Travel Tips

Our tour was for 2 pm for the St. Kitts Scenic Train. I did not know it when I signed up, but sometimes the train does not run. I did know that the trip had limited accommodations and so I signed up for it almost as soon as I had confirmed reservations on the cruise. Our dinner table partners would have liked to go on the train, but did not sign up in time because their niece told them that the train was not running. It was quite expensive as tours go - $104 each.

They had six small buses (like airport shuttle buses) to take us to the train. We were broken up into groups, and we were the first two people to get on bus #6. I asked if I could sit in front next to the driver, and was told it was OK. The first thing the driver did was give us each a (free) bottle of water (which was frosty cool as it had been in a cooler on ice) which was labeled "The St. Kitts Scenic Train Purified Water. The most luxurious and entertaining tour experience in the Caribbean!" (last photo)

The narrow gauge train goes all the way around the island, but it takes a good bit of time (like 4 or more hours) to do that, so they split the trip into two parts. One group gets on the train at the airport and rides the train out to the end of the island, and then rides the buses back to town. The second group (our group) takes a narrated bus tour from town out to the remote terminal and then rides the train to the airport where they are taken back to the ship by bus.

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St. Thomas Church

After our driver introduced himself, he gave us a narrative all the way to the train - drive took about a half an hour. We saw St. Thomas Church where the great grandfather of Thomas Jefferson was buried, and Brimstone Hill Fortress which was known as the Gibraltar of the West. We passed through small villages such as Bloody Point. The island had both French and English settlers and sometimes they got along better than at other times.

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Narrow Gauge Train

Eventually we got out to the place where the train was to arrive. First came a small railcar which was to inspect the track in advance of the train. Our driver told us we were to get on car #3, and we could be either downstairs in the A/C or upstairs in the open air. We picked upstairs of course. We got free drinks (with alcohol if desired), a sugar cake (a local delicacy), and there was a choir of three ladies who came around and serenaded us at various times. There was also a narrator for the train as a whole.

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One of the bridges

The ride was very interesting, but if you had a tendency to seasickness, you'd have been sick in the upper level. Bob noted that the tracks were not straight and even which caused the cars to sway wildly. The train was much steadier going over the spindly narrow bridges of which there were several, because the track was straight when it was 'nailed down' to the bridge.

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Chasing cows off the track

We saw cows (some of them had to be chased off the track by the train whistling stridently), goats, a donkey, pigs (which could outrun the train), horses,

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Burial sites

old sugar mills, beaches (most of which had a lot of surf and volcanic sand - i.e. dark brown or black in color), pineapple plantations, old sugar plantations (the sugar industry closed in 2005 because of high costs), towns, and churches with graveyards.

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Buses lined up to take us back to the ship

After a ride of about 2 hours, we came through a gravel pit area and to the airport where we got on the buses again to be driven back to the ship. They gave us a free DVD with a narrative about the train on it after the tour.

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St. Kitts railway water

The gangway was to be pulled at 5:30 for a 6 pm sailing, so Bob was chivying me along saying that I would be left ashore. I was walking onto the gangplank at 5:30, but I was far from the last person to board. We pulled away from the dock less than a half an hour later.

Our steward made a butterfly towel animal for us that night.

Tomorrow we go to San Juan