mystkittsdivebuddy

If you are calling into St Kitts, have a lookat this website for excellent information.

St Kitts is small enough for you to "go it alone" and extremely safe.

Cruise Visitors to St Kitts

Above all, relax and enjoy your day on our island.

On 7/13/2023 at 1:54 PM, alc13 said:

We'll be at Carambola beach for a day in December.  I spent a summer on St Kitts many years ago and would like to see some of the places I remember.  Is there a taxi stand nearby?  Do you think we can find a driver to take us around the island for a couple of hours?

Carambola beach club is not the main cruise port, that is Port Zante.
A couple of cruise lines use it as a "Private Island" type experience.
There is no taxi satnd nearby, there may be the odd taxi waiting but that depends on how busy the main cruise port is. There will be a shuttle to take you into Basseterre which leaves once it is full.
Best advice is to prebook an Island tour with one of the local operators, try this one who is very accomodating as far as cruise passengers are concerned. Just contact them and ask what they can do for you. 

Fellow brit here, living in St Kitts for 15yrs.

You are going to love our island. We have so much history and great local people

You are visiting ports with better beaches (not that ours are bad, but others are better) so I would stay land based and enjoy the island.

You will appreciate that this is very much a "no hassle" type of place, our vendors want your business, yes  but not to the level of almost aggressive bullying you can find elsewhere.

For island information that is bias free try this site  St kitts tourist information . 

For tours and local journeys we have many good family companies Like this one.

Above all relax and enjoy, in St Kitts we " rush slowly"

Carib is the local beer, comes in Pilsner (light), regular and "Blue", Blue is falling down water 8% proof.

Sincere apologies, now set as public.

Thank you so much for taking the time to tell me.

On 3/8/2020 at 2:04 PM, Clubber said:

We did a 2 tank dive with Prodivers in mid Feb.  Very easy walk to the marina and right to the boat.    They had all our rental gear on board.   We did a reef dive with lots of reef sharks and then did a wreck dive.     No current.  We just had shorty wetsuits and were fine in Feb.      We met them at 8:45 and were back to the ship by about 1:15. 

Here is a video I made about scuba diving in St Kitts.
8 minutes of quality underwater time:

St KItts Scuba Diving

Before we focused our efforts solely on diving, we used to take snorkelling tours for the cruise ships.

All our rental masks, snorkels and fins were of "dive quality" and guests used to comment on how great our gear was.
Often had guests with their brand new $25 snorkel set from walmart or similar, most of those guests would finish up using our gear due to bad fit and leaky masks.
The less confidence you have, the more important it is for your mask to fit properly. That means making a trip to the dive shop, spending a little more, but getting quality, well fitting gear.

Just across the road. Rams supermarket.

In the same block is a sports bar, a coffee shop and an Indian restaurant.

Open for business as normal

Always good to get your taxi to come back for you. If not plenty of taxis around when it is time to return.

Enjoy

This is actually in the port.

https://www.facebook.com/chopshopinstkitts/

But it ain't gonna be 25 bucks.

This ain't Mexico Toto.

Enjoy St Kitts.

Dive conditions in St Kitts are usually very easy.

Very rare to have a current, no drift diving here.

Water is always warm, 79 f is as cold as it gets, usually Jan to March, rest of the year 80 - 83 F.

We can get some surface wind, particularly in the first quarter of the year, but it's only surface wind and there are some sheltered spots.

Visibility is always good to excellent.  40 ft viz is a "bad day".

Hope this helps.

That's cost for the taxi each way.

Yes, you can ask for any tour, any length, we have lots of taxis and they are all tour guides. Nothing has to be fixed. Prices are negotiable but do remember that gas here is us$4.50 a gallon and the drivers only have a 8 month season in which to earn money.

Unless we have a ship that arrives at noon which is rare, you will find plenty of transportation.

The South east of the island is very scenic and is where the best of the beaches are. You also have Christophe Harbour Marina, you can enjoy an inexpensive coffee while looking at yachts that cost more then your lifetime earnings.😉

22 hours ago, Lorey2007 said:

Thanks I think that will leave us enough to grab a taxi and do some sight seeing for about a hour.  What could we see in that time?  I read about some look out. 

You are thinking of Timothy Hill.

Great view of both the Caribbean and the Atlantic.

15 mins from the port, about $12 -15 dollars, less in a shared bus/taxi.

There is also a small souvenir stall that sells drinks

Yep that is pretty accurate.

No more than 10 mins from the port.

Fabulous excursion by the way.

Remember No DST in SKN So when the clocks change local time is + 1hour on ships time

Today's weather 

All our taxi drivers are licensed and are required to be "tour guides".

Plenty of available drivers at the port, tell them what you want to do, negotiate a price and away you go.

Or you can join an "island tour" and pay a fixed price.

Note this applies to "roadtrip tours" only.

You will not be able to book a train tour or a Catamaran tour on the day.

Romney Manor has an entrance fee, the Fort has an entrance fee, check these on line.

There is an advantage to being "first off the boat" these places get busy.

As a suggestion for a "private tour" go to Romney Manor first, stay around an hour, then go on to Brimstone Hill fort. You may need a little more time here.

