Fodor's Travel Talk Forums - Great trip to Nevis!

We started out very confident that Nevis would be a good choice for us, although we tried to keep our expectations on the low side based on last year’s trip to Aruba. So, my husband and I flew to Miami to spend the night and the next morning we flew into San Juan and then on to Nevis. We had chosen Nevis and the Four Seasons very carefully. What a wonderful place to escape the chaos and noise of the real world! The bellman greeted us by name, an especially nice touch after such a long journey. They escorted us through the doors and into an open airy lobby. Immediately we felt at ease. Upon our arrival at the hotel, they upgraded us to a suite. Nicely furnished room and a lavish bathroom. The staff here provides optimum services for its guests. The culinary traditional breakfast buffet was exceptional. They have Omelets, a different special every morning, fritters, cereals, fresh fruit, breads, bagels, bacon and sausage, etc. But unlike other fine hotels, I didn’t find the lunch and dinners (with the exception of Mango’s) to be worth copying, although my husband disagrees. We had chose in advance to eat most of our dinners around the island and thoroughly enjoyed doing so. We ate our first dinner at Mango’s, which is the new restaurant for the FS. It’s actually a little walk from the main part of the property and brightly painted with a wonderful view. I had asked them if they could do jerk chicken as it wasn’t on the menu, but I wanted it. They were happy to do so and served it with a very good vinegar based coleslaw and seasoned fries. I have to state at this point we were seeing the similarity of Nevis and Kauai when the waitress commented on how quiet we were and asked if it was because we were just enjoying the view. Were we ever! We had had a conversation with a gentleman who we thought was the manager. It turned out he was the head of the conference center. I had commented that my husband had finally agreed to a trip to Nevis as I was celebrating a “big” birthday. When we went back to our room, we found he had sent champagne and a fruit and cheese platter. It was very reassuring to see that kind of niceness, although we found it all over Nevis. Although it is a FS, it is not as luxurious as some. The surroundings were made to fit in with the rest of Nevis and had more of a plantation look. It tries to remain true to the roots of Nevis. Our first night we thought we would sleep deeply, but the tree frogs are very noisy and it took awhile to fall asleep. Aside from that, the bed and its down comforter encourage a great night’s sleep every night. All of the restaurants that we ate out at were good. We did the Thursday night beach barbecue at Nisbet. I enjoyed it, although my husband did not. I think it was hard to mingle with people when they are all bonding as a result of staying at the same resort and we were the only ones that came from another property. We had an opportunity to talk to the chef who was from the Midwest himself and we had the opportunity to see that it was not the resort we ourselves had been seeking and we were happy we had chosen the FS. On Friday night we did the Cooperage at the Old Manor House. This was the BEST meal we had on the island. I could almost see us living during the 1600’s. I ordered a jerk pork appetizer (a local spicy dish) a boneless chicken breast with coconut sauce, potatoes and the chef’s vegetables. My husband had beef that was wonderful! The chef, Lenny, came out and talked to us after the meal. He has an interesting culinary background and is just a sweetheart. If you don’t eat anywhere else on Nevis, this is a MUST! I’m not big into the Caribbean beef, but Lenny knows how to buy the meat as well. The restaurant mostly does weddings and, btw, if I was getting married again, I know where I would do it for nice photos and GREAT food. Saturday night we ate at Banana’s. After all the comments, we had to include this on our list. It is located in the downtown area in a nice garden type of yard and has good food. We had their bourbon back baby ribs and garlic mashed potatoes. Sunday night we ate at Hermitage. A family actually lives there and they have an enormous deck that they serve the food on after you have a drink in their bar. Good food, but the staff seems a little confused and very long waits in between courses. We had soup and just ate what they brought us, lobster – grilled and no drawn butter, good but different ($12 surcharge) broccoli and carrots and a chocolate bombe for dessert. Monday night we ate at Montpelier. We were particularly interested in visiting here as we had considered staying there. We found it to be suitable for an opulent, traditional old house, but not so formal to discourage use. They draw you in right away by offering you a drink and encouraging you to sit and mingle. We ate in the sugar mill and had eggplant soup, filet, potato, chopped beet and an apple tart. This was a truly romantic experience. I understand why the hotel attracts guests, but again, we were happy that we chose the FS. The last night we ate at the Neve at FS and we had a salad and Chicken Parmigan. My husband was pleased, but I thought it was just ok. We followed some of our whims. We went to St. Kitts one day, I did a botany thing one day, we joined in a rum tasting and we did a monkey excursion. The choices are endless of things to do. My husband just wanted to enjoy a lot of pool time. We sipped Amaretto in the lobby one night as we listened to the band down by the Cabana. The concierges as well as all of the staff were so friendly. While we waited for our taxi to take us home, we chatted about the extraordinary trip we had spent in Nevis and smiled at each other. We will return again. If a trip to Nevis is in your future, you are very lucky!