Over the years we’ve done all three and also St.Kitts/Nevis and while we never over-nighted on StB, we did stays on each of the others. We’ve always talked about going to Statia but in the end, there just hasn’t been the same level of incentives as the other near Islands have offered.
Purely my personal thoughts but IMHO, Anguilla has the most beautiful beaches of the places mentioned with StB a distant second. St.K has decent beaches but we didn’t find any that came close to those of SXM or the other places mentioned, but that said, we’re not fans of black sand beaches, of which StK has a few, and we did think the beaches we experienced on Nevis were lovely. But the vibes were all so different from each other.
If you want to see and be seen, and spend a fortune doing so, StBarts is probably your best choice. Like most everyone else, we went, we saw, and we even went back a few more times but the novelty wore off after the third or fourth trip. I personally enjoyed the old sailcats over and back but DH not so much and once he discovered the plane he ruled out the boats. The arrival and landing on StB are experiences all by themselves. And be prepared to do some serious spending there. Truthfully, the first trip could easily have been our only one but over the years as other friends came to SXM with us, they wanted to go so we did, too.
Anguilla is easy to get to with the AXA ferry running regularly all day long and a few private carriers as well. Again, as far as I’m concerned, AXA has what I consider to be the most beautiful beaches of the Caribbean and the costs associated with being there run from reasonable to high end depending on what and where you choose to stay. There’s not a lot of sight-seeing or shopping but beaching and bar-hopping ops abound and the laid-back atmosphere is great.
My personal favorite day-trip, or over-night trip for that matter, is definitely Saba. By boat or by fast ferry depending on your tolerance level, and once again, DH prefers the flight and I didn’t mind the boat. The first time we went we booked a complete day-trip that included r/t transport on the Edge, a bus tour while there with sight-seeing, shopping and photo stops aplenty, and a lovely lunch at the Queen’s Garden Inn. That last was what made us want to return and overnight there. There are zero beaches most of the year but if you snorkel, dive or hike, it’s an incredible daytrip and so different from what you normally find in most of the Caribbean that we’ve explored. And if you want to do some serious limin’ this is the perfect spot to do it and rediscover the joy of just being..........
