A Proud Nevis Ambassador

In my youth, I never dreamt of becoming a travel writer, or even a journalist. Things just sort of worked out that way. But I was always an avid reader and I often wondered about far-off places.

My earliest such thoughts probably began after my maternal grandmother, Mary Josephine Iassac Spencer, whom we called Nana, returned from a transatlantic voyage to Saint Kitts and Nevis with a souvenir plate. The plate featured a richly colored map of the dual-island federation.

I remember looking at that plate and learning St. Kitts was shaped like a chicken drumstick. I’d stare at the plate for long periods, surveying the different parishes, wondering what each must be like. Even then I didn’t dream that years later I’d have the chance to find out for myself.

So I couldn’t be more thrilled and honored to have been named a Nevis Tourism Ambassador for 2022 by the Nevis Tourism Authority (NTA). In this role, which is almost all ceremonial, I’ll showcase Nevis’ visitor offerings in TravelPulse.com coverage and through my own social media platforms.

Incredibly, I’m joined in this honor by some truly accomplished (and unlike me, actually famous) figures. They include music star and former Spice Girl Mel B; model and actress Nikeva Stapleton and award-winning spa and luxury travel influencer Ava Roxanne Stritt.

Return to Nevis

I started in my new role (as it were) in late February, returning to Nevis for my first visit since 2017. The trip included two nights at the Montpelier Plantation and Beach, a lush hillside resort in the shadow of 3,200-foot Nevis Peak. I also stayed two nights at the Four Seasons Nevis, a sweeping beachfront luxury resort with hillside villas, deluxe beachfront suites, private cabanas and multiple dining options.

I spent one afternoon exploring with Greg Phillip, a former NTA CEO and now CEO of Nevis Sun Tours, through which he provides visitors with an insider’s look at the island.

After breakfast at the seaside Café Des Arts, Greg and I examined historic documents and photographs at the nearby Nevis History/Alexander Hamilton Museum. Later, we walked to the Jewish Cemetery in Nevis’ historic capital of Charlestown and then stopped to place our feet into the healing waters of the thermal springs outside of the Bath Hotel.

The hotel is an imposing stone structure built in 1778 and whose noteworthy guests included Lord Nelson, Samuel Taylor Coleridge. Later the tour continued as Greg’s ATV embarked down a winding, vegetation-covered road to Cottle church, built by Nevis planter and politician John Cottle in 1824 as a place where his family and enslaved people could worship together.

The Anglican church ostracized Cottle for his practices and refused to sanctify the structure. But his defiant move was one of the first to lead to slavery’s end in England’s Caribbean colonies.

Nevis is more than its history, however. Naturally magnificent island even by Caribbean standards, its brilliant blue waters and intimate, white-sand beaches feature pristine turtle-nesting grounds and vibrant reefs. Visitors can opt for world-class sailing, sport fishing, diving and kayaking excursions across the territory.

The island’s mountainous character (Nevis Peak is at the island’s center and is visible from virtually any point) also creates ideal conditions for hiking, horseback and motorized tours in leafy hillside rainforests filled with ruins from colonial sugar plantations. I completed one of my favorite Nevis activities, an ATV circumnavigation of the island with Queen City Adventure Tours, during my visit.

This year NTA will resume some of its island’s most popular events. The Nevis – St. Kitts Cross Channel Swim, set for March 27, challenges participants to race the 2.5 miles from Nevis to St. Kitts. The event had been canceled for two straight years due to the pandemic but in 2022 returns for its 20th anniversary.

I’m honored to be named an ambassador for the beautiful Caribbean nation that was the home to my grandmother and my great Uncle Joseph, who helped to raise me as I grew up in New York. I often think of the relatives who may still reside in our shared ancestral home. I'll be returning to Nevis in the near future, and perhaps then I'll learn more about my history.

But even if I had no ties to this country, I’m sure I’d be genuinely impressed by the array of natural and man-made wonders that fill this tiny sister of a dual-island nation. Nevis is naturally something special.