*TravelWorld International Magazine Spring 2024

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The yellow blossom is part of the enormous botanical
garden that surrounds Golden Rock Inn.
The beautiful pavilion at Golden Rock Inn Nevis is the place
for private lunches and dinners.
evis is itself a huge tropical
garden, with flowers growing
along every road. The volcanic soil
from its geologic origins produces
an amazing farrago of agricultural
riches, including 50 varieties of
mango fruit. Golden Rock Inn has
developed 40 of its 100 acres into a
lush collection of 65 species of palm
trees, ylang-ylang, bougainvillea,
trumpet flowers, gardenias, gigantic
philodendrons, bromeliads, and a
whole group of plants with health
benefits to humans, such as the
“Nonie” from Nigeria, which helps
those with diabetes, the “hangover”
tree, and other plants which aid
with digestion. The garden architect
from South Florida who designed
the collection is named, poetically,
Raymond Jungle.
Visitors who are inclined to hike
are tempted by the 3,232-foot Nevis
Peak, which dominates the scenery
of the island. Unless you’re an
experienced hiker, however, you
should probably stick to the areas
below the peak. Ivo Richly, general
manager of Golden Rock Inn,
climbed it when he first arrived and
said it took 12 ladders, and a lot of
rope, among other things, to get to
the top. There are plenty of other,
slightly easier hikes to take on Nevis
if you don’t want to deal with ladders
and ropes.
The last time Nevis Peak erupted
was 1,600 years ago, but active
fumaroles and hot springs are
signs of the thermal heat beneath
the surface, and the springs are a
delight to locals and visitors alike.
Wearing their bathing suits, they
bring picnics to the healing pools
in downtown Charlestown that are
said to assuage any pain and relax
any stress at any hour of the day or
night. It’s free to everyone.
etting around Nevis is easy
(not including swimming).
You can rent a bicycle and
explore Nevis on two wheels
with or without a guide, or you
can take a “Funky Monkey”
ATV tour and explore that
way. All beaches on the island
are open to the public, but when
Princess Diana came here with young
Princes William and Harry, she purposely
stayed at Montpelier Plantation because
she knew that the beach near that
property was so hidden by its tropical
growth that no paparazzi could find
it. You can ride horses on the beach,
incidentally.
Nevis may not have any fast food
restaurants, but it has a surprising
number of exceptional gourmet
restaurants: There’s “Luna,” with its roof
open to the night sky and a talented chef
from Calcutta. The quirky “Bananas”
restaurant sits at the top of a hill on an
impossibly winding road; it’s owned by a
British ex-pat who has taught her cadre of
local chefs to cook Creole/Mediterranean/
Moroccan specialties, served in a setting
that diners liken to “eating in a tree
house.” Mount Nevis Hotel brought Chef
Liam Haddow, a specialist in patisserie
from Great Britain, who presents arriving
guests with chocolate welcome pastries
and provides his own luscious fromscratch
red wine sauces for rack of lamb.
The settings of these and other
restaurants are spectacular, from the
candlelit gazebo dinners at Golden
Rock overlooking the koi pond to Drift’s
whitewashed bead-board cottage hanging
over the sea to private dinners inside
the 300-year-old sugar mill at Montpelier
Plantation Resort. If artist Vicki Fuller’s
dramatic paintings of Nevis fauna have
not all been sold out again from the walls
of Drift, as they were when we visited,
you can take home a stunning memory of
the island to hang on your wall.
Scrumptious dessert at Mount Nevis Hotel.
A typical breakfast at Golden Rock Inn is always special.
The chefs all make use of Nevis’ rich bounty, which
includes the many kinds of mango grown here;
the goats for their favorite stew (which they call,
unappealingly, “goat water”); coconut, pumpkin,
pea shoots; fish (often delivered to the restaurant in
person by the men who caught them the same day)
— and, of course, the local standby, rum.
My husband and I can’t wait to return to this pretty
little floral oasis in the middle of the Caribbean Sea.
We’ll no longer be strangers then. We’ll be Nevis's
“family” for the rest of time.
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