CaribbeanSt Kitts & Nevis

Want to ride a train in the Caribbean?

By July 6, 2017 No Comments
St Kitts Scenic Railway

Then St Kitts is the place to do it, because it has the “last railway in the West Indies”.

This historic track was laid down between 1912-26. It went in a big 30 mile circle around the island’s mountain and was financed by the various sugar plantations. They did this in order to take advantage of economy of scale and process all the sugar cane at one modern facility instead of several smaller and older ones scattered around the island. The train and factory worked and St Kitts was able to produce sugar until 2005, when the rest of the Caribbean shut down production by the mid 1900’s. Seeing the shutdown coming the St Kitts Scenic Railway started taking passengers two years before the last sugar haul.

It is on this historic railway you can tour the island of St Kitts. You will do 18 miles along the northern shore on the train and 12 miles along the southern shore on a bus. I was very excited about this train and when I found out the $140 price was only for cruise ship people and we would get to ride for $89 I wanted to do it even more. I recommend taking the 10am train instead of the 8:30 one since it will be less crowded. The 10am one takes you on the bus tour first and then you meet the train on the northwest part of the island.

This is where our trip hit a snag! We got the bus tour and great footage of the train arriving. We climbed aboard, had free cocktails, and took all the photos and video I could ask for. Turns out the reason I had so much time to take pictures is the train was broken, but the staff made the best of it and gave us a bus tour along the train path and then gave us a full refund. So Melek and I joke that we got took the train tour….kind of! We got the tour, sat on the train, got photos and videos, and it was all free. Not to shabby!

St Kitts Scenic Railway - 1st Church

One the bus part of the tour you will see the first church on the island as one of just many facinating historical sites

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