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St Barths map
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Emergencies
Your first call should be to your hotel front desk, villa manager or villa rental agent.
For medical emergencies call - 18
Fire service – 0590 27 66 13
For marine rescue – 0590 27 70 41
For police – 0590 27 66 66
For more information about medical emergencies, check under Medical. |
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Ferries to St Barths
A number of ferries make the crossing from St Maarten (usually originating or stopping on the Dutch side).
Katia, or the Rapid Explorer Ferry, t 590 27 60 33, Gustavia@smta-sbtt.com
A hydrofoil that makes the run from St Barths to Chesterfield Marina in St Maarten, occasionally via Marigot. Three crossing each day except on Sundays when there are two. Crossings take 30 to 40 minutes.
Voyager, t 590 87 10 68
Voyager makes the crossing twice daily, sometimes from Oyster Pond, otherwise from Marigot.
The Edge, t +599 (St Maarten) 54 2640
The Edge makes a day trip from Simpson Bay five times a week, leaving St Maarten in the morning and returning from St Barths in the afternoon. |
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Flights/Getting There
Getting to St Barths from the metropolitan centres involves at least one onward connection to the island, into St Barths itself, which can take no planes larger than a 19 seater. It is an ‘interesting’ flight. The easiest island on which to make the transfer is St Maarten (just 15 miles northwest of St Barths), which has excellent international connections (from several cities in the US and Paris and Amsterdam in Europe). A number of small airlines make the crossing several times each day on a schedule. They can also be privately chartered (see below). If your baggage is ticketed straight to St Barths then you do not need to clear Immigration in St Maarten (there is no Customs anyway). Instead go straight to the Departure Lounge via the Transit desk.
If the flight into St Barths just isn’t for you, then there are quite a few ferries from St Maarten. Sometimes there is a problem with timings, as the last crossing is at 5pm, which may be hard to catch after any international delay. The last plane to St Barths also leaves at around this time as well because the airstrip closes just after sunset. If you do miss your connection and you simply can’t wait to reach St Barths it is still possible to reach the island on the same night if you particularly want to, through one of the many speedboats. The crossing costs a fair bit, usually €1000, but it can be done. Contact Marine Service Marine Service, t (+590) 590 27 70 34 from outside the Caribbean and Master Ski Pilou, t (+590) 590 27 91 79.
Flights to St Maarten from the USA
American Airlines fly from New York and Miami, US Airways from Philadelphia and Charlotte, United Airlines from Chicago, Continental from Newark and Delta from Atlanta.
Another option for getting to St Barths is to travel via Guadeloupe, from where there are direct flights on Air Caraïbes, or possibly via San Juan.
Flights to St Maarten from Canada
Air Canada from Toronto, Air Transat from Toronto, Montreal, Calgary and Vancouver.
Flights to St Maarten from Europe
Air France and Corse Air from Paris, KLM and Air Holland from Amsterdam
From Britain there are currently no flights into St Maarten and so there are two options. The first is to travel via Antigua, to which there are many flights a week from London (on British Airways, Virgin, BMI and Caribbean Airlines former BWIA) and from Manchester. From there there are a number of onward connections to St Maarten (Winair), but this still leaves the final hop over to St Barths, so if you want to be sure to reach St Barths on the same day then you are advised to charter a small plane direct, see below. Sometimes ‘shared charters’ services are available through Carib Aviation, t (UK) 01895 450710, caribav@itgmarketing.co.uk, but it depends on demand.
The other option, which might make the whole trip less stressful, is to travel to St Maarten via Paris or Amsterdam, from where you are more or less guaranteed to make the hop over to St Barths on the same day. It can be a very early start from the UK, or you might decide to spend the night before in Paris or Amsterdam.
Regional Airlines serving St Barths
Air Caraïbes, t 590 27 61 90
The French Caribbean airline, with flights linking islands along the chain from as far south as the Grenadines through Martinique and Guadeloupe up to St Maarten/St Martin and St Barths.
