St Barts - Beautiful beaches

Our sail from Statia to St Barts was the most leisurely sail we have experienced since arriving in the Caribbean, the winds were light and swell was small.  As it was not much over 20 miles so we were in no rush, we drifted along at 4 knots.  The visibility was fantastic and we were surrounded by islands, we could see Nevis, St Kitts, Statia, Saba, St Martin/Sant Maarten and St Barts, typically I wanted to take a video but the video camera was out of battery but did manage this on the normal camera.

After coming from Statia with a handful of boats in the anchorage, Gustavia in St Barts was quite a contrast, it was packed with boats! But we found and spot and thankfully not too rolly.

Look at all those boat & somewhere in there is Magnum

St Barts has an odd history in the 1600’s the French settled on the island but in the 1700’s the French gave the island to the Swedish and some reminisce of this time is seen in Gustavia but by the 1800 the island was back in the hands of the French.  St Barts has not seen the mass tourist development that some of the islands have seen as there were laws put in place in the 1950s to limit development which has lead to an island dotted with beautiful villas and small resorts which blend into the surroundings and do not spoil the beautiful beaches.  Funny that it is so close to Statia but couldn't be more different!

Gustavia harbour

St Bart museum

Amanda hot at the top of the hill, Magnum is in the distance

Busy Gustavia harbour

After we had explored Gustavia we spent a couple of nights in Anse De Columbier, a nature reserve, just relaxing and enjoying the snorkelling and some amazing sunsets - there are 3 different nights and all just as spectacular.

We headed back round to Gustavia so we could hire a scooter and see the island.

The mean machine

Basically this involves hopping from one beach to the next - think after the Saline pond, the first was Grande Cul de Sac.

Little birdie at salt pond

Yep a beautiful caribbean beach and it is empty!

The he next was St Jean, this is the most built up resort on the island although mega exclusive, I think the Eden Rock hotel is over 1000 euros a night but the beach is very chilled and you don’t have to use the luxury loungers at Nikki Beach.

St Jean is a fantastic beach for kids as shallow and beautifully clear

St Jean

Relaxing at St Jean

Next was onto the small village of Flamands which was very cute, with the Anse des Flamands at one end which would have been great for snorkelling

Anse Des Flamands

We then had our picnic and a dip in the waves at Anse a Galets.

Anse a Galets - it was almost deserted!

Anse des Flamands and Anse a Galets from the view point

Great view

It was getting a bit hot on the mean machine

Amanda's knees were getting burnt!

The other attraction at St Barts which cannot be missed is the airport, the planes have to drop in over a hill or over the beach and land on a tiny airstrip, it is great watching them fly in and it is actually busy all day with inter island flights.

Tiny airstrip at St Barts

Airport at St Barts

Won't torture you with any further photos of stunning beaches but we really loved St Barts, definitely could not afford to holiday there and it does feel like a little bit of Europe in the Caribbean but it is am amazing island.