St. Eustatius & The Old Gin House Hotel

The island itself was quite interesting with loads of history and people who were happy to share it with you. Bobby (a local gentleman in his 60's) was our taxi driver and island tour guide ($40 for the 4 of us). A good museum, a fort, small villages. Two volcanoes formed the island about 5000 years ago. There are some good hiking trails, but we didn't take advantage of them due to the late return from the dives. We did the tour on our first day.

It is a very laid back, quiet place. Great for a get-away from stress, or just relaxing. We met people who had been going back there for a number of years and LOVED it. It is definitely "like the Caribbean used to be". The Flamboyant Trees were in full bloom and breathtaking. Not much shopping, but that's OK with me.

The accommodations at the Old Gin House were quite nice, comfortable, clean, spacious. We had "Garden View" rooms that looked down on the back of the other building and a nice variety of trees, but had a very interesting view out the bathroom window. All rooms were in a modern building, attached to the Old Gin House which was a very old but restored building with the old, rather elegant bar, nice restaurant, and an interesting balcony over the bar room.

The continental breakfast consisted of a small plate of fruit - a slice each of apple, pear, orange, pineapple or melon and a few grapes. Some packaged muffins or rolls and really good crumb cake. No proteins. Most mornings there was coffee (that's another story).

Eggs with bacon or sausage was $4.50. Same for French toast.

Dinners were expensive ($26 - $29) at the Old Gin House, but there were three other places to eat lunch or dinner that were within walking distance and had good food and reasonable prices.

It was recommended that we not drink the tap water, though they said it was OK for brushing teeth. A 16 ounce bottle of water was provided per person per day. Water was not free at some restaurants, but charged same as sodas.

The Dive Guides were good, Lisa was excellent!

There were some good and interesting dive sites: wrecks, lava flows covered with corals, sponges, and a good variety of marine life, large, medium, small, and tiny. Schools of creole wrasses, jacks, and other smaller fish. There were turtles, numerous large sting rays, a shark or 2, even a turtle that came to us and wanted attention. That was a highlight of the trip.

Nitrox usually available at $10 additional charge.

All dives were at 60' +/-, so had less bottom time, and we hung on the mooring line for safety stops.

Water most of time was a bit rough, since the island is small and doesn't give protection from the wind. No walls or drop offs.

The boat returned to the dive pier between dives, and had to unload, fill, and reload all the tanks, which made for long SIT times, and "flexible" schedules (island time.) We were done with the "morning dives" about 2:00 pm. No snacks were provided, but you could buy water or sodas at the dive shop. After a very uncomfortable (read hungry) first dive day, I made sure I took food with me.

I'm glad we went. It is a nice island, and we enjoyed the laid back aspects of it.

Sue
Smiley's Scuba