General: St Vincent and the Grenadines

St. Vincent and the Grenadines (“SVG”) is located in the Windward Islands at the lower end of the Caribbean chain. SVG is situated between Grenada 75 miles to the south, St. Lucia 24 miles to the north and Barbados 150 miles to the east. SVG has a tropical climate that is influenced by the North East trade winds, resulting in a minimum temperature of around 28 degrees centigrade, and boy does it get hot in the summer months. St Vincent is often referred to as the “Jewel of the Caribbean” and once you get on the island and do a bit of exploring it is easy to see why.

Tourism

Tourism obviously brings in money and this is something that the Government are actively trying to grow. Whilst there is some tourist activity in St Vincent, there is not that much compared to other Caribbean Islands. On one hand this is nice since a holiday on St Vincent is a real cultural experience and you do what the locals do, however, on the other hand it is stifling the development of the island and keeping it quite poor.

The island does have some hotels and guesthouses to rent, and there are numerous tours and excursions available to keep the tourists amused, but not many people seem to want to holiday in St Vincent or even seem to know about it.
Excursions include various boat trips, fishing trips, a climb up the volcano, jeep safari, a trip to the salt ponds, Trinity Falls, the Falls of Baleine, the fort and the Botanical Gardens amongst much more.

St Vincent’s claim to fame has to be that it is the location for the Pirates Of The Caribbean series of films, where much of the film set has been left for tourists to visit and you can actually identify specific buildings in the movie.

Beaches

Most people picture golden sands when they think of the Caribbean, but this is not really the case with St Vincent. The island is built up around La Soufrie, a volcano, and as such the beaches consist of black sand. Whilst this is not as beautiful as the golden sand, it does get much hotter making a trip to the beach a very warm experience. There is a beach of golden sand around Young Island (an exclusive resort within spitting distance of St Vincent) but this is imported solely for the tourists.

The state of the sea depends on where you are on the island. On the Westside of the island is the Caribbean sea, which is gorgeous. It is warm, crystal-clear and as flat as glass a lot of the time. On the other side of the island you are faced with the Atlantic which is much more fierce, dirtier looking and with large waves. The difference between the two is amazing but it is good in that surfers and those wanting waves can go to the Atlantic and those wanting a leisurely swim can go to the Caribbean Sea.

Housing

The housing on the islands varies greatly and consists of small wooden shacks, that don’t even compare to the beach huts found on Southwold beach, through to majestic looking buildings complete with swimming pools, separate apartments and tennis courts, as well as everything in between. This is an island where the rich are very rich and the poor are very poor.

What amazed me about the island is the spread of wealth. There is no particularly wealthy area or, and for no better word, slums. For example, you will find a huge domestic dwelling that has been made in to a castle (complete with battlements and turrets) and next to this there is one of the small wooden shacks. Rich and poor co-exist side by side, which I found strange after all, this would never happen in developed countries.

To many residents of St Vincent the housing is not the be all and end all, and they don’t seem overly bothered about their dwellings. On the whole, Vincentians don’t appear to have the same “An Englishman’s home is his castle” that we have in the UK, and it does make a refreshing change. The emphasis seems to be on the quality of life over material belongings.

Scenery

The scenery is simply awesome. St Vincent is a mountainous island with many peaks and troughs and whilst the island isn’t that big this constant “up and down” means it takes ages to get anywhere. The island is also full of lush rainforest and greenery, banana plantations, coconut trees (obviously) and other foliage. Being in a hotter climate I though the vegetation would look ‘dead’ and drab, however it is very colourful, even more so than in cooler climates.

Food

The island does import food from other Caribbean islands and countries, although this is very expensive compared to locally grown and locally sourced food items. The local food is gorgeous and extremely tasty. There is also a wide variety and everyone will be catered for, even the most fussy of eaters.

The local food is very tasty and meals consist of ingredients such as rice, peas, yams, sweet potato, chicken, mutton, goat and a whole host of locally sourced, reared or grown items. With such a large choice there is no need to go for imported foods.

Being an island a lot of the food comes from the ocean and there is an abundance of fish to try, with the most popular being mahi mahi, red snapper, tuna and sea bream, although there is a lot more, depending upon what was caught in the net. The locals aren’t fussy, nor are they wasteful and all fish that are caught will be eaten, regardless of what it is or how big it is. The fish is freshly caught and the fishermen sell their catch on the cricket ground at the end of each day. If you like a “meaty” fish then tuna or mahi mahi are the fish of choice, both of which are very tasty. It’s strange because I don’t enjoy tuna in the UK but I ate loads of it whilst on St Vincent. If you prefer a more “flaky” style fish then the red snapper has to be the fish of choice which, again, is exceptionally nice.

People

Vincentians are very welcoming and friendly, although I guess most of this is down to curiosity. Out of Kingstown, the capital of the island, and in the more remote areas there are very few tourists and it is a bit of a “yocals” place. Very few Caucasians visit this area and when they do the locals want to know why you are there and what you are doing. Despite the “white” comments, all of which were non-malicious the locals are generally accommodating once you get talking to them, although I did find it intimidating at first.

Getting around

St Vincent is not that big although you will need access to a vehicle in order to get around. The locals use a bus service and it is absolutely brilliant, as well as an experience in itself.

The buses are, basically, vans (mostly small Toyotas) that are kitted-out with bench seats in the back. All the buses are customised with very bright and distinctive paint jobs, loud sound systems, blacked out windows and body kits. In addition, all are individually named, for example “Renegade” and “Party Boy Wagon”. These are the type of vehicles you’d expect to see on Brighton Sea Front in the boy racers car park.
A trip on the bus will cost 1 dollar each way. There are designated bus stops in town, but once out of town you simply shout “bus stop” where you want to get off. Hailing down a bus out of town is simply a matter of standing and waiting and flagging them down as they drive past.

Conclusion

St Vincent is a gorgeous island and words can’t describe it. No picture can do it justice and it is a place you have to go to really experience it. The scenery is breath taking with stunning mountainous back-drops and lush rainforest, combined with colourful foliage.

Since the island is still developing and not fully geared up for tourism, I would not recommend going on holiday there if you don’t know any of the locals. There are very few hotel resorts where everything is provided and you just go to the hotel and spend two weeks there, like you do on most Caribbean islands. There are many resorts on other Caribbean islands that provide day trips and excursions to St Vincent and the many attractions on the island, so unless you are fortunate enough to know someone on the island, is the best way to experience the best of what St Vincent has to offer safe in the knowledge that your tour operator is going to look out for you.

(This review has been posted on other sites under the name of Yackers1)