Edited to add: over the years - lots of them - we've made many trips to both islands as well as Anguilla and St. Kitts in that general part of the Caribbean. My personal preference is still Saba and it only took us twenty years worth of annual SXM vacations to get there for the first time. StB was the island we most frequently visited back then because of so many organized excursions but of the two, it was clearly Saba that won our hearts in the end.

The trip 'going' to either island can be very rough. Or not!, but more likely than not, it will be. If you are at all prone to mal de mer you might want to consider flying over and boat back. The return trip to SXM is usually very nice via the water. For Saba, fly from PJIA but for StB, fly from L'Esperance on the French side.

They are both beautiful islands but very different from each other. St.B is extremely pricey and very lovely - the place to see and be seen. More beautiful beaches, etc. Someone told me a daytrip for three, when all expenses were included cost them the better part of a grand. That was airfare over x 3, boat trip back x 3, breakfast, lunch and drinks and I'm guessing either a car or taxi plus time on Nikki Beach. But while I know you can do it for a lot less - we have - if you decide to shop it can be more, too.

My personal preference of the two is Saba......it is so different from what you typically see on a Caribbean island. No beach to speak of unless you're very lucky but there are organized dive and snorkel excursions so I've been told. We've taken the Edge over as part of an organized day-trip with sight-seeing and lunch included, and we've also flown. Saba is drop dead gorgeous and a hiker or photographers dream. We liked it so much when we finally did our daytrip we booked a three night stay-over at Queens Garden Inn and loved it even more. But this time, DH insisted we fly.