Hello,
Expanding on my earlier St Barth's/Anguilla thread, inspired by Pat, how easy/hard is it for a daytime or single over night trip to these subject islands. Is there away to Island hop more than 1 and then return to Sint Martin?

How would folks rank them 1-4 on worth visiting?
TIA
Liliana

While in SXM, we have taken day trips to Saba and Sint Eustatius. We have been to St. Kitts on a cruise.
We took the ferry to and from Saba. The trip can be rough. Several people in our group opted to fly back from Saba rather than take the ferry again. They were quite seasick on the way over. We did not have any problems with the rough seas - I actually enjoyed the ferry trip.

On the island, we were part of a taxi tour. The place is very small but quite beautiful. Very green due to the moisture constantly coming down the mountain. When my husband worked in Anguilla many, many years ago, he used to go to Saba to hunt goats (there were zillions of them) on weekends. If you climb to the top of the island, you are above the clouds most days. There are no beaches but great scuba diving.

We flew to Sint Eustatius mainly because I wanted to experience a flight on a small plane. We took a 20-seater over and a 10 seater (including the pilot) back. Loved both flights. At that time, taxis were scarce. Our taxi driver doubled as the local ambulance driver so part of our tour involved taking a lady to the medical clinic. There are black sand beaches on Sint Eustatius and, as I recall, lots of cows. The island has a place in American history for the part it played in the American Revolutionary War. An interesting little museum there, if you are a history buff. If you like hiking, you can hike up into the interior of the island.

Never been to Nevis but, again, if you are a history buff, I believe Alexander Hamilton was born there.

We only spent part of a day in St. Kitts on a cruise. I was not impressed and never went back, although we did go back to other islands that we visited on the cruise.
If I had to rank the 4 islands for a visit, it would be: Saba, St. Eustatius, Nevis, St. Kitts, in that order.

Liliana,

We have actually vacationed on St. Kitts but never day-tripped there so no help on that score. It was okay but two stays there were one too many in my book although I’m glad we saw it and experienced it along with day-tripping to Nevis which was lovely, what little we got to see if it.

But Saba? We’ve done the day-trip with the taxi tour and lunch r/t via one of the ferries and I will agree with almost all of the previous posters comments except the flying back part since we thought the trip back was very pleasant, much nicer than the boat over. We had no problems but the seas were rough that day and many did. The stay-over trip we flew r/t and it was fun,too, once I adjusted to the very small plane and all the noise.

But the thing is, we found it so enjoyable on Saba that first time we actually booked a 3 night stay-over in the midst of one of our SXM trips. It’s a place to really chill. The hydroponic garden is small and typical of such and the ladies making their Saba lace were interesting and the lace is beautiful. We never did get to see them making the Saba Spice so no samples there. We don’t hike and we don’t dive but every so often we do need a chance to really chill and that we did. The museum there was small but interesting. To me, the most amazing thing about the island were the incredible views and the friendliness of the people we encountered. The stay-over trip one of us dropped our passport in the cab that took us from the airport to our hotel, Queens Garden Inn, and we never noticed it was missing. When the people at our hotel summonsed their regular cab driver to return us to the airport for our return to SXM the driver reached into his glovebox and handed it to us. We never knew it was gone until that time.

Statia still remains on our bucket list, assuming we had one, but even today if I had to choose between all the options you’ve mentioned so far, my personal choice would be Saba with a fly over trip and a sail back return to SXM. But it’s not an island for the movers and shakers, IMHO.

Whatever you choose, enjoy!.

Just a consideration, you should check out the requirements for entry and return requirements for entry to Sint Maarten. For example you need to fill out forms to go to Saba Island and there are requirements.

Here is the Saba Island link
https://www.sabatourism.com/travel-requirements/

Drphilsxm

Have stayed on Saba and Nevis, done a day trip to Saba as well (ferry).
If day tripping to Saba recommend the plane for the experience. You'll have time for a guided hike to the top of Mt Scenery (need to be reasonably fit for that) or look round one of the towns (villages).
Can't see much point in a day trip to Nevis but we enjoyed a week there, lots of good restaurants, the capital, Charlestown is very attractive. And we visited the Hamilton museum, admission was...a Hamilton (for two of us, 5USD each).
Our trips were all pre-plague so no idea on current restrictions.
Dave.

Thanks all, we may try to squeeze in 1-2. More likely if all tests are eliminated which it looks like alot of things are worldwide are ending. If France and or Netherlands were to end measures, I would venture to say SXM would Dare. Maybe wrong, some people are so used to restrictions. Dare I see the pandemic is almost over (or livably endemic) and happy days are here again?

we've done quite a few "side-trips" from SXM, although we haven't been to Statia yet

Saba is worth at least a daytrip due to it's uniqueness...we flew in/out the same day...took a taxi tour of the island

we thought St. Kitts/Nevis were just OK...not in a hurry to go back...stayed in St. Kitts for 3 nights, and took a daytrip via ferry to Nevis...wound up spending evenings at the Marriott casino

have also done side-trip to BVI...would like to hop over to Martinique and/or Guadeloupe eventually

Thanks..... we are thinking of flying over and back to St Barts from Grand Case and tbd method to/ from Saba as of this moment subject to change.

Martinique and Guadeloupe were visited long ago on cruises but would like to do by air someday but not this trip.
Thanks again,
Liliana

we’d definitely rank St. Barth and Anguila well above the other islands mentioned in this thread…we now try to split the time on our trips between SXM and SBH, and although we may not want to spend a full week on Anguilla, a day trip or a few nights is a treat

but really any and every island is worth at least a day trip 🏝