Local area information - St. Vincent

Kingstown - St. Vincent's capital

Visit Kingstown, the island’s capital and a bustling port and listen to the buzz of vendors and shoppers amidst the colourful stalls selling tropical fruits, vegetables and spices, as well as wonderful fish and meats. View map.

You’ll also find stalls selling local handicrafts. The atmosphere is vibrant and the locals are full of joy and once you've experienced the culture, you’re bound to fall in love with all St Vincent has to offer.

Wander round Kingstown and you’ll discover the quaint cobblestone streets, colonial buildings and churches built in the early 1800s. The stone battlement of Fort Charlotte (named after King George III’s wife) still overlooks Kingstown Bay from Berkshire Hill. There is a small museum housed in part of the old barracks.

Cricket is very popular in St. Vincent and you'll see matches taking place on any available space.

If you fancy sampling the local cuisine there are plenty of bars and restaurants to choose from in Kingstown. They serve a wide selection of food all made from local produce and if you’re a seafood lover, you won't be disappointed.

Try the locally-caught fresh seafood

Beautiful bays and coves

Along the west coast of the island, there are many fishing villages and picturesque sandy coves which are home to the island’s best dive sites. Many of the coves and bays have mooring facilities and some customs clearance.

Wallilabou Bay and Chateaubelair Bay are two very popular bays with snorkellers and divers and have excellent reefs. Wallilabou is where much of "Pirates of the Caribbean" was filmed so you can be forgiven if you think it looks familiar.

If you've seen the film you might recognise this

Chateaubelair is the main town in the north leeward part of the islands and attractions in the area include the Trinity Falls, Dark View Falls and many rock carvings left by the Carib indians.

If you're looking for palm fringed sandy beeches there are plenty to choose from. Try the Blue Lagoon in the south east of the island and other paradise style beeches are Villa Beach and Indian Bay.

In contrast to the calm of the west coast, the east offers dramatic, rugged cliffs and rocky shores. Argyle is a very popular beach for wind based water sports, although due to the surf, not ideal from swimming.

La Soufriere Volcano

The north of the island is pretty much untouched and is where you’ll find La Soufriere Volcano and the Falls of Baleine. You can easily reach them by boat but for the more adventurous (and super fit) you can trek through the spectacular rainforests.

Driving along the windward side of the island, you'll pass through Georgetown and shortly after turn inland driving through Orange Hill banana plantation.

When you get to about 1200 feet, the three-mile hiking trail, and the hard work, begins. All the way up to the 4,048 ft rim of the volcano. The trek is spectacular and so is the sight of La Soufriere's peak - but it's not a journey for the faint-hearted.

Tobago Cays

Just a few miles from St. Vincent is Tobago Cays, a group of five small, uninhabited islands with powder white beaches, swaying palms and surrounded by a spectacular horseshoe reef.

Designated a National Marine Park, it is teeming with corals and tropical fish and is a playground for turtles and dolphins as well as a divers’ and snorkellers’ paradise.

You have to see it to believe it

Tobago Cays attracts many sight-seers in boats who thankfully all respect the National Marine Park and go to lengths to leave it as they found it.

Waterfalls

There's no shortage of stunning waterfalls on St. Vincent and here are arguably a few of the best.

The Baleine Falls in the Chateaubelair district are a hard trek but can easily be reached by boat. You'll find them on the northern tip of the island just over seven miles north of Richmond beach.

The walk from Richmond to the falls is rewarded by a cooling swim in the large, rock-lined pool formed by the falls.

This wonderful day trip can be taken from Villa beach or Kingstown and they usually include a stop along the coastline, maybe in one of the coves for lunch, swimming and snorkelling.

Baleine Falls

Dark View Falls are another superb falls in the north west region of the island. You'll find them in Richmond Valley in the midst of a lush rain forest set amongst rocks, ferns and lush vegetation at the source of a tumbling river fed by the falls.

A bamboo bridge crossing the river leads you to a trail and up a slight incline to the first of the falls around 60ft high. The fall cascades into a wading pool which is shallow and suitable for families and children.

Carrying on up the trail through bamboo forests you'll reach the second falls tumbling into a pool with huge, smooth boulders and surrounded by lush vegetation.

It's a picturesque place to stop and rest, have a picnic and take photos. But this second falls is probably suited to active adults and tough kiddies. A striking setting and a real adventure.

Trinity Falls is an impressive falls with three cascades tumbling into a large whirlpool and then dropping another ten feet into a smaller and calmer pool. Although the water moves briskly, this second pool is very popular with swimmers.

The falls are on the north eastern side of the island a short drive inland from Richmond. You’ll need to take a four wheel drive for part of the trail and then a 45 minute walk through verdant rain forests to this beautiful location.

Botanical Gardens

The oldest Botanical Gardens in the Western Hemisphere is set in 20 acres and is just a mile from Kingstown, the capital.

The magnificent gardens are a haven for rare and exotic plants, flowers and trees, and so beautiful that it’s often the venue for weddings and family celebrations.

There’s also a wildlife aviary within the gardens which has a captive breeding programme to help protect endangered species, in particular the St. Vincent parrot, which is the national bird of St. Vincent.

The garden was founded in 1762 by Robert Melville, the governor of the Southern British Caribbean Islands. He was also the military surgeon in St. Vincent and he was passionate about ethnobotany and wanted to create a botanic gardens to grow medicinal plants to improve the life and economy of the colony.

Many of these plants went to Kew Gardens and from there, on to other British Colonies in the Americas and around the world.

Perhaps the most famous plant in the garden is the third generation breadfruit which was brought to St. Vincent from Tahiti, by Captain Bligh. This current tree was grown from a sucker on the original tree.