Guide to SABA! (20 things to do in the Caribbean's smallest island)
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- Опубликовано: 20 июн 2024
- We're visiting Saba island in the Dutch Caribbean! We're showing you the best things to do on the island in our vlog & travel guide which includes a hike to Mt. Scenery (the tallest point in the Kingdom of the Netherlands), shots of the world's shortest airplane runway, and plenty of beautiful (and challenging!) hikes!
We're Brandi & Alan, full-time travelers and creators since 2018. We post fun vlogs and informative guides to both document our travels and help you on your own journey.
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Planning your own trip to Saba, the "Unspoiled Queen of the Caribbean"? Add these to your itinerary!
1. Take the Makana Ferry from St. Maarten to Saba - popular as a day trip because it only takes about an hour and is a gorgeous ride!
2. Take a ride through Saba island. It's as scary as it is beautiful!
3. Try some local cuisine at one of the few restaurants! (We went to Saba Snack!)
4. Hike to Mt. Scenery, the highest point in the Kingdom of the Netherlands!
5. Want a workout? Hike the Elfin Forest trail!
6. Try to see if you can catch a ride by hitchhiking which is allegedly a popular thing to do on the island!
7. Hike down to the see incredible coastlines and old Sulphur Mines (or plan a tour to see the inside of them!)
8. Hike up, down, and along the edge of the volcano on the "All Too Far" trail!
9. Shop locally grown produce to support local farmers in Windwardside on Wednesdays!
10. Want an easier trail than Mt. Scenery, but a similar vantage point? Check out the Mas'Cohones Trail!
11. Support more local businesses by shopping the local eats section at the two grocery markets in Windwardside! (They're SO good!!!)
12. Hike the Bottom Mountain Trail to cross between Windwardside and The Bottom
13. Explore to capital of Saba, "The Bottom"!
14. Chat with some of the locals - they are extremely friendly and are filled with history and stories about the island!
15. Visit the Major Osmar R. Simmons Museum to learn about the history of Saba! (And donations are greatly appreciated by the owner to support their family museum! :D)
16. Hike the historic Ladder to get down to the ocean!
17. Hike the Spring Bay Trail (I misspoke and called it the Sandy Bay Trail in the video)
18. Continue onward to the Saba Heritage Trail to see the oldest ruins on the island!
19. See the coolest landscape at the Tide Pool Trail!
20. Interested in aviation? Watch planes take off and land at the shortest airplane runway in the world!
BONUS: Visiting during the holidays? try to catch the New Years Fireworks Show! It's located at the airport and a full half-hour long!
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CHAPTERS
0:00 How to get from St. Maarten to Saba by Ferry
1:23 The scary taxi ride!
3:35 Saba Snack
5:09 Tour of the most AMAZING Airbnb!
9:18 Hiking Mt. Scenery
11:15 Elfin Forest Trail
13:23 The Hitchhiking Fail
14:34 Sulphur Mines
16:02 All Too Far
17:36 Food Truck, Mas'Cohones, & Fireworks!
19:31 More local eats! :)
21:51 The Bottom
25:26 The Ladder
26:54 Spring Bay & Saba Heritage Trails
27:52 Thanks for watching! Subscribe for more adventures! :D
You guys did an amazing job of describing and showing the beauty of the island my father, and his entire family, are from. My father was born on Saba in 1960 and immigrated to NYC with his parents when he was six. Every summer, for the first 21 years of my life, I would be shipped down to Saba to house hop amongst all my great Aunts and Uncles. My fathers people have been on Saba since the early 1600s (surnames Hassell, Zeagers and Johnson), and most of the natives of Hell's Gate ( Zions Hill ) and Windwardside are my family in some form or another. The videos you took of the trails, which were all used once upon a time to connect the villages and farmlands, are amazing. I hope others find this video and are inspired to visit, and appreciate, the natural beauty of Saba. Thank you for sharing your experience with others :).
Wow, thank you so much for your kind comment and taking the time to share a bit about your family history. We absolutely loved Saba and hope that more people discover and visit it - such a beautiful and special island! :)
Thank you again, it really means a lot to us to get such sweet comments like yours!!
