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St. Kitts has limited shopping, but several duty-free shops offer good deals on jewelry, perfume, china, and crystal. Numerous galleries sell excellent paintings and sculptures. The batik fabrics, scarves, caftans, and wall hangings of Caribelle Batik are well known. British expat Kate Spencer is an artist who has lived on the island for years, reproducing its vibrant colors on everything from silk pareus (beach wraps) and scarves to note cards. Other good island buys include crafts, jams, and herbal teas. Don't forget to pick up some CSR (Cane Spirit Rothschild), which is distilled from fresh wild sugarcane right on St. Kitts. The Brinley Gold Company has made a splash among spirits connoisseurs with its coffee, mango, coconut, lime, and vanilla rums (there is a tasting room at Port Zante).
As artist Kate Spencer summers in Sicily, you must call ahead for an appointment to visit her studio outside Rawlins Plantation (note that she typically closes from May through October). It's very much worth doing so, though, to shop for her truly unique and brilliantly colored original paintings, serigraphs, note cards, scarves, and other lovely pieces.
All Kind of Tings, a peppermint-pink edifice on Liverpool Row at College Street Ghaut, functions as a de facto vendors' market, where several booths sell local crafts and cheap T-shirts. Its courtyard frequently hosts folkloric dances, fashion shows, poetry readings, and steel-pan concerts.
Caribelle Batik sells gloriously colored batik wraps, kimonos, caftans, T-shirts, dresses, wall hangings, and the like; you can watch the process in back.
The Crafthouse is one of the best sources for local dolls, wood carvings, and straw work.
Talk about multitasking: this little oasis offers a restaurant, an infinity pool and hot tub with bay views, miniature botanical gardens, and the Shell Works atelier and gift shop, where artisans fashion graceful napkin holders, candlesticks, stemware, wall hangings, and jewelry from coral, sea fans, mother-of-pearl, and other marine materials. The $2 admission is refunded with a purchase.
This shopping arcade, designed to look like a traditional Caribbean street, has more than 20 stores (purveying mostly resort wear, souvenirs, and liquor), a restaurant, tourism offices, and a bandstand near the cruise-ship pier.
Directly behind Pelican Mall, on the waterfront, is Port Zante, the deepwater cruise-ship pier where a much-delayed upscale shopping–dining complex has become a 50-shop area (including the large, ubiquitous jewelry concerns like Abbott's, Diamonds International, and Kay). If you're looking for inexpensive, local T-shirts, souvenirs, and crafts, check out Amina Market, a series of vendors' huts behind Pelican Mall to the right of Port Zante as you face the sea.
Shoreline Plaza is next to the Treasury Building, right on Basseterre's waterfront. The shops mainly sell T-shirts and locally made handicrafts and souvenirs.
TDC Mall is just off the Circus in downtown, with a few boutiques, selling mostly island wear.
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