Nevis · West Indies
Regarded as the Caribbean’s oldest surviving wooden house, once a home, now a small hotel.
The Hermitage: a timber Great House and gingerbread cottages on the slopes of Nevis Peak — cared for by one family and a whole village.
Welcome
A Home Before a Hotel
Hermitage began as our home in 1971, and has grown, guest by guest, into the small hotel it is today — the same family behind the door, new faces in the photographs on the wall. No lobby, no lift, no room numbers: just a Great House, gardens that are lived in, and history as part of everyday life.
Stay
Find Your Place
Rooms tucked into the gardens, light-filled balconies around the pool, pretty gingerbread cottages scattered among the trees, and private villas with commanding views come together like a little village around the Great House.
Hillside Rooms
Four ground-level double rooms set in various corners of the gardens, each with its own covered verandah and hammock.
Balcony Rooms
Three light and airy double rooms near the pool and gardens, each with its own porch or covered balcony — a little more open, with more of the sky brought into the room.
Gingerbread Cottages
Little houses of their own, more spacious than our rooms, each with a master bedroom, separate sitting room, kitchenette and porch — suited to couples, families or a few friends.
Six one-bedroom cottages in four sizes, sleeping from two to five guests.
Yellow Manor House
A three-bedroom replica of a grand Nevisian house, with wide verandahs on both levels, generous living and dining spaces, a full kitchen and a private pool — ideal for families or friends travelling together.
Sleeps up to six.
Rose Villa
Our most spacious accommodation, with four bedrooms, two sitting rooms, generous indoor and outdoor living space, a full kitchen, five bathrooms and a private pool — particularly well suited to families and groups travelling together.
Sleeps up to eight comfortably, with additional sleeping space available by arrangement.
The signature stay
Our Gingerbread Cottages
Each Gingerbread Cottage is a small house of its own, built in the style of Nevis’s traditional chattel houses — bright, porched and raised just off the ground in the old island way — with one difference: ours have put down roots. Inside, a bedroom with a four-poster canopy bed, a sitting room with colourful, hand-picked island furnishings, and a porch for morning coffee or evening rum. Some are made for two; others have daybeds for families or a few friends — from the cosy Pink House to the roomier Loft.
Living Nevis life
The Rhythm of Hermitage
Days at Hermitage take their shape from the grounds themselves — paths through the gardens, hammocks on the verandahs, the pool below the lawns, and the Great House at the centre of it all. Some mornings lead to a walk through the village; others to a set or two on the tennis court, or a moment lost in the library. Most guests find their own corner of Hermitage within a day — a favourite chair, a hammock, a bench somewhere between the garden and the sky.
Meals are taken on the Great House’s dining verandah, looking out over gardens, mango trees and royal palms, to a soundtrack of birdsong, tree frogs and the laughter of island dialect. Breakfast opens the day; by late afternoon there may be tea or rum punch; and as darkness falls, the candles come out for dinner. Our family has always believed you never grow old at the table, so nothing here is rushed.
Stay long enough, and Hermitage starts to feel less like a place you’re visiting and more like a story you are stepping into; the house, the gardens, the people and the passing days all carrying on around you, until you realise you have become part of it too.
Explore a little more in Postcards from Hermitage.
Nevis food
Dining at Hermitage
Our cooking begins with what Nevis gives us — fresh fish, local meat, roots and fruits, herbs and vegetables — but it has never stopped at the island’s edge. Our cooks are Nevisian, trained the way island cooking has always been taught: in the kitchen, by the seniors at the stove. Along the way, classical recipes and a strong Italian influence have found their place beside the food we grew up with. We roast, stew, grill and smoke; make pasta, caponata and flatbreads; use coconut, citrus, peppers and island herbs. You should try our home-made yoghurt.
Some of our recipes don’t live in books; Maureen’s carrot cake, made from her own fifty-year-old recipe, and a rum punch older than the Great House itself, poured the same way it always has been. Wednesday brings the Pig Roast Buffet; on Friday we light the wood-burning stone oven for flatbreads, while the rest of the week follows the same rule: good ingredients, simply handled, with Nevis always somewhere in the flavour.
The setting completes the meal — flowers cut from the garden, white linen after dark, candlelight on the verandah; evening falls into night, and the whistling of tree frogs carrying you somewhere beyond the table.
Celebrations
Gather at Hermitage
The tables at Hermitage have a way of growing longer — that has always been true here. For weddings and anniversaries, birthdays and family reunions, or just a few days away with old friends, it is easy to pull up a few more chairs and make room — on the dining verandah, in the sitting room, or out in the garden.
The rooms and cottages give everyone somewhere of their own, while keeping the people you came with close. Breakfast might begin with plans spread across the table; by mid-morning we’ve arranged the cars, sorted the excursions, and we’re waving everyone off from the front steps — with a time to be back for supper.
By evening the tables come together again, dinner can be served family-style, and the house seems to gather everyone back in. Sometimes there is a reason to celebrate. Sometimes being together is reason enough.
From the great house
The House That Has Always Been Here
At the centre of Hermitage stands the Great House, a timber house that has anchored Hermitage for generations. Around it, the later buildings carry the same thread — traditional island carpentry, adapted and added to over time, but never separated from the life of the place.
The island
Finding Us on Nevis
Nevis is the quieter half of St Kitts and Nevis — one green peak rising from the Caribbean, with a ring of villages around it.
Hermitage sits about 800 feet above sea level, at the foot of Nevis Peak in St John Figtree parish, in the part of the island people here still call “the country.” We are close to Gingerland, about five miles from Charlestown, and roughly fifteen minutes from the beach. Nowhere on Nevis is very far.
This spot was likely chosen long ago for the air — cool trade winds coming down from the mountain, quieter afternoons, and that soft golden light that settles over the gardens later in the day. The beach is easy to get to, but it is always good to come back up the hill.
We can help arrange airport and port transfers when you book — details on Contact and Getting Here.
Postcards
Postcards from Hermitage
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The House That Has Always Been Here
Built like a cross and laid out on cardinal points, The Hermitage faces the ocean to the front and the mountain to…
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Old Travels
The airport runway on Nevis runs directly along the beach, and halfway down the middle reaching off into the sea is an…
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Copper Pots
We have ponds of water throughout our garden where the waterlilies grow, where the herons perch, where the wild donkeys and roaming…
Before you book
Good to Know
- Breakfast is included with every stay and served from 8:00 to 11:00 am.
- Our rooms and cottages do not use air conditioning. Window screens, ceiling fans and the hillside trade winds keep the rooms comfortable.
- Wi-Fi is complimentary, parking is on the property, and we can arrange airport and port transfers.
- Rates and availability shown online are live and bookings are secure. If you are unsure which accommodation will suit you best, or have a special request, call, WhatsApp or email us before booking.
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