I did a search for videos about Saba and your video popped up. Thanks for making the video. Saba is one of my favorite places. I’ve been there ten times, first in 1986 and last in December 2019, just before the pandemic. The first time I went I loved it so much that I shed some tears when leaving.
Unfortunately because of mobility problems going to Saba now is out of the question. But I can travel vicariously and I went to Saba through you. If you ever go again I suggest hiking to Mary’s Point, where you find the remains of a small village that was abandoned early in the 20th century due to its isolation. I hope you enjoy your future travels and I plan to check out more of your videos.
Thank you so much for watching! It must have have been really interesting to see the island change over the years. I'm glad that despite your mobility issues, the island can continue to be documented and shared online - and I am so happy to hear that you were able to re-experience it through youtube.
Thank you so much for your tip. We would love to see that village on a future visit!
That intro tho!!!!! Love the cinematic vibes. Saba looks gorgeous.
You just added another place to our list as usual 😂
Thank you guys!! It is so beautiful! Definitely worth adding to the list! Hope ya'll are having a great time in LATAM. You said you were headed to Argentina right?
I really don’t know how to praise you enough. Your description column is so detailed, I think you could publish a book!
That Airbnb is very cool, it’s like luxury glamping as Brandi said!
The 7'47" rock looks like a smaller version of Taiwan at first glance, haha!
It’s so special to see you standing higher than the clouds. The view from the mountain is so beautiful!
Look at the way Alan eats that chicken roll, I believe it must be delicious, haha!
For those who like hiking, this island is a paradise and a very suitable place for vacation!
Thanks a lot for sharing, really great job! 👍🥰🙏
Aww thank you, that is so sweet of you!! Maybe one day we can publish one... need to work on my writing skills though! lol
Ohhh, I see it hahah! Oh gosh, we miss Taiwan! Maybe we will make it for a visit, we're planning on heading to East Asia in March!
Alan is a bit of a savage!! lol.
Thank you again! It's so nice that you have continued to following along and have enjoyed other parts of the world by video too! :D
@@IfWeGoTo It is my pleasure, thanks to you too!
In fact, the way Alan eats is very suitable for being an advertising star, haha!
Take good care! Happy travels! 👍🥰🙏
Hahaha, maybe we will have to pitch him for a food commercial!
You do the same, thank you!
@@IfWeGoTo Maybe he could start with a KFC commercial, haha! Thanks again! 🤩🙏
Ohh I love this idea!! lol@@giannishen
Hope Alan's dad is getting better by the minute
Thank you!! He has thankfully been stable and is still putting up a heck of a fight!
Amazing video about Saba, thank you! We might visit it this September.
Thank you!! So happy you enjoyed it! I hope you get to visit, it’s such a beautiful island!!!
Too bad your shoulders touch the ceiling lol. Hippie BoHo is the way to GoGo. What a view from the top of the Netherlands! Way to push through the tough hike Brandi! What a beautiful island!
I hate when youtube deletes replies!!! lol. I don't know if this will show up twice or just this time lol.
Thank you guys! It would definitely not be the first time he was too big for an airbnb! lol.
It is definitely a gorgeous destination!! Worth a visit for sure!
@@IfWeGoTo it's definitely on our list now! And we only saw your reply once. 😜
Hope you guys can make it there soon! It's gorgeous!
Good night. Wonderful place for holidays😊
Thank you, and agreed! It would be a great spot for a relaxing vacation!
You legit just taught us about an island we have not heard about before.
Ahhh glad to share a bit about it!! Hahaha.
So jamaican music these people are playing it's a good look 🎉
Ahh thank you!! Glad you noticed - we always try to use regional music! :D
Really nice video. Went to Sint Maarten once but missed out on Saba (and Sint Eustatius, but did go to Anguilla). Now it sort of feels like I went there anyway. Thanks guys!
Thank you so much!! How was Anguilla?? I guess we did the opposite, we tried to make it to Anguilla, but didn't!
Glad we could bring you along to Saba, even virtually! Thanks for watching and commenting! :)
@@IfWeGoTo Anguilla is very tranquil with a lot of the whitest sand beaches you will ever see. However there is not a lot of adventure, so I think you guys picked the right islands. I also still need to go there some day to complete my full Kingdom of the Netherlands tour ;)
Oh the beaches sound incredible... definitely a must-see. One day!
