With more monkeys than people, uncrowded and unspoiled are words that perfectly describe the Caribbean island of St Kitts.
2. South Friar's Beach (below right) St Kitts is rich in beaches, secret coves and hot strips of bars. But for bona fide relaxing, to 'live de life', as the saying goes, hit South Friar's Beach. Goats skitter along a road lined with clammacherry trees full of velvet monkeys. The sweet curve of South Friar's sugar-white sand is broken only by the occasional colourful refreshment shack with a scattering of plastic chairs placed for a perfect view of the turquoise sea.
3. Cricket fever Actor Robin Williams once called cricket 'baseball on valium', but on St Kitts the graceful colonial sport is almost a religion. So taken with cricket are Kittitians that each time an important game is played a national holiday is declared. Visitors who enjoy the game will be bowled over by the number of chances to see, or even play, in a match; there is always someone playing some-where. Catch a professional fixture at shiny new Warner Park Stadium or an after-work game with the locals.
4. Kittitian cuisine To taste some authentic Caribbean flavour, try Mr X's Shiggidy Shack Bar and Grill (Frigate Bay; tel: 869 762 3983). Two worn, upright surfboards stuck into the sand mark the entrance to one of St Kitts' most atmospheric eateries. A jumble of old picnic tables shares the sand with bleached wooden fishing boats. Bonfires, music and tasty 'cook-ups' - one-pot meals of red beans, rice, pork, chicken, fish and lots of garlic - abound. In the main town of Basseterre, grab a stool at the counter of Netta's Deli (Fort Street, tel: 869 466 7808) for coconut dumplings and salt fish. Just as tasty but a little more polished is Island Spice (Sugar's Complex, Frigate Bay; tel: 869 465 0569), where there's a cosmopolitan twist to local food such as 'The National Dish', a combination of salted codfish, eggplant and plantain.