Winair, t 590 27 61 01
Based in Dutch St Maarten, flights in the North-eastern Caribbean, from Anguilla down to Nevis.
St Barth Commuter
Based in St Barths, daily scheduled flights across to St Maarten/St Martin.
Charter airlines
Planes can be chartered from the companies above, but you can also charter from:
Carib Aviation, t (Antigua) +1 268 481 2404. |
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Flora & Gardens
St Barths is rocky and very dry (water has always been one of the island’s main problems) and so the vegetation tends to be scrub-like. It also becomes brown and parched during the dry season. The best known plant on the island is the latanier, a tall and spiky palm that has been used traditionally in weaving. You will see straw hats and baskets woven from the palm for sale around the island. There are no formal gardens to visit in St Barths, and although many of the villas are obviously set in attractive gardens they are obviously private.
On the seashore you will see sea grape with its round leaves and occasionally manchineel (the apples of this tree are poisonous so do not touch them) and inland there are tamarind trees, flamboyants, which bloom red in the summer, and gaïacs, which were used in the construction of traditional boats. |
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Food & Cooking
Food is one of the pleasures of a visit St Barths. The restaurants are excellent and well supplied with ingredients from France and Florida (some flown in fresh to St Maarten and transhipped in time to reach the dinner tables that same evening). See more information about Restaurants.
But with so many villas and self-catering accommodation there are also many alternatives to eating out. To begin with, nowadays it is possible to hire a chef (talk to your villa rental company), but there are also caterers that sell prepared and pre-cooked gourmet meals (Maya’s To Go in the complex opposite the airport and the Rôtisserie St Jean in St Jean). Finally, some of these caterers even offer room service to your villa or hotel room.
As you might expect, food shopping in St Barths in expensive. However, pretty much anything you could ever want is available. There is even a speciality olive shop in St Barths. The biggest supermarket is Match, directly opposite the airport in the Savane Shopping Centre, but you will find smaller supermarkets with perfectly good supplies in Gustavia, St Jean, Lorient and Marigot (see Shopping). Most supermarkets have a stock of wine and cheese but there are also specialist suppliers that offer all the French delicacies, wine and cheese of course but also pâtés, rillettes and other imported specialities. There is a tiny local fruit and veg market in Gustavia with ingredients imported from Guadeloupe.
Speciality food shops and services include:
Rôtisserie-St Jean, Vaval Shopping Centre, St Jean, t 590 29 75 69
Wine and cheese, some prepared meals.
Vitolive, Lorient, t 590 52 96 22
Wine and cheese, and speciality olives.
Mayas To Go, les Galeries du Commerce, St Jean, t 590 29 83 70
Patés, wine and cheese, picnics and of course meals to take out.
St Barth Chef Service, t 690 59 13 33, f 590 27 95 13, stbarthchefservice@wanadoo.fr, www.stbarthchefservice.com.
Room service delivery from a menu to your villa or hotel room.
Kiki É- Mo, St Jean, t 590 27 90 65
Delicatessen food and picnics to take out.
There are also several specialist wine dealers:
The Cellier du Gouverneur, rue de la République, Gustavia, t 590 27 99 93
Extensive collection of French wine in an air-conditioned shop on the main street.
La Cave du Port Franc, Public, t 590 27 65 27
On the road out of town, a warehouse with an extremely broad selection of wines from around the world.
Le Goût du Vin, rue du Oscar II, Gustavia, t 590 27 88 02
Friendly shop in town with a good selection of wines from around the world.
No cooking courses are currently available in St Barths. There have been in the past and no doubt will be again. |
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Golf
There is no proper golf on St Barths (the island is far too crowded with villas for there to be the spare land for a course and it is far too steep and rocky anyway), so anyone who wants to play a round goes to St Maarten next door or they take a private charter to Nevis, where there is a lovely course at the Four Seasons Hotel. In 2005 a Greg Norman course will be opening in Anguilla, just 10 minutes flying away. Some golfers fly as far afield as Puerto Rico. You can always get former pro Emmanuel Dussart to escort you in his own plane, t 690 30 58 73.