Glad to hear we picked a great adventure island!! But you should definitely go!! We just finished our Kingdom of the Netherlands tour (Statia isn't up yet!) and loved every island!! :D
@@IfWeGoTo Very cool! You beat a Dutchman to it ;) But I agree, all caribbean islands I have been were very nice. Btw. we have some more islands in The Netherlands to explore: "De Waddeneilanden" ;)
Wow that hike is epic 😍😍😍
Saba is definitely one of the most beautiful places we’ve been!!
It's so green!! That airbnb is amazing! We need to go here!
It’s beautiful!! Definitely would recommend a stop in Saba! Although be sure to get ready for some serious hiking!! 😂
My wife and I vacationed on Saba twice now and hiked all over the island. I would love to live there. Truly a unique destination.
Right? It's such a beautiful little gem, glad you and your wife got to experience it as well!!
@@IfWeGoTo Oh yeah! We sat down and chatted with Mr. Barnes on both of our trips. It's so funny, you're just hiking along and all of a sudden there's his home and he's just hanging out waiting for someone to talk to!
@@CoryDrummer Oh that's so cool you got to meet him too!! He was a pleasure to chat with and has a lot of interesting stories to share!! He must enjoy all of the visitors! :)
i love how real you both are... hoping for more videos
Wow, thank you so much!! Hoping to get videos out a bit more consistently soon here!! 😃
🏝️🏝️🏝️
Always the first lol
@@IfWeGoTonever lose
@@1peruvianguy I hope to see your streak keep up forever!! hahaha
So fun :D
Thank you!! Saba is a blast! 😃
Alan is so handsome especially with the tan on his skin 🥰
I will pass your comment along! He will surely be flattered!! Thank you! :D
Looks like Coochie was your taxi driver in the beginning of the video. Pretty sure that was his van. Nice guy. Love Saba. Been there twice. My wife and i know the hill going back to your accomodations very well as we stayed at the end of the road. Brutal grade to walk. The road to our accomodations eas so steep that taxis made us walk to the top of the hill if it was raining because it was too steep for them to get back up.
That is correct! He was a very nice driver! But that hill was indeed brutal! hahaha. Fortunately we did not get a ton of rain while there and did not have any taxi issues, but that is great to know for the future.
Thank you for sharing!
🙏🙏👍👍
Thank you!! ❤️
You look familiar- did we shared a hostel in Koh Tao somewhere in February 2024 ??
Hi!! We were in Thailand last year in January/February, but not Koh Tao! We were in Bangkok, Khao Lak, Surin Islands, and Phuket! Is it possible we ran into each other there??
I am always curious to know when people go to places on earth where 99.99999999% of people never travel to, how did you come across places like these? I've never heard of the name until now.
Hi Raymond! Thanks for watching and asking, this is such a good question!!
We learned about Saba wayyyy back when we first started traveling! Our first ever big trip was to Bonaire, which we chose based on a TON of research on good & safe shore diving locations. Bonaire is lumped in with special municipalities of the Netherlands: Bonaire, St. Eustatius, and Saba!
Out of curiosity we read about these places and learned Saba is another remote/beautiful nature destination. We knew we wanted to visit one day, but just recently had our chance because we happened to be in the region!
So long answer short... just a lot of reading and research! :)
@@IfWeGoTo Thanks for the quick and detail reply, much appreciated :)
Anytime, I love chatting with people in the comments, so thank you for taking the time to do so! :D
Cheers!
You clearly have not yet been to Reunion! :)
We have not, but it looks incredible!
Who was your cab driver?
We used both Cuchi and Eric, both were fast, but good drivers! 😆
@@IfWeGoTo haha! When I was a teen I spent my time in Cuchi’s car while he drag raced across that island! Totally scary and I don’t regret it one bit. Clearly he was not a taxi driver then. Good times.
Hahaha he was definitely fast but I might have died of a heart attack racing!!! Thanks so much for sharing this story with him, it's interesting to hear about other's experiences!! :)
If you’re not crying, Alan hasn’t found a hard enough trail.
