Saint Vincent and the Grenadines is a Caribbean island country consisting of Saint Vincent and several islands in the Grenadines chain. It has a diverse population and a history of European colonization, slavery, and eventual independence. Tourism is growing, and the country offers beautiful beaches, pristine waters, and interesting beauty opportunities. The island can be reached by air or ship.
Saint Vincent and the Grenadines is an island country in the Caribbean. It covers 150 square miles (390 square km), making it a little more than twice the size of Washington, DC. The nation is made up of the island of Saint Vincent and several of the islands in the Grenadines chain of islands. The rest of the Grenadines belongs to Grenada.
Like many of the Caribbean islands, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines underwent settlement many centuries before the arrival of Europeans, eventually ending up with a largely Caribbean population base. Throughout the 17th century the Caribbean of Saint Vincent repelled Europeans seeking to land on its shores, avoiding the immediate fate of the nearby islands of disease and slavery.
African slaves who had escaped from nearby islands made their way to Saint Vincent before European control was established over the island and intermarried with local Caribs. By the early 18th century Caribbean resistance had been defeated and the French began colonizing the islands, importing new African slaves to work a number of crops. Ownership of the islands bounced back and forth between the French and the British for a few decades, finally coming under British rule in the 18th.
From the first half of the 19th century, with the abolition of slavery, Portuguese and East Indians began to move to the island to work on British plantations, forming sizable populations by the end of the 19th century. In the early 20th century the British created a legislative council and in 1990 universal suffrage was declared. The British continued to move Saint Vincent and the Grenadines towards eventual independence, attempting to align the islands with other islands, such as with the West Indies Federation. None of these alliances, however, held. In 19 Saint Vincent and the Grenadines obtained statehood, making them substantially autonomous. Finally, in 20, the nation finally gained its independence, remaining a Commonwealth realm with Queen Elizabeth II as monarch.
Tourism is growing steadily in Saint Vincent and the Grenadines and the infrastructure is developing rapidly. A number of high-profile and wealthy Americans and Europeans have settled in Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, and there is definitely a class of luxury here, with all the accommodation and support facilities that go with it. It’s still possible to travel here relatively cheaply, though, with enough small guesthouses and bucolic restaurants to keep a backpacker as financially happy as they’re likely to be in most of the Caribbean.
Beautiful beaches, pristine waters and constant temperatures all year round make Saint Vincent and the Grenadines an ideal place to soak up the sun’s rays. The many islands of the Grenadines also offer interesting beauty opportunities, with green islands like Bequia offering a great escape from the already tranquil St. Vincent. The Saint Vincent Botanical Gardens date back to 1763, making them the oldest in the region and feature an astonishing variety of local flora.
Saint Vincent can only be reached by air by first flying via a nearby island, usually Saint Lucia, Grenada, Martinique, Barbados or Trinidad. Reaching the island by ship is another fun way to arrive, with yachts calling at both Wallilabou Bay and Kingston.
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