If you would like a hit and a bit of fun, then you can try Golf Club Molokoï on the Etang de Grand Cul de Sac in the east of the island. It is a driving range with a difference, in that you hit balls from Astroturf tees at a number of flags placed strategically in the lagoon. The balls return naturally on the tide. Opening hours 2-7pm daily, closed Mondays, t 690 37 46 45. |
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Health & Fitness
There are two fitness clubs on St Barths and both will accept you as a temporary member during your stay.
Forma Form Fitness, Gustavia, forma.form.fitness@wanadoo.fr, t 0590 27 51 23
On the western arm of the port, they have machines and weights in two air-conditioned rooms. There is a schedule of classes and activities including Bodypump, Stretch, Step, Ragga and Modern Jazz. Temporary membership is €22 per day (€78 for 5 days and €132 for 10), private lessons with a personal trainer cost €89. They can also provide personal trainers (‘coach’ in French) to come to your yacht or hotel room at €100. Opening hours weekdays 7.30am-8pm, Saturdays 9am-5pm and Sundays 9am-noon.
St Barths Gym, St-Barth Beach Hotel, Grand Cul-de-Sac.
They also have a large room with weights and some machines. Also classes including Stretch and Body Sculpt. Weekly membership €100. Open weekdays 7.30am-9pm and Saturdays 8am-3pm. Closed Sundays. |
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Hiking
There are no formally guided walks in St Barths that cover the local flora and fauna. The only recognised footpath is to Colombier in the northwest, but it is possible to walk around some of the headlands in the east of the island. Surprisingly, for such a small island, they can be quite remote, so you should take plenty of water with you. |
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History/Population/Politics
St Barts was known as Ouanalao before the arrival of the Europeans at the end of the fifteenth century, but it was soon renamed after Christopher Columbus’s brother Bartolomeo. Columbus himself sighted the island on his second voyage to the Caribbean, in November 1493, as he headed north through the islands with colonists for the first colony in the New World in Hispaniola.
The Spanish held dominion in the Caribbean until the mid 1600s when other Europeans began to settle the smaller, remoter islands. Pirates no doubt used the excellent harbour, but for many years St Barths was largely ignored by potential settlers. It was an extremely hard place to settle because of the lack of water. Eventually though, a few hundred French settlers, mostly from the Northwest, from Britanny and Normandy, managed to establish a simple existence.
But then in 1785 something unexpected happened. The island was leased to the Swedes, literally exchanged for French trading rights in the Baltic. The Swedes made the island into a free port, a status that it has to this day, and encouraged it to trade. Its town became known as Gustavia after the Swedish King, Gustav III. The population soared to 6000, a level that was only reached again in recent years with the popularity of tourism. It was extremely successful for a few decades, but then gradually the heyday declined and the island fell into ruin and disrepair. Eventually, in 1878, it was returned to France, after a vote by the islanders (351 to one).
The island now has the status of a municipality, within the Région of Guadeloupe (with St Martin, the French side of the nearby island it makes up a commune). In truth the island is very unlike its larger neighbour to the south and with its newfound wealth from tourism it had gradually entertained dreams of autonomy. There was a referendum recently and it looks as though the island’s political status will change in 2006 or 2007, possibly becoming a Collectivité d’Outre Mer. |
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Horse Riding
Horseback riding is available on St Barths through St Barth Equitation at the Ranch des Flamands, which is at the end of an incredibly rough road high above Flamands in the northwest. There is a ring for dressage, but they also take out guided rides that follow footpaths through the scrub high on the ridge in the north-west of the island and then descend to Flamands beach. There are also a number of ponies for children to ride. St Barth Equitation is headed up by qualified horsewomen Coralie Fournier 690 62 99 30 and Nathalie Moison 690 39 87 01. |
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Island Hopping
St Barths is well positioned for island-hopping. It is close to a number of other islands which are completely different in character, so there is easy access and pleasure in the variety. Good options to combine with St Barths are Anguilla, for its superb beaches, good hotels and excellent restaurants, and Nevis, which has an unutterable, slow, small island charm and a lushness about it that the other islands in the area do not have. Anguilla has hotels of a similar standard (if rather larger) to those in St Barths. The hotels in Nevis are also small, but have a less sophisticated charm. A little farther afield, the British Virgin Islands are spectacularly beautiful and quite developed. They are also less sophisticated than St Barths, but they have some good hotels and of course some of the finest sailing in the whole Caribbean.
