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Location, Location, Location: Nevis, West Indies

Bob Morris

January 1, 2004

When Christopher Columbus spotted this eight-mile-long island in 1493, he mistook its cloud-shrouded mountains for icy peaks and named it Nuestra Señora de las Nieves (Our Lady of the Snows). Nevis has been beguiling and delighting visitors ever since with its lush hills and valleys, sandy beaches and a cosmopolitan demeanor that belies its small size. Together with its sister island of St. Kitts, located about three miles northwest across a channel known as the Narrows, it is a constitutional monarchy and part of the British Commonwealth.

U.S. statesman Alexander Hamilton was born on Nevis, and the site of his former home in Charlestown, the cozy capital, is now a museum. At the height of British colonial expansion, Admiral Horatio Nelson was stationed in Nevis and married a local woman, Fanny Nisbet. The site of their 1787 wedding, the lovingly restored Montpelier Plantation Inn, is one of several historic inns. Built in 1740 and meticulously restored, the Hermitage Plantation Inn is one of the oldest wooden houses still in use in the Caribbean.  (Click image to enlarge)

With less than 10,000 residents, only one city of note and no stoplights, it takes about an hour to drive around the island on its major paved road. The opening of the 196-room Four Seasons Resort Nevis in 1991, home to a Robert Trent Jones II par-71 course, set Nevis’ course as a refined destination. Think St. Bart’s without the glitz. Diana sought refuge on Nevis when she split with Prince Charles, and in recent years it has become increasingly attractive to island home buyers. Among those who own a villa on Nevis is U.S. Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer.  (Click image to enlarge)