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It’s the year of trips to places that make people say, where? First, Elbow Cay, Bahamas, then, St. Eustatius. 

With our second winter getaway undecided, I turn to my favorite source of travel information, travel blogs. A post on St. Kitts sparks my interest, so I click on TripAdvisor to check out the islands’ accommodation options. Finger scrolling, my eyes behold a gorgeous, historic, brick and stone, building, turned hotel. It’s called, The Old Gin House. It’s love at first sight. 

I pull up Google Maps to see where on St. Kitts The Old Gin House is, but to my surprise, the hotel is actually located on a different island, St. Eustatius. St. Eustatius? I’ve never heard of St. Eustatius.

I immediately Google St. Eustatius.

I learn that the island has a dormant volcano, with a hiking trail that takes you to the volcano’s rim, then into the crater.

And just like that, we are off to a place whose existence we just discovered. 

St. Eustatius, called “Statia,” by locals, is a Caribbean island that is a special municipality of The Netherlands. 

We fly from Newark, New Jersey, to St. Maarten. St. Maarten built a beautiful, new, terminal that was ruined by hurricane Irma shortly after opening. Currently, everyone, and everything, is condensed into a small space.

We have a few hours before our Statia flight via WinAir, and although I did think about spending  time at St. Maarten’s famous airplane beach, lugging around our bags, and having to go through security again, keeps us terminal bound. The Wifi is weak and spotty, but the people watching is good, and the burgers at the SXM burger place are surprisingly tasty for airport food. 

I’m grateful for Jim, our Anchorage, Alaska, B&B owner, for giving us a ride in his small plane. Riding in a four seater plane, where it felt like we could reach out and touch the mountains, assuaged all small plane fears for our ride to St. Eustatius.

I’m delighted anytime I get to walk across a tarmac and ascend a staircase to board a plane. It feels especially adventurous.

The seat I’m assigned to is near the front of the plane, so I get a good view into the cockpit.

The plane ride lasts 20 minutes. Flying at sunset makes the journey extra special.

The St. Eustatius baggage claim is the quickest, easiest, baggage claim we’ve encountered so far.

After picking up our bags, we speak to an airport employee, who calls a taxi. A short taxi ride, and we are all settled into The Old Gin House, and ready to start our adventure on St. Eustatius.

Extra: If you are craving take-out pizza, and live on St. Eustatius, the Domino’s on St. Maarten will deliver your pizza via plane, and drop it off at the airport.

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