Best of St Kitts Tour - Clay Villa

Looking for a review of this tour.:cool:

Looking for a review of this tour.:cool:

Funny you should ask this question and I'm glad you did because now my photo report will show up for someone doing a google search for information on this tour. We had a wonderful 8 day cruise on the Norwegian Epic last week. On January 29, 2014 we did the Best of St Kitts tour booked directly through Philip at Clay Villa. It was a wonderful tour that included Clay Villa, Romney Manor/Caribelle Batik & Brimstone Hill Fortress National Park. Philip was incredibly easy to work with via email. We had a choice of a shared larger vehicle or private taxi. Since there were four of us we decided to go with the private taxi - same price.

When we arrived at the port building we checked in at the information desk and told them we had tour booked through Clay Villa. Clay Villa had one central person coordinating their various tours so we had a short wait until everyone gathered.

Our driver was was Oliver- true gentleman. Here he is

On the way to Clay Villa he pointed out some landmarks and stopped so we could take photos of Egrets nesting

Here is photo of crosswalk taken from grassy area off highway where drivers park their vehicles leading toward the villa.

Accompanied by our driver we walked up the path and met Philip - here is photo taken with his permission. We very much appreciated his hospitality and humor.

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It's impossible to put into words the beauty of Clay Villa and the incredible scenery - both on the grounds and the sea views. I'm going to include a few photos to give you an idea.

Clay Villa has been added onto over the years. Photos from the front - pretend they are panorama.

Here's a picture of the four of us - best friends for many years. I'm the swollen ankles on the left :)

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Clay Villa photos continued

This is a private home still lived by Philip and his wife and family so you only see a couple of rooms inside. The views were spectacular and we would have been satisfied without going inside at all.

There are many little pocket gardens at the Villa -

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Thanks so much for the great pictures and review. Looking forward to more. :)

Clay Villa does some rescue work .. here are a couple of the resident monkeys

more scenic views

At the end of the Clay Villa portion of the tour we were given our choice of a rum punch, soda or cold beer and then payment was collected.

Romney Manor / Caribelle Batik

We got there just at the end of the batik presentation. It is done periodically but had seen it on youtube so didn't wait as we wanted to enjoy the grounds. Here are some photos including part of the grounds, the amazing tree and the batik store.

We purchased a cute little batik bag with 3 miniature bottles of rum for under $10 - a nice souvenir.

We loved the entire tour but our last stop was the most impressive.

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Spoiler alert ...........

Our guide told us several times there were only 24 steps from lower area of fort to upper level. He didn't lie but lol didn't mention the four strides in between each step.

View going down these same steps - - lol it took me about 8 strides between steps on the way down. After falling and severely breaking my arm I am cautious.

Well worth it to make it to the top.

More photos of fort

Hopefully these are enough pictures to give you a good idea of the scope of the Best of St Kitts Tour through Clay Villa. We are having (for Oregon) a major snow storm and our friends that you've seen in these photos are flying in this evening and we need to pick them up at the airport. They stayed on for a 4 day cruise on the Sky ... will probably wish they'd stayed on for another cruise.

Wow, your pictures are amazing! Thank you so much for posting. I'm so glad that we booked this exact same tour (in a reverse order, but otherwise the same :)). The fortress looks so impressive!

kjquilts,

Thank you so much for your review and beautiful photos. We would love to do this on our November visit. What was the per person cost? Did you need to pay anything in advance?

Janet

kjquilts,

Thank you so much for your review and beautiful photos. We would love to do this on our November visit. What was the per person cost? Did you need to pay anything in advance?

Janet

Thank you :)

Here is the link to the page on Clay Villa's website for the Best of St Kitts tour. Their email address is shown on the page. Their home page shows the other tours available.

http://www.clayvilla.com/tours_main_24.asp

When we booked there was no deposit required - we paid after finishing the Clay Villa portion of the tour (it was our first stop). Because prices can change I'd contact Philip directly at the email address shown on their site for up to the minute information. I'm sure you'll hear back from him in a day or two. In my initial contact I told him the name of the ship and the day we were arriving and the number of people in our party along with the name of the tour we were interested in.

Wow, your pictures are amazing! Thank you so much for posting. I'm so glad that we booked this exact same tour (in a reverse order, but otherwise the same :)). The fortress looks so impressive!

Thanks so much. We were lucky to salvage some of the photos. My DH forgot his camera was in his swimsuit pocket and went into the water in Nassau. Of course he didn't tell me until we got home to Oregon. Did a google search and discovered salt water is the real curse so rinsed out the SD card with clear water and let it dry. Figured we couldn't hurt anything since nothing was showing up on the card. After it dried out the pictures were there and downloadable :)

Enjoy your tour.

