Saba
Five Square Mile Volcanic Island With One Road, Mount Scenery (The Highest Point Of The Kingdom), Cloud Forest And The Saba Marine Park; Famously Short Runway · Windwardside, Saba
Saba is a tiny volcanic island in the north-eastern Caribbean, about 13 square km, part of the Caribbean Netherlands with fewer than 2,500 residents and the US dollar as its currency. It rises straight out of the sea as a single steep green cone, with no flat land to speak of, four small villages of white houses with red roofs and green shutters, and one road, simply called The Road, said to have been built largely by hand between roughly 1938 and 1958 after engineers declared it impossible. At the top stands Mount Scenery, about 887 m, the highest point of the whole Kingdom of the Netherlands, climbed by a stepped trail through cloud forest. Underwater, the Saba Marine Park, established in 1987, protects pinnacles, walls and seamounts with sharks, turtles and big schools of fish. People come for serious diving, hiking and quiet. The honest caveat: there are almost no beaches, getting there means a tiny plane or a rough ferry from St Maarten, and there is very little nightlife.
Saba, Caribbean Netherlands; Windwardside and The Bottom villages, the Road, Juancho E. Yrausquin Airport and Fort Bay harbour, Windwardside, Saba, Netherlands
An all-year island; trails are walked in daylight, and dive centres run boats most mornings, weather permitting. Winair flies from St Maarten several times a day in daylight only, because the runway has no lights - book ahead. Ferries, the Edge and the Makana, sail to Fort Bay in about 90 minutes on set days - confirm schedules. Shops and restaurants keep short hours and many close one day a week; book dinner and dives ahead. Pay marine park fees through your dive centre.