Charlestown is a 25 minute drive from Oualie Bay. It is quite small, but has a good selection of foodstores, bookstores, record shops and beachwear shops and has a very colourful fruit and vegetable market. The Post Office and numerous banks are all located in Main Street. It is an architect's and historian's paradise, with its many beautiful, perfectly proportioned 18th century coral stone and shingle tiled buildings.

The recently restored and enlarged harbour area is the terminal for the island's ferry service, linking Nevis to it's sister island, St Christoper (Kitts). The daily return crossing, in itself a pleasure as the boat sails away from Nevis, hugging the leeward shore, leaving behind the rows of colourful buildings lining the harbour and the endless stretch of Pinneys Beach with Nevis's lovely peak receding into the distance. The 40 minute crossing provides an opportunity to explore the larger of the two islands with it's swaying sugar cane fields, salt water ponds, Carib Indian rock drawings, the magnificently restored Brimstone Hill Fortress and St Kitts's own rainforested mountain, Liamuiga.

As most provisions need to be purchased in Charlestown, we recommend the hire of a car for at least some of the time. This will also enable visitors to really explore the lovely island of Nevis at their leisure. There are lots of trails to explore including the recently reinstated Upper Round Road, for centuries overgrown and lost, but now rediscovered as the old road that linked the plantation house estates, some of which still exist as vine clad ruins or have survived to be turned into luxury plantation house hotels.