Thanks so much. We were lucky to salvage some of the photos. My DH forgot his camera was in his swimsuit pocket and went into the water in Nassau. Of course he didn't tell me until we got home to Oregon. Did a google search and discovered salt water is the real curse so rinsed out the SD card with clear water and let it dry. Figured we couldn't hurt anything since nothing was showing up on the card. After it dried out the pictures were there and downloadable :)

 

Enjoy your tour.

 

 

Wow, that's good to know if heaven forbid it ever happens to us! Thanks for the tip. :cool:

Wow, that's good to know if heaven forbid it ever happens to us! Thanks for the tip. :cool:

Canada - your trip coming up soon? We will be looking for your review, too!:cool:

Kj - thank you for the review. Your pictures were marvelous and makes me anticipate our trip even more. I'm so glad you were able to save your pictures.:)

I'm curious how expensive the batik items were. I'm sure there was a variety of prices, but say how much was a shirt or a dress?

Cindy

I'm curious how expensive the batik items were. I'm sure there was a variety of prices, but say how much was a shirt or a dress?

 

Cindy

We went to the Batik on a different tour last September - bought a bracelet - I think it was $6?, a mens's short sleeve button up shirt was $52 and women's thin strap tank top (they called it a wrap top) was $40. We also bought 2 pillow cases but I can't remember the exact cost - maybe $18 - $22 each? They do take credit cards there.

I am certain that not everyone in our group will be able to do the steps to the top of the fortress. I am assuming that they can stat in the van or find an otherwise cool place out of the sun to wait for those who chose to go to the top?

Great review. Loved all the pictures. Now I know what to expect at the fort.

kjquilts I have a question at the Batik factory. Did they sell fabric yardage as well as finished items?

Norine

Just planning another trip to the Southern and checking the boards. Happy to second the recommendation for Clay Villa and their tours.

I have gone twice on two different trips both arranged through Clay Villa web site. Once solo and once with my sister and had a great time both times.

I did a island tour one visit (the solo one) actually ended up being the only person on the tour as another family didn't show up and still was treated with great respect both by Phillip and by the taxi driver who did my island tour. Felt completely safe and had a awesome island tour.

My sister and I did the same tour as pictured on another trip and had just as much fun as the first time. Delightful host and a beautiful villa/gardens and the island tour is a great bonus.

Highly recommended

We did the Best of St Kitts tour last week and had a wonderful time. I had pre-booked with Philip months ago and explained that I didn't want to be with a big group. There was a ship excursion through Princess (our ship) that morning, so Philip offered to do the tour in reverse. So we went to Brimstone Fortress, then Romney Manor, and ended up at Clay Villa. This worked perfectly as we avoided the crowds everywhere! :cool:

It was supposed to be just my husband and myself for a private tour (at no extra cost!), but we met a wonderful couple on our cruise and they ended up joining us. There was a mechanical problem onboard and we ended up having to tender to a different area. Fortunately Wilma, our taxi driver and guide for the day, was there waiting with a sign with my name on it when we disembarked the tender. She quickly made a phone call to add the extra two and we were on our way. Wilma was a very good guide and told us a great deal about the island as we went to the various locations.

We all thoroughly enjoyed the visit to the fortress. It is a bit of a walk, but not overwhelming and actually good exercise for us cruisers! ;) The view from the top is so worth it too!

We all loved Clay Villa. Unfortunately Bridget was unwell that day, but Philip was a wonderful host and we got to see a great deal of the house itself and all around outside. Truly a special place, with so many collections! And the entire place is beautiful, inside and out. 3 rum punches and a delicious fruit punch were enjoyed in Philip's bar before we said goodbye.

My only slight disappointment was at Caribelle Batik as I expected to see more of the actual process as opposed to just a brief description. But that is a very minor complaint. The garden area there is just beautiful!

We all thought it was a fabulous tour and would highly recommend it!

Thank you, Canada for the review. You and I have talked for months about this tour so I very happy you enjoyed your time.:)

dolfendreams - I also want to thank you for your comments. It looks as if we made a good choice.

Now I am excited to be able to come back in about two months and add our own experience.:)

For those interested, here is the response I received back from Phillip regarding the amount of walking on the Best of St. Kitts Tour. We do have a couple of people in our group for whom accessibility is a concern:

Hi Ginny

At the Fortress there is a small shop that has some seating with umbrellas, also there is the orientation room and gift shop that are all shaded.

At Clay Villa, there is seating on the verandahs, in the garden, as well as in the pub.

There is a mini version of the tour where you can take six steps into the house and see some of the gardens from the verandah.

No one will be left alone and either my wife or a tour guide will stay with those guests who do not wish to do much walking.

Ginny, I'm not surprised at all by Philip's very caring message to you. He truly is a sweet man, and very proud of his home and family. You will really enjoy your time with him. We were thrilled to have him all to ourselves that day. :)