The Best Outdoor Activities in St. Kitts

When in the Caribbean, you’d be remiss to head home without getting on the water, even if just for a lazy sail. Blue Water Safaris offers boat tours and private charters, with options ranging from half-day cruises along the coast and full-day sails to nearby Nevis, to mini speedboat tours with stops for snorkeling. Also available are sunset excursions, which can include onboard snacks and cocktails or finish at Cockleshell Beach for dinner at Spice Mill Restaurant.

For a thrilling way to explore St. Kitts, get behind the wheel of a 4x4 dune buggy and follow Kittitian guide Oto on a tour of the island. Your journey will start on the sands of South Friar’s Bay and continue down dirt paths and hidden roads into the highlands for dramatic views and some bumpy, dusty fun. The tour ends back on the beach, where you can swim and snorkel for the rest of the day.

Standing at 3,793 feet, this towering, verdant peak is the island’s highest point. The dormant volcano is covered mostly in rain forest and capped with a cloud forest, making it ideal for a beautiful hike. The climb is an arduous one, however, and shouldn’t be attempted without a guide. If you manage to reach the top, you’ll be rewarded with sweeping views of St. Kitts, the Caribbean Sea, and neighboring islands like Nevis, Antigua, and Saba.

Some zip line parks are one-and-done—you arrive, sit for orientation, take a single (if exhilarating) ride, and get back in the car. Not so at Sky Safari, located at St. Kitts’ Wingfield Estate. Here, you start with a training run on a short zip line, then head into the jungle for the main attractions: four more lines that run over the lush canopy of slumbering stratovolcano Mount Liamuiga. The first three lines, named The Boss, Mango Tango, and Brimstone Blast, measure up to 1,400 feet long, while the fourth is a dual zip line that crosses over a river and ends near the ruins of a historic sugar plantation. As you soar, you’ll reach heights of 250 feet and thrilling speeds of up to 40 miles per hour.

If you’re driving out to the beaches or bars of St. Kitts’ southeast peninsula, make sure to stop for an envy-inducing photo op at the top of Timothy Hill. Up here, your 360-degree view includes the Atlantic Ocean, the Caribbean Sea, Friar’s and Frigate bays, Nevis, and the hilly peninsula itself.

Adjacent to Romney Manor and the Caribelle Batik factory, Wingfield Estate is a former sugar plantation dating back to the mid-1600s. Here, you’ll find ruins of the rare St. Kitts sugar mills, which were powered by water instead of wind. Also on-site are the remains of a stone chimney, a distillery, and an aqueduct system that brought water from the Wingfield River down the slopes of Mount Liamuiga.