Caribbean / Saba
Tropical Heidi

Chances are you haven't been to Saba. Just a little drift south of St. Barts. But as different as night & day. Guidebooks use 2 keywords for tourists: diving & hiking. You don't have to dive to enjoy it. Or even hike up the mountainsides. Ask for Sylvester, the cab driver, at the airport. For about $40 USD he will take you on a tour. Up & down to the various villages, stopping at scenic spots to take pictures. Sylvester is a true native of the island. Full of stories.

But walking is an unavoidable delight. Even if you don't climb the steps to Mount Scenery (which you should do, if you can). Especially in the village of Windwardside. Narrow old lanes. Stone walls. Rickety, but well maintained clapboard houses. Their compact yards enclosed by picket fences & their entrances marked with little gates. Small churches surrounded by neat cemeteries. Flowers everywhere. Goats, children & laundry swaying on the line. Everything small scale on a big scale backdrop.

Windwardside resembles some stoic New England seaside town. Cottages with a bit of Carpenter Gothic decoration. All in white. Trim is mostly dark green. The Caribbean touch is the red roof. Sylvester pointed out his house to us from high above saying "It's the one with the red roof." They're all red-roofed!

Saba has a certain style to it that no other Caribbean island has. It is unified in appearance. Restrained frivolity. Very clean. The Dutch influence is dominant. (You'll notice good Dutch chocolate & Heineken beer in stores.) Cottage settlements dot the mountainsides & stick-out in the verdant greenery. Like a setting from a Grimm's fairytale. Or a tropical "Heidi."

Scenery, architecture, wonderful people (and the diving, we hear, is fabulous). Those are the highlights. The nightlife is very limited. You can go for some late night pool at a couple of bars. There are a couple of good restaurants.

The shopping is almost non-existent. Saba lace is nothing special. Are there really people who serve hot rolls in lace-trimmed bread "cozies?" (We bought one anyway. To support the island's guild of older craftswomen). There are a few galleries where local artists display admirable paintings.

Don't expect luxury accommodations. No matter who advertises it... Oh yes, and don't waste your time looking for a beach! Save all that for another island.

Chances are Saba will never be your vacation destination. But you should visit this darling little volcanic outpost. If you're staying on St. Martin, catch the short flight over in the morning, to land on the shortest runway in the Caribbean. (Yee haa!) And stay for most of the day. Enough time to step into this fairytale, since it's only a few pages long.