Starting to check into options for June/July vacation. We love St. Kitts and Nevis for the people, the un-developed feel and the greenery. DH wants to add St. Barts on to our trip. How does it compare and how easy/difficult is it to get to? We are looking at 14 days total for the 3 islands. We did 3 last year, with St. Martin being our add on and we had 11 days...not enough time! Also, St. Martin has changed so much over the years, that I did not care for it...too unsafe and too crowded. Too much spent waiting in airports. We will ferry from St. Kitts to Nevis. Any thoughts?

My sentences are kind of jumbled....I ment that over the 11 days, we spent too much time in airports. The SXM comment was separate.
Thanks for any thoughts!

I think you would like St. Barth's. However, I'm not sure how easy it is to reach from St. Kitts. You would definitely have to connect via St. Maarten and as you know that will require quite a bit of airport waiting time. It would be worth it, though. I think St. Barth's would make a nice contrast with St. Kitts if St. Maarten is becoming too busy for you.

St. Barth's is very different from St. Kitts & Nevis. St. Barth's is hilly, arid, very upscale, vaery safe, lots of high end rental villas, very French-European feel, lots of tres-chic fashion shopping, a couple hundred fantastic French cusines restaurants, nice smaller light sand beaches, below average snorkeling, lots of windsurfing, kite surfing and other watersports. St. Barth's is reachable by small plane (very interesting landing on St. Barth's) or ferry from SXM. From St. Kitts/Nevis you'd either have to charter a plane 9read expensive) or take two flights (Winair is probably your best bet) connecting through SXM. FYI- regular ferry ride between SXM and SBH can get bumpy - nickname is the vomit comet - use high speed ferry if possible, it's more expensive but if you are prone to seassickness it's worth the price.

The high speed ferry is out of the water, so the Vomitter it is.
A charter with St Barts Commuter will cost you around 600 yoyos plus tax.

Well, now I am rethinking.....Does anyone know which islands could be reached from St. Kitts directly with 1 flight?

You can reach SXM, Antigua and San Juan non-stop from St. Kitts. Just about every other destination involves a stop-over or a connecting flight.

Check Winair (www.fly-winair.com), LIAT (www.liatairline.com) and American Eagle (www.aa.com) for fares and schedules.

iw - there is also a flight from St Kitts to Tortola if you want to do the BVI. Its about 50 min. Its caribbeansun or caribbean star.

Thanks for all of the responses!
MIM....I hadn't thought about Tortola. That is a great option!

Sorry MIM but the Caribbean Star flight between SKB and Tortola is a one-stopper (SXM). jw asked for non-stop destinations. I think you stay on the same plane, however. Total flying time SKB to EIS is about 1 hour and 25 minutes.

As I said earlier you can reach plenty of islands from SKB but other than SJU, SXM or Antigua all require at least one stop and/or a connecting flight.

It may no longer be the case, but in June 2003, there was a nonstop flight between St. Kitts and Tortola on LIAT. I know this because I was on it.

Leaving Tortola later that month, I was supposed to be on a nonstop flight on LIAT going to Antigua. However, there was an unscheduled stop on Nevis.

No doubt the LIAT schedule has changed since then. But my point is that with a local carrier, even if it is supposed to be a nonstop between two islands, something might come up to change the schedule. And even with a scheduled stop on another island, the total in transit time isn't so much that you should take it into consideration for an island hopping vacation, in my opinion. I mean, if you're not fussed about interrupting your vacation by air travel in the middle, why be fussed by an extra 45 minutes travel time if it means you're getting to see a place you want to see?