby’s sold his work, The Attended, for more than $ 10 million last year. But let’s not dwell on envy — as one of those signs might say. Marden and his artist wife Helen have spent lavishly on landscaping the Golden Rock terraces and gardens, and on buying colourful ‘ art’ furniture, which everyone who comes for lunch makes a point of being photographed sitting on. Golden Rock has a relaxed charm, while the Montpelier, a member of Relais & Chateaux on the estate where Nelson married Frances Nisbet on March 11, 1787, is more self- consciously chic, and is not shy about mentioning that Princess Diana holidayed there with the two young Princes back in 1992. The third plantation hotel, The Hermitage, dates from 1640 and claims to be the oldest wooden house in the Lesser Antilles. It doesn’t have the views the other two enjoy, but it is the one that feels most like a plantation house, thanks to the efforts of the Lupinacci family, who bought it in 1971 to furnish it in period style. If you want to be right on the beach, the somewhat louche Oualie Beach hotel is your best bet. Generally, the superior beaches are on the western, calmer Caribbean side of the island.
We especially enjoyed Pinney’s, a long stretch of glorious sand and home to Sunshine’s bar, whose eponymous owner created the Killer Bee cocktail, the ingredients of which remain a secret. I don’t drink, but I was keen to watch the reaction of a man called Richard, an advertising copywriter from London, as he ordered a second one of these lethal concoctions. But we didn’t hang around long enough to see how he fared because two catamarans carrying 80 rum punch- fuelled day trippers from St Kitts suddenly arrived. My wife and I decided to pack up and escape the lurching tattoos. We drove north where Chrishi and Oualie beaches always offer peace and quiet, and, further along, Sea Heaven and Herbert’s beach, where you can find total solitude. Nevis has a warm and gentle gregariousness, and we ran into all sorts of genial regulars — from an Old Bailey judge to retired American hippies. Judith and her husband Norman Miller, who is an expert in witchcraft and the first journalist to interview Idi Amin after he seized power in Uganda in 1971, have been coming to Nevis for years to escape the Vermont winter. ‘ What is it that brings you back?’ I asked Norman, as we sat looking across to Montserrat on the verandah of their rented house in the hills. He gazed out as the sun set and said: ‘ Isn’t it obvious?’ departing before December 19, and including flights from London, boat transfers and B& B at Montpelier Plantation & Beach. Double rooms at the Golden Rock Inn ( 001 869 469 3346, goldenrocknevis.com) start at £ 108 B& B and at the Oualie Beach Resort ( 001 869 469 9735, oualiebeach.com) from £ 83.