3 Best Sights in Saba

Sitting in a bowl-shape valley 820 feet above the sea, this town is the seat of government and the home of the lieutenant governor. The governor's mansion, next to Wilhelmina Park, has fancy fretwork, a steeply pitched roof, and wraparound double galleries.

On the other side of town is the Wesleyan Holiness Church, a small stone building with white fretwork. Though it's been renovated and virtually reconstructed over the years, its original four walls date from 1919; go inside and look around. Stroll by the church, beyond a place called the Gap, to a lookout point where you can see the 400 rough-hewn steps leading down to Ladder Bay. This and Fort Bay were the two landing sites from which Saba's first settlers had to haul themselves and their possessions up to the heights. Sabans sometimes walk down to Ladder Bay to picnic. Think long and hard before you do: climbing back requires navigating the same 400 steps.

The island's second-largest village, perched at 1,968 feet, commands magnificent views of the Caribbean. Here amid the oleander bushes are rambling lanes and narrow alleyways that wind through the hills; clusters of tiny, neat houses, cafés and shops; and the Saba Tourist Office. At the village's northern end, the Church of St. Paul's Conversion is a colonial building with a red-and-white steeple. A large community graveyard is across from the church.

The Road makes 14 hairpin turns up nearly 2,000 vertical feet to what was once called Hell's Gate, but is now known as Zion Hill. Holy Rosary Church is a stone structure that looks medieval but was built in 1962. In the community center behind the church, village women sell their intricate lace. The same women make the potent rum-based Saba Spice, each according to her old family recipe.