If I haven’t cried is it even an adventure? 😂
😂😂😂
What does it matter the race of his kids.....friends dont make fun of friendly people.He was nice enough to invite in his space genuinely.How hypocritical to publicly make fun of him
Wait… we were absolutely not making fun of him or his children in this, so I don’t understand how you interpreted it that way?
We met with him multiple times, even before we left the island we made a point to stop by. He told us many stories about how he was the first white man to have married a black woman and have mixed children on the island… and how it affected them. At the time was unheard of and taboo - causing issues for him and his family, which he shared a bit about. The race did matter in this case, because he was the first person in the history of this place to truly break down the racial barriers that existed at the time and make a change. We thought that was kind of significant to meet someone who literally made history there, so we shared it here.
We had a chuckle not because of that, but because he had 22 kids!! 22! Could you imagine having 22 children? That’s so many?! That and his direct descendants alone made up 1% of the islands population. We found that to be an interesting fact/unheard of in most places. We had a laugh about it *together* with him because I think anyone who’s parented 22 kids could have a laugh about the absurdity of it. There’s a whole television show about people who’ve had less than him! Laughing had nothing to do with the race of his children though.
Also, I don’t know if English is your first language or not, but saying “that’s crazy!” is a response to a situation that’s amazing/unusual/unexpected.. etc. it’s not an insult or bad thing in the slightest.
@@IfWeGoTo you just confirmed your rude arrogant passive personality I typed in English why would you interject that in your response that's totally irrelevant. To me you're indirectly trying to question my intelligence. The moment you got on the boat you laughed about the seats being covered in Airline seat covers. This might be a vlog and or your bread and butter ; Good luck with! However dont let it be at the disingenuous expense of belittling carribean people! Respect that the way of life is different even if you can't identify with the "absurdity" !
@@nkiah4315
well.. it is relevant because we’re a travel channel and we have many people who watch/follow don’t speak English as their first language. Misunderstandings happen all the time of the time due to differences in language.
It can be very nuanced. It has nothing to do with intelligence and it certainly wasn’t a slight at you, we were only clarifying.
Having 22 children has nothing to do with where they’re from. It’s a lot of kids for one couple anywhere and for anyone’s genes to make up a significant portion of the population is impressive.
Also in regards to the boat thing.. it was kind of cool/funny to have recycled those and see airline seats being used so far away. I don’t really understand anything to be upset over? lol. It wasn’t making fun of anyone or anything at all.
Are you just searching for things to be angry about? Tbh it just seems like you’re projecting your own disparaging thoughts of other people. Like you think people are less intelligent because they don’t speak English? Big yikes.
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It’s quite alright… it’s probably because we’re a travel channel and this place gets like 2-4k visitors a year. We didn’t expect this to do well. Lmao.
Your channel's videos should be well SEO and optimized then your channel's videos will grow well.
I’ve taken SEO into consideration. Thanks.
If you want, I can help you
@@mdrabbyhossainbiswas882 I’m alright, this is just a hobby and this particular video was doomed from the start. 😂
Thanks though.
Why those islands are under Dutch rules still,colonialism much?
Correct. We will cover a bit more of the history in our next video.
There are 6 Dutch Caribbean islands, some of which were inhabited by indigenous groups, which, kind of like America, were largely wiped out.
These islands were colonized by the Dutch and other European nations at various times. This was primarily the Dutch, French, English, and Spanish. They developed plantations (mostly sugar), brought slaves from Africa, and used the islands as trading hubs.
As I understand it a while back all of the islands had the opportunity to vote whether or not they wanted independence from the Netherlands or to stay a part of it. Half voted to stay in. All of them receive some sort of financial/govt support and have ties to it though. (I’m not exactly sure how that all works - I’ve talked to locals who don’t even know)
The Caribbean definitely has some grim history. I’m sure there are still issues that I can’t see as a visitor, and not everywhere is a good example of this, but most people here do seem pretty happy and prosperous. Not that it clears the wrongdoings, but at least on the smaller islands most people seem to acknowledge the past, but also recognize that things have changed and live as one people.