Trip Report: St. Vincent & the Grenadines
Visited in March 2025
This trip report is part of a four-part series. This is the second part and for a better understanding it is worth starting with the first article and going through the articles in chronological order.
My trip to St. Vincent & the Grenadines began with something unusual that happened at the airport gate in Grenada when I was waiting for my flight to St. Vincent.
I was approached by a young gentleman who asked me if he knew me from somewhere. I had no idea why he should know me, so I said no. But then he asked me if I had a travel blog. It turned out that he had visited this blog some time ago and had read a few articles. And now he recognized me at the gate.
That was really fascinating. On the one hand, because this blog doesn’t have a massive reach (if the trend of the first three months of 2025 continues, there will probably be 200,000 visits this year). On the other hand, I often read travel blogs, but I hardly notice who the author is. And if I do, I forget it within seconds.
The young man’s name was Somya and he was from India, but he was studying in the USA and traveling the Caribbean just like me. He was spending the exact same amount of time in St. Vincent & the Grenadines, but hadn’t booked or planned anything yet. So I asked him if he would like to climb the Soufrière volcano with me as soon as we arrived.
St. Vincent & the Grenadines is a country of 32 islands and cays. St. Vincent is the largest island, but other well-known islands include neighboring Bequia and Mustique, an island for the wealthy or famous. On my trip through the Eastern Caribbean, I spent most of my time (2.5 days) in this country. I booked my hotel for the entire time on the main island, although I wanted to see Bequia as well.
On the main island of St. Vincent, however, I had a similar problem as in Grenada: I could hardly find any activities that I thought I couldn’t miss. Like most islands in the Caribbean, the island is of volcanic origin, which usually means black sand beaches. There really aren’t many nice beaches here.
And there aren’t many other attractions either. Except… one of the most active volcanoes in the Caribbean is located here. The last time it erupted was in 2021, putting half the Caribbean out of action for weeks. Climbing this volcano sounded like fun, especially since I love volcanoes.
I wanted to avoid renting a car and driving myself around all these Caribbean islands. But the dilemma is that getting a private tour is very expensive and it is also hard to find group tours to join. I received several offers for a private volcano hike and the price was usually between 250-300 USD. Too much.
Only Detention Tours (Whatsapp: +1784 432 2130) offered me 150 USD, which I was willing to pay. But now that Somya was joining, the price became 200 USD. So 100 per person.
The drive from the airport to the volcano took a good hour. There we got a guide and started the 2.5 hour climb. I have to admit that I underestimated the hike a bit and thought it would take about three hours. But since you have to climb 1,200m and the terrain is very slippery, especially in the last part (two steps forward, one step back), the hike wasn’t as easy as I thought.
When we set off from the airport, it looked from afar as if the volcano was enclosed in a thick cloud of fog. In fact, the view at the top was not perfect, but still much better than expected. At least, we had a clear view of the two craters of the volcano.
This hike was almost a full-day trip, as it was already 5pm by the time I arrived at the hotel. St. Vincent is an island that cannot be completely circumnavigated by car. There are no roads in the north-western quarter of the oval-shaped island. So we drove back the same way, past the airport and then to Arno Vale, about fifteen minutes from the capital Kingstown, where my hotel was.
A few more words about St. Vincent. The trip confirmed the impression I had already described. It is a “normal” island with hills, mountains and green landscapes and, above all, black sand beaches. Certainly not an ugly island, but also not one that makes you think “wow”.
The next day I took the first ferry to Bequia (pronounced “beq-way” or “backway”). There are five ferries a day (www.bequiaexpress.com) between Kingstown and Port Elizabeth in Bequia, less on weekends. My plan was to take the first ferry there and the last ferry back from Bequia.
After the hour-long boat trip, Somya and I took a taxi straight to the hiking trail for Mount Peggy Peak (took about 10 minutes). It’s not a real hike, as you walk about 45 minutes to the top of a hill and then another 30 minutes back down again.
It was still exhausting as it’s a steep climb and the sun was pretty brutal. I didn’t remember the East Caribbean being as hot as this time from my first trip in 2022. Nevertheless, the effort was worth it. At the top, you’re rewarded with one of the best views I’ve seen in the Caribbean.
We then took a shared taxi to Princess Margaret Beach. This is a Caribbean dream beach with white sand and turquiose water. We spent the afternoon there before walking back to Port Elizabeth (20 minutes) to catch the Bequia Express back to St. Vincent.
I was very impressed with Bequia. The island is very quiet, beautiful and the perfect size. In retrospect, it would have been better to spend all my time in St. Vincent & the Grenadines on this island instead of booking two nights on St. Vincent.
From Kingstown, I then took a shared cab back to Arnos Vale. This ride confirmed my decision not to hire a car. The driver drove like a complete maniac on these narrow, winding roads, which sometimes went downhill for a hundred meters on one side.
The next day I left St. Vincent & the Grenadines again. My sixth country in the Lesser Antilles. As I’ve seen all the countries now that I’m writing this report, I would rank St. Vincent & the Grenadines in the middle of the countries.
Without Bequia, the country would probably have been pretty far down in my ranking, but Bequia makes up 2-3 places. So all in all, I was happy with St. Vincent & the Grenadines. I had a good time. Will I ever come back? As with all these Caribbean countries, I would tend to say no today. But who knows what the future holds.
Click here to find the trip reports of the 180+ other countries I have visited so far!
