Christopher Covert
Phone
(917) 834-0635
Email
[email protected]
Before European contact, the island was possibly frequented by Easter Caribbean Taino people. Christopher Columbus was the first European to encounter the island in 1493. He named it after his brother Bartolomeo. Sporadic visits continued for the next hundred years until formal colonization began taking shape.
St Barth was occupied by the French in 1648. It was sold to Sweden in 1784 but was returned to France in 1877 after a plebiscite. The capital and only town Gustavia is named for Sweden’s King Gustav III, which stand on the well-sheltered harbour.
It wasn’t until 1946 that Remy de Haenen opened St Barth to the world by landing the first airplane on the Savanna in St Jean (Where the actual airport is, named after the pilot). Head of states and the largest fortunes on the planet bought lands and that’s how the island starts to become the ultimate hideaway for the elite.
St. Barth has a Marine Nature Reserve, known as the ATE, that covers 1200 ha, and is divided into 5 zones all around the island to form a network of protected areas.
The reserve included the bays of Grand-Cul-de-Sac, Colombier, Marigot, Petit-Cul-de-Sac, Petite anse as well as waters around offshore rocks such as Les Gros Islets, Pain de Sucre, Tortue, Fourchue.
The reserve is designed to protect the islands coral reefs, seagrass and endangered marine species including sea turtles. Read carefully the marine reserve sign, before entering the beach, for all details.
By plane and helicopter, the trip takes about 10 minutes from St Martin and 1 hour from Guadeloupe or Puerto Rico.
By boat, it will take you between 45 minutes and 1 hour and 30 minutes from St Martin to get to St Barth.
The landing in St Barth is spectacular but remains one of the safest in the Caribbean. Indeed, a special permit is required for pilots to land here.
All travelers must have a valid passport, expiring within three months from the date of entry on Saint Barthélemy. Some visitors will also need a special french visa that must be issued by the french embassy before the trip (* Please confirm the formalities required with the French Consulate depending on your situation). No vaccination is required. Regarding animals, it is necessary to have an up-to-date certificate of rabies vaccination and a health certificate dating back less than 5 days. Animals belonging to French tourists must also be tatooed or microchipped.
• Euro € is the common currency on the island, like France and the Euro Zone of the European Union. Dollars $ are however widely accepted everywhere.
• Electricity is 220 volts, 60 Hz. It is good to have 220/110 transformers and converters plugs for foreign equipment.
• St Barthélemy benefits from a first aid hospital, a self-dialysis unit, dentists, specialists (physioterapists, osteopaths), an analysis laboratory and radiology center.
• To send mail from St Barth, the main post office is located in Gustavia, but 2 secondary stations are also operational. Private companies (DHL, FedEx, UPS) are also available.
• We advise you to always drink & cook with bottled water. All the island’s water comes either from stored rainwater or from the desalination plant, which is not always able to keep up with demand. Please keep this in mind during your stay, water is precious.
• Given the size of the planes landing on the St Jean runway, not all luggage arrives at the same time as their passengers (Except for private charter). We recommend that you travel with a cabin suitcase that combines your essentials such as your swimsuit, sunglasses and beach pareo.
His comprehensive knowledge of the town and village codes and regulations, coupled with his ongoing study of market movement at both micro and macro levels enables him to provide the most detailed evaluation.
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