Then get your driver to take you to Timothy Hill lookout and finally drop you at Shipwreck Bar in Friars bay. (This has good food, sunbeds, a snorkeling reef and is only 15 minutes back to the port).

You can then arrange a time for your driver to pick you up, or, there will be plenty of taxis available at Shipwreck when it is time to get back to your ship.

Everywhere will take US$ so don't worry about local currency, most places will take your credit card (most taxis are cash only). If you get EC$ in your change and would prefer US$ then just ask, it will not be a problem.

Above all, don't try to pack in too much, relax and enjoy your day on our beautiful island.

The River Taw details and photographs can be found here:

Dive Sites - St Kitts

Closest one is Avis.

Walk through the port onto the main road, 2 to 5 mins away depending on where you exit the port.

Rental is not cheap here, plus you need a temporary driving license (about 30 US - please check).

Also we drive on the opposite side to the US.

A private taxi for the day may work out as better value.

The port area in St Kitts, Port Zante is huge, well spread out with hundreds of shops etc.

The advantage for you is that it is all flat (built on reclaimed land). You will find the port easy to negotiate on your scooter.

The rest of St Kitts is not so "scooter friendly", 

If you want to travel outside the port there is some transport that can carry you but you will need to arrange before arrival.

I suggest you contact Liz Pereria, one of our local independent tour organizers.

She is the most knowledgeable person I know to help you.

Tell her Terry sent you.

https://www.facebook.com/liz.pereira.792

There will be plenty of taxi drivers willing to take you from the port.

Say 20 mins absolute maximum if there is traffic clearing the port.

About 15 minutes back.

You have loads of time.

Guessing around 15 to 20 us$ each way.

Fare will be negotiable,  stress you want a taxi to yourselves ( no waiting for a tour bus to fill up)

You have plenty of time. There are a couple of local souvenir stalls at Timothy hill to browse.

Ask the driver to come over the "bird rock" route back to town. It will add 5 minutes to your journey time but worth it for the views.

Enjoy.

Cockleshell is actually pretty flat.

The car park in front of Reggae beach bar is level and the beach is about 30 ft away.

No real rough areas between car park and beach.

There us a slight slope up.

Nothing is paved but should be doable.

There is also a ferry from Port Zante Marina. 

Fast boat. Apple Syder.

Every 2 hours or so.

Us$12 each way.

https://www.facebook.com/MVAppleSyder/

We have very little issue with our Taxi Drivers.
All are licensed and wear ID. All also have a "Tour Guide test" (Although some are better than others at this).

Taxi prices are fixed, just ask the price before your journey.

Unless there are 4 or more of you then a shared taxi is going to be cheaper than taking your own.

If you don't want to get involved at the end of the pier then the taxi station is located 200 yds ahead on your right.

If you want to sort it all before arrival then contact this lady:

Liz Pereira Tours

The best snorkeling you will find in the Caribbean is around the "coral islands", these are the "flat" islands such as Turks and Cayman.

St Kitts is a hilly volcanic island and as such we mainly have fringing reefs which do not extend to the shoreline.

There is snorkeling at Friars bay, go to Shipwreck bar, the reef is just in front of the beach. (15 mins drive).

Cockleshell beach (Reggae beach bar) ( 25 mins drive) has good snorkeling if you go out from the beach and snorkel in front of the headland to your left.

For scuba diving reefs I would give us a score of 8 out of 10 . For Snorkeling reefs it's a 5 out of 10.

Hope this helps.

Do you have a local dive shop?

Do they have access to a pool?

Ask if they can arrange a couple of hours of snorkeling lessons for you.

It's all about being confident in the water, some prior experience and practice will make your snorkel tour much more rewarding and "magical".

Think of it as part of your vacation.

14 hours ago, beshears said:

Oh my, just seeing these pictures makes me WANT to be there NOW!!! 🙂     With 5 - 7" of snow still on the ground here, this is a good reason, right??? 🙂

It's the middle of winter here in St Kitts right now. Only 84f during the day. LOL 😎🤣

Good quality masks are quite an expensive item. $30 just doesn't cut it.

Some scuba manufacturers have small adult masks in their range, this is what you need to be looking at.

Masks actually have 2 seals for the face, the inner seal can be checked by doing a "sniff test" the outer seal needs someone who knows what they are doing to look at you while wearing a mask.

90% of the time, 90% of people can buy an reasonable quality  mask on the internet and it fits, unfortunately you are one of the 10% that can't. 

Although price is not always an indication it is a good guide, the best mask I own cost me $140. Sadly now I can't wear it as i use a prescription mask. I keep it for loan to students who have "mask problems" The seals on this mask are super soft.

You need to visit a good dive shop, most have knowledgable staff who know how to fit a mask properly. Even better if they have a pool you can use.

Expect to pay around $80 or so, but with proper care it will last many years.

We used to run snorkel tours for cruise ship passengers, many would turn up with "Costco specials", these would leak and the guests would be amazed at the difference when we loaned them a properly fitting good quality scuba mask.

Hope this helps you to enjoy your time in the water