St Barths is also good to visit by yacht. It is an easy run across from both the French and Dutch sides of St Martin and there are good day anchorages on the offshore cays between there and St Barths.
For Day Trips by boat to offshore and nearby islands, see Day Sails and for inter-island boats, see Ferries.
Airlines
Several regional airlines run a schedule of flights to St Maarten/St Martin, from where you can make connections all over the region, and to the other French Caribbean island of Guadeloupe. It is worth remembering that some of these airlines also offer ‘share charters’, from St Maarten or from Antigua.
Charter Airlines
You can charter a small plane any of these companies, but there are also many small charter airlines that operate out of other islands in the area. Of course it is possible to arrange the charter with a company that originates at your destination island. Only certain companies are able to fly into St Barths however, as pilots need a special licence to land on the strip.
Regional and charter airlines that are permitted to land in St Barths include:
St Barth Commuter
A local airline based in St Barths, which offers scheduled flights to St Martin/St Maarten and private charters to islands all over the Eastern Caribbean. They have a fleet of five twin-engine planes and five specially trained (STOL) pilots with permission to land in St Barths. |
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Local Organisers
A local organiser or event planner is your fast track to specialist knowledge about the island. Pretty much anything is available in St Barths if you are prepared to pay for it, and a local organiser will source it or arrange it for you. This can mean anything from provisioning your yacht (helping you to find the very best Sancerre and foie gras, or the best Champagne and caviar) through to a dinner on a clifftop for two. They can also arrange tours, private yachts for day trips to nearby islands, or a wedding festivity for five hundred, with fire-eaters and parachuting gorillas if that’s what you’ve just got to have. You are limited only by your imagination and possibly your wallet. Once you are a client, they are happy to book (the best) restaurant tables for you, but they do not usually offer this service on its own.
On DefinitiveCaribbean, our chosen local organiser is Melanie Smith and her company Destination Management Services.
| | Destination Management ServicesSt Barths’ leading destination management company, founded and operated by American Melanie Smith, whose carefully selected team will source the very best of the island for you, which in St Barths is considerable. They offer a highly personalised service and can arrange concierge services and VIP assistance, private yacht services and are the premier organisers of weddings, parties, special events and corporate functions on the island. |
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Local Transport
There is no local bus transport in St Barths (except for schoolchildren). |
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Medical
In case of emergency your first port of call should be your hotel reception, or your villa manager or rental agency, which will put you in touch with one of the doctors on call. There is a simple Accident and Emergency department in the island clinic which will patch you up if you have a minor accident. However, currently the clinic in St Barths is not permitted to undertake any surgical procedures and so if that is what you need then you will be flown off island, to St Martin for simple operations, but possibly farther afield to San Juan in Puerto Rico or to Guadeloupe. You are advised to check your insurance because it is likely to be extremely expensive.
No special vaccinations are required to visit St Barths. |
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Music
Music in St Barths is as international as you would expect of an island that is French, in the Caribbean and has a huge constituency of wealthy and stylish visitors from both sides of the Atlantic. The island hums to a background pulse of Caribbean rhythms, zouk from the French islands and reggae from Jamaica, on top of which there is hip world and international music, and then, unfeasibly for the Caribbean, but typically somehow for St Barths, there are some classical overtones.
The St Barth Music Festival is held each year in January, and it features an unlikely combination of chamber music and jazz. It sees many extremely accomplished performers (from the Berlin and New York Philharmonic Orchestras, for example in 2004) and so you never know who might turn up. You can see them practising and performing in the churches and bars. |
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