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St Kitts

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Frightfully fabulous

Magazine October 2003

Its a world away from limbo dancers and beach buffets. Theres not a television to be seen and no phones in the rooms. But Neil MacLean found the house party atmosphere at his St Kitts hideway of Rawlins Plantation just spiffing dear boy.

St Kitts - Rawlins Plantation main house St Kitts - Beach at St Kitts St Kitts - Rawlins Plantation pool

1 Rawlins Plantation main house 2 Beach at St Kitts 3 Rawlins Plantation pool

CROQUET CAN BE A CRUEL GAME. One moment you are skipping through the hoops, heading for the home straight, looking forward to the winner’s laurels or at least the largest slice of banana cake, the next, a woman from Oxford has sent your ball halfway to Jamaica.

“Really, it’s not like staying in a hotel at all here,” said Lou, a fellow guest, as I shouldered my mallet and headed off into the fields. “It’s like staying with friends.”

Although not convinced friends would treat each other so meanly on the croquet lawn, I could see her point. Unless you choose to stay in your cottage all day or wrap your head entirely in a scarf, it’s hard not to be drawn into the house party atmosphere at Rawlins Plantation. Even when you arrive, there is no swiping of credit cards or signing of registration books. You are just warmly welcomed, shown to your room and urged to join afternoon tea in the gazebo down by the pool.

"Frightfully relaxed"

I’ve never been invited to a house party in my life; but after just a few hours I found myself talking like someone from a Noel Coward production.

“Yes, it is frightfully relaxed here, isn’t it?” I said, extracting my croquet ball from the middle of a clump of sugar cane - the first time in my life I have ever knowingly used the word “frightfully” (and I have been a bit of a stranger to croquet as well).


Sugar cane is a leitmotif on any visit to St Kitts. So thoroughly was it planted during colonial days, at times the entire island seems to ripple in the breeze. In its green and fertile corner on the west side of the island, the garden and the grounds around the Rawlins Plantation house seem more like a 25-acre island hemmed in by a green tide.

This is the least touristy side of St Kitts. The black-sand coast nearby is not recommended for swimming, there are few must-see sights in the vicinity and the rutted bucking bronco track up to the house deters most casual visitors. All these factors conspire to bring Rawlins” devotees back time and again, addicted to the peace and tranquillity and drawn to the house by what it doesn’t have as much as by what it does. Many have no interest whatsoever in the beach, don’t feel the need to see Brimstone Hill Fortress yet again and are perfectly content to sit around reading books.

There are no phones in the rooms, no televisions, no air conditioning, just fans and a reliable breeze. And the best of all, there is no thump of the disco at night and no Caribbean theme evening. Instead there are gardens of crotons, African tulip trees, chenille and oleander, brilliant little lizards that hang lazily from the balcony watching you eat your breakfast, and bandit-like bananaquits to raid your sugar bowl.

Accommodation at Rawlins is in a handful of renovated estate buildings dotted around the grounds. My own, Chimney Cottage, was beside a 60ft-high volcanic stone chimney, flecked with pale crotal,


and above the small, fresh, spring-fed swimming pool, sharing the dining room’s view across the sea to the Dutch Antillean island of St Eustatius.

This dining room that spills out onto the veranda is a favourite place for most guests, for Claire Rawson turns out some of the best food in the English-speaking Caribbean. Wedding her cordon bleu experience to her own island upbringing, she conjures up lobster cakes on wilted greens, chilled avocado soup, roasted local beets with oranges, walnuts and arugula (rocket), and lime parfait. At lunchtime her West Indian buffet veers towards the traditional with chicken and breadfruit curry, shrimp fritter with mango salsa, and plantains baked with pecans.

A walk in the rainforest

While the Rawlins swimming pool is barely big enough to work off those levels of calories, Paul Rawson is full of suggestions for anyone looking for exercise, organising a walk into the rainforest on Mount Liamuiga behind the hotel, trimming the lawn tennis court or setting up the croquet lawn for the sort of short, sharp contest that left me so roundly beaten.

Rawlins is not everybody’s cup of tea.

But it is a style of holiday that seems to suit a lot of people, and if you have had enough of beach resorts, limbo dancers and dull buffet food, it’s an option worth considering.

This article was featured in the October 2003 DialAFlight magazine and originally published in the Sunday Times. All information was correct at time of going to print.

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